Almost Ordinary (The Song Wreckers Book 2) (19 page)

3D had a sophisticated atmosphere with its fancy light fixtures, leather furniture, and skyline prints on the walls. Large potted plants sat in corners giving the place a softer, more human appearance. My footsteps seemed to echo on the hardwood floors making me tip-toe to Caleb’s office.

Raising my hand to knock—on the wrong door—Caleb leaned out of the next office. “In here.”

“Wow, it looks like a filing cabinet threw up in here,” I said as I turned in a slow circle. “Then threw up again.”

He removed some files from a chair so I could sit. “It’s not that bad.”

“No, it is,” I said. “Maybe Franny should pay this place a visit. Do you meet clients in here?”

“Not anymore,” he said, sinking into his chair. “We meet in the conference room.”

How on earth did he find anything? Let’s say I had a fantasy about him laying me down on his desk late one night then making love to me, my way of marking his office. The fantasy just died.

Time to focus. “Let’s get this over with. Call Cooper in here.”

“I hate to say this, but anything you say is going to go over better without me in the room.”

He pointed left. “His office is—”

“I remember.”

I knocked on Cooper’s door. “Come in,” he called.

The look on his face let me know he regretted those words. “Molly.”

His office was almost as disastrous as Caleb’s. I tossed my purse on a chair to let him know I expected more than a second of his time. He glanced at my purse, then at me. “How’s it going?” I asked.

“Busy.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine.” He put his hands on his hips.

I moved my purse to the floor and sat in the chair. “Listen, Cooper,” I began, as “Baby Got Back,” Katie’s ringtone, rang out. I hit the silence button. “I want to know how you’re doing. How’s the leg?”

“Fine.” He dug through paperwork.

The hint came through loud and clear.
Get out, Molly!

“Damn it, Cooper!” “Baby Got Back” rang again. I pressed ignore. “I’m not leaving until you give me some more details. Are you in pain? Are you still taking prescription painkillers? Does your leg need surgery?”

My text alert sounded. I checked it quickly, dismissing the message, then realized it said:
Water broke. In labor!

“Oh shit, I gotta go!” I grabbed my purse and ran to the door. I stopped and turned around to face him. I needed to spare one more minute. “Listen, Cooper, I don’t have time to beat around the bush with you. Katie’s in labor and she needs me.” I closed most of the distance between us and pointed in his face. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, or what you’re up to. So help me God, if you’re still taking Vicodin, or anything else that you shouldn’t be, as soon as this baby is born I will kick your ass to kingdom come then kick it again.”

He slowly pushed my hand away from his face and trailed his gaze to my stomach, then up to my face. I think he connected the dots as to why I puked in Brett’s bathroom.

I fisted my hands on my hips. “That’s right, I’m pregnant again. If you need surgery, get it. If you’re on pills, get off them. I’m not kidding, Cooper. With three kids I can’t afford to have my husband picking up your slack, especially if you run 3D into the shitter because you can’t pull your head out of your ass. Caleb!” I left, calling out, “Katie’s in labor!”

Chapter 24

I tore into Katie’s driveway, threw the van in ‘park,’ and ran into her and Brett’s house. Brett had left the door wide open in the freezing cold of January, so he must’ve been in a panic. “Katie!” I yelled.

“Up here,” she yelled back.

I called Franny to let her know I’d be later than expected while I waited in Katie’s kitchen.

Brett and Katie came down a few minutes later, Katie breathing heavily and Brett holding a duffle bag while helping her walk.

“Baby time!” I didn’t know what to do so jumped up and down, overexcited. Next I ran in a circle and clapped.

“What on earth, Mol?” Katie panted.

“I’ll meet you guys at the hospital. You called Mama?”

“Yeah.”

Katie did okay for a while, even refusing an epidural at first. With no sense of panic from her, or any indication she needed me to stay, I went home to round-up the boys and call Caleb with an update.

As soon as I re-entered the maternity ward I could hear Katie’s screams. They weren’t so much, “Aahhhh,” more like, “You’re never touching me again!”

Brett raised his voice to match hers, telling her to breathe.

“I am breathing, you fucking idiot! If I wasn’t breathing I’d be dead!”

Yikes, how bad was it in there? I left the boys for a minute in the waiting room with a grandmother who went all gushy as soon as she saw them.

I ran up to the nurse who left her room. “How is she?”

She shook her head. “Poor thing. Her labor progressed like that.” She snapped her fingers. “She missed the window for an epidural.”

Oh. My. God. “Natural childbirth?”

“Afraid so. Excuse me,” she said, and went into another room.

I texted Caleb the
kinda funny, glad it didn’t happen to me
news. He showed up half an hour later, staying long enough to hear Katie yell, “I am not screaming! Southern women do not scream! Give me a God damn epidural or so help me I will get it myself!”

I opened the notebook feature on my phone and typed out every screaming curse I heard Katie broadcast. Once some time had passed she’d see the humor in it.

An hour later, I told the new parents, “She’s so beautiful.” Evelyn Marie Jenson was born at seven-oh-six p.m. Perfect timing, like anything Katie planned. I was able to hear the screams of her birth, congratulate them, and make it home before the boys went to bed.

Franny only had a few days left with us. She had done such a good job organizing Caleb’s home office that I asked her if she’d go to 3D and see if she could do something with Caleb and Cooper’s offices.

“Wow,” she said after the first day. “I thought I’d never find my way out of that mess alive.”

The second day, she declared, “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Franny came home the third afternoon with a job offer from 3D. “Office manager,” she told me.

I put one finger up in the “Hold on” position. I called Caleb. “You offered her a job?”

“What’s wrong with that?” he answered. “I trust her, we need her. She’ll make a great office manager.”

She would, but, “Ugh,” I grunted and hung up. Deep down I had hoped she’d change her mind at the last minute and stay with us. Selfish of me, I knew.

“Congratulations,” I said in the same tone as “Sorry your dog died.”

“They offered me more money than I’d make as a paralegal. Nice health benefits, a 401K. I don’t know, it’s been fun the last few days.” She blushed. “You can bring the boys to visit me and go out to lunch sometimes.”

“I guess. I’m happy for you. What about wanting to do the paralegal thing?”

A deeper blush lit her cheeks. “This just seems better. Cooper cared that I was about to finish my degree, not what my degree had printed on it. Ram said good things about me and they saw how I transformed their offices.”

I would’ve loved to talk her out of it, but that would upset Caleb. He was right. They did need an office manager. How they survived so long without one remained a mystery. She would start at 3D tomorrow, so I used my last few hours with her to work on music. Ironically,
that’s
when Cindy Swinger, Gina’s mom, called me, concerned about her daughter.

Cindy acted as Gina’s manager until recently. She knew Gina needed a “real” manager, so that’s not what worried her. Gina’s new manager, Cindy told me, has become Gina’s new boyfriend.

“So?” I replied. “Maybe he’ll look out for her better.”

Cindy swore her gut feeling, that this man wasn’t on the up-and-up, was too strong to be ignored. Only a foolish woman ignored another mom’s intuition, and since Gina was my bread and butter, I’d better call and see if I could fish out information about the new boyfriend.

“Hi, Molly,” Gina answered. “Did you finish the album?”

“Just about. I think you’re gonna love it.”

We spent a few minutes on chitchat before I blurted out, “Your mom tells me you have a new manager-slash-boyfriend.”

“You’re not going to be an old fuddy duddy about this too, are you? Sometimes, all you old people are the same.”

“I’m so
not
— Never mind.”

“He’s a great guy, I promise. We care a lot about each other. He’s smart and handsome and has only my best interests at heart.”

I wished her luck and called Cindy, assuring her nothing seemed amiss.

Over the next couple of months I spent as much time with Katie as I could, helping her adjust to motherhood. The adjustment to days without Franny didn’t go as planned. Set up a music station upstairs so the boys could play while I worked? Ha! What a joke. Work in the basement after they’ve gone to bed for the night? Yeah, except exhaustion plagued my pregnant ass, and without a nanny to help bear my load I passed out within an hour of the boys.

On the plus side, Franny loved her new job and Caleb told me she’s been a Godsend at 3D. It was now March, and in the two months she’s been there Cooper hadn’t scared her off yet. Probably because he split his time between Tampa and Detroit so she didn’t have to put up with him on a continual basis. Dealing with the ever-changing moods and needs of the twins must’ve been good training for Franny to deal with a man like Cooper.

“You mean he hasn’t been a complete, grumpy, asshole to her?” I asked over dinner one night.

“Not at all,” Caleb said. “He’s been in a better mood. He signed the lease for the new office space in Tampa, and check this out: he’s agreed to surgery on his leg to correct the bone that didn’t heal properly so he can start the new branch ‘at one hundred percent’—that’s a quote—once the office renovations are done.”

“When is that?”

“A couple months,” he told me, “Assuming nothing goes wrong. You know how those things can go.”

“So the crunch to recruit, train or relocate is on?”

“Yup. We’re getting there. Cooper’s very particular with who he hires so it’s taking a lot of interviews.”

“Fanny,” Alex said, followed by Zander’s, “Twuck.”

They missed Franny even though she’d visited a few times. I wiped their faces and set them loose in the family room. Caleb followed them and relaxed into the couch, spreading his arms out to either side.

I loaded the dishwasher and joined them. “Joy’s coming over again tomorrow.”

He opened one eye. “I figured,” he yawned, then closed his eye.

“I’m going to see if she wants to come by Monday through Friday. Like, take Franny’s place. That okay with you? Zander, no!” I grabbed the . . . whatever it was he almost put in his mouth. He started crying. I picked him up.

“You know I like Joy and she’s good with the boys. Think she’ll brave the long trek?” he joked.

My dad and Joy bought the house next door. No realtor bothered to stick a sign in the yard and I hadn’t talked to the old owners much, so I’d had no idea it was up for sale. Their real estate agent drove them to the house, and after a good laugh and even better offer, they owned it. Maybe karma paid me a visit for not turning my back on Cooper when he needed someone.

So we saw quite a lot of my dad and Joy in the month they’ve lived a hop, skip, and a jump away. I asked Joy to babysit for the first time when Caleb and I went to the ultrasound that verified the baby’s gender.

A girl!

I’d mentioned to Joy that I could use help caring for the boys so I could finish Gina’s second album, so she’d been coming over during the day. I thought it was time to make it official, if she agreed, by setting a schedule and paying her for her time. I also hired a maid service to clean once a week.

Joy loved the idea of getting paid to babysit her step-grandsons, and I loved the weight she lifted off my shoulders. Sure, Caleb was busy at work with Cooper’s surgery and the new branch opening. And once the Tampa branch opened, he’d work even more for a while, but I had people in my life who I could count on for help. Not my mom, she’d emailed me to let me know she and Victor had moved, but she’d never been ingrained into my life anyway so her absence only affected me on the inside. No, my support system included my dad and Joy next door, there if I needed them. Katie and Mama, my constants. Caleb and the boys, my everything.

Outside of them, The Song Wreckers were my closest friends; Heather, Courtney, Josh, and Katie of course. Looking them in the eyes and telling them I wanted to quit the band ranked in my top three list of “Conversations Molly Wished She Didn’t Have to Initiate.”

The Song Wreckers held practice during maternity leaves to make sure we were still in sync or to finish a song. I’d asked the rest of The Song Wreckers to meet at Courtney and Josh’s barn under the pretense that we needed to do an equipment check. No one thought it strange; we were anal when it came to keeping our equipment in perfect working condition.

We talked while we checked our equipment. I had no idea how or when to bring up the idea of quitting. Katie didn’t know yet that I planned to break apart what we’d spent almost fifteen years building.

“Mol!” Katie’s yell snapped me out of my thoughts.

“I’m sorry, what?” I turned from the speaker I’d been pretending to examine.

“Somethin’ wrong?” she twanged.

“Not with the speaker. I need to speak to you guys.” Dang it, my voice shook already.

Heather, Courtney, and Josh waited, confusion clear on each one of their faces. Katie narrowed her gaze and glared straight through to my soul.

I met her eyes, then nodded. She let out a small
whoosh
of air.

“What’s going on?” Heather asked.

I reached out and Katie grabbed my hand. With my best friend by my side, I quit the band.

I cried, they cried, but we all agreed we’d had a good run. Katie swore she’d never sing with any other back-up vocalist. She accepted the Song Wreckers’ end, too. Josh and Courtney decided right then and there they were done. Heather listened mostly silent, reluctant to give us up. It sucked disappointing her but she agreed to a promotion at Brett’s as the assistant manager, and that meant more responsibility. Plus, she’d find another band, assuming she could balance gigs with working almost all nights at the bar. We decided we’d do one last show the first Saturday in April, then quit for good.

We didn’t have anything extra special planned for our very last show. We knew our loyal fans would all be there to show their support. Brett’s would be packed. He borrowed more tables and chairs to accommodate the bigger crowd, causing the dance floor to shrink. But if people drank enough they wouldn’t care.

Brett’s also accepted a surprise guest: Gina Swinger. She planned on coming home to Ohio with her new manager/ boyfriend, so I invited them to the show. It was only after she accepted my invitation that I worried she’d steal Katie’s thunder.

April third, the last Wreckers show. In so many ways the night was the same; pulling into the alley, meeting Josh and Courtney at their van, setting up our equipment, seeing the same faces.

It was also different. Katie freaked out about leaving the baby with Char and the boys, I was six months pregnant, and, although not as huge as when pregnant with twins, my lower back ached and my bump interfered with playing guitar a bit. Not one man screamed out “Nice ass!” or “Nice tits!” when Caleb turned his head.

Franny promised to come, never having been to a Song Wreckers show and I watched the doors every time they opened hoping to see her face. She planned on bringing the man she’s been dating. I’d never met him, or heard her talk about him. In fact, I only found out about him when she told me she’d bring him to the show. Franny was quite pretty in the no-nonsense way—dark hair that had grown into an easy to maintain chin length bob, and minimal makeup because she had skin to die for. I fully expected her to show up with a hottie.

For the last time, the five of us stood on the stage in our regular spots. My breath hitched and I fixed my watery eyes on Caleb. He gave me a thumbs-up.

Katie turned on her charm. “Alrighty y’all. This is our last show as you know.” The crowd booed and clapped. “We’ll be taking requests all evening, so hand them to Johnny—” Johnny the bartender waved his hand in the air. “—and he’ll hand them to us.” She turned toward the band. “Ready?” We all nodded yes.Josh smacked his drumsticks together four times, and the beginning of the end started.

The first several songs were good. We were in our groove despite my guitar sliding around my bump. Playing together was like breathing for the five of us, so natural we didn’t have to think about it. My guitar finally found a good position despite my bump. None of us had cried yet.

Gina and her boyfriend came in five songs later and created a ruckus. I stepped up to my mic and introduced her and we paused for a few minutes to let her fans say hi. After a quick break to grab a bottled water and pee, the mass of partiers cared less about her popularity and more about hearing ass-shaking, revenge-planning songs.