Trouble Rising (New Adult Rock Star Romance): Tyler and Katie's Story #3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

fan weren’t awful, but eventually, it got exhausting. Still, Tyler was always sweet to fans. Too sweet, in my not-so-humble opinion, as I watched him lean over and smile so each girl could take a selfie with him.
     
    “Thank you so much. You’re the best. You’re bae!” the tall, confident girl gushed, and I gritted my teeth when she quickly stole a kiss from Tyler—on the lips, no less—before running off to join her girlfriends, who were already back, giggling around their table.
     
    “Bae?” My mother blinked in surprise, clearly taken aback by the whole scene. “What in the world?”
     
    “It’s a think the kids say,” Tyler told her, smiling over at me. It hadn’t been that long ago that I was one of those “kids,” going to Trouble concerts and screaming myself hoarse. Granted, “bae” wasn’t an expression back then—we called good-looking guys “hotties”—but the sentiment and the silliness was the same.
     
    “It means ‘before anyone else’,” I told her. “At least, that’s how it started. The kids call their boyfriends and girlfriends ‘bae’.”
     
    My mother wrinkled her nose. “But they don’t even know you.”
     
    “They think they do.” Tyler shrugged.
     
    “Girls say it when they see a cute guy,” I explained. “ He’s so bae . Or he’s my bae —even if he’s some celebrity she’s never met.”
     
    “I think we’d better go.” My mother nodded toward the waitress, who was finally coming back to fill my coffee cup. She didn’t look happy.
     
    “Oh, she knew I was lying.” I sighed, pushing the chair back from the table. “Ty will make her happy. Come on, Mom, let’s go pay.”
     
    Of course, Tyler was sweet to the waitress, too, and signed an autograph for her on her pad—and let her take a selfie. I gritted my teeth while I paid the bill and my mother said how kind Tyler was to his fans, and it wasn’t until we were out of the restaurant, headed to the car, that I finally said something.
     
    “Don’t you get it?” I snapped, as she unlocked the car with her key fob. “Those selfies they took in there? Guaranteed they’ve already been posted to those girls’ Facebook pages or put up on Instagram. We’ve got twenty-four hours, maybe forty-eight, before the press shows up.”
     
    “Here?” She laughed, but then she saw the serious look on my face. “Surely they wouldn’t come up here…?”
     
    “Well, it was fun while it lasted, eh?” Tyler said, jogging up to join us. “Thanks for the hospitality, Mom. I really loved staying at your place.”
     
    “You don’t have to go?” She looked between the two of us, then back at the restaurant, where we could see the girls around the table, all of them with their phones in their hands. “Just because of that?”
     
    My phone buzzed in my pocket and I sighed. Already?
     
    “Who is it?” Tyler asked as I pulled it out to check.
     
    We’d told Rob and Sabrina where we were going, and why—they both assured us they’d handle the fallout and the press for a week or two. Rob even said he’d handle Arnie and the label. Maybe we’d taken advantage of their shock, running away while the devastation was still fresh, but I didn’t really care.
     
    I looked at my phone, expecting to see Sabrina’s number, but it wasn’t. It was a desperate text.
     
    I need help. I’m in California. Can I come see you?
     
    “Who is it?” Tyler peered over my shoulder.
     
    “It’s Jay.” I blinked back at him. “She’s in California. Looking for us.”
     
    “Who’s Jay?” my mother asked.
     
    “It’s a long story.” One I wasn’t going to tell her, if I could help it. “We should go home.”
     
    Tyler sighed. “I guess our vacation’s over.”
     
     
     

Chapter Three

     
    We couldn’t fly commercial home. Couldn’t even take the little puddle jumper from the local airport back to Detroit Metro. That’s how fast it happened. We managed to get back to my mom’s place and