Backroads Read online

  Me: She has to hear me out.

  Alexis: Are you happy? About the baby?

  Me: I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life. I love her. And I’m going to prove it to her.

  Alexis: If you mess with her, I’ll make sure my security team messes you up.

  Me: If I don’t make this right with her, I won’t even fight back.

  Alexis: Well that’s not going to be any fun to watch.

  Gotta go. She thinks I’m talking to mom and keeps watching me.

  Text me when you get in. I’ll let you know where we are.

  Me: Thank you.

  Two women want us to be together. Only one to go.

  The most important one.

  “I can’t work out. I’m pregnant,” I whine. Nor do I want to. Building up a sweat is the last thing that sounds like a good time to me.

  Alexis is looking fit in her leggings and matching bra.

  “You have only been pregnant for like five minutes. You can totally work out,” she sarcastically points out while doing her stretches.

  “Ugh, do you know how long it’s been since I’ve done any sort of workout? I’m not feeling it, Lex.” I continue to whine.

  “You can walk on the treadmill next to me. Come keep me company. I can’t go down there alone. What if someone recognizes me?” She bats her eyelashes at me.

  I groan. “Are you really playing the ‘I’m so famous’ card with me?”

  Laughing, she throws me another workout outfit. “Yes! Now get your ass moving. Soon enough you’ll be too big to move.”

  That was too scary to think about yet. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

  “Come on. We have a lot to do today.” She leads the way to the elevator.

  “I’m tired watching you. How many miles have you run?” I’ve been lazily walking on the treadmill the whole time, while Lex’s legs pound away at a steady rhythm next to me.

  “Five so far. I’m going for eight. Keeping my cardio up—helps my lung capacity when I’m on stage. So I can shake my ass all over and not lose my breath when I belt out all the lyrics,” she says in a steady tone.

  “It’s working for you. You have to have men throwing themselves at you.” It was time to test the waters on the subject.

  She loses her gait for a step before regaining it.

  “The only men interested in me are looking to gain in the business,” she huffs out angrily. “My manager approached me with a contract suggesting I should date the latest American Idol for a minimum of three months.” She waves her arms wildly. “All to boost his popularity. No, thank you. That’s the latest in my dating life.” She speeds her pace up.

  “That’s disgusting! A contract? Why?”

  “Apparently he favors multiple partners at once. Which I have no problem with if I’m not involved, but I was supposed to keep quiet over everything. None of it made sense to me actually. He was going to get more publicity and still date on the side. I was just going to be arm candy. I actually threw the contract in his face.”

  “I would have done a lot more than that. Oh. Shit!” I quickly cover my mouth and glance at Lex, horrified. I have actually done more than that.

  “Oh my god, your face!” She has to step off on the sides of the treadmill so she doesn’t fall over she is laughing so hard.

  “Well, apparently throwing things is our first instinct. At least papers were the only thing within your reach.”

  She recovers enough to hop back on and continue running. “Remind me to never make you mad,” she teases, wiping the tears of laughter away.

  “Ass. I should give you a push right now.” Childishly, I stick my tongue out at her.

  “You’re going to need me to be your baby’s godmother. You don’t want to push me now.”

  I sigh loudly. She’s right; I’m going to need her support. “Are you done yet? I’m hungry.”

  “Give me at least five minutes to do a cool-down run,” she says, slowing her pace.

  I step off my treadmill and watch her slow her gait every few minutes.

  “How long have you been running like this?”

  “Not sure. A couple years maybe. I try and get five miles in a day.” She shrugs like it’s no big deal.

  “Your ass is out of this world amazing. I can’t take my eyes off it,” I say, appreciating how nothing on her jiggles.

  She cracks up laughing and finally comes to a stop. “Good to know someone appreciates it. Come on, let’s go. I’m only allowed to eat fruit and oatmeal on tour. I’m eating all the naughty stuff this weekend. Which means I’m ordering the biggest waffle they have with all the toppings.”

  “Do you think you will go back to the ranch ever?” she asks as we step out of the elevator.

  Never stepping foot on the ranch again is too sad to think about. The group of people I became close with... and Chase. An office job has zero appeal to me now. I feel like a fish out of water again, not knowing where I’ll go.

  “I don’t know, Lex. Not for a while anyway. Can’t I live with you forever?”

  She looks up from her phone and smiles sadly. “I’d like nothing more than to have you with me forever. But once the baby is born, you’re not going to want to be on a tour bus for weeks at a time. You can stay with me as long as you want though. Hell, you can move into my condo in Nashville. Someone should use it.”

  I embrace her tightly. “Thanks, Lex. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  Her body stiffens. “Remember you said that and you love me,” she says, waving the key card at the door lock.

  “Of course I love you.” I follow her inside.

  “Good.” She steps to the side.

  Every hair on my body stands in defense, and I can hear the blood pumping through my ears. I ball my fists so tight I can feel my nails biting into my palms. “What the fuck is he doing here, Alexis?” My voice is too quiet to be my own.

  “Before you start throwing things, let me escape into the other room where I can eavesdrop.” She scoots to the bedroom, waving quickly. “Hey, I’m Alexis by the way. Nice to meet you face-to-face finally.”

  He nods. “Chase.”

  Before she closes the door, she mouths in my direction, “He’s so hot.”

  The sound of the door clicking closed is deafeningly loud.

  He takes a step toward me. I stop his advance, putting my hand up.

  The pounding in my ears is getting louder. “What are you doing here?”

  “I told you. Where you go, I go. So if you run, I’m going to run after you.” His deep baritone voice sounds too soothing. He takes a step toward me. “I came here to tell you I love you. And I want you to come home with me.”

  I shake my head. “No. I can’t be with you.”

  He smiles.

  The fucker is smiling at me? “Are you really smiling over this?” I clench my hands, resisting the urge to throw the nearest object at his stupid, smug face.

  He takes another step in my direction, eating up the distance between us. I take one back, only to run into the door.

  “I’m smiling because the woman I love is so incredibly strong. I’m smiling because for the past twenty-four hours, I haven’t been able to breathe until now.” He steps forward again, entering my space.

  I put my hands up to push him back and hate myself for enjoying the warmth of his hard chest.

  “Chase. I can’t,” I whisper.

  “I’m smiling because I hope you will give me a chance to explain something I should have told you a long time ago. Something I should have explained better, but it’s been too hard to talk about.” He holds up the picture of him and his wife. The bile rises in the back of my throat, threatening a repeat of what happened yesterday.

  I swallow it down and shake my head.

  Clearing his throat, he looks at the picture lovingly, but he’s no longer smiling. “This is my brother, Jacob, and his wife, Karen. It was the last picture I took of them. Two months later he died. I never told you my
brother was my twin.”

  “Twin?” I recoil as I digest this new information. My body feels icy cold, and I shiver. Do I believe him? Hot tears fall from my eyes, still swollen from too many tears.

  He nods.

  I choke on a sob, bringing my hand up to cover my trembling lips.

  “I didn’t mean to keep it from you. I’ve spent the last two years trying to get over that there’s no longer another one of me out there. Every day I try to look past the guy staring back at me in the mirror. Tell me we aren’t done yet. We only just started, and I’m not ready to let you go.” He cups my cheek with one hand, wiping tears away with his thumb. “You are where my home is. You hold my heart, Princess. I was lost before you stumbled into my life.” He places his other hand on my waist and pulls me closer to him.

  Blinking the tears away, I finally let my heart hope there’s a future for us. All of us.

  Our baby! He needs to know, before he decides anything. I look into his eyes, so full of love.

  “Chase...”

  He leans down, capturing my lips with his, pulling me flush against his body. It’s a kiss that heals my broken heart.

  He pulls back, resting his forehead to mine. “I’ll spend forever proving how much I love you if you give me the chance.”

  I have to tell him now.

  “I’ll also spend forever loving our baby, and however many more we make.” His lips smile against mine.

  I gasp. “How?”

  “It’s a long story. The only thing you need to know right now is I can’t wait to be a family.” He drops to his knees and kisses my flat belly. “I’m your dad, and I can’t wait to meet you,” he says softly, kissing my tummy again.

  I’m full-on sobbing, and I clutch him to me. “Chase. I love you so much.” I have to take deep breaths between sobs. “I was worried our baby would never get to know you.”

  He gets up off his knees, wiping my eyes and peppering kissing everywhere. “Princess, I’m yours forever. Tell me you’ll be mine.”

  “Yes. Yes. Yes, a million times, yes.” I stand on my tiptoes, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him to me. I laugh through my tears. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

  Tears fall from his eyes. “Don’t ever think you’re leaving me again. I will always come after you if you do.”

  He reaches down and grabs my legs to circle his waist, devouring my lips. The feeling of our bodies together overwhelms all my senses.

  “Chase. I...”

  “Ahem!” Cough cough cough.

  We pull apart to find a very red-in-the-face Alexis staring at the floor. We were so caught up with each other, we didn’t hear her come back into the room.

  She speaks up, making sure we aren’t in a compromising position. “Um, I thought I would remind you we have to meet the movers in a couple of hours, and still have something we need to find.”

  Knock knock knock.

  “Oh, that’s my waffle I ordered. I hope you don’t mind I ordered you both the same.”

  “I can’t believe we still haven’t found it,” I huff, frustrated.

  We’ve spent the last few hours carefully moving the boxes around again.

  “Baby, are you sure this is the only place it can be?” I want to be grateful he’s here helping, but I am so close to blowing up at him.

  “Yes. I was still wearing it. When I saw it, I ripped it off and threw it. I can distinctly remember hearing it hit something.” I kick a box.

  “Calm down, sweetie. We’re gonna find it.” Chase runs his hands up and down my arms, trying to calm me. I’m too irritated to calm down though.

  “You two are disgusting to watch,” Alexis says, scowling at us.

  That breaks through my tension and makes me laugh. “Your mom says the same thing.”

  “Oh, I know. I’ve heard her complain about you two plenty. Now I see why.” She picks up another box to move it.

  “Hold up.” Chase walks toward her, laughing. “Princess, were you mad when you threw it?”

  “I was livid. Mad only scratches the surface of how pissed off I was that day.”

  He takes the box from Alexis and sets it down. Embedded in the side of the box is the ring.

  “Oh my god! We found it!” I jump up and kiss him. “This nightmare can finally be over!” I feel the weight of the pending charges lift with the knowledge that it’s going to be over soon.

  “I guess the only thing I need to know is if we’re going back to the ranch?” Chase asks, smiling and pulling me close to him. “Or if we’re moving someplace else?”

  “There’s nowhere I’d rather raise our kids than back at the ranch.”

  He looks surprised. “Kids?”

  “Yes. I want at least two. Is that okay?” I ask, biting my lip.

  He picks me up and twirls me around. “As long as we’re together, we can have ten.”

  “So does this mean you won’t be coming on tour with me?” Alexis pouts.

  “Sadly not. But now you have more reasons to come visit us,” I say, hopeful.

  “I will not be babysitting your ten kids. But I will come visit. Hanging out with you two has given me a few song ideas too. I can already hear the next top single.” She laughs.

  I look at the man staring down at me. He’s mine. All mine. And we are his.

  Six months later

  “Chase, it’s too cold to go outside. I want to stay inside by the fireplace,” I whine even though I’ve already wiggled into my boots.

  He wraps my coat around me and pulls me close to him. “I promise it’ll be worth it.”

  “Hot cocoa and cookies worth it?” Lately I want everything with a side of chocolate. Linda has been baking all month and freezing bags of cookies for my cravings.

  “I’ll get you anything you want, Princess. But that’s not why I’m asking you to come for a drive with me. Come on, I have the car all warmed up.” He smooth talks me, leaning down to kiss me. His hands caress my swollen belly lovingly.

  He surprised me this morning when he walked out of the bathroom clean-shaven. I miss the tickle of his whiskers, but his baby-smooth face makes me clench my legs wondering how he will feel between my thighs.

  Lately I can’t get enough of him. I had a week I couldn’t have him touch me. My breasts and nipples could barely handle the fabric of my shirt touching them let alone his hands or mouth. But now that feeling has passed, and all he has to do is rake his eyes over me and I’m ready for him.

  “Fine. Let’s go. You said I was getting cookies.”

  He chuckles, kissing me again. “I promise all sorts of other sweet treats next to the fireplace later,” he teases and pulls me out the door.

  We are only in the truck for three minutes, long enough to drive to the other side of the main house down the new driveway. When we came back all those months ago, Linda and Beth already had a plan in place. Linda exclaimed we needed a bigger house than the one-bedroom cabin.

  She wanted to build us a whole new cabin down in the pasture next to the barn. Still close enough we could walk over in minutes yet secluded by trees. I surprised Linda by offering to pay for it. I wasn’t always a drifter who got picked up on the side of the road. I had more than enough to pay for the home of Holly’s dreams.

  Our new cabin matches the main house, designed to look similar inside and out, only smaller, with one large bedroom and three smaller. We may want to fill all three someday.

  What Holly doesn’t know is it’s ready to move in, and I have a surprise for her inside.

  “You ready, babe?”

  “Our cabin? This is where you wanted to take me? This is why you drug me outside in the cold and made me put shoes on.” She looks disappointed.

  She thinks it’s still a month off from being ready to move in. I’ve kept it a secret. It hasn’t been easy, and the girls have helped a lot, especially Beth.

  “Come on, I have something to show you.” I jump out and run around to help her out.

  “Can’t believ
e I’m out in the cold right now,” she grumbles.

  “You look beautiful, Princess.” She has her fur-covered knee-high boots on and white down jacket. It’s still twenty degrees out, and there are only a few inches of snow on the ground, but she’s ready for Antarctic weather.

  Before she can take a step, I bend and pick her up. She squeals in surprise. “Put me down before you hurt your back,” she says as I carry her over the threshold.

  “Baby, you barely weigh a thing.” I kiss her and spin her around so she can take in our fully finished and furnished home.

  “Oh my god, Chase!” she says, completely stunned. “When? I thought it wouldn’t be done till after the holidays.”

  She looks around the rustic interior we picked out together with Beth. I already had a fire going to warm up the living room.

  “A Christmas tree! You put up a Christmas tree!” She had been hinting at wanting to put a tree up the last week. I pretended not to hear her, grumbling how I wasn’t sure about a tree this year. All so I could surprise her with the fourteen-foot tree taking up a healthy portion of our new living room.

  “I wouldn’t want to celebrate the holidays without one, Princess,” I tease, using her words. “I put the lights on it already but thought we could decorate it together.” I finally set her down and walk over to the tree to turn the lights on.

  “It’s beautiful, Chase.” Her eyes glisten with tears.

  “You have a present to open,” I say, picking up the lone present sitting under the tree and handing it to her.

  It’s the size of a shoe box and weighs several pounds. “Do I get to open it now? Or do I have to wait?” she asks excitedly.

  I found out on her birthday she sucks at waiting to open gifts. “Now, Princess.”

  I’m barely able to breathe as she rips into it. “There’s another wrapped gift inside.”

  “Better open that one too.”

  She looks at me confused and rips open the slightly smaller box. She’s more confused when she finds yet another box. “What is this? Are these rocks?” She plucks several rocks out with the next box.