Page 20 of Accidental Fire
“What bad news?” I had no idea what the fuck those idiots did to cause River to take off, but I sure as fuck planned to find out.
“Arlo’s gonna be a daddy,” JD announced as he took another deep inhale from the blunt he was holding.
“What?”
“Stupid fucker knocked up his ex, the gold digger. She—or her parents—are coming after him for a whole bunch of money. Heand Riv got into a fight when Riv blamed him for potentially fucking up our chances of making it big because the girl’s eighteen now, but maybe not when he first poked her. She’s still in high school. He’s twenty-two,” Goldie responded.
Hardy came into the room from the hallway with a dime bag, which I pulled out of his grip. “You little fuckers better get your shit together. I’m going to find River. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes to take you to see the geyser. Be ready, or I’m gonna beat someone’s ass.”
Slamming the door as I stepped out of the room, I headed down the hall to the stairs as I retrieved my phone from the pocket of my shorts and hit the icon to call River. It rang three times and went to voicemail.
I tried it again, and this time it was answered. “Hi, Kit. I’m down on thebeassshh. I wanted to hope you’d beheeeere. Where are you?”
Son of a bitch.He sounded drunk. “Stay where you are. I’ll find you.”
I hurried down the stairs to the lobby and rushed out to the back of the building that led to the beach. I took off my sneakers and socks, leaving them on the stairs, and I hurried to the sand, glancing left and right until I spotted River sitting in the surf with a bucket of beer.
Why the fuck was this shit happening to me? Nate had sucked me into a clusterfuck that I didn’t appreciate.
I stood over the kid, seeing he’d gotten a haircut. “Your hair looks nice. Tell me, what’s going on?”
River scanned my body from feet to knees to hips—his eyes stopped as he stared at my crotch. He then continued up my body until he met my gaze. His left hand shaded his eyes, and he gave me a drunken smile.
“Arlo got his girlfriend pregnant. She called him while we were in the spa and told him she’s gonna have his kid. She wants himto pay her a bunch of money in child support after the kid is born. She said her parents are going to make sure he pays what she needs to take care of herself and the kid. He’s going to ruin us. She’s just turned eighteen.”
River dropped the empty bottle into the bucket of ice and offered me a cold beer, which I took. He then took one for himself, and since he didn’t appear to be leaving anytime soon, I sat down next to him.
“How far along is she?” I asked as I gazed out over the turquoise waters of All Saints Bay. It was a beautiful place, that was for sure.
“He said she’s about six weeks along. She had her eighteenth birthday two months ago. He claims they were together twice—once before her birthday and once after. What are the fucking odds that he’d knock her up when he only fucked her twice?” River asked.
I sighed. “Yeah, that’s sort of tricky. Where does she live?” I pulled out my phone and hit the search engine.
“Brittany lives in Cupertino. Arlo said she’s the younger sister of a friend of his from high school. Sounds like they’re not friends anymore, but Arlo doesn’t talk much about that, so I’m not sure what happened.” River twisted off the cap of his bottle, so I did the same.
I got the distinct impression we weren’t going anywhere like we’d planned, so I took a gulp of beer because I wouldn’t be driving. It was ice cold.
I pecked in some keywords and saw that the age of consent in California was eighteen, and with Arlo being twenty-two, the kid was in a world of fucking hurt if she got pregnant the first time they were together. I took another swig of the beer.
“Fire him.” It was the first thing that popped into my head.
If the kid left the band, then his actions would have no bearing on the group. Arlo would have to figure out his shit, and theother four guys would be unencumbered by his obligations to his baby and baby momma—or the courts.
River turned towards me. “I can’t do that, Kit. He’s my brother… well, half-brother. Our dad is a fuck-up and goes back and forth about whether Arlo is really his son. It’s done a fucking number on him, so I can’t blame him completely for this. The kid has looked for love anywhere he can get it. Hell, I have too.”
Seeing the pain on his face, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close to try to offer some comfort. God, how could people treat their kids like that?
“It’s okay to want to be loved, River. People do shit that we don’t understand all the time, and we get hurt by their actions, which is what this sounds like. I’m sorry you guys are going through this before you’ve really gotten off the ground. What can I do to help you?”
The next thing I knew, I was on my back in the sand with River on top of me, his lips sealed to mine. When his tongue slid over the seam of my mouth, my instinct was to push him off. What the fuck was I doing kissing a guy?
Stopping the kiss and explaining to him that I was straight was what I should have done, but I didn’t. I rolled him over and plunderedhismouth. I’d never had a kiss like the one River and I were sharing, and my cock kept telling menotto stop. It wanted more.
I kissed him as I’d kissed women in the past. His body was firm in my hands, and I found I liked the feeling of him beneath me. Never had my heart pounded as it did when my lips met River’s.
When we pulled apart, I stared into his eyes, unable to look away. “You wanna get something to eat?” I noticed the beachfront server approaching from my peripheral vision.
“Nope.” He reached into the bucket for another beer, so I nodded. When the young man stopped and asked if we wanted anything, I said, “Another bucket, please.”
