by Karen Booth
“You know you don’t have to pay me back.”
She smiled, a forced fraction of a grin, but David felt as though his head was swimming.
“I’m not going to take money from you.”
“What if I knew a way for you to keep the house and the recording equipment and still make a big chunk of money?”
She cocked an eyebrow. “I’ll never cut it as a hooker. I have no boobs.”
His pulse picked up as he zeroed in on her chest—true, not much in the way of boobs, but he’d gladly take his chances with what was there. “Very funny. No, I have an idea. But we’d need to find you and the boys a place to live. If you want, you could move in here for a while.”
Chapter Three
The suitcases were packed. Everything else—the years of accumulated items, books and toys, clothes and linens—most of it would be packed later, during the week when the boys were at school, by the movers who had been hired by the film company. David’s friend, Jay, the location coordinator for Lion’s Heart Films, had reassured her they would take care of everything. The hefty sum they were paying to use the house for six months of filming was certainly helping to ease the pain.
“Mommy, I still don’t get why we’re going to stay at Uncle David’s house,” Tyler said.
“Don’t be such a doofus.” Page punched his younger brother in the shoulder. “We’re going to live at Uncle David’s house, not stay there, and it’s because Mom finally figured out a way to make Dad crazy. That’s why he left.”
Alex closed her eyes, praying for some measure of patience. She felt like stringing Page up by the scruff of his neck and showing him exactly how good she could be at making someone crazy. “Tyler, honey, they’re going to make a movie at our house. And we’re going to live at Uncle David’s house temporarily. Okay? Everything is going to be fine. Don’t listen to your brother.”
“Whatever,” Page said.
“Boys. Please. Get in the car.”
Page stared out the window while they sat at a stoplight on the way to David’s. His iPod was so loud she could hear every note and lyric of the demos Glenn had recorded a month ago, in the home studio, with Page playing the easier guitar parts. She glanced into the rearview mirror to see Tyler flipping through a toy catalog in the back seat. He mumbled and smiled while his head bobbed from side to side, his routine recitation of the details of every toy.
They were growing up so much faster than she could fathom. It wasn’t that long ago they were tow-headed, chubby-cheeked, snuggle bunnies. Now Page’s hair was nearly black and his attitude of a similar hue, both traits mimicking his father’s. Tyler’s blond was darkening every day, inching shades closer to Alex’s. His disposition, however, was much sweeter than his brother’s, despite his other problems.
David was waiting for them outside when Alex pulled through the security gate and up the long, steep driveway. He loved Spanish architecture, and this house had it all—red tile roof, stucco exterior, and hand-painted tiles inlaid in the front steps. He strode over in beat-up jeans and black tee, grinning, and Alex rolled down her window. He leaned against the door, pushed his sunglasses onto his forehead and peered into the backseat.
“Hey, guys. Are we ready to party or what?”
Page grimaced. Tyler seemed bewildered by the question.
“How’s Mom doing today?” David gripped her arm. His deep brown eyes, warm and inviting, also showed pity. “I had one of my cars put into storage so you’d have a space in the garage.” He patted Alex’s forearm and waved her ahead.
David had Chinese food delivered that night, and Page actually smiled and laughed a few times, the only glimpse of cheer from him since he’d found out his dad had left. He seemed to gravitate toward David; they talked endlessly about music, both of them guitar players. Page could probably learn much more from David than he ever had from his father. Maybe time with David will be good for them.
Alex tucked Tyler in after dinner, reading him a chapter of the third Harry Potter, their second trip through the books. David’s five bedrooms afforded each of the boys their own room.
“Mommy, can we get a dog?” Tyler’s pale blue eyes, a carbon copy of Alex’s, struggled to stay open. He yawned before straightening each of the three stuffed animals he’d tucked under his arm.
Alex smiled. Glenn was highly allergic. He puffed up like a marshmallow around dogs. “We’ll talk about it. Okay?”
“How long are we going to stay here?”
Alex brushed Tyler’s long bangs to the side. She and Tyler had already talked about the duration of their stay a dozen or more times, but this was part of the way he processed things, asking the same question repeatedly, even when he knew the answer. “We talked about this before, remember?”
“They’re making a movie in our house for a few months, and they aren’t going to change anything in my room.”
That last part made her pause—the studio had promised nothing of the sort, but there was enough to worry about right now. She pecked him on the forehead. “You got it, honey. Nothing to worry about. Now, get some sleep.”
Alex quietly closed the door and saw that Page was still up, the light beaming into the hall from beneath his door. She thought twice—he’d been so combative with her all day. Give him some space. Maybe some time alone would help him start to deal with everything.
She meandered down the hall, curious if David was still in the living room. Part of her wished that he weren’t, that he’d either left to go spend the night with one of his bimbos or gone downstairs into his studio. She wanted to sleep and she wanted to be alone. Alone with her thoughts of what it might be like to strangle Glenn with her bare hands.
David was indeed, still up—he’d turned on some music and poured two glasses of wine. Perhaps tonight’s bimbo was making a house call. Hopefully, whoever it was would be out before the boys would have to see her in the morning. David’s taste in women ran the gamut from tawdry to tragic.
“Everybody settled?” he asked.
“I think so. Tyler was really tired, but I’m sure Page is up for the duration.” She eased behind the sprawling brown leather sectional in the center of the room. “I’ll leave you to your entertaining. Somebody special tonight?”
He furrowed his brow. “Huh? It’s just us tonight.” He picked up the second wine glass from the rustic wrought iron coffee table and offered it to her.
She stopped dead in her tracks. “Oh, I just assumed.” She took the glass of red wine and sipped, sitting in the chair opposite the couch, tucking both legs beneath her. “Thank you.”
“Of course.”
“No, really. Thank you for everything. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t hooked me up with your friend from the movie studio. I know the boys and I are cramping your style, too. Lisa offered, but her place is a two-bedroom, and it’s forty-five minutes from the boys’ school.”
“Alex, please. I promise you that you are not cramping my style.”
Chapter Four
David longed to set down his wineglass and reach for Alex, have her take his hand, pull her close. That was all he really wanted, all he’d wanted for the last seventeen years if he were going to be honest about it.
Alex had never shown the slightest bit of interest in him, even when they were teenagers and she was the new girl in school and he had a fighting chance, before Glenn had staked his claim. Yet, he’d never been able to shake his attraction to her, as hard as he’d tried, distracting himself with other women. It was more than physical—there was something about that nut-hard exterior of hers. He wanted nothing more than to crack it.
Alex wrapped her arms around her thin frame, swimming in a gray sweater, as though she was insulating herself from the world. He could protect her; he could make everything better, if he had the chance.
“The boys seem like they’re handling things pretty well,” he said.
She took another sip of her wine and nodded. “Yes and no. Page is asking questions abou
t where Glenn is and whether we’re going to get a divorce. I just don’t know what to tell them, and Page doesn’t even want to talk to me most of the time. We’ve been butting heads for the last six months, so his mood has stayed the same. Tyler is another story, but he seems to be hanging in there.”
“How’s Tyler doing with school?”
Alex sighed and David felt badly about bringing up the subject.
“He has his good days and his bad,” she said. “They’ve got him working with a teacher’s aide a few times during the day, and they put him in a social skills group with some other boys with similar issues. He’s seeing a few therapists. That seems to be helping, but it’s all going to take time.”
“And still no diagnosis?”
“What? No. We had him diagnosed last year. I thought Glenn had told you.”
David shook his head, unsure of what to say.
“He has Asperger’s Syndrome.” She shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a label so we can get him the help he needs at school. To me, he’s just Tyler.”
The silence filled the room and David watched as Alex picked at one of her fingernails, distracted, likely deep in thought.
Out of nowhere, she gasped. “I didn’t even think about Double Damage,” she blurted, her eyes wide. “What is the band going to do without Glenn?”
David chuckled. “It’s not exactly an issue right now. We’re already on an unintentional hiatus. Last Love is going to be in a movie soon, but that’s about it. I’d love it if we were doing something, but the music world isn’t exactly knocking down our door.”
Alex’s brows drew together in confusion. “What about the new songs? Glenn said you guys were writing some great new stuff. He seemed really excited about it.”
New songs? “Uh, I don’t know what Glenn told you, but we haven’t written anything new in over a year. Since he and I stopped our Tuesday practices.”
All color drained from her face. Her jaw visibly tightened. “You stopped doing Tuesday practices.” Her eyes were cold as stone. “A year ago?”
“Give or take a month. Why?”
“I’m an idiot.” She shook her head and leaned forward to pour what was left in the bottle into her wine glass. “We’re going to need more wine.”
David popped up from the couch. “Got it. More wine.” He hurried over to the wine cabinet and pulled out one of his nicest bottles of red, a 1989 Chateau Musar. He grabbed two fresh glasses and uncorked the bottle back at the coffee table.
Alex downed the last of her glass and watched as David poured her a fresh one. “I knew it.” She took a big swig of the new glass of wine. “He was cheating again. He kept coming home late on Tuesday nights, sometimes not until two or three in the morning, and he’d tell me about the new music you guys were working on, but he never played me anything. I should’ve known. He always played stuff for me.”
“He’s been doing this every Tuesday?”
“Yep.” She finished her glass and David was quick to pour the refill. She lounged back in her seat, seemingly more relaxed now that the wine was starting to show its effects. “Is it hot in here?” She unbuttoned and slipped her cardigan from her narrow shoulders to reveal a black tank top with skinny straps. She fanned her hand, stretching her graceful neck, baring the smooth contours of her collarbone.
Good thing I’m sitting. Otherwise, I’d be on the floor. It was impossible to think straight when he saw that much of Alex’s skin.
The band had once taken the wives and girlfriends to the Virgin Islands, where Alex had unknowingly tormented David for ten days in her black string bikini. If he closed his eyes, he could still remember exactly what she looked like, her slender legs, the slight curve of her boyish hips, and her surprisingly sculpted shoulders. She loved to make self-deprecating remarks, referring to herself as “Tiny Tits” and once making a joke that no one would even notice if she went topless. To his delight and detriment, she made good on the joke the following day when they chartered a yacht.
David’s fiancée, Liza, had really let him have it that night—screeching at him for a solid hour about how he was so obviously in love with Alex, pissed that she’d caught him staring at her at least a dozen times over the course of the afternoon. He managed to convince her it was all in her head, they had some mind-blowing make-up sex, and David imagined he was with Alex. He called off the wedding weeks later.
“Are you really sure that Glenn was cheating again?” David was reasonably sure the answer was yes. Glenn had strayed many times over the years. When the band was at the height of their success, they all had dozens of women throwing themselves at them every night. A guy could only say “no” so many times.
That had been the hardest thing to witness over his long friendship with Glenn, seeing him with other women, knowing he got to go home to Alex when the tour was over. There was no good way out of it—tell Alex and destroy his brotherly bond with Glenn, tell Alex and break the heart of the woman he loved. In the end, putting his head down and trying to ignore it had been the only solution.
“Oh, I’m sure. This is like every other time. I just convinced myself that he was telling the truth this time.” She shook her head. “This forces my hand, doesn’t it? I mean, I can’t be a doormat forever. I’m going to have to ask the lawyer what we can do to speed along the divorce.”
“No second thoughts?” he asked, although when Alex decided to do something, it was going to happen.
“Not now, there isn’t. Now that I know that he cheated again.”
“I’m glad you’re sticking up for yourself.” His voice caught in his throat. “I love Glenn, but I’ve always thought you were too good for him.”
Alex stared at him for a moment before she erupted with laughter. “Yeah, right. Glenn was the only guy who wanted me.” She stood and stretched. “I gotta pee. I’d go for another glass or two.”
David remained, stunned. “Whatever you want.”
Chapter Five
Alex tugged the fluffy comforter to her chin. Despite her opinion of most bachelors, David at least had the sense to buy good sheets. She slipped out of bed and kicked her copy of Gone with the Wind, which she had apparently managed to knock off the bedside table in the middle of the night. The smell of coffee was in the air. It’s six forty-five on a Monday. What is David doing up?
David was in the kitchen with the boys, pouring bowls of cereal. What man in his mid-thirties has Captain Crunch in the house? At least David owned his single guy life with fervor.
“My three favorite guys,” she said.
“Good morning.” David set out the milk, his eyes a brilliant flash. “Did I miss something? When did I become one of your favorite guys?” He winked at her.
“Mommy, you don’t have to get us up for school anymore. Uncle David can do it.” Tyler chomped a mouthful of cereal.
“I’m sure Uncle David was just having a hard time sleeping.”
“Not true,” David said. “I had to quiz Tyler on his multiplication facts. We worked on them like crazy last night. Six times six?” They’d been staying with David for more than a week and he hadn’t hesitated to jump in and help with homework.
“Thirty-six,” Tyler answered. “Come on, give me a hard one.”
David laughed. “Smart kid.”
“He is,” Alex said.
“I had all kinds of problems in school. Tyler seems like he’s doing great.”
Alex sipped her coffee, leaning against the white granite-topped center island, watching David. He looked different this morning. He’d always been incredibly handsome, with rich brown eyes and a mop of hair that often managed to be disheveled. Now, with the shadow of a beard darkening his jaw, his brown bed-head flopping into this face, wearing nothing more than slouchy pajama pants and a ratty old T-shirt, she couldn’t stop looking at him. It’d been years since she’d thought of David that way. Maybe I’m just lonely. Maybe my hormones are out of whack.
Before she’d given much thought to it, she s
tepped forward and gave him a hug, pressing herself into him in a way she quickly questioned. “Thanks for being so sweet with the boys.” She rubbed his back. What am I doing? David shuddered and her stomach dropped as she released him from the embrace.
David cleared his throat and abruptly turned away, snatching the newspaper from the kitchen counter and holding it at his waist. “I’m going to hop in the shower. You two have a good day at school.” He ruffled Tyler’s hair. “Good luck on the math quiz, champ.”
Alex plopped down at the kitchen table with her coffee. She attempted to make eye contact with Page, but he stared down into his cereal bowl. “Do you guys want to do anything fun after school today?”
“Let’s get our new dog.” Tyler’s face bubbled with excitement.
Page’s eyes darted to Alex. “A dog?”
Now was the perfect chance to show Page his father didn’t hold the patent on being the cool parent. “I told Tyler we could talk about getting a dog. Won’t that be fun?”
“What happens when Dad comes back? Then we’ll have to get rid of the dog and we’ll have to listen to doofus cry for a million years.”
Alex reached for Page’s hand and he pulled it away. “Honey, I don’t think we can count on your dad coming back.”
His stare narrowed. He pushed his cereal bowl away and stood up from the table. “I hate you. You are the worst mom in the whole world. No wonder Dad left.” Tears started in the corners of his eyes and he slung his backpack over his shoulder. “I’ll be in the car.”
Tyler finished the last of his cereal. “Does that mean we can’t get the dog, Mommy?”
Alex dug her hands into her hair. “Not right now, honey.”
****
Alex headed straight to her house after she dropped off the boys at school.
“Can you hand me the packing tape?” Alex asked Lisa. “Thanks for taking the day off from work, by the way.”
