All Stars Fall Read online

  All Stars Fall

  By Rachel Van Dyken

  A Seaside Pictures/Big Sky Novella

  Introduction by Kristen Proby

  All Stars Fall: A Seaside Pictures/Big Sky Novella

  By Rachel Van Dyken

  Copyright 2019

  ISBN: 978-1-948050-54-8

  Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

  Book Description

  All Stars Fall: A Seaside Pictures/Big Sky Novella

  By Rachel Van Dyken

  From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Rachel Van Dyken…

  She left.

  Two words I can't really get out of my head.

  She left us.

  Three more words that make it that much worse.

  Three being another word I can't seem to wrap my mind around.

  Three kids under the age of six, and she left because she missed it. Because her dream had never been to have a family, no her dream had been to marry a rockstar and live the high life.

  Moving my recording studio to Seaside Oregon seems like the best idea in the world right now especially since Seaside Oregon has turned into the place for celebrities to stay and raise families in between touring and producing. It would be lucrative to make the move, but I'm doing it for my kids because they need normal, they deserve normal. And me? Well, I just need a break and help, that too. I need a sitter and fast. Someone who won't flip me off when I ask them to sign an Iron Clad NDA, someone who won't sell our pictures to the press, and most of all? Someone who looks absolutely nothing like my ex-wife.

  He's tall.

  That was my first instinct when I saw the notorious Trevor Wood, drummer for the rock band Adrenaline, in the local coffee shop. He ordered a tall black coffee which made me smirk, and five minutes later I somehow agreed to interview for a nanny position. I couldn't help it; the smaller one had gum stuck in her hair while the eldest was standing on his feet and asking where babies came from. He looked so pathetic, so damn sexy and pathetic that rather than be star-struck, I took pity. I knew though; I knew the minute I signed that NDA, the minute our fingers brushed and my body became insanely aware of how close he was—I was in dangerous territory, I just didn't know how dangerous until it was too late. Until I fell for the star and realized that no matter how high they are in the sky—they're still human and fall just as hard.

  About Rachel Van Dyken

  Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA TODAY Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she's not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor.

  She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband and, adorable son. She loves to hear from readers!

  For more information, visit her website at http://rachelvandykenauthor.com

  Also from Rachel Van Dyken

  Liars, Inc.

  Dirty Exes

  The Players Game Series

  Fraternize

  Infraction

  MVP

  The Consequence Series

  The Consequence of Loving Colton

  The Consequence of Revenge

  The Consequence of Seduction

  The Consequence of Rejection

  The Wingmen Inc. Series

  The Matchmaker’s Playbook

  The Matchmaker’s Replacement

  Curious Liaisons Series

  Cheater

  Cheater’s Regret

  The Bet Series

  The Bet

  The Wager

  The Dare

  The Ruin Series

  Ruin

  Toxic

  Fearless

  Shame

  The Eagle Elite Series

  Elite

  Elect

  Enamor

  Entice

  Elicit

  Bang Bang

  Enforce

  Ember

  Elude

  Empire

  Enrage

  Eulogy

  Envy

  The Seaside Series

  Tear

  Pull

  Shatter

  Forever

  Fall

  Eternal

  Strung

  Capture

  The Renwick House Series

  The Ugly Duckling Debutante

  The Seduction of Sebastian St. James

  An Unlikely Alliance

  The Redemption of Lord Rawlings

  The Devil Duke Takes a Bride

  The London Fairy Tales Series

  Upon a Midnight Dream

  Whispered Music

  The Wolf’s Pursuit

  When Ash Falls

  The Seasons of Paleo Series

  Savage Winter

  Feral Spring

  The Wallflower Series (with Leah Sanders)

  Waltzing with the Wallflower

  Beguiling Bridget

  Taming Wilde

  The Dark Ones Saga

  The Dark Ones

  Untouchable Darkness

  Dark Surrender

  Darkest Temptation

  Stand-Alones

  Hurt: A Collection (with Kristin Vayden and Elyse Faber)

  Rip

  Compromising Kessen

  Every Girl Does It

  The Parting Gift (with Leah Sanders)

  Divine Uprising

  An Introduction to the Kristen Proby Crossover Collection

  Everyone knows there’s nothing I love more than a happy ending. It’s what I do for a living–I’m in LOVE with love. And what’s better than love? More love, of course!

  Just imagine, Louis Vuitton and Tiffany, collaborating on the world’s most perfect handbag. Jimmy Choo and Louboutin, making shoes just for me. Not loving it enough? What if Hugh Grant in Notting Hill was the man to barge into Sandra Bullock’s office in The Proposal? I think we can all agree that Julia Roberts’ character would have had her hands full with Ryan Reynolds.

  Now imagine what would happen if one of the characters from my Big Sky Series met up with other characters from some of your favorite authors’ series. Well, wonder no more because The Kristen Proby Crossover Collection is here, and I could not be more excited!

  Rachel Van Dyken, Laura Kaye, Sawyer Bennett, Monica Murphy, Samantha Young, and K.L. Grayson are all bringing their own beloved characters to play – and find their happy endings – in my world. Can you imagine all the love, laughter and shenanigans in store?

  I hope you enjoy the journey between worlds!

  Love,

  Kristen Proby

  The Kristen Proby Crossover Collection features a new novel by Kristen Proby and six by some of her favorite writers:

  Kristen Proby – Soaring with Fallon

  Sawyer Bennett – Wicked Force

  KL Grayson – Crazy Imperfect Love

  Laura Kaye – Worth Fighting For

  Monica Murphy – Nothing Without You

  Rachel Van Dyken – All Stars Fall

  Samantha Young – Hold On

  Acknowledgments from the Author

  This is always the hard part for me. I have so many people to thank and after writing a book you’re kind of brain dead. I’m so thankful to God for being able to do what I love day in and day out, to my husband for putting u
p with my mood swings when I’m on deadline, my son for eating more chicken nuggets than a child should when I’m trying to finish a book or when I’m just starting. And Kristen, I have you in the middle here right after family because girl, you invited me into your family and let me do this crossover series with you, and I could not be more honored to be a part of this project. In fact, I want to pinch myself, I'm so thankful that you trusted me with your world and also didn’t hate the story. You are such a talented author. I’m so thrilled to be a part of this! To the amazing Liz Berry, meeting you, working with you, has been an absolute dream come true. MJ Rose, thank you for your incredible marketing! Nina, the best publicist ever (truly) thanks for putting up with my daily crazy, and to my incredible readers. You are my family. Thank you for everything you do! Blood in, No out, hugs, RVD

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  Table of Contents

  Book Description

  About Rachel Van Dyken

  Also from Rachel Van Dyken

  An Introduction to the Kristen Proby Crossover Collection

  Acknowledgments from the Author

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Kristen Proby Crossover Collection

  Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Six

  Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights

  Discover more Rachel Van Dyken

  An excerpt from Risky Play by Rachel Van Dyken

  Special Thanks

  Prologue

  Trevor, May 2007

  Adrenaline World Tour

  Staples Center

  “We sold out three nights in a row.” Our manager Dick, who I often called Dick for other reasons, did a little jig in his cowboy boots. He was probably dreaming of dollar signs and prostitutes.

  I gripped my drumsticks in my hands and waited for the crowd to die down. My only job was to keep the beat, sing, and look sexy with my shirt off.

  Literally.

  It was in my contract.

  The same one Dick had been convinced was the best contract he’d ever seen. We were offered a ridiculous amount of money to do something we loved. We were living the teen dream.

  Except it was getting really old.

  We’d been on and off tour for eight years. I was pulled from middle school, never went to high school, and my first experience with drugs was at twelve.

  Good times.

  “Listen up, boys—”

  Oh good, another speech. Because that was what a rowdy group of twenty-one-year-olds wanted. Lectures.

  “I didn’t want to say this before, but the record company wants another album.”

  I suppressed my groan, locking eyes with my bandmates; each of them paled a bit.

  We just wanted to go home.

  The problem was, we’d never really had one.

  A tour bus.

  That’s what we called home.

  We had enough money to buy shit. We just didn’t have enough time to spend it or lay down roots.

  Hell, staying home on a Saturday night sounded like gold.

  “By your excited expressions I can tell we’ll need to talk more.” His voice was grim. He rubbed his hands together. “Get out there and kick some ass. And, Trevor?”

  I stopped in my tracks and waited.

  “We have a few groupies hanging backstage tonight—you need to be there, none of this ‘I have a headache’ bullshit. You’re in this now, you know what your contract says. Play nice or don’t play at all.”

  I’d heard it a million times.

  I gave him a firm nod while flipping him off in my head and made my way on stage.

  I was first. Always first. I played drums for half the time then swapped with Ty so that the girls could see my six pack and watch me croon into the microphone while sweat dripped off my chin.

  Goals, right?

  The screams were deafening, the lights so hot I was already sweating.

  I held up both drumsticks in the air. And perfect silence ensued.

  Boys pretending we were men, that’s what we were.

  With too much money. Too much power.

  A bra found its way near my feet.

  With a smirk I knelt down and picked it up with my drumstick, then flipped it back toward the crowd, my white T-shirt following like it always did, and I made the walk to my set.

  The girls’ screams pierced my ears as I sat and held my sticks high while the rest of my guys joined me on stage. We were the first boy band to actually play our own instruments. We did it all. Ty made his way on stage next, in nothing but ripped jeans and a red tank, ink covering his chest the way it swirled up and down my arms. And then there was Will, perfect golden boy Will, the product of movie-star good looks and a heart full of gold. He flashed his smile across the crowd, and Drew followed last. Always last, the brooder.

  We each had our role.

  God, I hated it.

  We played our set.

  And I realized then I’d lost something, something valuable. At twenty-one, I resented what had made me feel the most alive for my entire life—music.

  I slammed my sticks over my thigh after our final song and made my way backstage, nearly colliding with a stagehand before barreling into a woman.

  “Shit.” I gripped her by the shoulders. “Sorry, I wasn’t watching where—”

  Her light blue eyes blinked up at me wide and expectant. Her short cropped jet black hair only made me stare harder. She was beautiful. And familiar. “Are you—”

  “Josephine Shannon, but everyone calls me Josie.” She held out her hand and smiled a confident smile I felt all the way to my toes.

  Without a second thought, I grabbed her hand and pulled her against me. “Josephine Shannon, I’m going to marry you.”

  And just like that, my life clicked back into place.

  Chapter One

  Penelope

  Present Day Seaside, Oregon

  It was a mistake.

  I didn’t say it out loud, just thought it over and over again during my hellishly long drive from Cunningham Falls to Seaside, Oregon, of all places. My cousin Dani said it was a great place to relocate and that it was basically impossible to be depressed around a giant sandbox.

  But the minute I stepped foot out of my car, I realized.

  You can’t just leave your past and pray it stays there. No, it follows just like baggage can’t help but exist. I had no good reason to leave other than I felt like every single friend I had grown up with or met recently was finally settling down, it seemed like I was the only one still struggling to find my purpose, my adventure. It wasn’t the best reason to move several states away but it was all I had.

  I exhaled roughly as I took in my small beachside cottage near C Street right by one of the local coffee shops. They’d hired me without even meeting me, and the owner had been so thankful that I had experience being a barista that she said I could start right away. Apparently, she was taking her youngest to college and wanted to be there to get him settled in.

  Which meant I had zero time to unpack my stuff. Luckily, I was two doors down so I parke
d my car, grabbed my purse, and made my way over to the small red and white building.

  The door was open, a trend I was noticing in Seaside. Even though it was chilly with the breeze coming off the beach, the doors were always open as if begging people to come strolling in.

  I frowned at the tattered screen and pulled open the door. A bell rang overhead. The shop was maybe eight hundred square feet. They had a brand new espresso machine behind the bar and two new MacBook Pros in the corner for customers. A flat screen was placed near a few tables and Judge Judy was playing in the background.

  I tried to shove away the disappointment I felt.

  I’d moved to find adventure.

  And I guess to escape.

  And now I was sitting in an empty coffee shop while Judge Judy yelled at some pimple-faced kid for breaking his mom’s window and then suing her for physical harm.

  “Hello?” I called out in a loud voice, hoping that Jennifer, the lady I’d talked to, would answer. “Hello?”

  “She’s not here,” a voice said from behind the counter. I peeked around the corner. A girl who looked maybe fourteen popped her gum and stared down at her phone. “Went to Subway—likes their bread.”

  “Uh-huh.” Seaside? Really? Why not Portland? Seattle? Boise? “I’ll just wait for her then. I’m Penelope. I’m the new—”

  The bell rang over the door.

  I waited for the teen to get up.

  If anything, she seemed even more concerned with her phone.

  There was something vaguely familiar about the man that stepped up to the counter. “Have you ordered yet?”

  “No.” I waved him off. “Actually I’m supposed to start work here and—” I sent a glare toward the girl still sitting. “—you know what, I’ll just help you, what do you want?”