but he was not going to control Sawyer, and he definitely wouldn’t be in charge of this child.
“This is our baby.” He pointed to her flat stomach, trying to picture it round and swollen. “We get to decide what happens. Not your dad.”
“I feel sick. I think I had too much sugar.” Piper sat down next to him. “My dad can help protect my image.”
“How can you think about your image right now?”
Piper didn’t flinch. “How can I not? I am financially responsible for my entire family, Sawyer. My career pays for everything, including my brother’s enormous medical bills. My family depends on me to uphold the image I’ve sold to the world.” She placed a hand on her stomach. “And I am thinking about this baby. This baby is going to depend on it, as well.”
Sawyer took a deep breath. “How is being pregnant going to ruin your image?”
Piper picked at the sequins on her dress. “Trust me. I’ve been at this longer than you have. I know how the business works. Country music is way more conservative than pop. I may be looking to cross over but my base is still country. Not to mention that my brand is good girl, girl-next-door, girl you can bring home to your mom. Good girls don’t get themselves in this situation. Good girls get married and then have babies. There are mothers out there who would not want their daughters listening to my music if they thought I promoted anything other than a clean lifestyle.”
Sawyer had issues with this logic but couldn’t deny he’d seen other celebrities take a fall when a scandal hit. A baby and a wife weren’t exactly part of his branding, either. He shook his head. How was he able to think about his image and career right now?
“Can I have a little more time to wrap my head around this before I have to deal with your father, who is probably going to kill me?”
“We have to tell him before I go meet with the tour promoters tomorrow to sign the contract. There’s no way I can go on a yearlong tour when I’m going to have a baby in less than nine months.”
The tour would have to be cut short. Sawyer hadn’t thought about that. Heath really was going to kill him.
They agreed to meet in the morning for breakfast. They would tell Heath together.
Sawyer left Bridgestone Arena feeling much less confident about his future than he had coming in.
* * *
“THE MORE I think about it, the more I can’t believe you’re okay with the world thinking you and Piper have a thing going,” Hunter said as they walked into their hotel. “Anyone who knows you is never going to believe it, and everyone who doesn’t, will. So much for me being wingman to the most eligible bachelor on tour.”
“I can’t talk about this right now.” Pretending to be dating Piper was the least of Sawyer’s concerns.
“Poor Hunter is going to have to find his own dates,” Faith teased. “And I’ll say it again, there are worse things than dating Piper Starling.”
Sawyer wasn’t about to let himself truly fall for someone like Piper. He’d been avoiding women like her his entire adult life. Why had he let his guard down? Piper had made it clear back then and tonight that her career was her number one priority. She reminded him of women like his mother, who’d left her husband and children without ever looking back.
Sawyer wanted to be like his father—a strong provider who put his family first. But how was he going to manage raising a child while building a career in music? How difficult would Piper and Heath make it for him to be part of their child’s life? He knew one thing for sure—he didn’t want his child raised by nannies.
“I need a minute with my brother,” Faith said, hooking her arm in his and pulling him in the direction of the stairs instead of the elevator. “We’ll meet you upstairs.”
She pushed the door open and motioned for him to lead the way. He might have grown up without a mother, but he had a Faith, and she knew him better than anyone.
“What’s going on in that head of yours? Ever since you got done talking to Piper, you look like your favorite horse just ran away.”
“It’s been a pretty stressful day.”
“Tell me what’s really going on. Is there something wrong with Piper? Does she not want you to go on tour with her? What did she need to talk to you about?”
Lying to his sister was impossible, and right now he needed someone to talk to more than ever. “What if I told you it’s not so far-fetched that Piper and I could be together? What if we were together a couple months ago?”
Faith didn’t buy it for a second. “I was there when you two were working on her album. You were living under my roof. You might have been flirtatious, but there’s no way you were sneaking around having a secret romance. I would have noticed.”
Sawyer side-eyed her as they made their way up the stairs. She was one to talk. Faith and Dean had carried on a secret romance for an entire summer over a dozen years ago when she was only eighteen.
“Right, because no one has ever gotten away with a secret relationship on our farm before.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Dad knew about me and Dean. I didn’t know he knew, but he did. He told the Presleys about us.” She was quiet, probably thinking back to when things were starting between Piper and Sawyer. “I’ll admit, I noticed she looked at you like you hung the moon for a long time. I also noticed you were kind of loving all the attention. But those last couple weeks, it was different. It was almost like you were avoiding each other.”
They had been avoiding each other, but that was no longer a possibility. Piper would be a part of Sawyer’s life forever. “What if we were in love? Or thought we were.”
Faith laughed. “If you were in love, I would know, because it would change you. And you have been the same ol’ Sawyer since she left Grass Lake.”
“Well, I’m not the same Sawyer I was a couple hours ago.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, trying to keep up with him. “What is going on? If you want me to tell Dean to back off this idea of you and Piper leading the rest of the world on, I will. I don’t want you to feel like you have to lie about who you love or don’t love.”
“What if I don’t have a choice?”
“What?” She tugged on his shirt to get him to stop. “Why wouldn’t you have a choice?”
Sawyer pressed his back against the wall and pulled at the front of his hair. “I messed up, Faith. I messed up big-time.”
“She’s not sick.” Faith stopped. He could imagine the gears turning in her head as she put everything together. She grasped the railing. “She’s pregnant, isn’t she?”
Sawyer nodded.
“Oh, my... Sawyer.” She wrapped her arms around him. He dropped his head on her shoulder. “We have to tell Dean,” she said.
Sawyer straightened. “We can’t. You can’t tell Dean until Piper is ready to tell him. She is freaking out right now.”
