Good Girls Don't Date Rock Stars(42)

“Yes! I can’t wait to tell Evan. This is so awesome!” Charlie ran over to give Travis a hug, and Gemma’s eyes stung when he whispered, “I’m so glad you came.”

Travis’s strong arms wrapped around Charlie, but his gaze never left Gemma’s. “Me, too, Charlie. See you tomorrow.”

Charlie, oblivious to the tension between them, ran into the house. When Gemma heard the door close, she waited for the explosion she knew was coming.



TRAVIS HAD BEEN abandoned, beaten, and had his heart broken, but he’d never felt so betrayed. And by the one person he trusted the most.

“How does he know about me?” Travis asked, confused.

“I told him. Once he started school, he asked about you, where his dad was. I told him that we were really young, and that you left town without knowing,” she said.

“You mean I left town and you decided not to tell me. Instead, you broke up with me,” he said, unable to resist the dig. The shock of actually meeting Charlie made the situation she’d put him in worse. He saw the happiness and excitement in his son’s eyes at meeting him for the first time, and white-hot shocks of rage had shot through him at what he had missed out on.

Gemma’s excuses only fueled the fire.

“Yes, Travis, it’s my fault. I was wrong not to tell you, not to give you the chance to choose to be involved or not, but in all fairness, I didn’t have a lot of faith in your commitment to me. If I recall, after I told you we should break up, your final word on the subject was ‘okay.’”

After I asked you several times to believe me. “What was I supposed to say when the girl I loved said we should break up?”

“You apologized several times for not fighting for me, but I wonder if the real reason you never really tried to stop me was because you were relieved,” she said, and that gave him pause.


Had he been relieved when Gemma had left him? He remembered the misery and the hurt, but now that he thought about it, maybe. Maybe there had been a small part of him that had been glad she had ended it before he really did screw it up, because that was the way his life had always gone. The minute something good happened to him, something bad snatched it away.

“I was a young, hot mess. After everything I had been through, you really expected me to chase you down and beg you not to break up with me?” he asked.

“No, but I didn’t think it would be that easy to walk away either,” she said.

It hadn’t been easy. For months after that night, he had reached for the phone when he got good news or just because he missed the sound of her voice, but he’d been too proud to break down and make the first move.

But he wasn’t going to apologize for that night anymore. Now, this was about the fact that she hadn’t bothered to contact him in ten years to tell him about his kid. That she had spent several days with him before she’d blurted it out unexpectedly. And he had a feeling if he hadn’t followed her, he never would have known.

“Were you going to tell me? If I hadn’t come back here, if we hadn’t run into each other in Vegas, would you ever have told me about him?”

Her face said it all. “I don’t know.”

Travis was so hot under the collar, he wanted to hit something. He needed to get the hell away from her.

“I’ll be by in the morning to see Charlie,” Travis said, starting for his truck.

“Travis, please, we aren’t done. I don’t want our personal stuff affecting Charlie,” she said.

Travis opened the door with a sneer. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell him what a liar you are.”

Travis ignored her gasp and climbed into the truck. He was too pissed off to care if he hurt her. What he needed was a bottle of whiskey to help him forget about Gemma for a few hours. Maybe after a few shots the truth wouldn’t hurt so much.

Truth. Did anyone tell the truth anymore?



TRAVIS WALKED INTO Buck’s Shot Bar and thanked God there were only a couple of people inside. The last thing he wanted was to be bombarded by a bunch of excited townspeople.

He sat at the bar, and Eric Henderson looked over at him with a grin. “Well, look what the cat dragged in. Travis, you look like hell.”

Travis shook Eric’s hand. He had always like the Henderson family, from Buck and Connie to their boys, Eric and Grant. They had a daughter, but she’d taken off after she graduated high school and he’d never met her. If it hadn’t been for Buck letting him play in the bar, he never would have been picked up by Off Road Records.

Or left Gemma. If he had been in town when she’d found out she was pregnant, how would his life have changed? Was she right about him resenting her if he’d been stuck here, working to support his family instead of following his dream? He’d like to think not, but the teenaged version of himself hadn’t exactly been mature.

“Eric, give me a shot of Jack. Leave the bottle, though,” Travis said.

“Ouch. I take it you know, then,” Eric said, pouring the whiskey into a shot glass.

Travis glared. “Know what?”

“About Charlie. You’ve seen Gemma?” Eric asked.

Travis took the shot and laughed bitterly. “Oh, yeah, I’ve seen Gemma. So, does everyone know he’s mine?”

“Well, it’s not like Gemma ever told anyone, but he’s your spit for sure. He’s a great kid,” Eric said, refilling Travis’s empty glass.