deserve better. She should be nicer to you.”
Her I would be nicer to you was left unspoken, but Owen could read it in the way she leaned closer to him, as if he needed her to offer comfort.
“She’s great, you know,” Owen said. “If she wasn’t, I wouldn’t give two shits that she dumped me.” And he still wasn’t clear on that little detail. Was there potential for them to reconcile? He had to believe there was, or he’d end up doing something really idiotic—like waiting naked for her in her office with a rose clamped between his teeth.
Desperately wanting to change the topic of conversation—he didn’t need or want relationship advice from Lindsey—he asked, “So what did you find in the paper?”
“There’s a bank teller job I could do. It doesn’t pay well, but has benefits.”
“Were you a bank teller before?” She might have told him months before, but if she had, he’d forgotten.
“I started as one, then I trained to be an investment broker. I’d finally found my stride and was making good money for the bank when my boss found out about—” She folded her arms around her middle and hunched forward. “Well, you know. And she fired me.”
“She fired you for fucking a rock band?” He’d heard of some pretty stupid reasons to fire someone, but that had to take the grand prize.
“She fired me because she’s always hated me. She used my reputation—it being bad for business—as her excuse to get rid of me. I’m from a small town with two banks. She’s the president of one, and guess who’s the president of the other?”
“Her?”
“Might as well be. It’s her good ol’ boy daddy, who should have retired about twenty years ago. The man is eighty years old.”
“Hey, I plan to still be rocking the stage on my bass when I’m eighty.”
“That would be awesome—Sole Regret, the geriatric years.” She giggled. “I’d definitely pay to see that.”
Owen smiled. He liked making her laugh. She’d been so anxious and defensive since she’d shown up with her baby on board, he’d honestly wanted to dump her off on his mother and never interact with her again. She’d been super fun and adventurous when they’d shared that wild night of sex on the tour bus on Christmas Eve—no holds barred and anything goes. Still, he supposed any woman in her current position would be anxious and defensive. But she didn’t have to feel that way around him.
She glanced at the time and squeezed out from behind the table, collecting her plate and putting it in the sink. She turned on the water to clean the skillet, but Owen jumped up from the table and nudged her aside. “You cooked; I’ll get the dishes.”
“But—”
“I insist. Plus my mom would skin me if she knew I made you cook and do the dishes.”
“You didn’t make me,” Lindsey said, her thick lashes shielding her wide blue eyes. “I wanted to.”
She wanted to what, play Susie Homemaker? With him? And in the house she’d told him was perfect for raising kids? He shuddered.
“Uh, why don’t you see if you can figure out how to get your car back?” he suggested. “Call Oklahoma State Patrol. They should be able to tell you how to proceed.”
She nodded slightly and then sat down with her cellphone to look up the appropriate phone numbers online. She was talking with someone when he went upstairs to pack a bag and collect dirty clothes to throw in a load of laundry.
When he came back down, Lindsey followed him into the mudroom to watch him load the washing machine.
“Did you know they dispose of vehicles if they aren’t claimed within thirty days and if they do, you still have to pay all the impound and storage fees in cash?”
“That’s to encourage you to get your piece of junk out of their hair as quickly as possible.”
She scowled at him. “It’s not a piece of junk. I ran out of gas.”
“And then hitched a ride with a trucker.”
“Don’t remind me of how stupid I was. I was running on pure adrenaline at that point. I had to get to Houston before you guys took off for your next tour stop.”
She just couldn’t wait to find them and ruin some lives. Owen mentally slapped himself; it wasn’t fair to blame her for how things had turned out. He was ashamed of himself for even thinking she was trying to ruin anyone.
“I need to get to the airstrip.” He’d arrive extra early, but maybe someone else in the band was as desperate to leave home as he was. He was drowning in estrogen here.
“I’m ready when you are.”
“I hope you can drive a stick.” He hadn’t even wondered if she could handle the Jeep’s standard transmission.
“If I have to,” she said.
She ground only two gears before she dropped him off in the parking lot where the band members usually parked their cars to catch a chartered flight. He was the first one there, but didn’t mind waiting. Adam had stayed in New Orleans, and Kelly would be driving from Galveston, so it was no surprise when neither of them showed up, but as the small plane arrived and they allowed him to board, he was surprised that Gabe and Jacob hadn’t turned up yet.
As their scheduled departure time got closer and closer, he began to worry. He squeezed through the narrow aisle and stuck his head into the cockpit. “Where is everyone?” he asked the copilot, who was scowling at a clipboard.
“Well, the tall guy—what’s his name?”
Gabe and Jacob were both well over six feet, but Gabe was of thinner build and so seemed much taller than broad-shouldered Jacob. “Gabe?”
“Mohawk guy.”
“Yeah, that’s Gabe.”
“He and his girlfriend went back to New Orleans last night. Some emergency.”
Owen’s heart dropped. “What kind of emergency?”
“They didn’t share details. I think it had something to do with a friend of the woman’s. I don’t know for sure, but she was extremely upset.”
“Did Jacob leave with them?”
“Nope. We’re still waiting for him.”
“So it’s just me and Jacob on this trip?”
“Assuming he shows up.”
Of course Jacob would show up. He was the most responsible, driven member of the band. Hell, he’d missed the birth of his own daughter to keep Adam from dying of an overdose. Jacob was the guy they could all depend on. He always did what was right.
“I’ll just sit and wait then,” Owen said. He took a moment to call Gabe to see if he could help with the emergency the copilot had mentioned. When Gabe didn’t answer, he left a voicemail and also sent him a text to assure him that he could ask Owen for help—no matter what the emergency—if he needed anything.
Jacob eventually entered the plane, and Owen beamed at him, glad he finally had a friend to talk to. Since Jacob brushed past without so much as a howdy and plopped into a seat at the back, Owen unfastened his seat belt and moved to the seat across from him.
“Have a good weekend?” Owen asked.
“Most of it,” Jacob said, not so much as glancing Owen’s way. He was obviously in a bad mood. “Where’s Gabe?”
Owen shrugged. “The pilot said he flew back last night. I have no idea why.”
When Jacob didn’t comment, Owen tried broaching the subject of his situation with Caitlyn. Maybe Jacob had a suggestion on how to proceed. He was always smooth with the ladies. “Well, I’m in the doghouse, but—”
“I’m going to catch a nap,” Jacob interrupted.
Owen ignored the sting of Jacob’s rejection. Still, he needed an actual bro to talk to, yet now that the plane was taxiing, he couldn’t even call or text Kelly. Owen realized too late that he should have contacted Kelly while he’d been waiting for Jacob to board.