One Night with Sole Regret 04 Touch Me (24 page)

She burst into tears again.

Owen wrapped his arms around her and drew her
into a comforting embrace. He stroked her hair and murmured, “Don’t
cry. We’ll get this sorted out. Don’t worry.”

So he held the woman who might or might not
be pregnant with his child, a woman he had no interest in on an
emotional level, while the woman he really wanted had left, perhaps
forever. Why did he have to be so fucking weak to a woman’s
tears?

“I know it’s your baby, Owen. When I feel him
move inside me, I know he’s your son.” Lindsey’s sobs increased
without provocation. “Oh God, I love our baby so much.”

Every hair on Owen’s body stood on end.
No
. Just no. He was in no way ready to be a father and
certainly didn’t want to have a baby with a woman he didn’t love.
“You can’t know that it’s mine,” he said. “You slept with every guy
in the band that night. What makes you so sure I’m the father?”

Her sob fest made him wish he hadn’t said
anything.

“You hate me, don’t you? I should just
kill—”

He took her by both arms and shook her.
“Don’t finish that sentence. Even if it isn’t my baby, I’m not
going to toss you out in the street. Come inside while I figure out
what to do with you.” He really wished Kelly’s calming presence was
here. Kelly would help Owen figure out what to do. As it was, Owen
couldn’t think. What he really wanted was to push Lindsey aside and
go after Caitlyn. Not that he expected Caitlyn to ever speak to him
again after what she’d just witnessed. He rubbed the center of his
chest, took Lindsey by the elbow, and helped her ascend the steep
steps of the tour bus. Adam, Shade, and Gabe’s round of laughter
died as their eyes settled on Owen with Lindsey in tow.

“What happened to your other chick?” Shade
asked.

“She, uh, had to go. We have a little
situation here,” Owen said.

“I remember you,” Gabe said to Lindsey, a
smile of recognition on his lean face. “Christmas Eve. We all…” His
eyes widened as they settled on her distended abdomen.

“Is she…?” Adam’s dark eyebrows rose to
comical peaks.

Lindsey avoided their eyes but straightened
her shoulders. “I’m having Owen’s baby.”

“You can’t be sure that it’s mine,” Owen
insisted. “Is there anyone on this bus you didn’t fuck that
night?”

Her big blue eyes flooded with tears. “I know
it’s yours, Owen. I just know.”

“Did you do her without protection?” Shade
asked.

“No, I wore a condom. Did you forget?” Owen
asked Shade.

“Of course I didn’t forget. I might be dumb,
but I’m not stupid.”

“I wore a condom
and
I’m getting a
vasectomy, so it’s definitely not my kid,” Adam said.

“You have to actually have the procedure done
before
you have unprotected sex,” Shade reminded him.

Adam turned green. “Shit! That’s right. But
still, it’s not mine.”

“Well, it sure as hell isn’t mine,” Shade
said. “I already have one!”

“That doesn’t matter. Having one does not
decrease your odds of having another,” Gabe said.

Owen looked at Gabe. His last hope.

“I only came in her mouth,” Gabe said. “Adam
and Tex were taking turns and she was sucking me and… Wait… I was
drunk. Don’t remember everything I did. But I always wear
protection. Always.” Gabe blinked hard and turned his green-eyed
gaze to the floor. “It’s not mine.”

“Was Tex wearing a condom?”

“Yes, we all used protection, Owen,” Shade
said, “so it must be yours. Or Kellen’s.”

“Kellen didn’t even penetrate her. And I know
I was protected. I didn’t even drink that night, so I clearly
remember everything I did.”

“This is the worst episode of Jerry Springer
ever,” Adam said.

Owen laughed so he wouldn’t start crying.

“You were all careful,” Lindsey said.
“Condoms are not one hundred percent fail proof, you know.”

“Seriously?” Owen asked. She must have poked
holes in their condoms hoping to get pregnant and make herself some
bank off a group of idiotic rock stars just having a good time one
Christmas Eve. They’d joked about it how many times? And now it had
come to fruition.

“You don’t think I wanted to get pregnant, do
you?” Lindsey said, emotions going from distress to anger like a
switch had been flipped. “I had plans for my life! Now I’m knocked
up, homeless, and considered a whore by my entire family. I
wouldn’t have even come to ask for help if I had a choice.”

Owen looked imploringly at each member of the
band and realized that even if the baby wasn’t his, he was going to
be the one who took care of this. Why? Because he was a sucker. Or
nice. Or something.

“She’s not coming on tour with us,” Shade
said. “Put her in a hotel until after our show tomorrow night and
then we’ll figure out something more permanent.”

Their driver, Tex, announced his arrival on
the bus with a loud belch. “Y’all ready to hit the road? Where’s
Kellen?”

“Kellen will meet us in Beaumont tomorrow
night,” Owen said. “And no, we’re not quite ready to go. We have a
bit of a problem.”

Owen shifted his position so he wasn’t
blocking Lindsey from Tex’s view. Tex smiled when he recognized
her. “Oh hey, honey, back for some more Texas-sized lovin’?” He
wriggled his eyebrows and adjusted himself in the crotch of his
pants.

Lindsey burst into tears again.

“What?” Tex said. “Hey, now, you didn’t
complain the last time. Begged for more.”

Owen cringed and shook his head, hoping to
get Tex to shut his big mouth.

“Did you remember to use protection that
night, Tex?” Shade asked.

“What? ’Course I did. Don’t know where these
loose groupie girls have been, you know? Gotta protect Big Hoss.
Wouldn’t want him to catch nuthin’.”

Lindsey swayed sideways, and Owen grabbed her
before she collapsed. “You okay?” he asked.

She leaned heavily on him, clinging to his
arm for balance. “I think so. I feel a little dizzy.”

And who could blame her? He felt a little
dizzy too.

“What’s this all about?” Tex asked. “Y’all
are acting kinda strange.”

“You’re going to be a father, Tex,” Adam
said. “Well, one of you are. It isn’t mine.”

“We’ll figure out who the father is when the
time comes,” Gabe said. “Just shut up about it for now. You
shouldn’t get a pregnant woman emotionally upset. It can harm the
baby. Owen, help her sit down.”

But if she sat down, that meant she’d be
staying.

“What?” Tex said. “She’s pregnant?”

“Just over six months pregnant,” Owen said.
“Which correlates to—”

“The Christmas Eve fuck-fest!” Tex
interrupted. His eyes widened as one and one made three. “I swear
it isn’t mine.”

Lindsey flinched as if someone had slapped
her. Now that his initial shock had receded a bit, Owen started to
imagine what it must feel like to be her. To become pregnant while
having a bit of sexy fun—which he did all the time, so he couldn’t
judge her for it—and not know who had fathered the child. How would
it feel to be ostracized by your family for making a mistake and
have no one to turn to? He wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. But he
could help her. Even if the baby wasn’t his. And he prayed to God
it wasn’t his. He didn’t want to be a father but at the same time,
he didn’t want harm to come to the child. It wasn’t the baby’s
fault that no one wanted him.

“Just so everyone shuts the fuck up,” Owen
said, “I’ll claim the child until we find out otherwise, okay?”
Under his breath he added, “Someone around here needs to take
responsibility for the places he sticks his dick.”

Owen eased Lindsey onto the sofa. She
immediately covered her abdomen with both arms and gazed up at him
with wide eyes. She had the face of an angel with the exception of
the dark circles under her eyes. Physically, she was so Kelly’s
type it was ridiculous. Kelly couldn’t resist a woman with big blue
eyes and a look of innocence about her. But Lindsey wasn’t Owen’s
type.
Caitlyn
was Owen’s type. Why did this have to happen
just when he was finally ready to consider a serious relationship
again? Another snafu—situation normal, all fucked up.

“You okay?” Owen asked her.

Lindsey nodded and wiped her tears on the
pink-striped T-shirt at her shoulder. As much as he didn’t want to
be involved in this mess, Owen couldn’t stand anyone to look so
upset. So desperate. So alone. “Do you want something to drink? Are
you hungry?”

She hesitated and then nodded again. “I
haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

“That’s not good for you or the baby,” Shade
said. He opened the refrigerator and peered inside. “Neither is
beer and leftover sushi.” He closed the refrigerator door with his
foot.

Adam rattled the single remaining peanut at
the bottom of the can. “Have a peanut.”

Shade slapped the can out of his hand. “Get
the woman some real food. She’s pregnant. Have you ever dealt with
a hungry pregnant woman?”

“No.”

“Well, I have and it ain’t pretty.”

“I didn’t mean to get pregnant,” Lindsey
whispered, gazing up at Owen imploringly, as if she’d been declared
guilty and he was her executioner with a readied ax slung over one
shoulder.

Owen smiled at her and smoothed her check
with one finger. Her eyes drifted closed, and large tears dripped
from beneath her lids. He wished she’d stop doing that already. Did
she have any idea what a sucker he was? Actually, that was probably
why she’d approached him first.

“I believe you,” he said. “Now don’t cry any
more. We’ll take care of you.”

“Let’s go get something to eat before we hit
the road,” Shade said. “Then we can ditch her at a hotel until
after the next show. We have a few days’ break before our two shows
in New Orleans; we’ll get this mess straightened out then.”

Lindsey ducked her head, but she didn’t
argue. Owen wondered how she could stand being talked about as if
she were a problem, not a person.

“She can come with us to Beaumont,” he said.
“It isn’t far. And she’s probably afraid to be by herself in a
strange city.”

She looked at him as if he were her personal
savior. A warm feeling spread through his chest. He liked helping
people, and he was glad they’d found a temporary solution to the
situation. Now if he could figure out what he could possibly say to
make things up to Caitlyn. He missed her already.

If she’d have him, he wanted her for more
than one night. A lot more.

He’d probably have to do something
spectacular to regain her trust, but he had no reservations about
giving his all to rock her world.

“Tex,” Shade said, “drive out of the city,
but stop at a restaurant in some small town.”

Tex was staring at Lindsey as if she had a
forked tongue and horns.

“Tex!”

He jerked and forced his attention to
Shade.

“Did you hear me?”

“Restaurant. Small town. Got it.” He rushed
to the front of the bus and disappeared into the walled compartment
that obscured the driver from the rest of the vehicle.

“Thanks for being nice to me,” Lindsey said.
She offered Shade a small smile.

“Do you need to stop somewhere and pick up
your belongings?” Gabe asked, settling onto the sofa beside her,
his long legs extending for miles in front of him.

“My car broke down in Oklahoma. Everything I
own that’s not in this bag is there abandoned on the side of the
road.”

She lifted her blue-and-white-striped bag,
which was about the size of a sofa cushion, onto her lap and hugged
it against her.

Gabe patted her shoulder. “How did you get to
Houston?”

“A nice truck driver gave me a ride. If you
guys had refused to help me, I don’t know what I would have
done.”

“Five suckers form a band…” Adam said.

Owen’s phone beeped, alerting him to the
arrival of a text. He pulled his phone from his pocket and smiled
to see Caitlyn’s name at the top of his new message.

Call me in three days,
the message
said,
but not before.

There was a short pause before her next
message popped on the screen.
I need to pretend to be pissed at
you for at least that long.

“Yes!” he said aloud.

I’ll try not to call you before then,
he texted back,
but no promises. I have a huge crush on you,
beautiful lady.

I won’t answer,
she typed back.

He somehow doubted that. She’d texted him
less than thirty minutes after being confronted by a pretty, young
groupie claiming to be pregnant with his child. Owen pressed
Call
and lifted his phone to his ear.

Caitlyn answered on the first ring. “Owen! I
said not to call me yet.”

“I thought you weren’t going to answer.”

“I didn’t.” He could hear the smile in her
voice and the relief in his.

“Are you free Monday? I seem to have a rare
night off.”

“That’s only two days away, and I’m
determined to completely reject you for three.”

“Okay, I’ll give you time to consider my
offer. I’ll call back in an hour.”

He grinned and hung up. He glanced at
Lindsey, who jerked her gaze from him when she realized he was
looking at her. And what in the world was he going to do with her
while he romanced his new lover? Lindsey wasn’t going to move in
with him, if that was her plan. There was no way in hell Caitlyn
would understand that arrangement.

He seemed to have one too many women in his
life at the moment and if he was forced to choose, he knew who’d be
on the first Greyhound bus back to Idaho.

He didn’t care what it cost him. It couldn’t
possibly cost him more than his heart.

I’d like to thank Wendy Christy for being the
most faithful of beta readers, Jill Anderson for offering sound
advice, and the amazing Beth Hill for her fabulous editing skills.
Thanks ladies for helping me make this a better story.