by Thia Finn
KeeMac and I bumped fists. “Hell yeah, then they can spend the rest of the fucking day celebrating.”
Kids. What the fuck did they do with these little guys? Hell if I knew. They depended on you constantly. Food, clothes, housing, play, teaching them shit, the list just went on and on. No woman in her right mind would think having a kid with me was a great plan since I’m still a kid, too.
Halo wouldn’t want them, would she? What if she did? Would she want to have a couple with me? What if she wanted three or four? Wait, she might not even want me one way or the other.
“What are you thinking so hard about over here?” Halo stood beside me asking.
“Uh, yeah. Trying to decide what I wanted to do this afternoon.”
“We thought lunch first sounded good. What about you?” She looked at me with a strange look. “Unless you have other plans already. Then I’ll just go.” It hit me that every time she asked or invited me to do something, she always added an out for me. She gave me the opportunity to dodge time with her if I wanted. Didn’t she want to be with me? This woman makes my head spin.
“No, no. I don’t have plans. Hell yeah, let’s do this. I’m hungry.” I hooked her hand around my arm, and we moved back over to Chan and KeeMac as their taxi stopped to get them.
We spent the afternoon eating good food and wandering around in downtown. Sometimes it’s nice to be normal people, which is why we never went without caps and sunglasses. Then someone would recognize us, and it was all over. We’d have to taxi to another location. Today, we managed to dodge fans and enjoy being free.
The sun started going down so we headed back to the bus. Who knew what we would find there with Peri and Ryan off taking pregnancy tests and shit.
The taxi pulled up, and we headed back to the RV to see what was going on. The lock thrown could have meant a couple of things. They left or were going at it like rabbits or celebrating. When the RV started moving, we decided it was one of the last two options.
The door opened and Ryan stood there with a huge smile on his face.
“What’s going on, Ryan?”
“Come in. Come in,” he invited. Peri stood there with an equally big smile. As soon as Chandler saw it, she started jumping up and down.
“You’re pregnant,” Chan screamed. The two met midway in the aisle and wrapped in a hug while they jumped. Hugs, fist bumps, high-fives, and well wishes ensued.
“That’s great, Peri,” Halo told her. “I know you’re excited from what I saw this morning when we shopped.
“Yeah, we didn’t want Tucker to be much older before we gave him a sister or brother.” Her smile said it all, though.
“So when’s it due?” Chandler asked.
“Who knows? Who cares? We’re having a baby,” Ryan said. He sounded like a new dad all over again. This pregnancy should go much smoother than the last one without all the drama.
Peri held up the stick with the plus sign. “I think I’m about six weeks along, but I’ll fly back and see my doctor as soon as I can arrange it.”
The girls all surrounded her with questions and girly talk about babies, something I had no interest in.
The door opened and Hayden ushered two wild children into the RV.
“Hey, Mom,” Tucker said. His face clearly tired from all the play.
“Hey, RiRi.” Crew leaned in from the other side of her. That was a sight. Two boys loving on her. I still needed to tell Hayden about mine and Crew’s conversation about a momma.
Hayden leaned over so Ryan, KeeMac, and I could hear him. “Y’all want to go grab a beer and celebrate, man-style? Too bad Gunner’s not going to fly in until tomorrow. He’d want to celebrate with us.”
We both nodded and slipped out the door.
“Let me send Peri a text and tell her where I’m going.”
“Tell her to repeat that to Chan. She’ll be pissed if I leave and not tell her something.”
“Those pussies must have some teeth in em,” I clapped KeeMac and Ryan on the back. “Now, Hayden and me. We’re free and easy. Come and go as we please. Get the women when we want them. Right Hayden?”
“Hell yeah, we are.” We high-fived each other as Ryan called the car service. If we were going to celebrate we needed security around and a car on demand.
We headed to Tavern Downtown in Denver’s LoDo section. It was a great place to hang out, have drinks, and watch a game with the best rooftop bar in the city. The women were pretty easy on the eyes there, too. Hayden wasted no time in making the rounds of single women who made themselves available. The rest of us found a great tall table to celebrate.
KeeMac pulled out his platinum card and handed it to the hot little cocktail waitress who had forgotten how to use words when he spoke to her. “Bring us three pale ales on tap and keep them coming. Oh, and three shots of tequila. We’re celebrating.”
She returned straight away and drooled a little before disappearing. We laughed knowing we still had the ability to cause this in strange women.
“To Ryan and Peri,” KeeMac toasted.
“Salute,” I said. Ryan bumped our shot glasses together, and we downed the smooth 1800 Tequila. The waitress appeared instantly with more shots.
“Dude, we can’t do too many of these. Peri will have my balls on a platter if I come home stinking drunk. I haven’t done that shit in ages.”
Late into the night, we all stood and decided to call enough on ourselves. Hayden didn’t answer when we called his cell. Looking for him in the crowded building would take forever, so I sent them home and we’d catch a cab. I moved around to the other floor and propped up at the bar to watch. He finally moved in front of me, and I grabbed his arm.
“We gotta go. The others left already.” My speech slurred with every word out of my mouth. It was my brain’s way of saying I’d enough alcohol for one night.
“Wait a sec. I got some women lined up.” Hayden wasn’t as intoxicated as me, which I took as a good thing.
“Okay, but let’s go soon.” He nodded and took off again. The women flirting and enjoying the evening made interesting people watching. Some were watching sports on the TVs while others laughed and pawed at each other, hands sliding in suggestive ways over writhing bodies. It all looked innocent until I paid attention to the sensual nature of the moves.
“Here we go, ladies. I give you, Carter Jones. He’s a dancer at a club in Dallas.” I looked at him like he’d lost his fucking mind. I didn’t dance at a club, and I sure didn’t strip which is how he made it sound.
The blonde attached to my right arm and ran her fake boobs all over it. “Want to buy me a drink?” I looked at her and my mind said, uh no, but my drunken mouth said, “Hell yeah.”
Several drinks later, I found myself in the back of a cab with a blonde straddling my lap rubbing herself off on me. Wrong, wrong, wrong. She wasn’t the one I wanted on me but my other head said, “Fuck yeah, we’re getting laid.”
“One for the road, guys?” A bottle of vodka appeared from her Mary Poppins purse. Who carried a bottle of vodka around?
Hayden took a long drink before handing it to me. I don’t normally drink vodka, such a sissy alcohol in my mind, but I tipped it up and slugged back several deep gulps. The ride continued that way until we arrived at some hotel somewhere in Denver. The location was lost on me, and Hayden didn’t seem to care.
The next morning, something hot burned my face. I couldn’t open my eyes and my head felt like exploding on impact. I barely raised my eyelids to catch the warmth that came from the beaming sun sneaking through slightly opened blackout drapes. I stuck out my hands on both sides of me to stop the bed from spinning around. Shit. I knew better than to drink this much. I needed to get one foot on the floor if a hand didn’t stop the motion.
My hand didn’t hit bed, though. It landed on skin. Naked skin. “Shit, shit, shit.” I turned my head to the side and saw Hayden. “What the fuck?” I said out loud as I reared up off the bed.
“Nooo,” I cried ou
t from the pain in my head. Hayden’s eyes slowly cracked open.
“Fuck, Carter. Stop yelling. It’s too early to be awake.” He managed to croak out. His tongue tried to move out of his mouth to lick his lips. “My mouth feels like the Mojave.” His eyes swept some of the room. “Where are we and why are you in my bed?”
“Hell if I know.” I looked down. “Clearly a hotel room, but how’d we get here? Shit, where the hell’re my clothes? Shit, dude, we’re naked together in a bed.”
“You know I don’t swing that way. If you’re into it and all, it’s fine, but you should’ve said something sooner.”
“Fuck no. You know that’s bullshit.” I crawled to the edge of the bed and saw clothes on the other side of the huge room. My jeans lay waiting but no shirt. That’s it. Just jeans. No wallet, no cash, no cards, no nothing. I did finally spot my Chucks.
“What the fuck, Hayden? What did you get us into?”
“I don’t remember. I remember two hot women and drinking vodka in the cab. That’s about it.”
“Me, too.” Shit, my head pounded. I pulled on my jeans and stepped into my shoes before crashing back down on the bed. “We need to get back to the bus. Where the fuck’s my phone? You got yours? Call mine.”
“I don’t have mine either. This is some kind of fucked up. We’ve been robbed and left for dead.”
“You think, dickhead? Only we’re not dead, but I have a feeling we’re going to wish we were.” We needed to get in touch with Peri. This could be some serious shit we’re in. Who knew what those ladies had of ours. Hell, my phone had all kinds of kinky shit in it. Thank God Peri insisted our phones be password protected.
“What’s the number? I’ll call Peri to come get us.” Hayden held a house phone hand piece in his hand.
“How the fuck should I know? The numbers’re in my phone.” This situation got worse as minutes ticked by.
“Dude, really. I gotta get home. Crew’s gonna worry if I’m not there when he wakes up.” Hayden pushed the panic button on urgency to leave.
“Calm down. We’ll get home. Call the front desk and have them send up a manager.”
Hayden explained we had a serious situation in our suite, and a manager appeared within minutes knocking on the door. It sounded like he knocked on my brain without the benefit of a skull between brain matter and knuckles.
“What can I do for you, gentlemen?” The prissy manager peered around the room.
“Look,” I started, slowly which was as fast as my brain could function. “We have a delicate situation here that needs the utmost discretion on your and the hotel’s part.”
“I can assure you discretion is our middle name, sir. So what can I do?”
“We were robbed by the two women who brought us here.”
The man instantly stood straighter. “No, sir. That does not happen at this hotel. We are a five-star hotel with excellent security,” his speech stilted and formal.
“I don’t give a shit if you have five gold stars. We were brought here by two women. I’m pretty sure they drugged us, and I know for a fact they robbed us because our billfolds and cell phones are gone. Hell, my shirt’s even gone.” With my head throbbing, I still managed to raise my voice too loudly. “Don’t y’all have like surveillance cameras and shit?”
“Yes, we do, and we will get to the bottom of this. Then there’s the payment for this suite as well.” He glanced around to see if there were any damages.
“Dude, I don’t even know how I got here much less how we paid for this.”
“Someone put it on a platinum card by the name of Carter Sheridan, but the paper was signed by a Carter Jones.” He glared at me obviously questioning the fraudulence.
I leaned forward rubbing my throbbing head. My hair fell forward in my hands, and I pulled it back away from my face. “Look, dude. The card’s good, and we’ll pay for any damages, but we need to get back to our bus, and we need to find the women who did this.”
“Your bus? You live on a bus?” The man looked at me like my status in life descended to the depths of hell.
“Yes, we live on a fucking bus when we’re touring.” I looked at Hayden. The less info this guy knew, the better.
“So, you’re some kind of traveling musicians?” He made it sound like we were gypsies.
“No, not like that. We’re with a band.”
“Uh, hm. Okay.” I don’t know if he didn’t believe me or didn’t like the idea we’re in a band.
“You can use that phone to call someone to come here and take care of this situation.” He pointed to the house phone.
“Yeah, that ain’t gonna work either. We don’t know the numbers because they’re in our phones, which I told you were stolen.” My patience wore very thin at this point. My head pounded, my shit was gone, and this guy was being a real prick.
“Uh, hm,” he said again which pissed me off.
“Send someone out to Red Rock Amphitheater and our tour director, Peri O’Connor, with Assured Distraction, will come take care of this mess.” The man looked at me with big eyes and then finally nodded in agreement. He walked to the door to leave. “And please send up a big pot of coffee.”
“Right away.” He closed the door, and I looked over at Hayden. “What a huge clusterfuck, Hayden. You know that, right?”
“Yeah, Carter. I’m sorry. I guess we should’ve gone home with the others.”
“Hell yeah. We’re going to have some explaining to do to a lot of people.” My mind landed on Halo. Just when we were getting things going in the right direction, shit happens. I never planned to get with another woman last night. I only wanted to support the kid.
I didn’t know if we were going to stay together, but I had a feeling this incident had some major repercussions attached to it, between us. One more time to lose her trust on being the kind of guy she needed, and once again, I fucked it up.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I woke up in my bunk and lay there thinking about last night. KeeMac and Ryan came home but not Carter and Hayden. I waited around until I couldn’t hold my head up thinking they would arrive right behind the others, but that didn’t happen.
I had no claims on Carter. His freedom to come and go and be with other women hadn’t been relinquished because we had some mind-blowing sex a few times. He never mentioned giving up that freedom. Why would I even think he might want to have a relationship with me anymore now than the first time?
Yeah, he’d made some comments that could’ve been taken that way, but he never once spelled it out for me. I should have known better. He spelled it out plainly the first time. Was I that stupid to not see those rules still applied? Our sex was a matter of convenience for him. Yeah, I jumped him the first time, but we never talked about it. I didn’t have any expectations from it which was why I never brought it up. He obviously made no attachment after our few times together. At his first chance, he took off to find another woman’s bed to play in.
I’d heard him and the guys talking about all of their threesome and multiple partners while on the road. Maybe he finds having one partner boring. Hell, maybe he finds me boring. If that’s the case, he can find another bus playmate because I’m not bed hopping on this bus. I lived for eight years without having a relationship. I gave myself the two years to see where life would take me. Right now, I think it’s taking me back to Austin, Texas. Maybe that’s where I belong.
I heard the bus door open, and Peri climbed on the bus. She opened the curtain to Hayden’s bunk and pulled out a t-shirt and then did the same to Carter’s. When she turned around to leave, she saw me watching her.
“Hey, Halo. Good morning.” She gave me a weary smile and turned toward the door.
“Did they not come home last night?” I had to know.
“Uh, no. Carter and Hayden didn’t come home. I’m going to get them now.” She kept moving to the door but now I wanted to know more.
“Why are you going to get them?” I stood up from my bunk.
“Well… they’re in a bit of a situation that needs some PR work done to smooth it over. Ryan and I are headed out to take care of it.”
“Are they in jail?” I couldn’t believe she was cleaning up the mess behind those two.
“No, not jail, thank God. Hey, I have to go, but they’ll tell you when they get back. You have a sound check in a little while and then a show to perform. Cash’s flying in to meet us this evening.” She looked like she wanted to say more and then stepped down the stairs and off the bus to a waiting car.
I dressed quickly and tried to get down some toast. I knew the day would drag on if I sat around waiting for the results. I decided to go over and help the nanny with the boys. I bet Crew asked for Hayden when he didn’t show up as expected.
Stepping into the RV, the boys ran to the doorway to attack. When Crew saw it wasn’t his dad, he turned around and went back to play with the Lego fort they were building.
“So guys, whatcha doin’ over here?” I moved to the Lego table.
Tucker spoke up immediately. “We’re building a fort so we can keep the dinosaurs out.”
“Dinosaurs attacked your fort?” I laughed thinking they had quite a gap in history going on there.
“Yeah, my daddy took us to see the dinosaur place at the exbit. They’re cool.” His pronunciation of exhibit made me smile.
“I think you mean, exhibit, little dude.” I scruffed his hair.
“Yeah, exbit. You know where they got fake dinosaurs that’re super ginormous big like the real ones would be until they all died.” Crew knew what he meant.
Tucker joined the conversation with his own take on the massive beasts. “Yeah, we saw flying ones, and T-Rex ones, and fish ones. We saw a whole bunch more that I disremember their names.”
“Well, I bet there’re a lot of places in the United States that have more exhibits for the two of you to see. I bet Austin even has one with ginormous animals.”
Crew looked at me carefully. “You know, Miss Halo, most of these are not animals. They’re rectiles.”
