Rock Star: The Deal (Book 3 of a Bad Boy Romance) (14 page)

I handed the phone back to Sophie, she had a smile on her face a mile wide. “So country boy is back in town again. Deliveries? Would you like a hand picking out some sexy underwear?”

“Sophie!”

She roared with laughter. “Oh please, I know you. You dirty little minx, you are going to be riding the bull the moment you get there.”

I laughed and slapped her on the side of the arm.

“Where’s Spike?”

She groaned. “He’s in a deep conversation with old man Terry about the state of society. I didn’t dare interrupt. You know how old man Terry is.”

Old man Terry was a local in Lakeside. Some said he was a bit of a loon. A crazy guy with aspirations of running for president, but we all knew he was harmless. He used to own the local military surplus store in town. He once sent the president a tin of plutonium. For a short while the Secret Service showed up in Lakeside. He was charged a fine and told never to send anything to the president again. Beyond that he was as good as gold. Though unless you wanted hours of your day gone, you didn’t strike up a conversation with him. He would go on for hours and hours.

“So he’s OK to handle the customers by himself for a couple of minutes?”

“Oh sure. Why?”

“Just wanted to catch up with you. We haven’t spoken much since I got back. I wanted to see how things are between you and Spike.”

Sophie came in and closed the door.

“I have a bit of a confession.”

“Oh he didn’t propose to you, did he?”

“No.”

“He dumped you again?”

“NO!” she raised her voice, then lowered it again. “I’m pregnant.”

“What?”

She nodded. “I took a test a couple of days ago.”

I grabbed her and squeezed her.

“That’s fabulous news. It is Spike’s, right? Not Teddy’s?”

“Of course. I didn’t have sex with Teddy.”

“So what did Spike say?”

She grimaced and took a seat. This didn’t look good.

“I haven’t told him.”

“Why?”

“You know. Spike has all these dreams and aspirations to be a rock and roll guitarist.”

“And?”

“I don’t want to hold him back. I love him too much.”

I took a seat down beside her.

“Sophie. You have to tell him. It’s his child.”

She nodded. “I know. Just, it’s hard to tell him.”

“You are scared he’s going to tell you to get an abortion, aren’t you?”

She shook her head. “Who knows what he will think? It’s been freaking me out for the past couple of days.”

“Do you want me to speak to him?”

“Would you?”

“For you, of course. But I do think it would be best coming from you.”

She slumped back in her seat. I could see she was anxious, excited but nervous about what he might say.

“And as for his aspirations for being the next Zak Wylde, I think you’ll be surprised by what his response is.”

“That’s the part that worries me. He might want to marry me. I’m not sure I could handle all of that plus a baby. It would be too overwhelming.”

“Ah, come here.” I gave her a hug.

Right then, his timing as impeccable as ever, Spike burst through the door. He didn’t knock. No, not Spike.

“Hey, I could have been naked.”

“Oh please. Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

I tossed a pillow at him.

“Finally got away from old man Terry. Damn, does he go on. Wah wah wah, I thought it would never end.”

I looked at Sophie, “You want me to tell him?”

“No, I will.”

I got up and passed by Spike. “You be nice.”

“What? What are you on about? I hate it when you girls whisper.”

I shut the door behind me and said a silent prayer, hoping that it would all go well. Right now I had to head off to the cottage and bring him his coffee. I whipped up two Americanos. Placed two muffins in a bag, and waited for Sophie to come down. Sophie didn’t. Spike did and he had this deer in the headlights look.

“I’m going to be a father.”

“Congratulations.”

“I’m going to be a father.”

Oh, there was a small possibility he was about to lose it. His face was blank. Old man Terry shouted, “The government is to blame.”

We just started laughing. I gave Spike a hug. “I can’t believe it.”

“Right, well, hold down the fort. I have to nip out. We will celebrate tonight, OK?”

He nodded, still looking spaced out.

On my way up to the cottage, I settled back in my seat feeling good. My best friends were having a baby, I was on my way to see Chase, and Luke wanted to work together. Could it get any better than this? Pulling into Rita’s place, a flash of fond memories rushed in. The first time I saw Chase. The first time we wrote a song together. The first time we made love.

I felt light as I walked up to the door and gave it a short knock. I couldn’t wait to see him again. To chat, to go over what had taken place since we parted ways.

The door opened, and my mouth dropped.

It was Taylor Wade.

T
his was not going
to go down well. I didn’t expect Meghan to show up so soon after getting off the phone. I still had a towel wrapped around my waist. Taylor Wade was wearing my shirt. Nothing else.

“Oh, I didn’t know you…” Meghan began to say.

“Hi Meghan,” Taylor replied.

I came out of the shower and saw her handing coffee and muffins to Taylor. She caught my eye and then turned around abruptly.

“Meghan, hold up.”

She wasn’t waiting around. Before I could get some clothes on she was already gone.

“You never told me that she worked at a coffee shop. How sweet.”

I groaned. The past month had been the worst month of my life. Being kidnapped was one thing. I didn’t think anything else could top that. But it had.

When I had learned of Mia’s involvement, it didn’t just shock me. It threw me off balance. We had worked together for years. She had been the one who had put out fires, helped me to get to the top. She had been the spine in my career. The one person who kept me on track and was always there, even if she was overbearing most of the time. When my career had started I had one manager who had been taking money. The accountant soon spotted it and he was fired. Mia wasn’t like that. She was as honest as they came. If ever, she was the one catching other people trying to swindle us out of money. Being told she was behind the kidnapping was earth-shattering.

After Meghan had returned to Lakeside, I had retreated to a motel in God knows where. I began to drink heavily. I even snorted cocaine. I just wanted to forget it all. It had been hard enough trying to make a comeback. But then to have this happen, it was devastating. The tour was over. She had been the one to tell me that the label would take my royalties. When I followed up with them they denied it. Which led me to believe it was just part of her plot.

For days I stayed inside that hotel, not wanting to see anyone. I then did what I did best and caved into my weakness with women. I called in escorts and spent days having sex. Anything to just feel. It was reckless, stupid and I had been acting like an animal. I hadn’t thought for one moment how this had affected Meghan.

One day, I just snapped out of it. I poured the remaining alcohol down the sink. Flushed away a bag of cocaine and booked myself into rehab. Within a month I was released. I felt good. I felt ready to get back into the music. I wanted to see Meghan again. I knew that we had been apart for a while, but I imagined that we would be able to pick up where we left off.

Before I returned to Lakeside, I had taken a day out to visit Mia in jail. Seeing her shuffle in her orange clothing, zero makeup and her hair in a mess. She looked as if she had aged twenty years.

At first she just sat across the table from me. Quiet, with her chin down.

“Thanks for meeting with me.”

She nodded without saying anything.

“Why did you do it, Mia?”

“It won’t make sense.”

“At least try to explain it to me.”

“First, it was never meant to go that far. You weren’t meant to be taken. No one was meant to be killed. It just got out of control. They were meant to scare her. Make her want to quit the business. Leave you alone.”

“But I love her.”

“I know. I wanted at first just to ruin her. Jealousy, I guess. It had always been me and you. I…”

I looked away trying not to lose my cool.

“I guess you hate me now.”

“I don’t hate you, Mia, I feel sorry for you. That you thought you had to go this far, be this controlling to get my attention. Are you telling me this was not about money?”

“It was a little of both. You had lost so much money, Chase.”

“I had millions in the bank.”

“You did. I didn’t. I was getting tired of working for little.”

I ran a hand across my face. “Holy crap, Mia. You were probably one of the highest paid managers in the United States.”

“Twenty percent doesn’t buy much.”

“It’s not my fault that you had extravagant tastes. You could have lived very well. I always took care of you. I always gave you bonuses at the end of the year.”

“I wanted you, Chase. You.”

“Well, you had me. Now you’ve lost me. Even the little you had.”

“I know.” She rustled in her chair. A guard looked on, checking to make sure that I wasn’t trying to pass anything to her. People handed things to inmates in all manner of ways. Kissing being one of them. But there was no chance of that. I didn’t want to kiss her. I wanted to spit at her.

I left there that day unsure of my place in the music industry. I felt like a puppet on a string, just playing and doing what the label wanted. Everything was being powered by money. I had a good mind to walk away from it. It wasn’t like I needed to play. I had more than enough money to retire and live comfortably long into my golden years.

Maybe I would have made that decision, if it hadn’t been for Taylor. I had bumped into her at the label. We were under the same one. She had just come off a large tour and had offered to have me come out with her on the next one. I had told her that I wasn’t sure if I was going to remain on the label. I felt jaded by it all. I needed a new manager. A decent one. One that would allow me more freedom. That’s when she had offered to hook me up with hers. They had been working together for years. I had heard good things about him

Now against my better judgment I had invited Taylor to come with me to Lakeside. It would give us time to talk about it, and at the same time I could show her around this quaint little town in the middle of Oregon.

I hadn’t banked on there being such a sexual attraction between the two of us. A few drinks, and one thing led to another and I found myself in the sack with her. The sex was amazing, and while I was still intoxicated I wasn’t thinking right. I was thinking with my dick. I had fallen back into that one weakness of mine — women.

The next morning I knew it was a bad decision. I was hoping that she might have a similar weakness with men. That she would be the first to say, great night, but I don’t think this is going to work out. Instead she had been even more loving the next day.

When I told her I had a few errands to run and would catch up with her back in the city later that evening, I thought she was going to leave. I had even been stupid enough to order coffee.

“So we’ll meet up later in New York. You should come by and stay at my apartment.”

“Sure.”

As I turned on the shower, I assumed she had left. I should have checked.

Now here I was in a situation that was going to be hard to crawl out of. No doubt I had hurt Meghan. That was the last thing I ever wanted to do. I had been eager to see her. But once again I had screwed it up. Mia had been good at preventing these things from happening, but without her around to keep an eye on things, I was left to my own devices.

“I thought you were leaving?”

Taylor settled down on the bed with a coffee and muffin. I knew it wasn’t meant for her, but what could I say?

“This isn’t a one-night stand, is it? I’ve heard of your womanizing ways, Chase.”

I grabbed my coffee and lay down. “Who, me? You must have me mixed up with someone else.”

She smiled giving me a skeptical eye.

“No, I just need to get things done. I also have to start writing some new songs. And man, I can’t do it when others are around.”

“OK. But you have to promise to show up in New York this evening.”

“I will. You have my word.”

Inwardly I was groaning. I knew I was not going to be able to keep that promise. Within fifteen minutes she had things together and had arranged a ride to the airport. She gave me a kiss on the lips, narrowed her eyes.

“New York. This evening. Fifth Avenue, the Hartwick Hotel. I go under the name Wilma.”

“You got it.”

I watched the car drive off. I went back inside, breathed a sigh of relief and then started to think about what I was going to say to Meghan.

* * *

W
hen I returned
to the Steamy Beans Coffee House, I wasn’t crying. I hadn’t seen Chase in several months. I didn’t have a claim on him. However, that didn’t lessen the blow. It also didn’t make me feel any less humiliated. To have served Taylor Wade coffee like a lowly servant was a definite low point.

I should have known. To think that coffee was for me. To think that we could have been together after all this time. Stupid. Stupid girl. Sophie was the first to see me come back in. Spike was rubbing her stomach like a genie’s lamp.

“Oh hey. Everything OK?”

“Yeah, fine,” I said, feigning that all was well.

“So how is the big star?” Spike asked.

“He has his hands full,” I said, thinking about what they had been up to. I knew he had probably been nose deep between her big breasts. As hard as I tried to not think about it, I found myself thinking about it.

I made a point that I wasn’t going to let it get me down. My best friend was pregnant, that was good news. I wasn’t going to overshadow that with a childish rant about how Chase was now seeing someone else.

Now maybe it was against my better judgment. Perhaps I was angry, but I decided to make a phone call to Luke and tell him I would do the tour. When he picked up, he was ecstatic.

“Meghan, this is going to be amazing. Now don’t you worry about any of it. I will make the arrangements. We’ll start off with two places. Playing at your coffeehouse, then I’ll get us booked in at another small venue. In the meantime, work on your songs and I will be seeing you later this week, beautiful.”

Now that picked me up. Being called beautiful. I knew he meant it too. Luke could have had anyone. But I knew he liked me. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t feeling as down as I should have been. If Chase had options, so did I.

* * *

I
had spent
the last hour pacing back and forth, drinking coffee and thinking about how to word this. She wasn’t a stupid woman. There really wasn’t much you could get past Meghan. I didn’t want to lie. But I couldn’t exactly come out with it and say that I had slept with Taylor. That would have killed it right there. Then on the other hand I couldn’t say I was washing Taylor’s underpants and you caught me in the process of scrubbing them in the shower, that’s why I was only wearing a towel around my waist.

Then I was starting to feel paranoid. I hated lying to people. Though I wasn’t sure if it was because I hated lying, or I just wasn’t very good at it. My face was a clear giveaway. I had failed to lie more times than I could count.

“Screw it. I will just come out with it.”

I decided I would take the honest route. What would it hurt to be honest for once? If she says she doesn’t want to see me, fair enough. But at least I wouldn’t be lying. If I lied and she found out, that could destroy anything that I was hoping to establish with her. A long-term future together with her.

I grabbed up my coat, pulled on my boots and headed out for the coffeehouse. When I pulled up outside in my truck, I could see her through the window serving customers. I took a moment to take her in. It had been several months since I had seen her. The last time had been immediately after being rescued. We were both in a bad state. Bloodied, with bad hair and scrapes and bruises. But there was none of that now. Her black hair was tied back, she had on these cute glasses, and a warm and cozy sweater. Snow was coming down slowly but steadily as I trudged my way over to the café. When I entered, she looked up but didn’t smile. I knew that was a bad sign.

“Country boy,” Spike said, passing me with a few empty plates and cups. “I’m going to be a father.”

I raised my eyes. A picture of him walking along the sidewalk with a stroller flashed in my mind. It seemed odd. “Congrats.”

There were about six people in the store. It was nice to return to her place. But more than anything to see her again. I approached the coffee bar.