by Karen Booth
Glenn turned off his phone and stood. “Where’s Alex?”
David furrowed his brow, his pulse quickening. “Is she not out here? Have you looked in the kitchen?”
“I called for her and didn’t get a response,” Glenn answered.
David walked to the kitchen and Tyler and Glenn followed. The seconds felt as if they were ticking by in slow motion. Come on, Alex. Get your cute little butt out here. “Huh. I guess she isn’t in here. Anybody need anything to drink?”
Glenn set his hand on the kitchen island. “I’m good. Just need to talk to Alex.”
“I thought I heard voices.” Alex traipsed into the kitchen in her yoga gear, her hair in a high ponytail.
“Mommy, we had so much fun,” Tyler said, rushing to her. “What did you do? Have you been exercising?” He tugged at her pants.
“Good guess. I’ve been doing yoga. I was listening to my iPod. I guess that’s why I didn’t hear you guys.” She smoothed Tyler’s mop of hair. “Why don’t you say goodnight to Daddy and go get ready for bed? I’ll be there in a minute to tuck you in.”
“Goodnight, Daddy. I missed you.” Tyler leaned in to hug Glenn’s leg.
Glenn crouched down and looked the most parental David had ever seen him look. “I missed you, too.” He rubbed Tyler’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I was gone, but don’t worry about it. You and your brother and I are going to be spending lots and lots of time together.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Alex felt like Tyler after a two-chili dog dinner—sick to her stomach. She drummed her thumbs on the steering wheel at a red light, on her way to intercept Glenn at their house. She’d overheard him tell David he was going by the house to pick up some of his gear for rehearsals, which were scheduled to start the next day. She dreaded it, but she had to tell him about the accident with the guitar. Hopefully he wouldn’t get as mad if she told him in person. Mostly she didn’t want the boys within five miles of that discussion if he exploded.
Alex pulled up to the security gate outside their house, where two young women were sitting on the grass. They stood when her car slowed and ducked to peer in her car window, their smiles falling. They turned away and went back to plop down in the grass. Alex knew better than to bother with calling the police. Groupies usually gave up after a few hours, anyway. Weird. That hasn’t happened in years.
She parked in front of the house, breathing a sigh of relief that Glenn hadn’t arrived. Her heart pounded and she closed her eyes to calm herself. The guitar was one thing—she probably needed to tell him about the car, too. Get it out. Listen to him yell. Move on.
Alex didn’t know everything about the Martin guitar, when it had been made, the history, although she knew Glenn had committed those details to memory. What she did know was Glenn had written many songs with it. He’d strummed lullabies on it when Page was a baby, even using it on a home recording of those same songs so Alex could play it when he was on the road and she was at home with a colicky kid.
Glenn’s Hummer roared up the driveway and Alex climbed out of her mini SUV. What an asshole. Why can’t he just drive one of his other cars? Glenn had continued to drive his tank of a car even after the last gas crisis. He was an apolitical guy, but he liked the idea of thumbing his nose at the rest of the world, especially if he thought it made him look like a badass.
“What are you doing here?” He closed his car door.
“I came by to get some clothes. You?”
“Same thing. And some gear from the studio. Rehearsals start tomorrow.”
The girls appeared at the end of the driveway, giggling and seeming unsure as to whether they should approach. Glenn smiled and pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. “Be right back. Wait for me.” He sauntered down the driveway and the girls rushed to him, CDs in hand.
Alex waited hand on hip, watching as he signed their things and posed for a photo one of the girls took with her phone. She thought about walking down and offering to take the picture, but decided she wasn’t feeling that generous.
Glenn walked back with a swagger, his confidence plainly bolstered by the girls. “Groupies. Guess I’ll have to get used to that again.”
“Uh huh.” Alex rolled her eyes and followed him to the door. Her heart began to thump erratically. This was the first time they’d been alone since Glenn had come back and the significance smacked her in the face as he unlocked the deadbolt. Visiting the scene of the crime.
They stepped inside and Glenn set his sunglasses and keys on the table. The foyer was littered with ladders, extension cords and lighting rigs.
“I think they were filming something in here on Friday,” Alex said. A faint smell of paint was in the air.
“Ya think? I can’t wait until we have our house back.”
Our house. Alex chewed on her ragged thumbnail, which couldn’t get any shorter. “Hey, um, we need to talk before you go back to the studio. There was an accident on the set with one of your guitars. It was one of the acoustics, the one you used to sing to the boys with.”
Glenn’s face blanched. His cheeks turned blotchy, his eyes wide with disbelief. “The Martin? No. Not the Martin.”
She cringed. “Yeah, that’s the one.”
“Oh, my God. You’re fucking kidding me.” He dug both hands into his hair and blinked fitfully. “What happened? Where is it? Can I see it?” The words spilled out of him, his questions asked as if a loved one had been killed.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t here when it happened.” She felt her throat tighten. “They threw it away.”
“I think I’m going to be sick.” He held his stomach and his eyes darted around the room.
“There was no saving it. Someone fell on it. It was a pile of kindling.”
“They threw it away.” He shook his head, and his eyes became glassy. “That was an original D-18. Made in 1934. Hand-made. I loved that guitar. It’s irreplaceable.”
“I don’t know what to say.” She felt herself being unwillingly sucked into Glenn’s vortex, where he was the center of the universe and everything revolved around him. A cloud of empathy settled on her and she wished it would go away.
“Do you have any idea how special that guitar is? Most guys would give up an arm just to play it.”
“The production company is going to pay for it.”
“Pay for it? Is that all you care about? Money isn’t going to make this better.” Glenn’s eyes became mournful and reality seemed to set in, or at least the reality he cared about. “That guitar was precious. There’s no bringing it back. I could spend a lifetime trying to replace it.”
No bringing it back. “I had no idea you cared about something in this world more than yourself. Granted, it was a guitar. Not your kids or your wife.”
“Don’t fucking start with me.” He pointed at her. His eyes became tiny slits.
Her anger bubbled; she couldn’t begin to comprehend his selfishness, his boundless narcissism. “I sold the Mustang.”
He opened his mouth, but no sound came out at first, merely a noisy rush of air. “You what?” His nostrils flared and his cheeks became flooded in crimson.
“I sold the Mustang.” She crossed her arms defiantly, but her voice wavered. “It was my car and you were gone and I needed money. Peter bought it.”
“Jesus, Alex. You sold it to Pete? That guy’s an asshole. How much money did you get for it?”
“More than you asked for.” She cleared her throat.
“You’re trying to get even with me, aren’t you? You’re ripping my heart out on purpose. Ripping it right out of my chest.” Glenn stepped closer and glowered, his shoulders rigid. “None of this would’ve happened if you would’ve just listened to me the day I told you about the money market account. You would’ve been fine.”
“Maybe you should have left me a check.” She knocked her head to the side and eyed the ceiling. “Dear Alex, I’m leaving you, but here’s some scratch to get you by.” Her sights honed in on Glenn again. “I’m s
till waiting to hear the explanation of what happened to the money in the first place.”
“You want to know what happened? Fine.” Glenn shoved his hands in his pockets. “I made a few bad investments.”
Silence hung in the air for several heartbeats. “And?”
“And what? You have no idea how much pressure I was under. The band was basically nothing, and I’m supposed to support my family. It’s not like I could go out and get a fucking job. I have a reputation to uphold.”
Alex threw up her hands. “Ah, your ego. So that’s what this is about. Wouldn’t want to damage that. Why didn’t you just tell me about this? It’s our money, you know.”
“Our money?” He laughed in the most dismissive way possible. “The state of California may say that half of it is yours, but you know you’d have nothing without me.”
“I’m going to pretend that you didn’t just say that.” Alex turned and stormed up the stairs, wondering what messed up part of her brain had felt in any way sorry for him. He deserved to lose the guitar. He deserved far worse.
“Where are you going?” He yelled after her. “We aren’t finished discussing this.”
She hurried down the hall, Glenn’s heavy footsteps right behind her. She burst into their closet and began making a stack of clothes, slapping on jeans, tops and T-shirts. Her breathing was labored, her mind raced. He’s such an asshole. I hate him.
Glenn joined her. He groaned and began pulling down shirts and tossing them onto an upholstered bench in the middle of the room. Alex glanced over her shoulder and watched as he went to the cabinet with their luggage in it. He grabbed a duffle bag and unzipped it. This is what’s left—clothes and suitcases.
“Fucking unreal,” he mumbled under his breath. “Absolutely unreal. I spent months looking for that car for you. So you would have something special for your birthday that year. It was a symbol of my love.”
“You’re still obsessing about the car? Get over it.” Alex fought her intense desire to just unload on Glenn, let it all spew out of her—the betrayal, the hurt, the love thrown away. As it churned in her head, the tears came out of nowhere, stinging her eyes and giving away the hurt she longed to hide from him. No, no, no. Not now. Keep it together. It was no use, even though she hated crying and this was the absolute worst time, she became a leaky faucet. She felt exposed, as if she was showing Glenn he still had a hold on her, when he really just knew how to push her buttons. Every last one of them.
“Oh, Jesus.” He cleared his throat. “Please don’t fucking cry. You know I can’t stand it when you cry.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” She swallowed and her eyelids fluttered closed, but it did nothing to stem the tide. “What happened to us? You used to love me. Was I just not good enough?” Her lower lip quivered. Her chin wobbled.
“I could ask you the same question, Alex. You used to love me, too.”
She looked at him and recognized her chance, the opportunity to put a dent in him like he’d done so many times to her. “I did love you.” She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “But I don’t know what happened to that version of me. I think you might have killed her. All I know is that the person standing in front of you doesn’t love you anymore.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
David had made it through two weeks of rehearsals relatively unscathed. Working with Glenn within the confines of the band was going well enough that he had guarded optimism about their ability to come together onstage that weekend when they did their first dates. Everyone was on his best behavior, all four seeming to recognize this chance to reclaim what they had once taken for granted—balls-to-the-wall success.
David packed up his guitar while Nick and Tony talked in a corner of the cavernous rehearsal space, walled with black acoustical tiles.
“Hey, Dave.” Glenn stepped over cords to where David had spread out his gear. “Can we talk for a minute before you take off?” He nodded at Nick and Tony. “Alone? Outside?”
“Yeah, sure.” David finished coiling a guitar cord. “Bye guys,” he called out to the other side of the room. “Remember we’re doing the bus call at midnight tomorrow night. Want to roll into Sacramento on time Friday morning. Glenn and I can’t be late for the morning radio show we’re doing.”
Tony and Nick nodded and waved them off, seemingly eager to go back to whatever they were discussing. Glenn and David strode out to the parking lot, stopping at David’s car.
“If you see Alex, can you tell her that I’ll be by at six to pick up the boys?” Glenn asked.
“Sure thing. I’m sure they’ll be ready. Tyler’s been talking about it all week.”
Glenn swung his keys on finger. “It’s weird, you know. Having to schedule time with Tyler and Page. It’s starting to freak me out. I mean, divorce. It’s so final.”
David took a deep breath. He knew this was coming at some point and he’d been dreading it. His take on Glenn and Alex’s divorce was more than a little skewed. “But you still want it, right?”
“Yeah, of course. I know our marriage isn’t salvageable, but then I’m around her and she’s so fucking hot when she’s mad at me. It almost makes me want to piss her off more than I already am.” He laughed under his breath and shook his head. “How did you know your marriage with Julia was over?”
Well, you see, I couldn’t stop thinking about your wife. “I stopped feeling anything for her. I don’t know how else to explain it.” David kneaded his forehead.
Glenn frowned. “Huh. I wouldn’t say I have no feelings for Alex. I just don’t have any good feelings for her.” He leaned back against David’s car and turned his face into the sun, which glinted off his sunglasses. “Can I ask you something? As my best friend?”
Oh, no. Please don’t. Can’t you ask me as the dumb-ass guitar player in your band? “Sure.”
Glenn put his hands in his jean pockets and showed David his own reflection in his Ray-Bans. “Is Alex seeing somebody? Because the other night when I dropped off the boys, she had a look on her face.”
David felt like his heart could punch a hole through his chest. “Look on her face? Not sure I know what you mean. She hasn’t had any guys over at the house if that’s what you’re asking.” Technically, that isn’t a lie. Technically, I’m thinking it won’t matter to you when you find out the truth.
Glenn’s scrunched up his lips. “Huh. Maybe my radar is off. She just had that after-sex glow. She always looks incredible afterward. Rosy cheeks for hours. And she smells different, too.”
David’s heart resumed its jackhammer routine. “What are you saying? Are you wanting to get back with Alex?”
Glenn cracked a huge grin. “I wouldn’t kick her out of bed if something happened, but no. I do not want to get back together with her.”
David let out a life-sized sigh of relief, but slowly, so he wouldn’t give anything away. “Well, I haven’t seen anybody around. I’ll let you know if I find out anything different.” David wondered whether covering up this mess only confirmed his reservation in hell.
Glenn clapped David on the shoulder. “No biggie. Just thought I’d ask.” He pulled him into a hug. “This week has been fucking amazing. It’s just like it used to be.”
“Yeah, man. It’s been great.” David watched as Glenn walked to his car. I am such an asshole.
****
“I wish you didn’t have to go,” Alex said the next day, re-folding and stacking David’s T-shirts then placing them in his suitcase.
“I know, but it’s only four days.” He peered out into the hall and pulled her close for a lightning fast, hot kiss. “I’ll miss you.” The fact he couldn’t ravage Alex on the bed right then and there frustrated him. At least they’d had a proper good-bye the night before, when Glenn had taken the boys out for a few hours.
“Are you ready to deal with Glenn? This is the big test isn’t it?” she asked.
David shrugged. “You know, he hasn’t been bad lately. I think he’s finally shed some of
his rock star attitude. Not all of it, but some.”
She followed him into the bathroom as he began to collect toiletries. “When do you think we can finally say something? I’m so tired of hiding. I just want to tell him and get it over with.”
“Me, too, but you know we have to wait.”
“Are you worried about what he’s going to do when he finds out?”
“Aren’t you?” He looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, the edge of her bra peaking out from the neckline of her close-fitting black top. She was in faded jeans and bare feet, with her hair rolling past her shoulders. He was torn between the tempting mental image of himself and Alex at it on the bathroom counter and the damage he’d done to his longest friendship. “Part of me wants to think that he can be an adult about this, but there’s no question. I’ve betrayed him.”
Alex’s face soured. “I hate it when you say stuff like that.”
“It’s true. It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t do it all over again, but I know I’m going to have to earn his trust back. He could hate me for a long time.” He reached for Alex’s hand. “Now’s not a good time to tell him. Things with the band are so fragile, and we all really need this.”
“I know you do. I know how important this is.”
They returned to the bedroom so David could pack his shaving kit. “Let’s see how this first string of dates goes. Believe me, I want this out in the open as soon as possible. I feel like I’m choking whenever I talk to him. The guilt is killing me.”
Tyler ran into the room. “There you are, Mommy. Are you helping Uncle David?”
“I am. What’s up?”
“Daddy’s here,” he answered, glancing over his shoulder.
Glenn rapped his knuckle against the doorframe. “Hey guys.” He propped his aviators on top of his head. “Alex, can I speak with you for a minute?”
David could feel Alex’s entire body tense from five feet away. His own didn’t feel much better. Shit. What if he’d come five minutes ago when I was kissing her?
