Chapter 15
~ Evan ~
It felt amazing to have Chelle lying there with her head on my chest and her arms wrapped around me. I didn’t want to move, but then again, I just wanted to lie down and drape my body around hers, cocooning her from what was undoubtedly to come. I knew we had things to do though, and there was no way my woman was staying in this closet of a room any longer.
I swatted her ass playfully. “Come on, love. Grab your things. You’re bringing them up to our room.”
“Our room?” She questioned with the quirk of one brow. I just grinned at her. She sighed and stood to grab her bag that sat on top of the desk. “No point arguing with you, I guess.”
“Nope, none at all. We still have a lot to talk about, and I have to figure out how to get you seen by a doctor. Might as well be in the same space so we can work on making that communication thing better.” I winked at her and she just laughed at me before heading to the door.
“Is that all of your stuff?”
“Yep, the rest is on the bus still. I just take a light pack with me to the hotels when we stay in them.”
She had a foot out the door already when I turned back and ran into the little bathroom. “Evan?” She called out as I palmed the pregnancy tests that were still lying on the floor and stuck them in my back pocket.
“Just cleaning up the mess we left behind in there.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Crap, I forgot. I never got to see them.”
“It’s okay baby, you have two more you can take.” She rolled her eyes at me and then we headed off toward the elevator to go to the top floor where my room was located.
I was just shutting the room door behind me when a voice yelled out, “Wait! Let me in, let me in! Quick.” I opened the door wider to almost be barreled over by Micah. He entered and quickly slammed the door shut behind him. I heard another voice shout from further down the hallway.
“Do not even think of shutting that door, fucker!”
“Big brother is on the warpath!” Micah warned about 30 seconds before the door was flung back open wide and David Anderson was standing there scowling, scanning the room until he found his little sister. He ignored me, brushed past Micah like he didn’t exist and moved to pull his sister in his arms.
“Are you okay, baby girl?” If the man were actually old enough to be her dad, I’d swear that was what I was looking at instead of a brother and sister.
“Davey, what’s going on?” Chelle asked in a quiet voice as Micah spoke to me in a hushed whisper.
“Sorry man, I tried to get here and warn you as soon as Ainsley showed me the pictures.”
“It’s okay. We saw the pictures being taken this morning. I already knew what would happen.”
David turned then and started to charge forward toward me.
“David!” Chelle yelled, but it was Micah who stopped his forward momentum.
“Probably not wise to beat up on the boyfriend and stress lil sis out when she has a bun baking in the oven, man.” David stopped and turned to see the miserable look on Chelle’s face and then his shoulders slumped and he seemed to crumble a little.
“This is all my fault,” he growled out.
“How is me being pregnant your fault exactly?” Chelle asked.
“Ew, gross, it’s like an episode of Game of Thrones now,” Micah interjected.
“Shut up, Micah!” All three of our voices rang out as one and Micah threw his hands into the air in an ‘I give up’ gesture as he snickered and moved to the chair in the corner to watch the show.
“I got caught up in my own shit and wasn’t paying attention to what was going on with you,” David finally explained to Chelle.
“Davey, that’s what’s supposed to happen. We’re both grown up now. You’re supposed to live your life and I’m supposed to live mine.”
“But,” he started and she cut him off.
“Nope. No buts. This is happening, and I don’t want you being mad or upset that my baby is coming into the world. How about you just be happy that you’re getting a niece or nephew and let me worry about all the other stuff, okay?”
It was amazing to see the transformation and false bravado she was putting on for her brother considering she had been willing to go run to him to help fix her problems not that long ago. I knew what the difference was. She allowed me to see her moment of weakness, but she would not allow her brother to see that she was at least a little torn apart by the news. I’m sure she didn’t regret the baby, she just felt helpless and like she had no control. I understood that a little better now. It was incredible watching this brother and sister trying to protect each other though. I’d never seen such a strong sibling bond before and I had once thought I was close to my siblings.
I moved to go sit down on the couch with Chelle. “I don’t get it Chelle. I just saw him a few weeks ago at some fancy party with another woman.” David didn’t spare me the accusatory glare as he spoke.
“I know,” she told him. “He asked me to go, but I turned him down. The studio set him up with that woman, and the only way he was getting out of it was if I went.”
“Well, why the hell did you turn him down when you were together then?”
Chelle’s face bloomed scarlet and she looked pleadingly into his eyes after casting a glance around at Micah and me. I knew her pride was warring inside her even though she knew we all knew the answer she didn’t want to admit it out loud.
“She couldn’t afford a dress and to get prettied up, but she didn’t want Evan to know that so she just told him that she didn’t want to go public yet. Evan got angry, because the dipshit didn’t even consider that some people can’t afford that kind of shit, and so he took her at her word and thought she was embarrassed to be seen with him in public. That about sum it up for big brother, kids?”
It was my turn to glare at my best friend. Not that he was wrong, but it sounded childish and trivial the way he put it out there.
“Shit,” David huffed. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
“And say what? I need some fancy shit for a date with my boyfriend even though I know you don’t have that kind of money yet either?”
David swore and turned on me. “Never dawned on you that the stow-a-way on tour would be dead-ass broke?”
“We’ve already hashed this out. I didn’t think… It’s not something I’m used to having to think about.”
David nodded and his jaw relaxed the tension it had been holding. “You know there’s a picture out there of the two of you holding onto a pregnancy test, right?” He watched his sister as she nodded her head. “How come you didn’t respond to my texts?”
Jesus, it seemed I wasn’t the only clueless idiot. I didn’t know whether to feel better or worse about that. “I don’t have a phone here, David,” he muttered between clenched teeth.
“Fuck! I thought I told you to get a phone that would work here before we left.”
“Yeah, and I spent all my money on two weeks in that hotel.”
“You said it was only $35 a night,” he answered back with furrowed brows.
“Yeah, well, I lied so you wouldn’t worry. It was $75 a night.”
“That’s everything you had, Chelle,” he hissed out. “Why? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
She just shook her head and batted the stray tear away that managed to fall free down her cheek. “I need to not be your problem all the time, Dave. We need to learn to have separate lives, at least to some extent.” She laughed when she noticed the pout on his face. “I’m serious. I’m never going to be able to go long without seeing and talking to you, but if this tour hasn’t taught us anything else, it has shown us that we’re capable of doing things on our own and we both have different things we need to be doing right now.”
Dave turned to me then. “We need to have a chat about what went down still.”
“Maybe you should wait for Ev to get here first,” Micah chimed in just as there was a knock on the door. “That’s p
robably her now.” He got up and let Everly, Ainsley, and Jay in the room.
Everly took in the fact that Chelle was seated on the couch in between her brother and me and she wasted no time. “Talk,” she demanded and between the two of us we spilled the story of what happened that morning along with how we had gotten to that point during the tour.
When we were done with our story Ainsley stepped in. “Did you take the test?” Chelle nodded her head. “And?” Ainsley prompted her for the answer they were all apparently waiting for.
“We’re pregnant!” I chimed in cheerily. Chelle just shook her head at me, but she was grinning so I knew it hadn’t bothered her to just announce it like that.
David had other ideas though. “No, my sister’s pregnant, asshole, you’re just along for the ride until you decide to get off and leave her to it.”
“Not happening,” I told him.
“We’ll see,” David countered.
“David, calm down or get out. I told you everything before,” Chelle started to say, but he interrupted her.
“Yeah, and then I sat back and watched him ignore you, heard stories of groupies all over him, and you seeing that shit, and then I watched you sit around with a broken heart while he did his thing.” I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply trying to find my inner calm. I knew what it would look like from an outsider’s point of view. Hell, the same way it had appeared to Chelle herself. Still, I wasn’t going to have David taint the progress Chelle and I had made earlier.
“Let’s go,” I said, standing, and moved toward the bedroom portion of the suite. We both entered the room and I shut the door. “You’re going to sit down, shut up, and hear me out before you say another word that might upset your sister out there.”
That’s when I laid it all out on the line for him, and asked for his sister’s hand in marriage too.
Chapter 16
~ Evan ~
When we came back out of the bedroom I was surprised to see only Everly and Jay were there waiting on us.
“Where is everyone?” I asked. I didn’t give a damn about anyone else, but I did want to know why Chelle wasn’t still here.
“Ainsley took her to Micah’s room to give you guys some space to work things out. Also, she was hungry, so they’re ordering food in since she can’t be seen out and about right now.” Everly sighed. “I need you to sit down so I can discuss what the label wants right now.” Her tone made me wonder exactly what this news would be, because the look of disgust on Ev’s face made me think I wasn’t going to like it one bit.
“What is it?”
Dave sat down beside me and Everly glanced between us then. “The label wants me to issue a statement denying anything. They want to spin it like you were just being there for a friend,” she stated.
“What in the absolute fuck?” I stood, seething. “And how are they expecting to explain away me marrying her, playing house with her, being a daddy to my son or daughter?”
“I think they figured you would have her take care of the baby since they sent a list of doctors over here that would be happy to step in and take care of the issue.”
The coffee table in front of me went flying. “Whoa, man, calm it down. Everly is just the messenger. She gets hurt, I will take that out on you,” Jay chimed in.
“Sorry, but if you think I’m going along with any of that you’ve lost your fucking minds.”
Everly smirked. “Good to know. So, what would you like the statement to say?”
She’d been waiting for my reaction. “You’re going to go against the label?”
She scoffed. “Of course I am. Look at the mess those bastards cost me. There’s no way in hell I would go along with that callous crap they want to spin. Besides, I think the same way you do. How do you explain suddenly becoming a father when she was only a friend you were helping out? How would you explain that lie to your child later on?” She rolled her eyes at the suggestion. “They’re all idiots running the show. It’s a good thing you guys are talented, otherwise you might not have made it far.”
“We’re going to be looking into a change of scenery when our contract is up,” Jay stated bluntly. He didn’t care if the rest of the band agreed. Though, I had no doubt after the Everly debacle, and now what they tried to do about my kid, that they’d all agree too.
“Let’s craft this statement,” I told her and then we sat down and came up with exactly what I wanted the press to hear.
~ Chelle ~
We turned the television on in Evan’s room and both bands, Everly, and Ainsley all gathered around to watch Everly deliver the statement she and Evan had crafted earlier. He had come to me while I was eating in Micah’s room and gotten my approval for it.
“Can you tell us if it is true?”
“Is that girl pregnant with Evan Mercer’s baby?”
“Who is she?”
“He was just seen with Miranda Wellington only weeks ago at the Skinner Gala. Does she know about the baby?”
Everly raised her hands in the air to hush everyone. “If I could have your attention long enough to allow me to speak, maybe some of questions will be answered in the statement I’m about to make. Hold your questions until I’m finished or you will be escorted out.” The hush that fell over the previously noisy room then was almost comical. “This statement has been written and approved by Evan Mercer.”
“It is unfortunate that some moments in my life can’t just be mine to hold on to for a little while. Instead, vultures swoop in and try to steal all the little crumbs they can to paint their own picture of what my life is like. Allow me to set the record straight.
“The woman I was photographed with earlier today is my girlfriend. We’ve been together for a couple months, and before you get yourselves all in a snit over Miranda Wellington, she’s a friend I attended an event with because my girl couldn’t go, and nothing more. No, I wasn’t angry with my girl for getting knocked up as some of you have suggested. I was angry that our private moment was being invaded by the degenerate taking photos of us. I was angry that we were then followed back to our hotel. I was worried for the safety of my woman as we were being trailed and photos were taken. I am in fact hoping for the best sort of confirmation from the doctor that we’ll soon be welcoming our first child into this world. When we are ready to give that confirmation, we will. Right now, we’d like to ask for you to respect our privacy and allow us to have this moment to ourselves - as it should be.”
Everly set the piece of paper she had been reading from to the side. “I’m going to remind you all of the terrible mistakes that were made when I was the one in the news. I want to remind you that your speculation and your make believe stories harm people. When Evan and his girlfriend are ready to give you more details, they will. Until then, let’s try to be grown ups and not make up bedtime stories while we try to label it as news.” With that last little dig at the press she turned on her heel and walked out of the door that was just off to the right and behind her when she had been speaking. We all turned to Everly and suddenly everyone began to clap. She blushed profusely, but that didn’t matter. I stood and walked over to give her a giant hug.
“I know that wasn’t about you this time, but it was a brave thing for you to go out there and face all of them. Thank you!” My words were whispered in her ear and I knew they meant something when she hugged onto me tighter and pulled away, swiping at the tears in her eyes.
Chapter 17
~ Chelle ~
My hands were shaking so badly when I attempted to pack the rest of the clothes that no longer fit me into my suitcase. We had been on tour for almost three more months after everyone found out about my pregnancy, and now at almost five months along, none of my clothes fit the way they were supposed to. My belly had popped, seemingly overnight.
“What are you so nervous about, butterfingers?” Evan asked as he bent to pick up the jeans I’d just dropped on the floor.
“We’re going back to your home,” I started to say only
to have him interrupt me.
“Our home.”
I cocked my head at him and gave him the look. The one that said don’t mess with me, I’m pregnant, hormonal, and I will kick your ass. Not literally, but I’d give him the evil eye for sure. “You know what I mean. What if you get sick of me after having to live with me.”
“Love, what do you think we’ve been doing all this time? You haven’t been living out of my bed for three months.”
“It’s different,” I told him.
“How so?”
“You’re kind of stuck with me now. What if…”
“Chelle, I know the hormones have you on edge, but I promise, everything is going to be fine. It’ll be better than fine, because when we get home we’ll be able to get the nursery set up, and we’ll get you settled into the house. You can change whatever you want to make it feel more like home.”
I scoffed at that. “More like home for me would be sleeping on a futon and sitting on barely serviceable furniture we found on the side of the road.”
“Okay, so we’ll make it a better version of your home. Whatever you’ve always dreamed of.”
“I only ever dreamed of being happy one day. I didn’t really dream of things.”
“You are the only thing I’ve dreamed of since I met you,” he told me. Then he rubbed my baby bump. “I dream of this guy in here too.”
“How do you know it’s a boy?”
“Just a feeling. Besides, we need to make sure our little girl has a good big brother before she comes along.” Hot tears welled up in my eyes as I realized what he was saying. Not only did he want this baby with me, but also he wanted at least one more - a girl and a boy. A girl with a big brother to look out for her just like my own had. I hugged him tightly then.
“I love you, Evan Mercer!”
The Infinite Beat (T.I.E. Book 2) Page 14
