FanGirl Squeal (RockStars of Romance Book 1) (24 page)

Victoria had entered his suite while he was packing. She’d
been crying. He didn’t know why tears were rolling down her face but he didn’t
care. He held his woman in his arms and let her cry, doing his best to comfort
her until she was ready to tell him why she was so upset.

She was holding a copy of US Weekly that Cash had already
seen. Surely, she wasn’t upset about the rumor floating around about her and
her co-star…unless it was true. That’s when Cash asked her the question that
cemented the end of their relationship. At the time, she said she had only
slept with him once, but “there was something there.”

Six weeks later, she was telling him that she was twelve
weeks pregnant.

“I told you that I only slept with Paul once while we were
together,” Victoria said softly. “You know I’m not a liar. I am having your
baby. I swear to God.”

Victoria wasn’t an outright liar. She lied by omission, but
she wasn’t the type of person to lie about something so huge. He was going to
be a father. Cash said the words out loud to see how they sounded.

“I’m going to be a dad? You’re serious?”

Victoria nodded. She handed him a black and white sonogram
picture. “That’s baby girl Myers…or Williamson,” she said apprehensively. “Whatever
you want.”

Cash stared at the grainy picture, studying it as if it was
a priceless piece of art. In a way, it was. He was looking at his daughter’s
first picture. He took a deep breath, but couldn’t drag his eyes away.

“Who else knows?”

“Just my manager and my parents. We wrap next week so I
haven’t told anyone on set. Although, I’ll have to tell my producers before we
go back to filming
Lover’s Lane
.”

“You haven’t told Paul?”

Victoria shrugged and sat back down on the sofa. “Kinda
thought I should tell you first.”

“Are you happy about this?” Cash wasn’t sure. She certainly
didn’t look happy. Neither of them did.

“I can’t say that I’m terribly excited about it,” Victoria
admitted. “It’s certainly not the ideal situation. I have to tell Paul that I’m
pregnant and it’s not his so I’m sure he’s going to dump me. I never thought I’d
be single mom, but,” she shrugged and sighed heavily. “I made this bed, right?”

Cash sat the sonogram picture on the table and walked over
to the sofa. He sat next to Victoria and placed his hand on her stomach. He
felt a little bump…his daughter.

“It’s not ideal, but I’ll be there to help you however I
can,” he promised.

Victoria leaned her head against Cash’s shoulder and stroked
his face. “Are you sure you don’t want to get back together?”

“I’m sure, Vic. We’re not getting back together.”

She exhaled deeply. “It was worth a shot.”

“It was a long shot,” Cash chuckled. “And Paul’s not going
to dump you. Any dude who’d risk his life by stealing my girl isn’t going to
run at the first sign of trouble.”

Victoria placed her hand over Cash’s. Their blue eyes met.
The look of fear mixed with a small amount of joy was mirrored in both of their
eyes.

“This is going to be a cluster-fuck of bad publicity. What
the hell are we going to do, Cash?”

“I have no idea.” Cash kissed her forehead. “We’ll figure it
out.”

After Victoria left, Cash paced every inch of his thirty-five
hundred square foot condo anxiously. He kept hearing Victoria’s voice in his
head.

“I’m pregnant.”

The idea of being a father was starting to sink in. He was
going to be someone’s father. He was going to be responsible for another human
being’s life besides his and Brittany’s. Technically, he was going to have
another daughter.

What the hell?

“Cash! Cash! Where are you?”

Cash made a mental note to ask for his mother’s key back for
the third time. He’d already taken it off her key ring twice without her
knowing. Did she have a stash of them or something?

“I’m in the kitchen!” he yelled.

A few seconds later, his mother walked into the kitchen
laden with brown bags full of fresh fruit and vegetables.

“Where’d you go?” Cash asked as he took the bags out of
Jennifer’s hands. “Why is this stuff so dirty? Did you go to a farm?”

“No boy. Ain’t no farms in Manhattan. This is from the
Greenmarket over on 175
^th
. You’ll thank me later. All the working
out in the world isn’t going to keep that six pack, Cash, if you don’t
incorporate some fresh fruits and vegetables into your diet.”

Cash rolled his eyes to the ceiling, but put the groceries
in the refrigerator anyway. The state of the art appliance was packed with
bachelor necessities that happened to be the same as teenager necessities: cold
pizza, leftover takeout, juice, and soda. The freezer was worse.

Cash couldn’t remember the last time he’d cooked a meal for
him and Brittany. He hadn’t cooked a meal in his New York apartment yet. Frozen
waffles and Stouffer’s lasagna didn’t exactly qualify as cooking.

Jennifer pulled two sides of salmon out of another bag and a
box of storage bags.

“Grab a knife and filet this,” she ordered. “Freeze them. You
need more lean meats and fish. Cut back on the cheeseburgers and pizza.”

“So, how’s the house hunting going?” Cash asked as he
searched for a filet knife. “Still haven’t found anything?”

Jennifer started laughing and patted her son’s back. “I get
it. You don’t want to hear it. That’s fine. We’ll talk about something else.
Have you heard from Brittany?”

“Every day. She’s having fun.”

Cash made quick work of filleting the salmon. He’d grown up
around fish. He knew what he was doing. He sat four of the filets on a plate
and bagged the rest of them. After tossing them into the freezer, he
volunteered to whip up some lunch.

He fixed a spinach salad and grilled the salmon with a lemon
butter sauce. He was starving and cooking might help take his mid off his
current situation. He wasn’t supposed to grill on his balcony, but he paid over
a grand for his Weber grill and was determined to get some use out of it.

Cash moved around the kitchen like a pro, cutting up
vegetables and whipping up light balsamic vinaigrette for the salad. Jennifer
kept the conversation going while she watched him cook. Like onstage, Cash was
in his element.

They sat on the balcony to eat. Cash absently bit into his
food, not really tasting the deliciousness of the fresh salmon and veggies.

“Hey, Cash, did you hear me?” Jennifer waved her hand in
front of Cash’s face.

He blinked. He’d been so lost in his head that he had
forgotten his mother was even there, let alone talking.

“No. What did you say?”

“I asked how things were working out with Bryan and Olivia?
Do you like your new management?”

“It’s fine. They’re cool. We’ve got a lot coming up in the
next few weeks. They want to book a European tour, like ten or fifteen cities.”

“Nice,” Jennifer nodded. “We haven’t been to Europe in a few
years. You love playing overseas. Why don’t you sound very eager to do it?”

Jennifer sat her glass of Chardonnay on the table and gave
her child a long once-over. Cash wasn’t a wine drinker, but he always kept a
case of his mother’s favorite for when she visited, AKA took the elevator two
floors up and let herself in to his apartment.

“What’s going on? Something happened. Talk to me.”

When his mother walked into his apartment, Cash knew that he
was going to tell her the big news. He was surprised that she hadn’t asked
sooner. His mother’s intuition was scary.

“Victoria came by.”

Jennifer raised her eyebrows. “Really? She wants to get back
together, doesn’t she? What did you say?”

“It’s a little more complicated,” Cash said and put his fork
down. He was no longer hungry. “She’s pregnant.”

Jennifer gasped then started coughing as she inhaled bits of
spinach salad. She took a sip of wine then cleared her throat.

“She’s what?”

“You heard me.”

“By you?”

“She’s twelve weeks, so I’m going to say yes to that.”

“We’re getting a DNA test,” Jennifer stated in her motherly
tone that Cash knew not to challenge.

Cash nodded. “We talked about it. We’re going to have one
after the baby is born. She’s a 100% sure though.”

Cash ran his hands through his hair. He didn’t know what
kind of reaction he expected from his mother. He didn’t think she’d react to
becoming a grandmother the same way he’d reacted to being a father.

“This changes a lot, Cash. Are you going to be with her?”

“No, I don’t want to get back together with her.”

That was the only thing he was sure about. He didn’t want
Victoria like that anymore.

“You’re going to be a dad,” Jennifer smiled. “I’m going to
be a grandmother. This is a bit exciting, don’t you think?”

“Yep,” Cash nodded, unable to share in his mother’s
enthusiasm.

How the hell could he be a dad? He spent six to nine months
on the road every other year. How could parenting a child with his ex fit into
his lifestyle? It wasn’t like he was going to retire. If he and Victoria were
married and having a baby, that would be different. She was ready to retire
from acting and do other things. He wasn’t ready to give up his career after
only eight years.

“Shit,” Jennifer hissed. “What are you going to do about
Savannah?”

Cash jerked like someone had doused him with a bucket of
freezing cold water. Savannah! He hadn’t even thought about her!

For the first time since Victoria told him the news, Cash
felt like crying. There’s no way Savannah was going to stick around, especially
after she told him about her ex. He was the second guy in two years to have a
baby on her. She was going to be devastated. God, the last thing he ever
planned on doing was hurting her.

“Fuck!” he yelled. He squeezed the bridge of his nose and
closed his eyes.

“I don’t know,” he finally answered.

“Well,” Jennifer’s tone was comforting. “You two haven’t
been together long. I like her, but this baby changes everything, Cash. You two
are just starting out. You should cut it off now before it gets serious.”

Angered welled up inside Cash’s chest. Nothing was that
simple.

“Cut it off? I don’t want to cut it off with Savannah. Have
you not been paying attention, Ma? I seriously like her. I took her home for
God’s sake!”

A little irritation flashed in Jennifer’s eyes before she
looked away. Then she turned her head back to her son and glared at him.

“It’s not about you,” she said sharply. “You are about to
have a child with your ex, the ex you just broke up with. The ex, I’m sure you
told Savannah you were through with. You don’t get to be selfish about this,
Cash. When all is said and done, you get a kid who is going to love you for the
rest of your life. All Savannah ends up with is her heart broken by another
guy. You have to end it now before it gets any deeper.”

“We don’t know how she’s going to feel,” Cash tried to
reason. “It’s not like I cheated on her. Obviously, Victoria was pregnant
before we broke up. We just happened to find out after I met Savannah.”

Jennifer frowned. “And if you had found out before then you
would have never met Savannah because you and Victoria would still be together.
That’s what Savannah is going to think and she’ll always question if she’s the
reason you’re not raising your child together. Don’t do that to her, Cash.”

Jennifer patted her son’s hand. “I know you want to be with
her. I know this hurts, baby, but you and Victoria are having a child. You have
to think about Savannah and what’s best for her.”

Cash sat back and wiped his face. “She’s all I ever think
about,” he mumbled.

He stared over the balcony, angry and frustrated. He thought
about how angry he’d gotten when he pulled in front of The Roosevelt and saw
Savannah crying. He thought about how she’d lain in his bed in Boston and told
him all about Jacoby and the child she lost. She was vulnerable and fragile. He
wanted to be the one to pick up the pieces of her shattered heart, not the one
who trampled over them again.

Cash knew that Savannah was the one. The only thing he’d
ever been so sure of was that he’d get a record deal and make millions of
dollars playing music. He still had his deal, but his mother was right. He
couldn’t be selfish with Savannah. She’d get over a month long relationship
easier than she would trying to deal with the fact that he was having a child
with another woman.

He couldn’t tell her about the baby. He’d just have to think
of something less traumatic when he told her that they couldn’t be together.

Dooms Day arrived so much quicker than I expected. Honestly,
I hoped that it would never come then BAM! It snuck up on me in a voicemail on
my work phone.

“Hi Savannah, it’s Mom. Sorry to call your work number but
your personal voicemail is full. Your Dad and I are going to be in Los Angeles
tomorrow. We’re only staying one day. It’s a long story but we’re hoping you
can accommodate your parents for one night. Our flight gets in at 10am, your
time. We’ll get a cab to your place. See you soon.”

I checked the time. It was 11:00. I frantically turned to my
assistant.

“Is this message from today or last night?”

“I’ve answered every call this morning. It has to be from
last night.”

“No, no, no!” I banged my head on my desk to the staccato of
my words. “This cannot be happening.”

“What’s wrong?” Nicole chuckled. “It’s just your parents.”

I turned my head. “Cash is upstairs sleeping in my bed as we
speak.”

Nicole laughed. “When did your man get here? He was not here
last night when I left.”

“He got in late,” I groaned. “I knew we should have gone to
his place. Oh God!”

Cash and I have officially been a couple for two months. Only
a handful of people are aware of our relationship status. My parents are not
part of that handful and a surprise visit is not how I want to introduce them
to my boyfriend.