“So you’re back. Have you given up on blue balls permanently or was it a temporary thing?”

“Had to be temporary.”

“Had to be?”

Kellen nodded curtly. He didn’t want Dawn to have to deal with his baggage. He had to forget her so she would forget him. “So Lindsey…”

“She’s around her somewhere.” Owen flicked his wrist at the expansive bus cabin.

“Yeah, I saw her. Is she…” Kellen’s eyebrows lifted.

“Pregnant?” Owen nodded and went slightly pale. “Yeah. She thinks it’s mine.”

“Yours? But you wore a condom when you did her; how could it be yours?”

“Well, it’s someone’s from that night, assuming she isn’t lying about not screwing some other dude after she finished with her Sole Regret band and crew orgy. When I left you alone to untie her, you didn’t do anything with her, did you?”

“No.” He hadn’t been inside a woman for five years. Until Dawn.

Shit. He couldn’t let himself think about Dawn right now.

“I didn’t think so. Just making sure.”

But Kellen had come on Lindsey’s belly, so he supposed it was possible that in all the groping and fondling and fucking, some mighty Kellen sperm had somehow gotten inside of her. Possible, but not likely. Still, he felt he was going to throw up. What if it was his? What would he do? He could never bring himself to hook up with some girl he didn’t feel a connection with just because she was the mother of his child, but he wouldn’t be like his asshole of a father. He wouldn’t leave the mother to fend for herself and ignore the existence of his own child until seeing his flesh and blood served his own purpose or agenda or whatever the fuck had made his father reach out to him after sixteen years of no contact. More than never meeting the fucktard, Kellen regretted not telling him what a worthless piece of shit he was when he’d had the chance. He didn’t want Lindsey’s unborn baby to ever have to feel that level of rejection.

“I figured you’d be smiling more,” Owen said.

Kellen looked at Owen as if he was doing the Chicken Dance. Again. Why would he be smiling? This situation had the potential to fuck up someone’s life in a pretty major way.

“About Lindsey being pregnant?” Kellen asked.

“About getting laid. Tell me about her. I can’t wait to meet her. I’m assuming she has blond hair and blue eyes.” Owen rolled his eyes at Kellen’s presumed predictability.

Kellen shook his head. “Redhead. That deep, dark red shade. Almost burgundy. And her eyes are hazel, with pretty flecks the color of spring leaves.”

Owen snorted and burst out laughing. “I forgot how corny you get.”

“Corny? What do you mean?”

“When you like a girl. You become the reincarnation of John Keats or some shit. So is she gorgeous? She must be to get your dick out of your pants.”

“Stunning. And you’ve seen her before,” Kellen said.

Owen went another shade paler. “I didn’t fuck her, did I?”

“No. Believe it or not, there are still women out there who haven’t taken a bareback ride on your lap.”

Owen winked. “Are you sure?”

Kellen nodded. “A few.”

“So if I didn’t fuck her, where did I see her?”

“At the Grammy’s last year.”

“Oh God, did I say something stupid to her?” Now Owen looked like he needed a tanning session. “I was so wasted that night.”

And he probably didn’t remember the elegant beauty who’d graced the stage to accept an award for best instrumental composition.

“She won a Grammy for one of her compositions. She plays piano. And she had no idea who we are, but she remembered us getting thrown out for your air-horn incident and heckling the rapper who got our award.”

Owen cringed. “Yeah, that was pretty obnoxious. I apparently thought I was attending a hockey game. Why’d you guys let me drink so much?”

Kellen chuckled. “We all drank that much. You’re the only one who couldn’t hold his liquor.”

Owen raised fingers one at a time as he said, “So gorgeous redhead. Grammy. Gives Kellen a boner.” Tapping his ring finger, he screwed up his forehead in concentration as he went over his clues.

“Her name is Dawn O’Reilly,” Kellen said. He didn’t want the guy to blow any overtaxed synapses.

Kellen had forgotten Owen had his iPad right in front of him. He immediately did a web search.

When Dawn’s picture came up on screen, Kellen’s heart froze in his chest until a rush of tangled emotions thawed it again. Standing before the awards’ ceremony backdrop, she looked radiant in a floor-length green gown, holding her Grammy clutched in both hands at her waist. Dawn. He could almost hear her voice whispering to him in the darkness. Making him feel that everything would be okay. Was he really going to push her away? Give her up? Go back to feeling so alone that he shut out everyone in his life except Owen?

Kellen closed his eyes and swallowed. Yes. He was going to do exactly that. He’d been weak for one night, but would never give in to that weakness again.

“Wow,” Owen said. “She’s hot. I’d tap that.”

Kellen’s eyes flipped open as a surge of panic flooded his chest. Owen could seduce anyone if he put his mind to it. Probably even Dawn. “What about Caitlyn? I thought you really liked her.”

“I do,” Owen said. “I wouldn’t tap that now, but a couple days ago, before I met Caitlyn, I would have totally tapped that. She’s stunning. And she plays piano. Musicians are hot.”

Kellen chuckled when Owen pointed at himself, pursed his lips, and offered a suggestive toss of his head.

Turning to his iPad again, Owen tapped a few screens and stirring piano music began to play from the device.

“She more than plays piano,” Kellen said. “It’s as if her soul comes pouring out of the instrument.”

Owen looked up at him and then snorted before bursting into laughter. “Oh God, man, you have got it bad for this chick.”

Kellen shook his head. “It was just a one-night hook-up.”

“Riiight. Keep telling yourself that until you believe it. So I’m ordering flowers for Caitlyn. You should get some for Dawn O’Reilly.”

He would not be sending Dawn flowers. She might think he was still interested, which he was, but he didn’t want her to think that.

“Flowers already?” Kellen asked. “Didn’t take you long to mess up.”

“It wasn’t my fault. When Lindsey showed up, Caitlyn flipped out and left. Not that I blame I her. I mean”—he made explosion sounds and opened his hands in bursts around his head—“mind blown.”

“And no one is claiming this kid besides you? You weren’t the only one who had sex with the girl that night.”

“A paternity test will straighten it all out in a few months, but she’s under enough stress, you know. It doesn’t hurt to be nice to her and treat her like a human being.”

Kellen wouldn’t expect anything less from his friend, but his kindness might just come back to bite him in the ass. If Lindsey got too attached to him, he might be stuck with her for life, even if he wasn’t the baby’s father. But maybe Owen wanted that. He liked people to depend on him. Which was good, because Kellen depended on him in a big way.

Owen pointed at images of flowers on his tablet. “So should I send her roses or a mixed bouquet? And chocolates too, right? Too soon for jewelry?”

“Owen, I’m not sure…”

“You’re right. She’s not the kind of woman who wears much jewelry. What do you think she would like? Perfume? Or… I could send her chicken panties. Yeah, that’s perfect. She’d get a kick out of that.”

Chicken panties? Kellen was afraid to ask why she’d think chicken panties were the perfect gift.

“Some women feel uncomfortable when you buy them gifts,” he said. “Especially early in a relationship.” And Kellen took Caitlyn for that type of woman.

“I just want to keep her thinking about me,” Owen said. “And let her know I’m thinking about her.”