Complication (Rock Stars & Romance Book 6)

by A. K. Evans

  Roscoe

  Looking across the table, I felt something squeeze in my chest.

  After the meeting with my parents earlier today, I decided to ask Sienna if she’d allow me to take her out for dinner. I did it under the guise of celebrating. Essentially, I’d told her that now that all the people who needed to know directly from us about the pregnancy knew, we owed it to ourselves to celebrate the pregnancy together since we hadn’t officially done that yet.

  Sienna didn’t put up a fight, and I was grateful for that.

  In fact, I was finding I was grateful for a lot when it came to her. The way she handled that situation, figuring out a way to help my mom cope with her sadness, meant everything to me.

  And because I wanted to continue seeing things go in a positive direction, I had to address something. For weeks now, there had been something nagging at me, something that refused to be ignored. I wanted to get some answers so that I could… well, I didn’t really know yet what I was going to do. Fix it? Apologize for it? Until I had answers, I really couldn’t say.

  “So, I have a question for you,” I said.

  “Okay. What’s up?” she asked.

  “I get the feeling that this might be an uncomfortable conversation, so I want you to know that going in,” I began. “But I really hope you’re willing to discuss it with me.”

  Immediately, Sienna tensed up. I hated it, but I also hated that there was something left unsaid between us.

  Despite how uncomfortable she might have been, Sienna nodded. “Alright. I’m not making any promises, though.”

  Fair enough.

  “The day you came to my house and told me about the pregnancy, you thanked me,” I started again. As soon as I got those words out, I knew Sienna understood where this was going. It was written all over her face. Even still, I continued, “You thanked me for reminding you why you purposely stayed away from me for fifteen years. I really want to know why, Sienna.”

  Shaking her head, she insisted, “It was a long time ago, Roscoe. It’s really not a big deal.”

  “It is to me. If there’s something I did, if I need to apologize for something, I’d like to be able to do that,” I explained.

  She held my gaze for a long time and didn’t speak. The silence went on for so long, I was convinced she wasn’t going to tell me, but then she parted her beautiful lips and spoke.

  “I had a crush on you,” she shared.

  That was not what I was expecting. I was sure she was going to tell me that I’d been rude to her at some point. I couldn’t recall ever doing anything like that, but I didn’t know what else it would have been.

  When I didn’t respond or react to that, Sienna said, “I think it happened the day Addy and I were having a bake-off in your parents’ kitchen. You chose my cookie recipe as your favorite and winked at me before you walked out of the kitchen.”

  That sounded like something good. Why would that have made her stay away?

  “Okay. And that’s why you didn’t want to be around me?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “That’s why I wanted to be around you all the time,” she explained. “But I was young, so I always felt nervous and shy around you.”

  “Did I say something rude to you?”

  Continuing to shake her head, Sienna answered, “No. But at Addy’s fifteenth birthday party, something happened.”

  I tried to think back to when Addy turned fifteen, but my sister always had some big celebration. I couldn’t remember which one was which.

  “What did I do?” I asked.

  “Addy had a swimming party that year. It was the same year you started dating Maria,” she revealed.

  Maria.

  She had been my first real girlfriend. She was also the last real girlfriend I had. We dated for a few months, but things with the band took off, and I wasn’t interested in being tied down. She didn’t take it well and certainly made her displeasure know. Even still, Maria kept in touch with me for a while afterward, and I didn’t exactly turn her down whenever she wanted to have some fun. But we never became serious again. It was only ever about hooking up from that point forward, even though I knew she wanted more. Somehow, I guess she realized that my life had changed, taken me in the opposite direction of where she wanted me to be, and she finally accepted it.

  “Sienna, I’m still confused,” I started. “I remember the party now, but I can’t recall anything bad that happened.”

  “I told you it really wasn’t a big deal,” she reminded me. “Nothing bad actually happened in the way that you might be thinking. But I got a cold dose of reality from you, and it hurt.”

  My stomach felt uneasy thinking that I’d done something to hurt Sienna. “What did I say to you?” I asked, feeling horrified.

  Our server arrived with our meals and set them down in front of us. The thought of eating right now made me sick.

  When she left, Sienna finally responded. “I had seen the two of you kissing and hugging, and for a teenage girl with a crush, I can admit that I was jealous. Anyway, I went inside to use the bathroom just to get away from the crowd and clear my head. But your aunt was taking your cousin into the bathroom downstairs at the time, so I went upstairs. I walked in and stood there just taking a few deep breaths.”

  She paused a moment, looked a little unsure, but eventually continued, “Then I heard something hit the wall in your room. I hadn’t realized you snuck off from the party, so I quickly got myself out of there. That’s when you and Maria came out of your room, and you were pulling your shirt back down your body.”

  Shit.

  Now I remembered what she was talking about.

  Or, I remembered walking out and seeing her standing there. Because it was the very reason that I ended up moving out of my parents’ house two weeks later.

  “That’s why I moved,” I told her.

  “What?” she asked, clear surprise in her tone.

  “I moved out not long after that,” I clarified.

  “Because of me?”

  “Yes. And no. I realized that I was bringing my antics into my parents’ house, and it wasn’t right,” I explained. “Seeing you there when I walked out of my room, I realized that it could have been my parents that we ran into or, worse, Addy. You both were together all the time, and you were young. I didn’t want either of you getting the impression that what I was doing or, more specifically, what Maria was doing was something either of you needed to be doing.”

  “I got that much in a very indirect way,” she muttered.

  “How so?”

  “You called me a kid, Roscoe.”

  “What?”

  Sienna took a sip of her drink and set it back down before she revealed, “Maria complimented me on my swimsuit and walked away. You stood there a moment longer to tell me that I should probably get back downstairs with the rest of the kids. That was the point at which I knew I didn’t even exist in your mind the way you did in mine.”

  Fuck.

  “Sienna, I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I never meant to make you feel that way. Trust me, I noticed you. But you were…”

  “Young,” she finished my thought. “And it would have been illegal. I know, Roscoe. I get it. But I didn’t get it all those years ago. All I knew was that the boy I had a crush on didn’t like me back.”

  I felt awful.

  Addy had lots of friends. That’s why she had so many people at her parties. Even if Sienna hadn’t been around all the time like she was, I still would have noticed her from the crowd. Because she wasn’t like them.

  “I don’t know what to say,” I mumbled. “I feel really bad.”

  “It’s okay,” she insisted. “Honestly. It’s really okay. Besides, you didn’t make me feel like a little kid the next time you saw me anyway.”

  I chuckled. “Yeah. And I think you should know that even if you were upset about the boy you crushed on not liking you back, you should know that girls are way more mature at that age, and boys are stupid. The
proof I can offer you is that the man you saw again at the wedding liked you plenty. He still does.”

  Sienna offered a sweet smile. “Yeah. Boys really are stupid sometimes, aren’t they?” she teased.

  I was, once again, feeling grateful for her. It would have been easy for Sienna to hold a grudge or sulk about what happened when we were both so young. She didn’t.

  And that not only proved my point about girls being mature and boys being stupid.

  I lifted up my fork with a smile on my face. “Yeah,” I agreed. “How about you eat your food before it gets cold? I know that baby is probably demanding to be fed right now anyway.”

  Sienna didn’t hesitate to pick up her fork and dive into her food.

  “I’m really happy we’re here now, Sienna.”

  Her face lit up. “Me too, Roscoe.”

  With that, we enjoyed the rest of our meals and had a great time celebrating with one another. And it felt good, especially since I knew we no longer had any secrets lingering between us.

  Eighteen

  Sienna

  “Well, that’s progress.”

  That came through the line from Addy.

  Holding my phone to my ear, I returned, “Yeah, we’re definitely in a much better place than we were weeks ago.”

  It was a couple of days after Roscoe and I had told his parents about the pregnancy and the two of us had gone out for a celebratory dinner.

  Addy called me a little while ago to check in and see how I was doing. Not only did she want to make sure my wrist was okay, but she also wanted to be sure that my new living arrangements were working out alright for me.

  Roscoe had left the house to run an errand—he didn’t say what it was or where he was going—about ten minutes before I got Addy’s call.

  “I’m sure it’s only going to keep getting better, too,” she said.

  “Well, I should hope so,” I replied. “And honestly, I’m just so happy that we’ve gotten to this place. I’m really excited to see Roscoe as a dad.”

  “I still kind of can’t believe it,” Addy shared. “I mean, I knew Brent would make me an aunt, and he did. But I never expected I’d be an aunt again because Roscoe made me one.”

  I wanted to laugh. The truth was that nobody had really expected it, especially not Roscoe. But the simple fact remained that I’d been blown away by the change I’d seen in him. He was so different now, in a really good way.

  As I took the time to consider just how impressed I’d been with Roscoe’s attentiveness, it gave Addy the chance to come up with another crazy scenario.

  “What I love most about all of this is that you won’t just be my best friend any longer. You’ll soon be my sister-in-law,” she bubbled.

  Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

  “Where are you getting that?” I questioned her. “In all that I shared with you, especially in telling you about the conversation Roscoe and I had with your parents, the conversation that devastated your mom, what would ever make you say anything about me becoming your sister-in-law?”

  “Look, Sienna, it’s totally going to happen,” she insisted.

  “How do you figure this?” I asked.

  I should have been denying her claim and arguing that it wouldn’t happen. But the truth was that hearing her say those words with such conviction made me hopeful. It was probably foolish to allow myself to feel that way, but she was my best friend. I didn’t think she’d ever say something so serious if she didn’t genuinely believe it was a real possibility.

  “Look at what has already happened,” she reasoned.

  “Yeah, we had a one-night stand that resulted in a surprise pregnancy,” I noted.

  “And now you’re living together,” my best friend countered.

  “Right. Yes, we are. But I think you’re getting your hopes up for nothing,” I warned her. “We’re simply doing this right now because my wrist is out of commission and because Roscoe doesn’t want to be separated while I’m pregnant. He doesn’t want to miss out on any more of the pregnancy.”

  She let out a laugh and asked, “And you think he’ll want to miss out on being with the baby after he or she is born?”

  It was a valid question. One I didn’t have any answers to. Roscoe and I hadn’t really discussed yet what would happen after the baby was born. He had said we’d figure it out, but there was still time to do that. Plus, it wasn’t like I’d been here with him for days now doing nothing. We were both still adjusting to everything.

  “We haven’t gotten that far,” I murmured.

  “I know. But I’m telling you now. I’d put money on you never moving back to your apartment,” she declared.

  I sighed.

  “We just want to be good parents,” I insisted. “I’m not sure that translates into anything romantic.”

  “Are you saying you wouldn’t want it to be more than what it is right now?” she inquired.

  I hesitated.

  I wanted that more than anything else I wanted for Roscoe and me. Well, other than for the two of us to continue to get along so we could each give our baby the very best of us.

  “Of course,” I answered quietly. “But that’s not where we are, Addy. That’s not where Roscoe wants to be. And I’ve accepted that. I’m okay with that. Because all that matters right now is the two of us doing what we’ve got to do for this baby.”

  “I think you’re both fools if you don’t give it a shot,” she declared. “I get not wanting to risk the good between you right now for the sake of the baby, but what if you’re avoiding taking that chance for no reason? What if… what if the two of you are meant for each other?”

  What I would have given for that to be the case.

  It wasn’t.

  And I just didn’t have the heart to fight her on it. Not only for her sake, but for mine as well.

  Following a beat of silence, I said, “I guess we’ll have to see what happens. For now, I’ll simply be happy about where we are. If anything else comes of it, we’ll take it as it comes.”

  “That’s better than completely dismissing the possibility,” she noted. “So, have you two discussed names yet?”

  I let out a laugh. “No. Not yet.”

  “Well, if it’s a girl, my vote is for Addison,” she announced.

  I laughed harder. “I’ll be sure to share that with Roscoe.”

  For the next few minutes, Addy did her best to try to convince me why I should name my child after her. I listened to her, mostly because I was willing to do anything to avoid having to go back to talking about Roscoe and me officially becoming a couple.

  It was right around dinnertime when we disconnected the call and I decided to start doing something to prepare food. I was still adjusting to life in this cast, so I knew I’d need Roscoe’s help to pull off anything extravagant, but I figured I could get a head start.

  But before I had the chance to the do that, someone arrived at the front door. The bell rang, and I contemplated what to do for all of a few seconds. Roscoe hadn’t mentioned that he was expecting anyone, which considering he wasn’t even home right now, would have been incredibly rude of him.

  That’s when it hit me.

  Roscoe was still probably having items ordered and shipped here for the baby.

  Delivery driver.

  Maybe I’d see one of my coworkers.

  I moved to the front door, opened it, and quickly learned that it wasn’t some fancy new item that Roscoe had ordered for our baby.

  It was someone I hadn’t seen in years.

  “Maria,” I said.

  Her eyes dropped to my belly and settled there a moment before returning to my face. “Is Roscoe here?” she asked, her voice a little unsteady.

  I shook my head. “No. He’s out, and I’m not certain when he’ll be back.”

  She lifted her chin, quietly assessing me. Eventually, she said, “I can’t believe it’s true.”

  “Pardon?”

  Holding her hand out toward my stomach, she clarified,
“I can’t believe Roscoe got someone pregnant.”

  I didn’t like where this was heading. I thought it was best to be straight with her and get her to leave.

  “Is there something I can do for you?” I asked.

  “Are you living here?” she retorted, ignoring my question.

  “I am right now,” I answered.

  A crooked smile formed on her face. “At least you understand where it’s headed, then,” Maria replied, her tone making me feel a little unsettled.

  I struggled to respond because I was too busy attempting to figure out what she meant by her statement.

  She must have realized I was lost because she threw her hand out in front of her body in the direction of my belly again and shared, “We both know that this isn’t him. This isn’t who he is. Maybe he’s doing the right thing now for the sake of the baby, assuming it’s his, but if you know him at all, you know he’s not in this for the long haul.”

  Standing there, listening to Maria’s words, I’d been stunned into silence. I hated to have to admit to myself that she wasn’t wrong.

  Roscoe was doing all the right things now. But was I being a fool to believe that he was suddenly a changed man? Of course, it wasn’t as though I had any expectations about a future between the two of us that had to do with anything beyond simply co-parenting. But something about Maria’s words was striking a nerve.

  “Why are you here?” I asked.

  She cocked an eyebrow. “He didn’t tell you?” she asked. “Roscoe and I still get together on occasion. He might have ended things in the official capacity years ago, but he’s never been able to stay away from me for too long. I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time before he needs his fill again.”

  “I think you should go,” I told her.

  My voice was firm, but I was wavering. I could have conversations with Addy or Roscoe’s parents or my mom all day long about the state of my relationship with Roscoe. Hell, I could have those conversations alone with myself. But I wasn’t going to stand here and listen to this crap.

  “I’ll go. But a word of advice before I do,” she started. “For the sake of your child, don’t get too attached to Roscoe. You and I both know he’s not the kind of guy who’s going to settle down with one woman, get married, and have a family. He’s too addicted to his rock star lifestyle. Why would he ever want to give up endless pussy?”