“Come on, Kelsey. You’ve been around long enough to know how this works. You get into a relationship with one of the guys and the first thing I’m going to check is whether you’re pregnant. Don’t take it personally. It’s routine.”
“It’s not that. I’m not taking it personally. And I’m not in a relationship.” Holy shit! What if I am pregnant? I can’t be. My last period was… shit I don’t remember when my last period was. Wait I got it on a Wednesday, but that was three and a half… oh no, is this really happening? Do I want it to be? How the hell is Riot going to take it if I am? He’ll freak the fuck out. No wonder Sam told him to leave before he shoved the test in my face. “Does everyone know about Riot and me?”
“It’s pretty obvious,” Sam says gently.
No. I groan. All our running around and hiding was for nothing. “I thought we were discreet.”
“Nothing stays secret on tour for long,” Sam tells me. “Especially when it comes to bus bunk shenanigans.”
It’s supposed to be casual fun. Well, as casual as one can be when their heart is already all fucked up and in it. “I can’t be pregnant. I’m on the pill.”
“Except there was that virus that went through the bus and you ended up with a mild chest infection.”
“So?”
“So I gave you antibiotics. Remember? I told you that the pill can sometimes be affected by the use of antibiotics and to take extra precautions if you were getting busy with anyone.”
“Crap. Did you really say that?” I'd been so sick I could barely get out of bed let alone fall on a dick for an entire week. I’dbeen so stuffy, like my head was full of cotton wool. “I must have missed that part of the prescription.”
He waves the stick under my nose. “Go and pee on the stick, Kelsey. Pretend you’re Rebel Maddox and this piece of plastic is one of those Afghan hounds.”
The middle Maddox triplet is never going to live that incident down. Thankfully he got his act together when his girlfriend came onto the scene. He used to be such a clusterfuck of bad attitude, exhibitionism, and bruised knuckles.
“Fine.” Taking the stick, I rise and go lock myself in the bathroom. It’s a small space. Big enough for two in a pinch. Riot and I managed a quickie in here a few weeks back, but it was cramped.
Unwrapping the test, I place it on the edge of the sink and peel my panties down before squatting over the toilet and willing myself to pee. Yeah, this is not going to happen with Sam on the other side of this door. “How am I supposed to do this with an audience?”
“The same way you did the deed that landed us here,” he calls out. “Turn the tap on.”
“God, was that a joke? Because if it was it was awful.” Maybe we weren’t as tactful and secretive as I thought. I twist the tap. Water gushes into the bowl.
It does make me need to pee, so I grab the stick and do what needs to be done. When I’m finished, I pop it on the packaging and wait. There’s always a possibility, isn’t there? One way or the other. I can’t be pregnant with my rock-god-best-friend-who-I’ve-been-casually-hooking-up-with’s baby.
God, what the hell am I going to do if I am?
I wash my hands while I watch the time pass on my phone. A few minutes until I find out if my life is going to change forever. Is this how Summer felt when she found out she and Rebel were having a baby?
Picking up the stick with a trembling hand I hold it up to the light and stare as the results appear in the window.
7
Summer
“Summer, you shouldn’t be on that ladder.” Owen glares at me as he places the chairs he’s carrying against the wall.
“I’m fine. I’m pregnant, not an invalid.” I loop the string of lights around the nail jutting out of the wall until I’m satisfied that it won’t move. My eldest brother is doing my head in with all this macho, pregnant women need coddling crap.
Rebel and Rogue cart big oak barrels from outside into one corner of the barn. They’re using them to build a makeshift bar.
Owen grumbles under his breath.
“What was that?” I ask sweetly. I might have to show him what pregnant women are capable of if he keeps going.
“Can you pass me that screwdriver?” Jett asks Owen, his attention on the wires coming out of one of the speakers he’s setting up. He winks at me as Owen moves away to help him.
I get back to the lights.
Fall Out Boy pumps out of the speakers not long after as Jett tests the sound system. He starts singing at the top of his lungs. My other brothers come in and out carrying tables and chairs. There’s so much muscle and testosterone on this ranch that a hired crew would have been sitting on their hands watching these men do all the work.
