Catch You If You Fall (Burnouts Book 2)

by Karen Gordon

  When he got home from work his suspicions and fears were laid to rest. Amanda had left him a note that she had called Trey, and they were both invited to a barbeque at his new house. They needed more friends, both of them. Friends they shared. If this Trey guy seemed a little on edge it must have just been because he had heard Amanda’s side of every breakup and fight they had had in the past.

  Hell, maybe this guy had kids of his own. He looked a little bit older. Steve never took the time to find out about him. It might be good for them to get to know some other parents and hang out with them.

  He laughed and shook his head at the idea of him as a family man, hanging out with other family men, talking about kids and school and shit like that.

  Amanda was changing him. Meggie was already changing him. But it was all for the better. He was a better man with them in his life.

  Chapter 14

  If MG had to describe herself in one word it would have to be cautiously-lucky. (OK, that’s two, but if you use the hyphen trick …) While most of her high school friends who had one parent struggled to make ends meet, she and her mom had lived large (for their little slice of suburbia). MG always had the coolest clothes, a great car, a house with a pool and because she never expected all that great stuff, it all felt like pennies from heaven.

  And she had always been lucky beyond the stuff, too. She did crazy shit and never got caught, always made friends easily, and was never short on hot guys wanting her. Part of her kept waiting for her string of luck to end, for someone to show up and tell her that she had used up too much good luck in her first eighteen years and that she wouldn’t get any more. Her first year and a half in Manhattan had her believing that moment had come. She feared that her lucky star had burned too bright and burned itself out.

  Only now it was back – that lucky feeling, that premonition that everything would be not only OK, but great.

  It actually started with the Josh incident. With that distraction gone, she started to study and put some effort into her classes. She finished her first semester with three A’s and one B. Randy rewarded her with one of the sweetest summer jobs in Manhattan. Her title was Production Assistant, but it should have been Gofer for the Event Department at Madison Square Garden. It paid squat, but it was a super easy job with bene’s through the roof. She met celebs, had backstage access to all the shows, and spent most days running around Manhattan buying last minute stuff or food for the crews on her boss’s credit card. It blew her mind every time she signed “Gregory Overton” on a receipt for a few hundred dollars of food, and no one ever questioned it. (An interesting fact she filed in the back of her mind, just in case, you know, she was ever starving someday.)

  Greg was a totally cool boss, and his job was beyond fuckin’ cool. She wasn’t sure exactly what Randy did, but she supposed it was close to Greg’s job. He mostly met with tour directors and hashed out the millions of details that made each show great. He was the puppet master in charge of pulling all the strings to create something that made people happy. It was exactly what she had done her whole life, only magnified and with a pay check. She had never put on a show, but she had always considered it her personal mission to create as much fun as possible for her friends. MG followed Greg around like a happy puppy, soaking in all the details of his job; the job she now thought she might want for herself someday.

  Lexi came to visit for a weekend and MG felt her lucky star burning a little brighter. She knew more of Manhattan and some of the boroughs from running errands for work, but she saw the whole city in a new light when she saw it through Lexi’s eyes. It was her first time to show someone else her new hometown. People at work gave her tons of insider tips on great (cheaper) places to eat and shop and the best times to see all the standard NYC stuff. It all clicked and she felt a shift when they were riding down Broadway on the top of a double-decker bus on a beautiful summer evening. It suddenly felt like her town, like someplace she belonged.

  Then her star cranked into that high gear that almost scared her – into the kind of luck that seemed too good to last. Alex called and invited her to come to her house in the Hamptons for a weekend. In other words, a very cool girl from the in-crowd called to ask her to go to the place where everyone else from the Manhattan in-crowd spent their summers. In other words, it had finally happened, she was in.

  ♪ ☺ ♥

  She decided to take the train instead of fly. It gave her a couple of hours to chill and read a steamy romance novel and look out the window and gawk at the amazing houses. (Only it turns out none of them are located near railroad tracks, which kind of makes sense if you had a home worth a couple mil.)

  Alex was waiting at the station. They threw her bags into one of thirty or so Range Rovers parked in the station lot and MG had a déjà-vu moment. The place already reminded her a lot of college--a study in matching conspicuous consumption.

  They stopped at a little (and totally cute, like movie-set cute) store on the way home and picked up some premade food for dinner. MG hoped she was hiding her disappointment, but she was kind of irritated they weren’t going out to dinner. She was only in town ‘til Sunday afternoon, and she wanted to soak up as much of Alex’s life as possible. Maybe they were going to eat and then get ready to go out. She had borrowed two real designer summer dresses from her mom and she was dying to wear them to a party or club.

  Alex’s place was gorgeous, and big, and on the beach, and … quiet – almost creepy quiet. It looked like a classic beach cottage on steroids; three stories of clapboard house with blue shutters and big white balconies that faced the bay.

  They parked on the side and carried all their stuff into a huge mud room that led to the even huge-er kitchen. Alex told her to just drop her bags at the bottom of the stairs and they would take them up later. MG didn’t want to ask and sound stupid, but shouldn’t there be a maid or butler or someone else to take them up later?

  Alex pulled the cartons containing their dinner out of the grocery bag while she gave MG directions on where she could find glasses, plates, and silverware. Not a big deal, but there clearly wasn’t a cook either.

  “Do you want some wine?”

  MG grimaced. She needed to say no or risk another puking migraine, but she didn’t want to offend Alex.

  “Oh, shit.” Alex read the fear on her face and remembered. “I forgot. Yeah, no wine.” She opened the refrigerator, which MG hadn’t noticed because it blended in with the cabinets (cool!), and started rummaging around. “How about I make a pitcher of mojitos?” She pulled something that looked like parsley out of the fridge. “My parents started drinking them after they got back from Cuba, and they are totally yummy.”

  “I don’t know what one is … but, sure.” It took a minute to sink in, then it dawned on MG. “Wait, your parent’s went to Cuba? Can they do that?”

  Alex laughed. “Yeah, well, you can if you tell some bullshit story about being media. They went with some friends who do it all the time.”

  MG nodded, understanding more of what money can buy. “So, what’s there? I mean, when I see it on TV it’s all like run-down buildings and old cars.”

  “Yeah, that’s what the government wants you to see, but there are some great resorts there.” She smiled at MG’s surprise. “People from the rest of the world never stopped going there, only us … sort of.”

  “Have you been?”

  “No. They asked me if I wanted to go along, but …ugh.” Alex rolled her eyes and shrugged. “I don’t really like going anywhere with them. My stepmom always embarrasses me.”

  MG just nodded, hoping Alex would tell her more, but she didn’t.

  “While you dish out the food, I’ll make the mojito’s. We can eat on the deck. It’s not bad out there this time of day.”

  Not bad … ha! More like friggin’ amazing. She and Alex were sitting in the coolest lounge chairs ever watching the clouds turn pink and orange over the bay. The only sounds were the cool breeze moving a wind chime and the gulls. The foo
d was fabulous and the mojitos were yummy, maybe a little too yummy, because she was downing them fast.

  But as perfect as this was, MG still wanted to go out to a club or party or something. Alex didn’t look like she was gearing up to go anywhere. After her second mojito, MG finally got the balls to ask, “So, should I change clothes and start getting ready?”

  “You can change if you want, but getting ready to do what?”

  “Um, I don’t know, go out … somewhere?”

  “Oh.” Alex got a pained look on her face. “I really don’t want to go out … I mean, it’s really not all it’s cracked up to be.” She could see MG wasn’t buying it. “It’s basically our college but in summer clothes.”

  “Oh.” MG tried to hide her disappointment but failed.

  “I’m sorry. I just got back from visiting my mom in Spain and,” she breathed out a tired sigh, “I’m not up for seeing all …. them.”

  MG nodded like she understood, even though she didn’t.

  “When you’ve been coming here your whole life, it’s like … you know, same shit, different day.” She poured them both more mojito. “I guess I should have told you when I invited you, but I’m pretty much a recluse when I’m here in the summer. It’s my alone place.”

  “Oh.” MG shrugged off her letdown. They both sat quietly for a moment before MG asked, “So, why did you invite me … I mean, I’m glad you did, but, if you wanted to be alone.”

  Alex ate another blueberry from her plate. “I like talking to you, you’re interesting, different.”

  MG laughed at that understatement. “Different, yeah, I am that.”

  Alex laughed too. “You crack me up. That night I met you …” she laughed again. “Who the hell is Steve?”

  “What?” MG was totally lost. “How do you know about Steve?”

  “Well I don’t know much except he is,” Alex slurred the rest, “the coolest fuckin’ guy you ever knew and amaze-balls in bed.” She turned toward MG. “I need to know more about Steve.”

  MG covered her red face and laughed. “I think I say stupider shit when I have a migraine than when I’m drunk.” She looked up at Alex and smiled and shook her head. “And I was both that night.”

  “High school boyfriend?”

  MG breathed out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, and no. We were friends with bennies,”

  “Fuck buddies?”

  “Yeah, I guess, but … more,” MG’s voice got quiet, “I fucked up, I guess, I don’t know.” She turned to face Alex. “If you fell in love with some guy with no money, I mean NO money, what would you do?”

  Alex winced. “Love, huh? Wow, that sucks.”

  MG nodded, appreciating Alex’s sympathy.

  “The thing is … I would probably never know this Steve guy, but not because I wouldn’t think he was good enough for me. When you grow up with money you have a very small social circle, because you’re taught that you can’t really trust anyone outside of it, anyone who doesn’t have money. If I met a guy with no money, I would always wonder if he really liked me or if it was the money. If I date someone who also comes from money I don’t have that worry.”

  Alex had just completely changed the way MG saw her first year in Manhattan. She had been one of those people. She only wanted to meet the rich and famous for what they could do for her, what it would say about her that she was one of them. MG was silent for a while, letting Alex’s reality sink in.

  “I wish I knew someone like Steve that I could fix you up with. He truly wouldn’t give a shit about your money. I think you’d really like him.”

  “Well, does he have a brother?” Alex smiled at her cliché line.

  MG laughed. “Yeah, but he’s in prison for dealing.”

  “Yeah, OK, maybe not.” They both laughed. Alex slurped the last of her mojito. “So where is this Steve guy now?”

  MG shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  Alex looked at her with questioning surprise.

  “We haven’t talked since I left St. Louis.”

  “You should call him”

  MG chuckled, this should really shock Alex. “When I left, he didn’t have a phone.”

  “A cell phone?”

  “No, a home phone.” MG let that sink in for a minute. “He used to have to walk to the pay phone at the gas station a couple blocks from his house to call me.”

  “Wow.” Alex was getting a better picture of poor.

  “I’d guess he’s probably married by now and has at least one kid.”

  “And he’s what, twenty? Twenty-one?” Another jolt for Alex.

  MG nodded. “It’s pretty common when you start the job you’ll always have at seventeen. I know for sure one of my friends from high school has a kid. I don’t know if she married the guy.”

  “Damn, married with kids at twenty.” Alex shook her head.

  “I guess that’s really why I left him. We just wanted different things. He was a marry young and have kids kind of guy. I wanted something else.”

  “And what did you want?”

  MG looked around. “This.”

  Alex shook her head. “This isn’t a dream. It’s just a life, like any other. Sometimes it’s awesome and sometimes it sucks.” She looked back at the house. “Nice house, but nobody’s home.” She chuckled at her cleverness. “My mom is in Spain with her boyfriend, my dad is in the city, I guess, working, and my step brothers and sisters …” She shrugged. “Do you know how many summers I’ve spent like this?”

  MG shook her head.

  “I don’t either. They’ve all run together. When I was little my dad would come up on weekends and be here with me and my mom; when they got a divorce, she went one way and he went another. And I’m still here.”

  “Now I’m here.”

  Alex smiled. “Yeah, now you’re here and I have someone to talk to. Someone new. Someone different. Someone who didn’t go to the same schools, same clubs, same vacations as me.”

  MG lifted up her empty cocktail glass. “To hanging out with poor people.”

  Alex lifted hers and laughed. “No, to hanging out with you.”

  ♪ ☺ ♥

  They never did leave the house that weekend. They cleaned out the pantry and refrigerator and ate all kinds of weird combinations of stuff, then ordered Chinese food delivered for brunch on Sunday.

  They talked about hot guys and gossiped about girls from school. MG read chapters from her steamy romance novel to Alex, using all her best character voices.

  When she dropped MG at the train station, Alex made her promise she would bring a few good dresses and one formal dress with her to school because she wanted MG to rush her sorority. MG wouldn’t commit to it, but she said she would bring the dresses and at least go to the parties. It would be a huge leap for her; from nail salon receptionist to deb sorority girl in one year. It was what she thought she always wanted, but it was all coming at her so fast. Her weekend with Alex had definitely shed some new light on her dreams. It didn’t look quite so shiny and perfect from her side of the tracks.

  Chapter 15

  Amanda’s labor started while Steve was at work, and he wouldn’t have known about it had she not casually mentioned it over breakfast when their paths crossed in the morning.

  “You’re not going in to work, are you?”

  She was wearing her work scrubs, so it was kind of a stupid question.

  She rubbed her belly and smiled. “Yeah, they’re not that bad yet. If I go in for at least part of the day I’ll get full credit for the shift.” She sucked in a breath as a contraction started, she calmly breathed through it. Steve’s heart pounded in sync with her breathing through the whole thing.

  He scowled at her, not believing how calm she was.

  “What?” She smiled at his concern.

  “You’re … I mean, the baby is coming and you’re just like, nothing is happening.”

  Amanda breathed out a chuckle. “I’m ready, and I’m fine. The contractions are really far apart and this could tak
e all day, or more. My mom had long labors with both me and my sister.”

  “Well, if the contractions get stronger, call me. Wake me up.” He rubbed her belly then kept his hand there to see if he could feel a contraction.

  Amanda placed her hand over his. “I’m fine. Go to bed. Get some sleep.” She stood and kissed him. “I’ll let you know when the real excitement begins.”

  ♪ ☺ ♥

  She made it through her shift, and they passed again when she got home from work and he was on his way out. She looked exhausted, but her contractions were still far apart.

  “I’m calling in and staying here.”

  Amanda glared at him. “Go to work. Maybe you can get a whole shift in so you’ll have more time off available for after the baby comes. Wanda is on stand by and ready to take me to the hospital if I need to go.” He still looked too worried. “And she will call you before we leave here so you can meet us there.”

  She practically had to shove him out the door, and he checked the amount of battery charge on his cell phone obsessively once he got to work. When he felt the phone buzz in his pocket around two a.m. his heart jumped. This had to be the call. He checked the number on the screen, sure enough, it was their neighbor, Wanda.

  “Meet us there, we’re headed to the car.” Her voice sounded tense, too tense. Wanda had four kids of her own. This should not freak her out.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “What?”

  “You sound worried. What’s wrong?” His heart was pounding and he was absorbing her worry through the phone.