Page 7 of Wrong For Me

Rose

“Could my luck be any worse?” I groan, throwing myself onto the couch in the dressing room.

“Cock-blocked by your own father,” Alex sighs, patting my arm. “Sorry, Rosie.”

“Cock-blocked is for boys,” Everly says. “I think the proper term when it happens to a chick is clam-jammed.”

I sputter with laughter. Leave it to Everly to cheer me up with her utter ridiculousness.

“That’s disgusting,” Alex says, but I can see she’s trying not to laugh.

“I don’t make the rules, Alexandria,” Everly sing-songs.

The smile melts from Alex’s face when her eyes meet mine. My cousin is one of the most perceptive people that I know, and I’m sure she can tell how truly bothered I am by what happened.

“Did he have to show up right then?” I moan, throwing an arm over my face. “I was sparking with that guy, damn it!” I look up at the two of them. “And you know that never happens to me.”

Everly makes a sympathetic noise, joining me on the couch and throwing her arms around my shoulders. “I’m sorry, girl. Maybe he’ll still be out there after the set ends?”

I shake my head. I could see it in Leo’s eyes the second he registered who my dad was. He and I won’t be happening.

“I don’t think so, Lele. He seemed pretty put-off.”

She frowns. “If he’ll let something like who your dad is change his mind, then he’s not worth it.” Her eyes light up. “Hey! Maybe you’ll meet someone at the club.”

It takes everything I have not to groan. The last thing I want to do is go out tonight. I would much rather go back to the rented villa and attack a pint of ice cream.

But at midnight my younger cousin is turning twenty-one. And Alex and I, along with my brother River and our cousin Will, already promised we’d go out with her to celebrate her first night of legal drinking.

“Whatcha talking about?” a sweet voice asks, and Everly’s little sister Vega suddenly sticks her head over the back of the couch, her black curls tickling the side of my face.

“Our plans for the evening,” I tell her, and Vega’s face immediately turns stony.

“It’s not fair!”

“Come on, sweetie,” Everly says patiently. “I already said I would hang out with you all day tomorrow—”

“But you’re going out without me tonight!” She turns her head to holler across the room. “Violet! Come and tell Rose how unfair this is!”

I hear running footsteps behind me and then my younger sister is hurtling across the back of the couch, catapulting herself right into my lap. “I still don’t understand whywecan’t go,” my sister whines in that dramatic, woe-is-me voice only a thirteen-year-old can muster.

I smooth her hair back and drop a quick kiss to the top of her head. “You can’t go because it’s a pub crawl and you’re both small children.” My little sister glowers so hard I have to laugh. “Come on, Vi. It’s not like I’m leaving you alone. All of your best friends will be back at the villa with you.”

She pouts. “But I want to go withyou.”

“Too bad, shrimpy,” our brother River says, joining us at the couch. “You ready, girls?”

I raise an eyebrow at him. “We’re not going to wait for them to finish up?”

Our dad and our uncles just wrapped up their set headlining the Tahoe Rocks festival in Lake Tahoe. They’re currently out in the green room, along with most of our family, a bunch of roadies, tons of press, and a few VIP guests. Slowly the family has been making their way back here to the more private dressing room—no press or fans allowed—but it will probably still be awhile before the band can get away.

River gives me a pained expression. “If we wait for them, you know it’s going to be forever before we get out of here.”

“He has a point,” Alex says.

“Don’t call me shrimpy.” Violet is still annoyed that the younger kids are being excluded from our night out. She smacks River on the arm. “I can’t believe you’rebothleaving me. This is so unfair.”

He reaches down to grab her, swinging her up through the air, making her giggle. I can’t help but grin at the sound. Violet has been on a “grown-up” kick lately, more interested in clothes and make-up than in the horses and coloring books she used to be obsessed with. It makes me sad—I want her to stay my baby sister for just a little longer.