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Chad knew something was wrong the moment he’d seen Lindsey’s face, and Owen’s suddenly sour disposition only cemented that certainty. His parents were too focused on him to notice that something was awry between the expectant parents, but even under the influence of morphine, Chad recognized their sadness. Maybe they were just sad about him. If that was the case, they’d better get over it quick, because he wouldn’t tolerate pity from anyone, not even his sappy little brother.
“I think we should let you rest,” Mom said. “You’ll try to keep us all entertained if we stay.”
Chad didn’t tease her about wanting to get away, because if he did, he’d never get a moment’s peace.
“You all go home. I’ll be fine here by myself.”
A surge of adrenaline sent his heart racing, and he tightened his hands into fists beneath the bedsheet. Why did the thought of being alone suddenly feel so terrifying? Lindsey, sitting in a chair next to the bed, squeezed his forearm, but didn’t look at him. Just that simple touch gave him the grounding he needed to slow his breathing to normal.
“We’re not going home,” Dad said. “We have a hotel room in town. Someone will be nearby at all times. But you do need your rest.”
“Mom needs rest,” Chad said. “She looks exhausted.”
“I haven’t been able to sleep,” she said. “But now that I see you’re okay, you’re still my Chad.” She squeezed his hand and blew out a tired breath. “I suddenly feel like I’ve been run over by freight train.”
“Me and Lindsey can hang out with him,” Owen said. “You two can helicopter-parent him all day tomorrow after Mom gets some sleep.”
It took a bit of convincing, and lots of reassuring hugs and farewell kisses, but eventually Dad was able to usher Mom out of the hospital room. Once Chad was sure they were gone, he asked, “So what’s going on with you two?”
Owen and Lindsey exchanged glances. “Nothing,” Owen said before looking back at Chad.
“Nothing,” Lindsey parroted.
“I may have only one functioning eye at the moment, but I’m not blind.”
“You just worry about getting well, bro,” Owen said. “That’s your only concern.”
“The world doesn’t revolve around me, you know,” Chad said. “You are allowed to have your problems, and I still have both ears to lend.” Though one had been dangling from a narrow strip of flesh a week ago, and both still suffered from that annoying ring. “Take your pick.” He pointed to his right ear, which was beneath a huge bandage, and then his left.
Owen stared at Lindsey for a long moment, then licked his lips and asked, “Is it okay if I tell him?”
Her pretty cheeks flushed, and she dropped her chin, nodding almost imperceptivity.
“We just found out that the baby isn’t mine,” Owen said.
“You cheated on my brother?”
“We were never together for her to cheat. It was just a one-night stand. A groupie thing.”
“So you tried to pin this on my brother because you know he has money.” Chad’s heart was thundering again. He had the inexplicable urge to stand and could even feel his missing foot tense in preparation.
“No. I—” Lindsey covered her face with both hands.
“Take it easy on her,” Owen said. He moved behind Lindsey, rubbing her shoulder as she tried to hold it together.
What a gullible imbecile. Didn’t he see what she was doing?
“She thought it was mine because I did something stupid that night that could have gotten her pregnant,” Owen said. “She’s not trying to trap me.”
Right. Chad wasn’t buying it, and he happened to be very protective of his little brother. Mostly because Owen was too softhearted to see the bad in anyone and therefore easily manipulated. Chad didn’t suffer from the same affliction.
“I still don’t know who the father is,” she said.
“You don’t?” Owen asked, his eyes wide. “Is it possible that the test is wrong, then?”
“No, we still need samples from . . .” She stared at the wall and quietly said, “Shade and Adam.”
“Shade and Adam and Owen?” Chad sputtered. Just how many members of Sole Regret had she fucked?
“So, it’s not Kellen’s?” Owen asked.
Lindsey shook her head.
“Kellen?” Chad echoed quietly. She’d slept with Kellen too? What the fuck? Had she participated in some Sole Regret orgy? Rock stars had all the fun.
“He would have been a good dad,” Owen said, as if they’d interviewed job candidates for the lifelong position of father. “Jacob’s really good with kids too. He loves his daughter to pieces.”
“Yeah,” Lindsey said. “Shade would be okay. Not as good as you, though.”
“No one knows my results but the two of us,” Owen said. “If you want, I can tell them it’s mine and—”
Chad wanted to smack him. How could he offer some . . . some . . . groupie a solution so life altering?
Lindsey lifted her head, and a look of relief crossed her beautiful face, but then she said, “I can’t let you do that. It’s not fair to you or to Caitlyn.”
“But I was kind of growing attached to the idea.”
Chad threw a pillow at him. “She’s letting you off the hook, moron. Don’t keep trying to bite it.”
“But I want to help her.”
Lindsey pressed the back of her hand to one eye. Her entire body was trembling. “I don’t need your help.”
“Since when?” Owen said. He squatted in front of her and took her hands in his, staring up at her face until she finally met his eyes. “We’ll just go on like before. No one has to know that the kid isn’t mine. And Chad can keep a secret, can’t you?”
“That’s a pretty big secret.” One Chad wasn’t comfortable with for a multitude of reasons.
Lindsey looked at Chad, as if seeking his approval, and when he didn’t offer it, she ducked her head.
“We can pretend for a little while longer,” she said. “Just until I figure out how to get my life back on track.”
“Good. I won’t tell anyone the truth,” Owen said. “Except Caitlyn. I can’t keep this from her.”
Lindsey snorted. “She’s not going to go for this plan. She already hates that I live with you.”
“She lives with you?” Chad sputtered. Dear lord, was his brother that stupid? Chad was going to have to keep a close eye on this woman to make sure she didn’t take advantage of his gullible brother and worm her way any deeper into his life. Unless . . . Maybe Owen wanted her to be his as much as he seemed to want her baby. Chad couldn’t blame Owen if he did want her. She was the most beautiful woman Chad had ever spoken to. He just wasn’t sure if that angel face hid a manipulative devil. She seemed sincere enough.
“Just while the apartment over Mom and Dad’s garage is being remodeled,” Owen said.
Chad threw his hands in the air. “Our parents got suckered by her too?”
“I’m not trying to sucker anyone,” Lindsey snapped. “I had nowhere to go. Your family is really nice.”
“But I’m not,” Chad said. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I just . . .” She massaged the center of her forehead. “Shouldn’t you be resting?”
How could he rest when a scam artist was manipulating his family into supporting her? And not just financially but emotionally as well. He’d been enamored with her at first—he still thought she was gorgeous—but that angelic face and sweet voice were obviously a cover for a corrupt core.
Chad shifted in the hard bed. When had he become so fucking cynical? His mother hadn’t raised him to look for the worst in a person. Maybe he was wrong about Lindsey’s intentions. Maybe she wasn’t trying to trap his brother and use his mother. But he wasn’t going to automatically give her a free pass. She’d have to earn his confidence. Chad wasn’t like Owen who blindly offered his trust to anyone. Chad wanted to believe she wasn’t a bad person—a user, a manipulator, a liar—but he’d seen too much of the dark side of human nature to automatically assume everybody was inherently good. He envied Owen’s naiveté at times, but also felt the need to protect his brother from his blind compassion.
“Oh, I didn’t know you had company,” a soft and familiar voice said from the doorway.
“Josie?” Chad’s voice cracked on her name. She’d come. He hadn’t been sure that she’d make it, that she’d give their once all-encompassing love another chance to flourish, but she’d come.
“I’ll check back later,” Josie said, her gaze trained on the floor. She turned to leave.
“No!” Chad said, trying to sit up. To reach for her. His body didn’t cooperate. He slid sideways in the bed. Grasping the railing, he pulled himself into a semi-upright position.
“We need to go now,” Owen said, taking Lindsey by the elbow and hauling her to her feet. “You stay, Josie. I’m sure you have a lot of catching up to do.”
Josie inhaled a deep, shaky breath and nodded. “Yeah.” She glanced at Chad, and her face contorted in pain as if she were the one who’d been blown out the side of a Humvee and pinned beneath the rolling vehicle.
When they were alone, she approached the bed, her familiar brown eyes scanning his injuries and settling on the empty space beneath the covers where his right leg should have been.
“You look good,” he said. “I know I look like hell, but you? You look good, Jo baby.”
Her gaze flicked to his for a scant second before drifting into the distance. She looked straight through him, as if he was a ghost. He reached for her hand, but she stepped backwards.
“I shouldn’t have come,” she said. “I thought I could do this . . . I thought if I saw you, I could do this . . .”
“Do what?”
“Be with you. Try. Accept this.” She flipped an emphatic hand toward his missing leg. “But I can’t. I’m sorry, Chad, but I can’t. I can’t be with you anymore.” She tugged off the small engagement ring he’d given her before he’d been deployed to Afghanistan and released it into his inexplicably numb hand. “I’m sorry, but I told you I couldn’t be the wife of a Marine when you enlisted, and this is why. This is exactly what I feared would happen.”
“I didn’t reenlist,” he blurted. He’d wanted to surprise her with the news. Had been sitting on that bit of information for weeks so he could tell her in person. He’d sacrificed the career he loved—fighting shoulder to shoulder with men he considered brothers for the country he’d die for, the country that that fresh-out-of-boot camp Emerson had died for—for her. He’d watched the kid he was supposed to protect bleed out only feet from where he’d been trapped beneath that fucking Humvee. Surely giving up such a huge part of his life and surviving that horror was enough. It had to be enough.
She hesitated for just a moment and hope bloomed in his chest, but she didn’t meet his pleading stare.
“Josie?”
She shook her head. “You’re not the same man I fell in love with.”
Of course, he wasn’t. He was better. Miles above the twit he’d been when they were teens. And if she didn’t recognize that . . .
Before he could say another word, she turned and dashed from the room. His hand tightened into a fist around the still-warm engagement ring she’d dropped into his palm. She hadn’t even been able to touch him, and that hurt far more than any physical injury he’d suffered.
