No Commitment: A Secret Baby Second Chance Romance Read online

  NO COMMITMENT

  © 2020 Lisa Suzanne

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the US Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher or author constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law and except for excerpts used in reviews. If you would like to use any words from this book other than for review purposes, prior written permission must be obtained from the publisher.

  Published in the United States of America by Books by LS, LLC.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real people, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All characters and events in this work are figments of the author’s imagination.

  Content Editing: It’s Your Story Content Editing

  Proofreading: Proofreading by Katie

  Cover Design: Najla Qamber Designs

  Photograph: Rafa Catala

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  BOOKS BY LISA SUZANNE

  MY FAVORITE BAND STANDALONES

  Take My Heart

  The Benefits of Bad Decisions

  Waking Up Married

  Driving Me Crazy

  It’s Only Temporary

  The Replacement War

  A LITTLE LIKE DESTINY SERIES

  A Little Like Destiny (Book One)

  Only Ever You (Book Two)

  Clean Break (Book Three)

  THE UNBREAKABLE THREAD DUET

  The Power to Break (Book One)

  The Power to Break - Audiobook

  The Invisible Thread (Book Two)

  The Invisible Thread - Audiobook

  CLICK HERE FOR MORE

  DEDICATION

  To Matt, Mason, & Maci.

  You three rock my world.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 2: TYLER

  CHAPTER 3: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 4: TYLER

  CHAPTER 5: TYLER

  CHAPTER 6: TYLER

  CHAPTER 7: TYLER

  CHAPTER 8: TYLER

  CHAPTER 9: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 10: TYLER

  CHAPTER 11: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 12: TYLER

  CHAPTER 13: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 14: TYLER

  CHAPTER 15: TYLER

  CHAPTER 16: TYLER

  CHAPTER 17: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 18: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 19: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 20: TYLER

  CHAPTER 21: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 22: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 23: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 24: TYLER

  CHAPTER 25: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 26: TYLER

  CHAPTER 27: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 28: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 29: TYLER

  CHAPTER 30: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 31: TYLER

  CHAPTER 32: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 33: TYLER

  CHAPTER 34: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 35: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 36: TYLER

  CHAPTER 37: TYLER

  CHAPTER 38: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 39: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 40: TYLER

  CHAPTER 41: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 42: TYLER

  CHAPTER 43: TYLER

  CHAPTER 44: TYLER

  CHAPTER 45: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 46: TYLER

  CHAPTER 47: DANIELLE

  CHAPTER 48: TYLER

  EPILOGUE: TYLER

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER 1

  DANIELLE

  TWO YEARS AGO

  “Are you looking at the moon?” he asks me. It’s been almost six weeks since I last saw him, and I’m so done with this long-distance thing.

  I glance out the window. “I am now.”

  It’s the one constant in what’s been an unstable path for us so far. A different city nearly every other night for him while I remain stuck in place.

  “Me too,” he says, and I sigh.

  I like looking at the same moon in the same sky as him even though there’s a thousand miles between us tonight.

  “I hate this distance,” I say softly, and I wish Tyler was sitting on the bed beside me so I could feel his hand slip onto my leg as he tells me he does, too. Instead, I watch him in the dim lighting of his bunk after he played a show in Boston with his band and they head to the next city on their packed schedule.

  I don’t even know if he would slip a hand onto my leg, to be honest.

  We haven’t been together in person enough times for me to know his relationship habits.

  We’ve had this thing for the last two months, no commitment on either side even though neither of us is seeing anybody else, and it all goes back to the night he came back into my life again after being out of it for a decade.

  We did it on my desk, and then we did it on his tour bus, and then we did it in my office chair...and one of those times, something made its way through even though we tried to be safe. I wasn’t on birth control. I had no need to be since I wasn’t having sex with anybody.

  My guess is the time in my chair. He hammered away at me, and the angle felt so good for both of us, and when he pulled out, he said the condom had slipped partway off. He’d been pretty sure everything would be fine, but about a month later, after what felt like a stomach flu I couldn’t shake, I went to the doctor and learned the truth. It was about two weeks after I’d returned from a weekend in California with him...the last time I saw him in person.

  I haven’t told him about the baby yet.

  I want to tell him in person, but I didn’t think I’d have to wait until I was nearly two months along to let him know. This isn’t the kind of news you just blurt out over video chat. Is it?

  Every time I’ve tried or we go down the conversational road of children in the future, I get the pretty strong impression he doesn’t even want kids. He hasn’t said that in so many words, but the expression on his face when I talk about my four-month-old niece, Gracie, tells me he’s not super into the idea of diapers and spit-up and children in general.

  So I chicken out. Like I said, it’s not a video chat conversation. I’ll tell him when I see him, and then we’ll just deal with whatever his reaction might be.

  And just to be clear, it’s definitely his. I haven’t been with anyone else since my ex over a year ago. We were able to meet up in person that one short weekend in California, but I didn’t even know I was pregnant yet at the time. And now it’s been six weeks since I’ve seen him and I’m almost nine weeks along.

  “I do, too,” he says. He sighs. “And I have something else to tell you.”

  Alarm bells ring. Whenever he sighs like that, it’s bad news. At least I know that little habit after two months of video chats.

  “What is it?”

  He twists his lips like that’ll soften the blow of his next words. “You know how our tour wraps after one more stop and we were really looking forward to my time off?”

  “Yeah...” I say, drawing out the word. Looking forward doesn’t quite sum up the feelings we’ve both expressed over the end of this tour. I can’t freaking wait to see him again.


  It’s literally all I’ve thought about for the last few weeks...because when I see him, I can finally tell him, and I can get the weight of this secret off my chest.

  “Well, Tommy wants me to go on a reality show,” Tyler says.

  My brows dip. The connection between this reality show and his time off isn’t quite clear to me yet. “What kind of reality show?”

  “I’m not really supposed to talk about it, but it’s a music thing.”

  I stare at the screen. He’s not supposed to talk about it? Even with me, the woman carrying his child? “What kind of music thing?”

  He looks like he wants to say more, but he pauses before he lets it out. “You can’t tell anyone.”

  “If I haven’t proven over the last two months that you can trust me, then what are we even doing?” I counter.

  “You know the band MFB?” he asks.

  “Of course I know MFB. Everyone knows MFB. Wait a minute...do they want you to be on Rock on the Road?” I ask, naming the reality show the band has starred on for two seasons.

  “Sort of.” He looks uncomfortable.

  “Sort of?” I ask.

  “They’re running a special season of the show while they look for a bassist. They’re calling it The Replacement War and it’s a battle of the bassists.”

  “Oh.” I frown because I’m still not getting it. “How long will that take?”

  “Anywhere from a week to a month, and they’ll take my phone as soon as I walk in the doors.”

  “A month? Why are they taking your phone if you’re guest starring?”

  He sighs then shakes his head. “I’m not guest starring. I’m competing.”

  “You’re competing?” I’m epically confused. “I don’t get it. You already play bass in a pretty successful band, Tyler. One you love.” It’s his entire life. This makes literally zero sense to me.

  “Yeah, I know.” He glances away with guilt. “Tommy thinks it’ll be good exposure for us.”

  “So you’re going on a reality show to compete for a prize you have no intention of winning,” I say flatly.

  He nods as he presses his lips together. “Yeah. That pretty much sums it up.”

  “Tyler, you can’t do that.” I don’t go into all the reasons this is a bad idea, but in my head, I tick them off one by one.

  He’s stepping on someone else’s chance.

  He’s walking away from his own band.

  He’s making himself look like a complete asshole. Maybe he’s actually being a complete asshole.

  He’ll be gone anywhere from a week to a month. I’ll be anywhere from ten weeks to fourteen weeks pregnant by the time he’s done, and he doesn’t even know.

  I can’t hold that one against him, I guess...but in the last nine weeks, I’ve had this date looming ahead, knowing I’d finally get my chance when his tour with Capital Kingsmen wrapped. That date came closer and closer, and it’s just within my grasp now...and he’s pulling it away.

  Ripping it away, actually.

  Shoving it down a deep, dark hole.

  Anger flares in my veins.

  He can’t do this.

  “I have to,” he says. It’s too hard to tell over video chat in the darkness of his bunk if he has any regret about it, but his next words make me think he doesn’t. “The label owns me, and they’re on board with me doing this. They think it’ll help ratings. It was Tommy’s idea, and Brett and Dustin both think it’s a smart move, too. So even if I wanted an out, I don’t have one. Besides, I think they’re right. All press is good press, Dani.”

  All press is good press.

  A shudder runs through me. Will the fact that he’s this baby’s father just be another item for the press? Will having a baby with a celebrity mean my child will always be in the spotlight?

  How do I protect the baby from all that?

  It’s not the first time I’ve thought any of that, but I suddenly feel very alone. He’ll be gone up to thirty days in a house he shouldn’t be in...and I’ll be over here growing our baby.

  How do I even tell him the news now? I’ve been pregnant for nine weeks. I could’ve told him any time over the last two months, and I didn’t. I chose to wait. And now if I say something, it’s going to seem like I’m just telling him to get my way.

  Baby news should be happy news, not a way to manipulate.

  I draw in a deep breath as I try to calm myself, but I can feel hysterics rising in my chest. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to turn. I want to tell him—I need to tell him, not just so he knows but so I have him to lean on.

  But it took one conversation to show me that maybe I won’t have him to lean on.

  “You always have an out,” I counter. He might be owned by his label and his band, but he still has a mind of his own. He can still opt not to drag the pen across the paper to sign up for something so stupid. He can still be a big boy and make an adult decision.

  “Well this time I don’t,” he snaps, and I don’t know if I’m just overly sensitive because my hormones are already all out of whack or if he’s being a dick, but his tone is rubbing the anger—and the fear—already pulsing in me the wrong way.

  “Hey, don’t yell at me because you’re choosing to go down a stupid path,” I snap back.

  “It’s not stupid,” he snarls. “It’s what I have to do.” He draws in a calming breath and softens his tone. “I have an obligation to three other men and my label.”

  He has an obligation to me, too. He just doesn’t know it.

  “Don’t you have an obligation to us?” I ask softly, trying to get him to see this is all wrong.

  He looks sad when he says his next words. “Yeah, Dani. I feel it. I do. But we both agreed to no commitment until we had time in person together, and it’s not that big a deal. It’s only another month max and then we can figure things out between us.”

  “Not that big a deal?” I yell. “Only another month? Okay, then fine. Don’t bother calling me when it’s all over.” I spit the words out without really thinking about them, without really meaning them, but now they’re out there.

  His brows push together in some combination of anger and surprise. “You can’t be serious right now.”

  “Then how come I am?” I hang up, and I throw my phone down beside me.

  He tries calling back, but I’m too angry to answer.

  It’s a dumb fight. I know this. I know we’ll get past it and make it through to the other side a month from now.

  We have to.

  There’s a baby in the picture that he doesn’t even know about.

  CHAPTER 2

  TYLER

  TWO YEARS AGO

  “Dammit,” I mutter when she doesn’t answer. I toss my phone and it hits the side panel of the bus where I’ve been sleeping most nights over the last six months. If it breaks, well, that’s life. Everything else around me is breaking, too.

  The end is in sight. We’ve got one more show tomorrow night in New York and that’s it. Boom. This tour will be roasted. I’ve never been more ready for a tour to end.

  Normally I love the road. I love touring, I love music, I love everything about my job.

  But my job has come between me and the woman I’ve wanted since I was a teenager. I finally got my shot. I took things slowly...well, after that first night. Nothing about that first night was slow.

  Despite my history and my natural inclination to hump and dump, as Tommy so eloquently puts our shared penchant for one-night stands and flings with women we know we won’t see beyond a night or two, I haven’t done any of that shit since Danielle Watson waltzed back into my life.

  And it was all a fluke, too. Her boss had an emergency, so she had to step into his role as the venue manager, which put her right in my path. If she would’ve just stuck to her normal back of house duties at the arena, we never would’ve crossed paths. She wouldn’t have known who I was—in particular because I’m not the skinny band nerd who was a distant part of her past.
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  I’ve replaced those memories now, by the way. It took one night in Milwaukee when Capital Kingsmen toured through her arena and then another weekend in California that was far too short to prove I’m all man now.

  We grabbed a bite to eat at Carne’s, the chain restaurant where we worked together with locations right on the beach. We sang the slogan to each other all weekend: “Guacamole, fajitas chips! The salsa makes me do backflips!” I did an actual backflip in the sand. We fell in love with the people we are now since we missed our chance back when we were teenagers. We had sex.

  And we didn’t make any commitments—not any verbal ones, anyway.

  But my stupid heart clung onto hers in those moments, and now I can’t stop thinking about her.

  I haven’t stopped thinking about her since I was seventeen. My days are filled with the bass guitar, but at night, the memories plague me. She’s the one girl I never got my chance with.

  I asked her out a hundred times. “Ask me later,” she always told me. We were good friends. She thought I was kidding.

  I wasn’t.

  I was so close to having it all with her. Centimeters away, really. So goddamn close.

  And then Tommy stepped in with his bright idea for me to go on some stupid ass reality show as a way for me to talk up Capital Kingsmen.

  I don’t like the idea any more than Dani does, but I don’t have the luxury of backing out. Tommy, Brett, and Dustin were all on board, and we’ve settled a lot of band shit over the years by majority. Some I win, and some I lose. It just so happens that this time I was on the losing end.

  And apparently I’ve lost in more ways than one.

  Dani is not happy with me.

  I’m sure this will pass. We’ve talked every day and every night. We text when we can’t talk. She’s my girlfriend as far as I’m concerned, and this is just a dumb fight. Every couple has them, right? This is just our first.

  I text her.

  Me: I’m sorry, D. I don’t like it any more than you do.