by Hadley Quinn
Tyse watched him run his hand through his hair and glance back into the hospital room where Camryn was sitting next to Melanie. Seeing his brother so unnerved was kind of a new thing.
Teague laughed at Jay’s comment and said, “I dare you to say that in front of Melanie. Seriously, a hundred bucks if you say that to her face. Two hundred if Camryn hears it, too.”
Jay shook his head with a chuckle as the three of them stood in the hall outside of Melanie’s hospital room. “You trying to get me killed? But seriously, am I going to totally lose my shit when the real stuff actually comes?”
“Are you worried?” Teague asked. “You’ve been great with Mel. I’m honestly impressed. Taking notes, here,” he added, pretending to jot them down.
“I don’t know what the hell to say. Especially when the really hard ones hit and she can’t even talk.”
“She loves having you here, that’s the bottom line,” Teague told him. “You’re here for her and that’s all she needs. Yeah, this is gonna scare the shit out of me too when it’s my turn, but I can’t wait until he’s born.”
“This is a boy too, I just know it,” Jay smiled, shaking his head. “Two more McCallans to grow up together. Hell, are we really ready to face that?”
Teague laughed and shook his head as well. “I really hope I’ve done enough good things in my life to even out the karma from my childhood.”
“Oh my God, me too,” Jay agreed.
They both leaned up against the wall and stood in silence for a minute. Tyse remained an outsider for a bit because he had nothing to add. He was kind of immersed in the “family” moment for once. It was pretty surreal to be there with his half brother and his cousin; family he never knew he had until recently. It was a learning process, getting to know everyone’s personalities, but Tyse was willing to accept the challenge.
Finally Teague said, “You mentioned McCallans, plural… I know you’re committed to raising this baby with Melanie, but have you considered having more kids?” Jay gave him a funny look and Teague added, “Hey, just curious. Be real with me for a minute.”
With a slow shrug Jay answered, “Actually, yeah. If it works out that way, I might be able to handle it.”
“If it works out that way? What do you mean?”
“Well… First we’ll see how long Melanie wants to keep me around.”
Teague laughed. “Ah, you don’t have to worry about that, buddy. She’s never gonna give you up. I guarantee it.”
That made Jay smile, and Tyse understood why. What Jay had with Melanie was definitely something the guy had never expected. Or felt he deserved, for that matter. She was absolutely the most important thing in his life and Tyse knew his brother would fight to the death to keep her.
“Oh holy shit!”
Speaking of Mel…
“Sounds like things are picking up in there,” Teague nudged Jay facetiously.
Jay took a deep breath just as Camryn popped her head out of the room. She smiled at Jay and said, “Doctor says it’s almost time to start pushing. She wants you.”
“I’m too young to die, but okay,” Jay replied meekly.
“Well good luck,” Camryn patted his arm with a smirk.
“Wait, where are you going?” Jay practically panicked. “She wants you here, too.”
“Nope, she just wants you,” she grinned at him. “Let us in when you guys are ready for us.”
Tyse watched Teague put his arm around Camryn and they walked away for the waiting room where everyone else was hanging out. This was kind of a new thing for Tyse—everyone gathered for the birth of a baby—but Tyse was happy and excited and…just glad to be there for his brother. Brandon and Melanie’s uncle Tim were down from Fresno, and of course Kellie was there in the hospital, acting just as excited as Tyse felt.
Tyse looked at Jay and said, “I’m really happy for you, man. Best of luck, but you don’t need it. You’ll be great.”
Jay didn’t look so sure, and again, it was a new look for him. But Tyse knew without a doubt there was a huge heart underneath all of that tough-as-nails, don’t-fuck-with-me outer shell.
“Yeah, well…I hope so,” Jay shrugged. “Definitely not what I saw for myself even just a year ago but… Hey, I’m happier than I’ve ever been, so…”
His brother seemed to be at a loss for words, which was rare, so Tyse didn’t push it. He gave him a quick bro hug and a rough pat on the back, and then pushed him toward Melanie’s room. “Well go see what a baby looks like coming out of a vagina that you’ve been—Ow!”
Jay had slugged him in the shoulder before Tyse could even finish the sentence. “If you fucking ruin this for me, if I’m gonna be scarred for the rest of my life—”
“You’re not going to be scarred,” Tyse chuckled along with Jay. “You’re a good man, bro. Go take care of your woman, she needs you.”
Jay smiled and nodded his head. “Yeah, okay. I’ll give this sweet and loving shit a try.”
“Ha!” Tyse laughed. “You don’t have to pretend with me, dumbass.”
Jay cocked an eyebrow at him and then offered a salute as he slipped into Melanie’s hospital room.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Tyse heard him say.
“It hurts really bad,” Melanie barely whimpered.
“Aww, baby. But you know how much I like to see you all sweaty and—Ow!”
Tyse shook his head with a smile and headed for the waiting room.
Chapter One
“I’m not doing it,” Tyse shook his head. He looked at Kellie again and shrugged. “If you really wanted to kill me, there are much easier methods.”
“Don’t be such a damn pussy,” Kellie laughed.
“A pussy? You’re calling me a pussy?”
“Yeah, so what of it?” she narrowed her eyes at him. “I call it how I see it, and right now you’re being a big fucking baby.”
“Can I just call you Jay Junior?” Tyse eyed her carefully. “Because right now you look just like him with that challenging glare on your face and filthy mouth.”
Kellie laughed out loud. “Filthy? I say one f-bomb and I have a filthy mouth?”
“One f-bomb in the past sixty seconds,” Tyse corrected. “And for the record, I think you swear more than Jay does.”
Kellie laughed even harder that time. “Yeah, right! He says ‘fuck’ an endless amount of times. I don’t know if he could even have a conversation without throwing that word in.”
“Sure he can. Especially around the kids.”
“Oh, well okay, that’s different. Yeah I agree he watches his mouth more around little ears. But that doesn’t mean he worries about what he says elsewhere. And anyway, what makes you think you can change the subject? Sit down so I can do this.”
“I’m thinking I don’t have time anymore,” Tyse smiled as he glanced at the clock on the wall. “I have to get back to work.”
“Back to what work?” Kellie questioned. “You just came from the sports clinic.”
“The sound boards were installed at the studio today. I said I’d stop by and check ‘em out.”
Kellie slowly nodded but didn’t respond right away. Tyse couldn’t tell what she was thinking because her opinions of the McCallans were always pretty neutral. Growing up in a famous family had left bitter impressions on Teague and Jay, but Kellie had always seemed to be on the fence. She didn’t like contention, but she was also stubborn like all McCallans were and didn’t take crap from any of them, either. Tyse felt the same way, being that he was barely getting to know the family he never knew he had. He was the newbie—still the outsider, somewhat—and even though getting to know his half brother and sister had been his main focus, his grandfather’s interest in him had been intriguing.
“So how is all of that coming along?” Kellie finally asked. “I know you were reluctant to help Grandpa open a recording studio, but I know how much you love music. Are you guys really going to start a new record label, too?”
“Appears so.”
<
br /> “What about your job? I mean the other one. Are you still going to do physical therapy?”
“Yeah, of course. That’s my first priority. I love my job there. The studio is just a side venture. It’s not something I need to do full time.”
“Does Grandpa know that?” Kellie smirked. “He has a way of roping people in to do things the way he wants. He likes to get his own way if you haven’t noticed.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed. But yes, I told him what I was willing to give and what I wasn’t willing to give. I was very clear.”
“Uh huh,” Kellie nodded. “And I’m sure he smiled, patted you on the shoulder and said, ‘I respect your decision.’”
Tyse stared at her for a few seconds without a response. She was spot on.
“Am I right?” she asked him with a chuckle. “Come on, Tyse. Don’t think I don’t know my own family. I know you came here cautiously, but I still think you might be a little naïve.”
“Well maybe so,” he shrugged, subtly inching for the exit. “I’ve been lied to and deceived in my life enough you’d think I’d catch a break once in a while. But I understand business almost as well as he does and I’ll use that to my advantage first.”
“Noted. I have no doubt you know how to be successful. I mean look at what you’ve accomplished at twenty-five. I’m proud of you, just so you know—Hey, where do you think you’re going?”
Tyse made a quick move to the door and opened it before she could somehow lock him behind it. “I’m not getting my eyebrows waxed,” he told her firmly.
“Because you’re a big baby.”
“No, because I don’t have time,” he smiled at her.
“You’ll have time when some girl wonders why you have a uni-brow.”
“I do not have a uni-brow.”
“Well not yet. But by the time you’re fifty you sure will. You’ll have a big, long, fucking bushy eyebrow like Grandpa.”
“Ha, he has perfect eyebrows like mine,” Tyse smiled.
“Now he does. Why do you think he’s got perfect Hollywood eyebrows, Tyse? Huh?” She waited for a reply but didn’t get one. “Exactly. The power of waxing, I tell you. Now get your ass back over here before I make all the girls hold you down and I pluck them one by one.”
That was actually something Tyse needed to consider. Kellie worked in a pretty elite day spa and salon and he’d noticed some hot women when he’d come in to visit his sister.
“And Christa isn’t here today,” Kellie stated, reading his thoughts. “But Brenda is.”
And some not-so-hot women, as well.
“Oh my God, no,” Tyse shook his head.
“Yes.”
“She’d break a bone.”
“Ha, if it meant getting you to submit to her, yeah she might.”
“What the hell kind of place is this?”
“Sit your ass down, Tyse. Seriously it will take five minutes. Then you not only get fifty bucks from Jay for winning the bet, but you’ll also have lovely eyebrows.”
“Well I already have lovely eyebrows, but yeah, I’d rather win something from that little shit if I can.”
He plopped himself in the chair she motioned to, still reluctant, but he was here and might as well get it over with.
“I still want my eyebrows,” he informed Kellie, just as she leaned over his face.
“What, you think I’m gonna take ‘em off?” she laughed as she spread something hot over the skin around his right brow.
“I mean I don’t need any of the actual eyebrow taken off, you know?”
“Tyse, I know how to wax a dude’s eyebrows. Trust me, I do it all the damn time. You’ll still look like a guy. And you know Jay let me do his, right?”
“What? No way.”
“Ha, yeah he’ll kill me if you tell him that. But I bet him a night of babysitting if he let me do it.”
Tyse tried not to laugh out loud since she seemed to be concentrating on his eyebrow. There was no way he wanted her to have a mishap.
“But I would watch that baby any time, he didn’t have to make a deal with me,” she smiled as she pressed something firmly against his brow bone. “Cade is such a good baby. And he’s no trouble at all. I’m so glad my brother got a damn clue when he did. Melanie is perfect for him. I thought for sure he was going to blow it, you know?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t so sure either. He—Holy motherfucker!” he yelled when she ripped something off his face.
“Holy motherfucker?” Kellie laughed, dabbing over the same area right after. “That was nothing. Try having your hoo-ha waxed. Now that is not very—”
“Uh, no thank you,” Tyse shook his head. “And I don’t need to hear about my sister’s experience, either.”
“Well none of that for me again. Laser hair removal. That’s all I’ll say.”
“Um, okay. Let’s pretend we never had this conversation, all right? Great, thanks.”
“You’ve got to be used to us by now, Tyse. Seriously, conversations on body hair bothers you?”
“Um, no. It’s conversations that make me actually think about body hair on my own family member.”
“And what about a chick you’re dating or something. What if she started talking about something like that?”
“Uh, well, first I would think she must be pretty damn comfortable around me. But no, that wouldn’t bother me.”
“Just your sister?”
“I guess.”
Kellie proceeded to accomplish the same procedure on his left eyebrow as she spoke with a facetious smile. “So I take it you don’t want to hear about my menstrual cycles or my breasts? How about where I have tattoos and piercings?”
“Oh my God…”
With a classic McCallan smirk she added, “What, no talk on clit piercings or—”
“What is the matter with you?”
She pressed against his brow bone several times and said, “I grew up with Jay, remember?”
“And you talk about all this stuff with him? Seriously?”
“Um, not exactly, we just randomly blurt things out once in a while. You know, unfiltered mouths run in the family. But even so, he’d react just like you.”
“Then why the hell are you torturing me with it?”
“Because I can,” she smiled. “And to distract you when I do this—”
She stripped the wax off his left eyebrow.
“Shit!” he gasped. “People actually pay you to do this?”
Kellie smiled at him and replied, “Oh yes. Now go collect your fifty bucks from Jay. And I’ll throw in another fifty if you tell him you got more than just your eyebrows waxed.”
Chapter Two
“I don’t understand exactly what you expect me to do here,” Tyse shrugged to his grandfather. “I mean you asked me to help you open a recording studio, and here it is,” he motioned with a hand. “It’s ready to go. We are set up to not only do demos and four-track mixes, but full twelve-track albums. You have the best equipment here that money can buy.”
“And I need the best people here to make it successful,” Neil McCallan answered as he leaned against the doorframe of the office.
“You hired Gage Thomas as your first producer. He’s got his own engineers and crew.”
“The studio needs a manager. I need you to run it.”
“Oh no,” Tyse shook his head. “I don’t have time to do that. I told you I would do some of the bookings and such, but I don’t have a free schedule to spend the time here that’s needed for that.”
“Tyse, I’ve talked business with you since the day you showed up in my driveway. You’re one of the smartest kids I know and you’ve got the McCallan charm that will work in your favor. You won’t need another job once you start here. I guarantee it.”
“The McCallan charm?” Tyse laughed with concern. “Uh, no I don’t like the sound of that. You know that’s used mostly in negative connotation by other people, right?”
Neil smiled at him but shrugged his indifference. “I
f it’s not one thing being held against us, it’s another. Doesn’t matter to me what it is. Being business savvy isn’t a bad thing.”
“But when you say ‘charm’ it sounds fake to me. I don’t roll that way and I never will. I’m not going to feed people lines to get my way. I may come from your bloodlines but I’m certainly not accustomed to those family values.”
“Now I take offense to that,” Neil stated gruffly. “I am still your grandfather and I don’t appreciate my name being bashed like that. If you want to do that, fine. But get your facts straight, son. I didn’t become successful by letting people walk all over me, and I sure as hell didn’t bat an eye any time someone called me a hard ass. Sometimes you have to be. Maybe you’ll learn this someday. Teague and Jay have gone their own ways, but they have that same tough edge that came from my bloodlines. Mine. I see so much of myself in those boys that it’s not even funny. They may squawk at the comparison, but their success is ultimately based on age-old McCallan arrogance. Call it pride if you want, but it is what it is.”
Tyse took a deep breath, silently assessing his thoughts. Up until this point, Grandpa Neil had been pretty easy to get to know. He was honest about his past and about the family history and the drama that came with it. Being a major player in Hollywood had certainly earned him the recognition he’d received over the years.
But Tyse knew that his grandfather had also lived a lifetime defending his family while trying for that success. Every move had been under a spotlight, and the countless stories that were written about the family were still laced with discrepancies or just based on outright lies. It was something Tyse’s mother had warned him about, and he’d come prepared to avoid it as much as he could, but already the tabloids had used his arrival in town to their advantage.
A bastard McCallan in the mix.
“Look, I’m interested in the business,” Tyse admitted truthfully. “I really am. It’s something I’ve always wanted to get in to.”
“Which is why I wanted to expand the McCallan name to the music industry. I did this for you, Tyse. This is yours to have if you want it. Run it how you see fit, do things how you want them done. I own it, yes, but you run it. Bottom line.”
