Page 9 of Love is a Drum Beat
“Ben can give you the code to the building since he lives there too.” His expression turned sincere, and Dax knew he meant every word. Noah cared about Jo. “Please make sure she’s okay. For me.”
There was a reason Dax avoided going to any of their homes. Being seen with a famous person would lead to questions as to who he was.
But this was different.
This was Jo.
For some inexplicable reason, he wanted to help her. She needed him, she just didn’t see it yet.
And he’d always needed her.
3
Jo
Dax and his stupid questions.
Was she okay?
No, of course she wasn’t, but why did he think she’d spill her guts to him? The guy didn’t like her. When she was around, he barely spoke to her. With the other Rockstars Anonymous guys, she’d seen him open up a little, even smile.
But with her… blank looks, pitying eyes.
That was right. Dax Nelson pitied her, the poor pregnant drummer who was prone to doing stupid things—like getting knocked up by the world’s biggest jerk.
Jo’s fingers itched to reach for the phone and dial the familiar number that would bring Noah’s voice to her. He’d always been her crutch, the person who kept her going, her family. Her fist slammed down on the table in front of her, landing on the documents she hadn’t seen coming.
This was the final nail in the proverbial coffin. The truth she’d already known stared her in the face as she read it again. “A nondisclosure agreement. Who the heck does he think he is?”
She’d never had any illusions about Blake Coleman’s character, or lack of it, but she hadn’t expected his cruelty to hurt this much. At first, she’d wondered if this was a joke, if Blake would come around.
But did she want him to?
Did she want him to be a permanent fixture in her life?
She rubbed a hand over her stomach. The answer was yes. For her baby, she wanted Blake to care. Growing up with only one parent kind of sucked—she would know. But this kid would have something Jo never did. That single parent would love it with everything she had.
Her eyes scanned the words she’d read too many times now. Blake wanted her to agree to never reveal the identity of the child’s father. He hadn’t offered anything—not like she’d take it. Instead, he expected her to listen to him, to obey, like everyone else in his life did.
But this wasn’t about him. It was about a baby who’d come into this world with only a messed up mother to take care of her.
Reaching for her beer glass, Jo downed the rest of her seltzer, pretending it was an ice cold Elvis Juice. Man, she really needed a beer.
“All right, little alien, let’s make a deal. You stop kicking my bladder, and I’ll sign this agreement so you never have to know how big of a jerk your father is.”
As if the baby heard her, the pain inside her ceased.
“Thank you.” She rotated a pen over the back of her fingers like it was a drum stick. Maybe that was why she was going crazy. She needed to play. Flipping the pen up, she caught it mid-air and bent forward to scribble her name at the bottom of the document. “It’s done. That man will not be in our lives. It’s going to suck for you, not knowing your father, but it would suck more if you did.”
Her phone buzzed on the table, but when she saw her dad’s name flash across the screen, she ignored it.
Pushing herself up from the chair—which was quite a feat—she waddled into her bedroom.
She’d exhausted the romcoms on Netflix, but they made her cry anyway, and she was done crying. There was no such thing as the kind of romance the movies portrayed, no such thing as true love.
Jo had dated a lot, much more than the guys in the group who’d once seemed allergic to anything serious. She’d never tell anyone this, but she’d searched for true love. Most of the guys were nice, but she didn’t want nice. She’d wanted explosiveness, passion.
Jo didn’t do anything the easy way. Most of the time, she was rude and sarcastic, and a lot of people didn’t like her. Except the fans. For some reason she couldn’t figure out, they loved the rebellious drummer—probably for the same reasons they’d continued loving Noah through all his antics and scandals. They wanted to be entertained. Good performers with perfect lives were boring.
