Night with Sole Regret

TEASE ME X

“Therein lies the problem,” Jacob said.

“We all had s*x with her,” Adam said, rubbing a hand over his face.

Madison’s hand smashed into his chest. “You promised me,” she shouted.

No, he hadn’t. He hadn’t promised her he wouldn’t sleep around until recently. Six months ago wasn’t recently as far as he was concerned.

“I did not,” Adam said. “Don’t overreact.”

“Overreact? How can anything short of murdering you with my fork be an overreaction?” She shoved her white fork in his face and looked mad enough to gouge his eyes out with it. “How could you do this to me, Adam?”

“Shh,” Jacob said when all eyes turned their way. “This is not the place for an argument.”

Adam agreed, but apparently Madison had more to say. She did lower her voice to an angry whisper, but did not lower her plastic weapon.

“You promised me that you always wore protection with other women. Always. You promised me that. I never would have allowed . . .” She broke off with an angry growl.

Oh, that was what she’d meant.

“I did wear protection,” he said. And he wasn’t just saying that to appease her.

“Then how could you potentially be the father of this baby, Adam?” She poked him in the collarbone with her fork, fire sparking in her blue eyes. “How?”

“We all wore protection,” Jacob said.

“Then how is she pregnant?” Madison yelled.

“Wish I had the answer to that,” Owen said.

Madison’s stiff spine relaxed slightly as she scowled at her food and finally lowered her fork. Adam could practically see her mind trying to piece together the information that had been thrown at her.

After a moment, she said, “If you all wore protection, what’s to say she got pregnant by any of you? Maybe she’s a goddamned liar.”

Adam had already decided that was probably the case. Lindsey had gotten pregnant by some loser back home and not, as she claimed, by any of the losers in his band. She was just looking for a quick and easy bankroll. He really hoped Madison’s suspicions proved to be true.

“She’s got her sights set on me,” Owen said, “so unless the kid comes out with wild black hair, a permanent scowl on his face, and a Stratocaster in his little hands, then you don’t have anything to worry about, Madi.”

She actually smiled at this. Oh no, thinking about a miniature Adam should not make her smile. Or maybe she was smiling about something else. Adam hoped so. He wanted no babies in his life. Not even hers. But especially not Lindsey’s.

“All you have to do is make her get a paternity test,” Madison said. “Prove it isn’t any of yours. Get rid of her once and for all.”

“We’ll have one done as soon as the baby is born,” Jacob said. “Until then, we’re just playing a waiting game.”

“f**k that,” Madison said, and the three men stared at her in stunned disbelief. She wasn’t the kind of woman who said f**k in polite company. Sure, she screamed it in the bedroom, but she’d never cursed in front of Adam’s bandmates. “They can do the test during pregnancy now. You don’t have to wait until she delivers.”

“They can?” Owen turned another shade greener.

Adam wondered why. Maybe there was a reason Lindsey was so insistent that the baby was Owen’s. Maybe he was hiding something about what had happened between himself and Lindsey and causing the rest of them undo anxiety for nothing. The bastard.

Madison nodded. “One of my clients got a girl in trouble—or so she said. The baby turned out not to be his. They did the test before she gave birth.”

“I’m not sure I want to know,” Owen said.

“It’s yours, isn’t it?” Adam accused Owen. “It’s yours and you know it, no maybe about it. You nutted inside her, didn’t you?” Adam made a grab across the table for Owen’s T-shirt, but Owen jerked back and threw up an arm to block him.

Owen shook his head. “Not that I know of. I honestly don’t know for sure if it’s mine. I just have this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that it is. Probably because she keeps saying it is. I guess if you hear something enough times, you start to believe it’s true.”

“That’s why I made him leave the bus with me today,” Jacob said. “The chick will not leave him alone. She’s psycho.”

And Jacob knew what psycho chicks were like firsthand, so Adam didn’t even question the guy’s claim.

Madison reached across the table and patted Owen’s hand. “Everything will turn out how it’s supposed to.”

Adam highly doubted that. Someone in his band was f****d. And not in a good a way.

“As long as it isn’t mine everything will be fine,” Adam said. “I knew I should have gotten that vasectomy last year. Had the appointment set and everything, but had to cancel.”

Madison’s head turned slowly, and her mouth dropped open. “A vasectomy?”

“Here we go again,” Jacob muttered.

“Were you even going to consult me before having it done?” Madison sputtered.

Adam lifted an eyebrow at her. “Why should I consult you? They’re my balls.”

“But our future children,” she said.

Adam stared at her, completely stunned that she was imagining children in their future. “Children? We aren’t having children.”

“When did we decide that?”

“We didn’t decide.” He pointed to his chest. “I decided.”

Her mouth opened and closed several times, as if she couldn’t find words scathing enough to spew at him.

“Don’t you think we should discuss this?” she finally asked.

“Nope.” There was nothing to discuss. He didn’t want kids. End of discussion.

She glanced at Jacob and Owen, who were both staring at her as if their spat was a spectator sport and the ball was in her court.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she said.

Not if he could help it.

“You done eating?” Jacob asked Owen. “I’m ready to head back to the bus.”

“Why don’t you go order some dinner for the rest of the band and the road crew while I finish?” Owen said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Jacob said.

Jacob stood from the table and every chick in the vicinity watched him walk to the counter. Even Adam’s chick.

“What are you looking at?” he asked. He was used to everyone staring at Jacob and not in the same way they stared at him, so he wasn’t jealous. He just liked f*****g with her.

Madison’s heat-flushed cheeks reddened a shade brighter. “Um . . .” She cleared her throat and tore her gaze from Jacob’s broad back. Or maybe she’d been checking out his ass. “How’s your dad doing?” she asked, her eyes now focused intently on Adam. “Is he still in the hospital?”

Adam lifted a brow at her. “Are you trying to change the subject?”

Owen laughed at her obvious discomfort, and she threw a french fry at him, which he stuffed into his mouth before adding a few more of his own.

“I’m genuinely interested,” she said and fixed her best I’m an excellent listener look on her pretty face. He wanted to talk about his father almost as much as he wanted to discuss having kids.

Jacob returned to the table and started picking at his last few crawdads. Adam focused on his meal as well. Until Madison put a hand on his thigh and leaned into his arm.

“Adam?”

He sighed. Prying-assed woman, there was no deterring her. “He’s out of the hospital and going to stay with a friend in El Paso.”

“So he’s not at your place anymore?”

“Nope. I kicked him out.”

“And how did that make you feel?” she asked.

Adam lifted an eyebrow at her. She wanted to engage him in therapy? Right here in front of the guys? Not happening.

“We’ll talk about this later,” he said.

She glanced at Jacob and Owen, who were watching them closely, and offered Adam an understanding smile.

“Have you ever met Adam’s old man?” Jacob asked, tossing the last of his crawdad shells into the discard pile and helping himself to a large one from Adam’s plate.

Madison shook her head.

“He’s not all bad,” he said.

“Just ninety-nine percent of him,” Owen added with a laugh.

“I don’t want her to meet him,” Adam said.

“Why not?” Jacob asked.

Adam shrugged, but he knew why. He didn’t want her to look at the train wreck that was his father and realize Adam hadn’t fallen far from the tree.

By the time they finished their meal and collected a to-go order that cleaned out the food shack’s entire inventory of crawdads, it was too late to relax in the hotel before the show. Adam and Madison followed Jacob and Owen back to the venue. As far as Adam was concerned, he could ride his bike for eternity and ignore all the weights that dragged him down, but he had to learn to cope with real life. Had to cope even if his first instinct was to use drugs to make his problems go away—Madison had showed him that drugs only made his problems worse, he’d just been too high to recognize the truth of that—and his second instinct was to run from them by avoiding them. He was still working on how to get over the tendency toward avoidance.