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“But this can’t happen. I know I’ve given you the wrong idea with the phone call and all, but you need to hear this. I’m the kind of woman you most fear. The relationship kind. I don’t do casual hookups.”
He shifted on the couch, the word relationship making his skin prickle. “What’s so bad about casual?”
“I have a daughter to worry about.”
He released a breath. “I get that. Believe me.”
“Do you?” she asked, clearly unconvinced.
He glanced around, making sure no one was in earshot. “Yes. I do. My dad walked out on us when I was five and left us with jack shit. After that, I can’t tell you how many ‘friends’ my mom brought home to play daddy and help pay the bills over the years. I hated those guys. Hated those men who used my mom and acted like they had some say over me and my brothers and sisters. I’d never want to be that guy.”
He could still remember the first boyfriend—Louis. Pike had been young and gullible enough to let himself get attached to that one. Louis would play baseball with him sometimes, so he’d thou
ght he was a good guy. But he’d been a petty criminal with a mean streak and had disappeared after getting in a bar fight that left a man with a brain injury. His mom had been pregnant at the time. That had started the pattern of the many dangerous, destructive men who would come into his family’s life, wreak havoc, and bail without looking back.
Oakley frowned and he braced himself for the trite sympathy. Why the hell had he let himself tell her that? No one besides Foster and Gibson knew about his background. Even the band had a false bio for him.
But she didn’t do the oh-you-poor-thing routine. She simply nodded. “So you get it, then.”
He shoulders loosened. “I get why you need to protect her. But I also get that there are ways around it. She doesn’t have to know. You’ve kept your night job private. We could keep this private.”
She sighed. “It’s not that simple.”
It was. It could be. He eyed her. “So this isn’t just about Reagan, then. This is about you.”
A wrinkle appeared between her brows. “Maybe.”
“Because of the relationship thing? You want that?”
“I—” She frowned in frustration. “I don’t know what I want. I mean, we’re doing the honest thing, right?”
He nodded.
“Good. Then I’m not going to be a bitch and lie about the night on the phone. That was great. I needed that. God, did I need that. But I know myself. The minute I take this a step further, my emotions are going to get involved. I’m not—” She looked around at the others backstage. “I’m not like these women. I don’t judge them for taking what they want and having a good time, I just can’t relate. I had a kid when I was still a kid. I didn’t go through the stage where you layer up that tough skin, where you can just hook up for fun and move on. I tried it in my early twenties and I sucked at it. I’m not built for what you’d want from me.”
“I think you’re a lot tougher than you give yourself credit for,” he said, not trying to push her but sharing his honest opinion. The girls he’d met backstage city after city had nothing on Oakley. She’d raised a kid on her own, was holding down two jobs, and had no qualms about laying out what she needed from a guy. Potential. A relationship. There was no apology there. No game. He liked that.
Even if he wasn’t the guy who could fulfill it.
He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get it out, long, bare legs appeared in his periphery. He turned right as Holly lowered herself into the spot next to Pike. Her hand went to his knee. “I’m about to head out. You ready?”
Oakley seemed to grow in height as her spine stiffened in the chair.
A flash of anger whipped through Pike at the interruption and uninvited touch. He put his hand over Holly’s and moved it off his leg. “I was in the middle of a private conversation.”
“No, it’s okay,” Oakley said, moving to get up, her voice tight. “I need to get going anyway.”
Holly smiled, victory in her eyes.
Fuck. Pike stood. “No, Oakley, don’t. Please stay.”
Her jaw twitched as her gaze slid over to Holly. “It’s okay. I think three’s a crowd.”
“Doesn’t have to be,” Holly said, suggestion in her tone.
Jesus Christ. Pike swiped a hand over his face. “Holly, give us a few minutes.”
Holly shrugged, but didn’t look too perturbed, probably because she figured he was going to work out a threesome with Oakley. She stood and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll just go and grab a drink.”
