Drum tech Kimmy Baker has been on the road with Smidge for six years, and she never wants to leave the band or concert tour life, but it seems incompatible with finding love. In any case, no one could compare to Dice, her drummer and best friend.
She’s always been careful not to jeopardize their friendship or her job by crossing any lines, even though he’s hot and sweet and shares her sense of humor and all her deepest secrets… except for one.
When she accidentally reveals that she wants to have a baby, he offers his DNA in trade for help with a secret of his own. It’s an irresistible proposition, especially when she suspects he might have a hidden dominant side. But as deeper feelings come into play, they’ll have to decide if they’re friends or lovers.
Will her intention to keep her promise of no strings conflict with his traditional impulses?
Is she meant to have forever with her rock icon?
Fall in love with the rock stars of Smidge… Rock Icon Ready is the third book in this series of interconnected standalone novels following each band member as they find their happily-ever-afters.
Excerpt from Chapter 5 of Rock Icon Ready by Kella Campbell
“I want the boys to have a nice party tonight,” Sally said. “It’s been such a hard year, and all this…” She gestured out the window at the tropical surroundings. “I know we’re here to stay out of the way so Valancy can negotiate for us, but it’s also a treat, a real vacation. You know how long it’s been since the boys have had anything but a working holiday, and New Year’s Eve has always been a work night. Some big show somewhere, or one of Awfully Hateful’s corporate bashes.”
“That’s true. A real New Year’s Eve party…”
“Yes. Here, let me put some glitter in your hair, and we can break out the party hats.”
Formalwear would have been too hot for the men in the Caribbean climate, so they had LED light-up ties to wear over tropical-print linen shirts. If it didn’t exactly make sense with the women in cocktail dresses, that didn’t matter. The playlist on the sound system was a mix Easy had that didn’t include any Smidge songs, since none of them wanted to feel like they were at work. Cardboard top hats and tiaras rounded off the celebratory atmosphere — Nell took a top hat, and when everyone else had taken theirs, Dice was left with a tiara.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Nell asked him, already with the glittery hat on her head.
Dice looked at the flimsy cardboard-and-foil tiara in his hands and laughed. “No, but Kimmy’s going to have to put it on for me. I’m not sure how to wear one of these.” He held it out to her.
She fitted the little crown onto his head, tucking the ends of the foil band into his hair so that the tightness of his ponytail would hold them in place. Stray glitter got onto her fingers and sprinkled his hair.
The cook had provided a buffet with a mountain of food for them, along with an enormous bowl of rum punch and a cooler full of beer and champagne bottles on ice, before he and his wife headed off to take a boat to St. Thomas for the night, leaving the Smidge group with complete privacy for their celebration. And privacy was a rare commodity for a band.
As it got closer to midnight, they danced.
Kimmy expected to mostly watch from the sidelines, dancing on the edge of the group when faster music allowed it. But to her surprise, first Angel danced a slow song with her, then Easy twirled her about like a ballroom dancer at half-speed on the next slow one, and Erva came over and asked her to dance the one after that while Sally danced with Angel. Blade danced all the slow ones with Crys, but he crossed the floor and danced half a faster song with Kimmy. Even Camillo, who had joined them to eat, danced with her once before the baby monitor squawked and he had to go up to settle Luke. All of them made a point of including her.
But Dice still hadn’t danced with her. He smiled encouragingly at her, and brought her drinks when he saw her glass was empty, and danced near her when they were all in a group. But not with her, not a slow dance.
Just before midnight, though — what had to be the last song before midnight — Otis Redding’s classic “These Arms of Mine” began to play, a song Kimmy had loved since she first heard it as part of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. And she looked for Dice, thought about maybe asking him to dance, just as friends, but he was already walking toward her with a slightly hesitant grin.
“Dance with me, Kimber?” he asked, as though she might ever say no. And at her answering smile, he pulled her close and held her against him. They swayed to the music, rocking comfortably together to the rhythm, and she laid her head against his chest, hearing his 6’3” heartbeat thumping under her 5’2” ear, totally at ease and yet she’d never felt so attuned to his body, so physically aware of him. He stroked the sequined fabric down her back, and commented, “Pretty dress.”
“Thanks. Sally gave it to me. To be festive.” Why are we talking about my dress? She wanted to arch like a cat under his hand, but that would be all kinds of wrong… and maybe start something they couldn’t undo. But she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “You haven’t danced with me all night.”
“I know. I’ve been thinking about something,” he murmured against her hair, sounding rueful and uncertain.
“Don’t get glitter in your mouth,” she warned him. His lips were inches away from her ear. “What were you thinking about?”
He hesitated, and the song came to an end. A reminder chime pinged somewhere, and Sally announced, “One minute ’til midnight.” She and Erva handed around glasses of champagne.
“I was waiting to dance with you until now,” Dice said into Kimmy’s ear, his voice low and full of intensity, “because I wanted to be standing next to you at midnight.”
“Fifteen seconds,” said Angel. “Ten… nine… eight…”
Other voices joined in the countdown.
They never got to do this, not in private, with friends. New Year’s Eve was always a work night, and if the band wasn’t still on stage at midnight, the crew would be somewhere in the middle of load-out. Sure, there’d be a quick round of champagne after, at two or three in the morning, but in all the years she’d known him, Kimmy had never been standing beside Dice at the moment the year changed over.
At midnight, a burst of fireworks filled the sky, and Dice looked down at Kimmy, put two fingers under her chin to tilt her head up, and bent to kiss her. It was just a momentary press of lips to lips, nothing much as kisses went, nothing a person couldn’t give a friend, really. But the brief contact tingled through her like a shock of electric joy. She felt both dizzy and bereft as he pulled away and clinked his glass against hers, saying, “Happy New Year, Kimmy!”
“Auld Lang Syne” began to play on the sound system.
Above them, the fireworks display continued — the nearest ones had to be from the resort right there on the other side of Lovango Cay, but they also rose in more distant parts of the sky, some to the southeast from St. John, and more a bit farther away to the southwest over St. Thomas.
There were many things she could have said. Wished him a happy New Year too, for instance. Commented on the beauty of the fireworks, the islands, the night itself with all its stars. But she wanted what had just happened to count, and ignoring it meant it didn’t count. “That wasn’t much of a kiss,” Kimmy said, and she could hear the daring, teasing sound in her voice. Flirting. I’m flirting with Dice. She’d always been so careful not to cross that line. But so had he.
“Oh?” he asked softly. “Did you want more?” Flirting back. Or… putting a potential change to their relationship on the table.
And she wanted to chase the flash of awaiting glory a mere brush of his lips had given her. Could it be that good with him? “I think I do. If you want to.”
He took her hand.
“Go for a walk?” he asked, his voice a little deeper than usual, full of tension and promise.
“Sure.”
His hand was warm and firm around hers as he led her away from the covered patio where they’d been eating and dancing, up one of the flagstone paths that linked the various guesthouses and outbuildings with the main house. They didn’t go far, though. As soon as they were out of the others’ sight around a corner, Dice stopped, breathing hard, his chest rising and falling as though he’d been running.
“This won’t change anything,” he promised her, with a hint of desperation. “You’re my best friend, Kimmy. You’ll always be my best friend.” Then he pinned her up against the wall of the house, and this time he really kissed her, his whole big body firm against her as his tongue explored her mouth. The sheer hunger of it stunned her. And then time and the world around her slipped away as she got lost in the pleasure of the moment.
Eventually, he pulled back, his eyes slightly wild at what they’d just done, his cardboard tiara askew.
“That was lovely,” she assured him. So lovely, better than she could have imagined. When he didn’t say anything, she moved one hand to his shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.
He sighed. “Oh, Kimber,” he whispered. “I don’t want to break what we have, but that was so damn good. And I want to keep doing it.”
They pushed themselves away from the wall and walked along the path, still holding hands, and she had the sense that neither of them wanted to lose the physical connection that was grounding them, as though they’d spin off into the starry night if they weren’t anchored to each other. But when they came to the porch of their guesthouse, he let go and dropped onto the end of one of the sun loungers there, twisting his tiara in his hands, staring down at it. So she perched on the railing of the porch near him, letting her legs dangle against the slats.
“Nothing’s broken,” she said. “Maybe kissing is… part of our thing, now.”
He was quiet for a minute, then tossed the twisted tiara onto the other lounger and looked up at her. “Just kissing?” he asked, his voice oddly neutral, like he was holding something back.
The universe juddered to a halt for a moment, then time and breathing started up again. “I’m open to negotiation,” she managed to say.
©2023 Kella Campbell