Chapter 1
Kin
May
Biting down on the apple I grabbed from the kitchen, I sat at my desk in my bedroom and opened up my laptop. Finals were over, thank goodness, but I still had some writing to do for myself. I promised Aunt Emmie a new song by Monday so she could sell it to some record producers. I didn’t want to know who was getting the song, because it didn’t really matter who sang it as long as it got recorded and I got paid.
It meant my name was getting out there more and more, and with producers asking for me by name, I knew I was on the up-and-coming list. Or so Aunt Emmie and Jace kept telling me.
Thinking of Jace made me smile. He hadn’t wanted to leave last night, but he had obligations on the East Coast this weekend, and he was going to spend today and Sunday with Alicia in Bristol before flying back Monday. Carolina Rebellion was going on, and Tainted Knights had gotten one of the best slots on the roster for Friday. They weren’t closing the show, that honor was reserved for Demon’s Wings and OtherWorld, but they weren’t anyone’s opening act, not by a long shot.
My guy and his band weren’t on the up-and-coming list, they had already arrived, and I couldn’t have been prouder of him.
After I typed in my password for my laptop, I saw there was a window already open. Since it was a social media page, I figured Jace had been the last to be on there. He was always messing around with a video or a teaser recording for one of the band’s newest songs, posting on the TK fan page that already had over two million followers.
He needed someone just for social media these days, but he liked to do most of it himself. Between him and Kale, who was always posting the pictures Santana took of the band, their fans got their daily dose of all things Tainted, and then some.
Shaking my head, I started to close the window when a message alert popped up at the bottom of the screen.
Frowning, I glanced at the top of the page and instantly realized it wasn’t the band’s fan page, but Jace’s personal—and set to private—page. The name on the message at the bottom wasn’t one I recognized.
Eden Smith.
Who the hell was that?
The picture of her beside her name drew my attention, letting me ignore the actual message for a moment, which was some picture that hadn’t yet downloaded. I clicked on her photo, unable to completely make it out. It was some blonde who was super skinny. Her face was scarred from either really bad acne or maybe even past drug use. I couldn’t tell which.
But it wasn’t the scars that had me enlarging the picture even more, and they sure as hell weren’t responsible for my heart rate doubling. I scrolled over her face, taking in the beauty under the scars and bad makeup. The chick hadn’t learned to contour for shit, but that didn’t completely disguise just how pretty she was.
Her hair was naturally blond, not the dyed and fried job some blondes tended to have going on. Her eyes were a piercing blue—or they would have been if they hadn’t been glazed from whatever the hell she was drinking that made the whites of her eyes more red than white due to being so bloodshot. She had a smoke in her hand, something hand-rolled. With her bikini top, I could see easily she had a decent rack and a tight stomach. The shorts she wore were jean cutoffs. There was nothing outstanding about the photo. She was pretty, sure, but not overly beautiful.
So why the hell was my heart trying to escape my chest just looking at her?
I didn’t understand it. I didn’t know her, even if she did look familiar—I just couldn’t put my finger on why. She had nothing to do with me. And I knew for a fact that she wasn’t friends with Jace on this social media page. He didn’t let fans become friends on his personal page. We agreed early on when we’d started dating again that he wouldn’t let work cross over into our personal lives, and that meant social media especially.
I exited out of her profile picture and clicked on the message icon. The picture had finally loaded, showing the Eden chick with a huge smile on her face and the most adorable little baby in her arms wrapped in blue. The baby boy had a full head of blond curls, just like the woman holding him. As she was in what looked like a hospital bed and based on the small size of the baby, I could only assume he was her son and she’d recently given birth in this picture.
As I was looking at the adorable baby, happily skimming my gaze over that cute as hell little dimple in his chin, a message appeared below the picture.
Finally here! Our baby boy is perfect, Jace. I can’t believe he’s here! Wish you were here with me. I miss you. Love you more than anyone…except our beautiful boy.
All the air seemed to be sucked from my lungs, and I nearly choked on the bite of apple still in my mouth. Hands trembling, I coughed up the apple and spat it into the small wastebasket under my computer table.
Our baby boy.
Our beautiful boy.
Our.
Why the fuck did she keep saying “our,” damn it?
Then I started doing the math. If she’d just given birth, that meant she got pregnant the same time Jace and the band were on their summer tour the year before.
The same tour Jace returned from acting like an entirely different person. Moody as hell. Always on his phone talking to someone but never telling me who. Keeping secrets. For a while, I was sure he was cheating on me. He was so distracted that even our sex life had started to suffer.
Until Lucy and Harris had their bachelor and bachelorette weekend. Whatever happened then, I didn’t know, but things had changed between us.
He’d been more open, swearing to me he wasn’t cheating. Promising me that nothing was going on with any other woman. He loved me. I knew that, never really doubted it, but there had been plenty of times I’d wondered if he was loving me and someone else too.
But no, he swore there was only me for him. He was just going through some stuff.
Stuff. That was how he explained it. Not what kind of stuff, just…stuff. I hadn’t been happy with the answer, but things had gotten better between us. He paid more attention, wasn’t on his phone as often when we were together. We made love every day now, and I thought we were going to be just fine.
So what if he hadn’t proposed yet? He would when the time was right.
Or so I kept telling myself.
I wasn’t jealous of Kassa and her massive ring Gray had given her after only a few months of dating. Nor was I jealous of Lucy’s rings and the adorable baby bump she was now sporting with pride. Those things would all be mine one day, I was sure of it. Jace just needed a little more time.
Right?
Looking back at the picture now, my heart suddenly felt like it was being sliced in two. Was that Jace’s baby? Was he the father of someone else’s little boy?
I looked closer, trying to find some resemblance to the man I loved.
Not the dimple in his little chin, that definitely wasn’t from Jace. But there was something about the facial features that kept drawing me in. It was very much a possibility that Jace could be this beautiful little boy’s daddy.
No! I didn’t believe that. I wouldn’t without more proof. Jace just wouldn’t do something like that to me.
I scrolled through his past messages with Eden. Nothing much, just the occasional message asking why Jace hadn’t texted her that day or to remind him to call her. Some of the dates were from after the Vegas weekend, some from before. Checking the date on the very first message, I saw it was from September. With it, there was a picture…
Thought you would want to see our little nugget. I don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet. What do you think? Either way, I hope the baby has your good heart, Jace. Love you.