The Rock Star's Christmas Reunion: contemporary holiday romance (A Charisma series novel, The Connollys Book 1) by Heather Hiestand Page A

that I know of,” Bax said. “She hasn’t failed me so far. Why?”
    “I’d have thought she’d be the last person you’d want to hang with around here.”
    Bax frowned as he stared at the man. In the mirror behind the counter above Quin, he saw two young men enter and go to a display of pipes in the corner. “That makes no sense to me.”
    Quin’s eyebrows lifted and his lips curled in derision. “You mean you don’t know?”
    “Know what, Quin?” Bax shifted his stance, alert to some kind of threat.
    Quin snorted. “You don’t know that Yakima claimed to be pregnant with your child just after you left?”
    Bax’s chest rattled with a laugh, his first instinct. “Yakima? My little next-door neighbor? The babysitter?”
    “Yes, my sister,” Quin snarled.
    “Well, what happened to the baby?”
    Quin shrugged as one of the customers brought a selection of vape accessories up to the counter, ignoring Bax. He stepped aside so the man could be rung up. The customer, maybe four or five years younger than Bax, and probably a little stoned based on the glazed, reddened eyes, finally noticed him. He opened his mouth as if to ask a question.
    Bax was used to the behavior, the mental processing of people who almost remembered who he was but not quite. Around here, that might not be a celebrity thing even. He might have been friends with a member of the person’s family.
    “Bax?” the guy asked, as Quin gave him his change and bagged his purchased.
    “That’s me.”
    “Huh. I thought you were long gone.” The guy blinked slowly.
    Bax kept his expression polite and neutral, not knowing where this was going. Quin wasn’t offering any clues since he hadn’t greeted the man by name.
    “You gonna open a nightclub around here or something?”
    “Ummm, no,” Bax said. “Why would I do that?”
    The guy shrugged. “Isn’t much to do around here and you musicians like the nightlife.”
    “If you say so,” Bax said.
    The customer glanced at Quin, then back at Bax. “Oh, you’re going to open a cannabis store, right? I saw some celebrities had their own personal shit, am I right?”
    Bax did not want to mention his party to this guy. Given Quin’s hostility, he regretted offering the invitation to him as well. But the customer wasn’t moving on. Bax desperately wanted to know what Quin was talking about. Yakima? A pregnancy? She hadn’t mentioned it, nor had his cousins. If it had really happened, it must have long since been forgotten.
    He smiled mysteriously, half-lifted his hand in a casual goodbye, and walked out of the shop, figuring he was as likely to come off as enigmatic as anything else. But mostly, he’d just gone numb. He’d thought his family would be his biggest problem around here, not the former neighbors.
     
    ~
     
    “Bax isn’t home,” Yakima said into her cell phone at six p.m. that evening. “Any idea where he is, Haldana?”
    “Did you have plans?” Bax’s cousin asked.
    “I said I’d stop by with the menu for his party. I told you. I wanted to go to Costco to shop tomorrow. I texted him but he isn’t answering.”
    “I’ll give you the garage code,” Haldana said, reeling off the digits. “You’re dating, right? I’m sure he won’t mind.”
    “I don’t know if dating is what we’re doing, exactly. Hanging out.”
    “Less formal but still the real deal,” Haldana said cheerily. “Anyway, go in through the garage. I doubt he locks the door into the kitchen.”
    “Why isn’t he getting back to me?” Yakima didn’t like her own tone of voice. Too needy.
    “Probably let his cell battery die. Guys, right?”
    She squared her shoulders. “Okay, getting out of my van now.”
    “Have fun, but don’t tell me about it. He’s my cousin. Ewww.” With a giggle, Haldana terminated the call.
    Yakima left her van and tried the garage door code. The door shuddered and began to rise. She left her van in the driveway so that he’d know she was there, and went inside.