Treat Me (One Night with Sole Regret #8)(2)

"Hey, Owen," Shade called to him, interrupting Saints-fan in the middle of his spiel on the importance of getting the right bench warmers from the third round of draft picks. "You want to go somewhere with me?"

Owen didn't even ask where-which was good because Shade had no real plan. Owen pried Lindsey's claws from his arm and excused himself.

"Can I come?" she asked, waddling after him. Shade noticed that she waddled more when she was trying to get Owen's attention. He wondered if she did it consciously.

"Not this time," Shade said. "We have important band business to see to. Very important secret band business." Shade scanned the large dressing room for a savior-even he wasn't cruel enough to subject the poor woman to Saints-fan-and spotted the youngest member of their road crew, Jordan, stocking a small refrigerator with various beverages. "Hey, Jordan, keep an eye on Lindsey, will you? Get her anything she needs while Owen and I conduct our business."

Jordan glanced over his shoulder at the pregnant woman and flushed, his smile strangely grateful. "Will do, boss."

"And have this guy go out for more beer," he said, jabbing a thumb in beer-run-lackey's direction.

Owen followed Shade out of the dressing room and into a wide corridor. Roadies and stage crew were bustling about getting the stage ready for their first of two shows in New Orleans, but the band members weren't needed for a while, so they could get out of the building for a few hours. Owen walked beside Shade as they headed toward the exit where the tour bus was parked.

"So what's this important band business you need me for?" Owen asked.

"No idea," Shade said with a shrug, wondering if he should broach the subject of writing songs behind Adam's back. He decided Owen was the least likely of his band to do such a thing. Owen would want to include Adam; he was just too nice not to. "I thought you looked like you needed to get away from Lindsey for a few minutes."



       
         
       
        

"She won't leave me alone for five seconds," Owen said. "It's like she's afraid I'll disappear if she lets me out of her sight."

"I'm sure you want to disappear right about now."

Owen raked a hand through his dirty-blond hair and groaned. "Is it that obvious?"

"Can't blame you. I'm just glad she didn't adhere to me." Of course, Shade wasn't as sympathetic as Owen, so if Lindsey had taken an interest in him, Shade would have found a way to get her off tour at the very least and shipped off to a convent as a last resort. She was a distraction that none of them needed. "What are you going to do with her, Owen? She can't follow us around for the rest of the tour."

"I'll take her back to Austin tomorrow and leave her there. I'm sure my mom will look after her for a few months until she gets settled and the baby is born and we figure out what needs to be done."

"Don't you have the feeling there's more to her story than she's letting on?"

Lindsey had explained that she had nowhere else to go, but Shade wasn't as gullible as Owen-at least when it came to women-so he didn't automatically trust her word. Shade wanted some goddamned evidence before he started forking over child support payments and paying her living expenses and medical bills. Though Shade wouldn't mind having a few more kids, he'd rather have them with someone he cared about. Like Amanda. Amanda would make beautiful babies. He figured they'd look a lot like the light of his life, his Julie. The two did share a lot of genetic material.

Shade shook his head, troubled by the direction of his thoughts. While Amanda would make a wonderful mother and he could only imagine how sexy she'd be with his baby growing inside her, he didn't think knocking her up would be a wise decision. At least not until they had Tina's blessing. Like that would ever happen. His ex-wife would kill them both if she knew they were seeing each other. He didn't imagine she'd approve of her ex-husband dating her older sister.

"Probably," Owen said. "There's probably a lot Lindsey hasn't told me." He waved a hand between himself and Shade. "Told us. But does it matter? When someone asks for help and you have the means to help them, it's what you do, right?"

It was what Owen did apparently. There was a sucker born every minute.

Recalling that he'd invited Owen along on his undefined adventure to get away from Lindsey, not talk about her, Shade changed the subject. "Do you think they have any good Cajun restaurants around here? I'm craving something spicy."

"In New Orleans?" Owen scrunched up his face. "Actually, someone told me about this amazing food truck out in the sticks. Even though it's in the middle of nowhere, they always sell out of their daily catch of crawdads."