Almost Ordinary (The Song Wreckers Book 2) (25 page)

Chapter 33

We all used the drinks in our hands to have something besides each other to focus on. And taking a drink kept us from talking if we weren’t quite ready.

You could only stall for so long, though. My foot tapped away, and Caleb drained the last of his beer. Cooper spun his bottle in circles.

Finally Cooper admitted, “I don’t know what I’m doing here.”

“You must have something you want, or need to know,” I said.

Cooper pushed the bottle forward. “I can already see they have everything they’d ever need. They don’t . . .”

I knew Cooper well enough to tell that he had feelings in him he had no idea how to articulate. He only spoke when he had something to say, usually about the business at hand, or a command for somebody. This situation wasn’t about work and dealt with emotions, so it was foreign to him.

Cooper pushed his chair back. “Damn it. I don’t have a clue what I’m doing here.” He stormed off toward the front of the house.

I looked at Caleb.
Should we stop him, or let him go?

“Cooper!” Caleb called out.

Cooper stopped at the front door. Caleb and I met up with him there, standing as the trio of awkwardness once again.

Caleb wrapped his arm around my waist. Cooper put his hands on his hips and sighed.

I had to drag some words out of him. I was sure he struggled with the decision to come here, and I didn’t want it to turn into a wasted effort. “I know this is hard but you gotta try. This is killing me, not knowing what you want. I told you that if you want in their lives, we’d make that happen.” I gripped Caleb’s hand at my side. “Cooper?”

“I can’t be a father, I don’t even want to. As far as I’m concerned you two were meant to be their parents.” Cooper looked Caleb in the eye. “I mean that. You’re their father and I don’t want to change that.”

I squeezed Caleb’s hand as he nodded in acknowledgement.

“I want to know them,” Cooper continued. “I don’t know how.”

It’d be a start if he could call Zander and Alex by their names. I didn’t voice that though, baby steps.

Cooper’s phone rang. He snatched it out of his pocket and glanced at the number. “I have to take this.”

“We’ll figure something out, Cooper,” I told him.

Cooper held out his hand. Caleb contemplated it for a second, then accepted his handshake.

Cooper shot me one last parting look, then walked out the door to answer his call and visibly relax dealing with business, and not emotions.

Caleb and I waited without a word until his SUV vacated our property.

After a shaky breath I turned to face him and he kissed me.

“That could’ve gone a lot worse,” I said.

“Yeah, I was ready for worse.”

“What do you mean?”

I followed Caleb into the kitchen, where he grabbed himself another beer.

“Princess, if he came in here spouting some bullshit about wanting to be their father, or that he thought I should step aside,” He twisted the cap off and took a drink. “Do you think I’d let that happen without a fight?”

Of course I knew Caleb wouldn’t give up the twins without a hell of a fight. I smiled.

“Those boys are mine. You are mine. This house is mine.” He popped the tab and drank half the can.

“Technically, the house is mine. I bought it before we were a couple.”

He began breathing hard. “Vivian is mine. This beer is mine. You are mine.”

I wanted to roll my eyes. He had worked himself into a tizzy. “You already said I was yours. Is that what this is about? Are you doubting my commitment to you?” I knew he didn’t, so I batted my eyelashes, trying to be flirtatious and lessen his frustration.

“Something in your eye?”

Ugh, I’ve got to work on my girly flirts. “No, I’m fine.”

He wolfed down the rest of his beer and slammed the bottle down on the counter.

I put my hands on his chest. “Will you calm down, please? If I’m not freaking out, you shouldn’t be either.”

“I’m not freaking out,” he said. “Damn, I was halfway ready for a fight, and now I’m—”

“Disappointed?” I finished for him. “Because a small part of you wanted to fight even if that’d be stupid?”

“Kinda scary you know how that feels.”

When your body’s ready for a fight, your adrenaline surges. If you don’t fight, you need an outlet for the surge to make you feel better. If not, you’ll obsess over the fight that wasn’t, and convince yourself you should’ve thrown a punch anyway. Then you start itching for a fight, and at the first opportunity, you go for it.

God, I missed being in a bar band.

I wanted to rid Caleb of his anxious energy, and talking about Cooper in relation to the twins always gave Caleb the urge to claim me all over again.

I reached over and grabbed the cap to the beer bottle, then turned my back to his front. I opened my hand so the cap dropped. “Whoops.” I slowly bent forward, making sure my rear pressed into his crotch, then drew myself up. “Clumsy me.”

He put his hands on my hips and tugged me into him so there wasn’t even a fraction of an inch between us. I repeated the drop and bend, and when I straightened he was hard as a rock.

He tugged the ponytail holder out and swept my hair over one shoulder. He lowered his mouth to me ear. “You’re playing with fire, Princess.”

I put my arms up and around his neck, giving him access to any part of me he wanted. He slid his hands under my shirt to unhook my bra. He played with my breasts, pinching my nipples and running his fingers down my sides to create goose bumps which made my nipples even harder for him.

I wanted to turn around and jump on him, but this wasn’t about me. Right now, Caleb needed to explore every part of my body, drawing out my pleasure as a way to assure himself that he had a certain power over me, and I was his.

I didn’t care that he considered me his. I considered him mine. We belonged to each other, heart, soul, body.

I rubbed my ass into his crotch again. I loved how it made him take a shaky breath and squeeze my skin a touch harder.

He lowered his hands to my stomach and kissed the sides of my neck. He slipped his fingers into the waistband of my jeans enough to tease.

Every touch and kiss fueled my fire for him.

“Caleb,” I said, almost begging. Just because I let him take his sweet time, didn’t mean it’d be easy for me.

He chuckled in my ear, enjoying my slow torture.

I unwrapped my hands from around his neck and brought them down. I slid them between us, wrapping my fingers around his erection, and glided them along his length.

He groaned and inched his hips back so he was no longer in my reach. Then he trailed his tongue down the side of my neck, nipped my shoulder, and my knees weakened. I stepped forward and grasped the counter to make sure I stayed standing.

“It’s like you read my mind.” He unbuttoned my jeans and slid his hands down my pants.

First he stroked me through my panties. I let go of the counter and guided his hand underneath them so he could feel how wet I was.

And that’s when he lost control. With a speed I’d never seen the likes of, he yanked my jeans and panties down. I kicked them off while he worked his own pants.

He guided himself into me from behind, and my moan almost covered his grunt. The rhythm was hard and fast, and I had to keep a good grip on the counter or else he’d pound me right to the floor. He held my hips so hard I they were sure be bruised tomorrow. I didn’t care.

His tells that signaled he was close to coming became louder, and I thought he was about to finish us both off. Instead he stopped and pulled out.

I turned in time to see him tuck himself into his pants.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He stripped my shirt and bra off, then scooped me up into his arms. “I need to look at you when I make love to you,” he said. “All of you.”

I watched his face and trailed my finger over his lips as he carried me to our bedroom.

He laid me on the bed before stripping off his clothes. I watched his every move, appreciating the work he put into his body. Those arms that held and comforted me. Those eyes that saw through every line of bullshit and fessed out the truth. Those hands that could change a diaper in one moment, then have me panting his name in the next. Those legs that had the strength to carry me up the stairs countless times. Those lips that, when they were on mine, made me feel if the world crumbled I wouldn’t care.

That man who brought tears to my eyes because I always saw the love and commitment he had for me and our family written on his face.

He smiled as he lowered himself onto me. I smiled too, and a tiny tear fell out of the side of my eye. He kissed it away.

I could write a whole song this very moment with all the emotion running through me.

God, I was a sap.

I arched my body into him. He guided himself into me, this time nice and slow. He nipped at my lips and kissed me sweetly. His strong hands stroked languorously down my body, taking his sweet time.

I couldn’t tell you how long Caleb made love to me that night. In one sense, it felt like forever, and in another, it wasn’t nearly long enough. I know when I laid in his arms afterward I had the sense that no matter what life threw at us, we’d be okay because we’d be together.

As usual, Caleb drifted off to sleep first. I thought about how Cooper could’ve marched in here tonight and changed our lives. One minute we would’ve been a “normal” family of five that turned into a broken household, with siblings at different baby-daddy homes.

And even though I lay there in my husband’s arms, and my affair with Cooper happened over two years ago, I felt like a slut because as we sat in the kitchen talking, I’d slept with both of them. And they both made my family what it was.

Things could change in the blink of an eye.
Family
could change in the blink of an eye.

I snuggled into Caleb more and he instinctively tightened his hold of me. I didn’t know what role Cooper planned on playing in the boys’ lives. I was confident he wouldn’t do anything drastic like fight us for custody since he admitted Caleb was their real father. God, it would tear Caleb apart to be relegated to role of step-father. If the worst happened and I had to share custody, live without my boys for days at a time, I don’t know how I’d live with that.

A surge of protectiveness shot through me. I would do anything for those boys, to give them everything they deserve. How did some women give up, or give up on, their children?

Like my mom. I’d never understand why she didn’t seem to have that fierce maternal feeling about me.

My dad was right when he said I should bite the bullet and give her a call. We’d ended things on a sour note, and if something happened to her I’d never forgive myself. So maybe she didn’t feel toward me like I felt toward my kids. Or maybe she did, and couldn’t express it.

“You have any special plans?” Caleb asked the next morning at breakfast.

“Getting out my big girl underpants.” Caleb scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. “I’m calling my mom. I want to straighten things out with her.”

He dodged a Cheerio thrown by Alex. “Glad to hear it.”

“Then I’m going to hike my undies even higher and give Cooper a call and invite him and Franny over for dinner if that’s all right with you.”

He froze for a split second, then continued gathering his wallet and keys. “He’ll be in Tampa through next week.”

“Whenever,” I said. “I’m in no rush.”

Caleb kissed the kids good-bye. When it was my turn, I made the kiss good. “I love you.”

He had trouble tearing himself away from me, then kissed me quick one more time. “I love you too. No more pretending that Cooper’s only my boss. I guess that ship has sailed.”

“Shit,” Alex said.

Followed by, “Damn it,” from Zander.

Noooooo, they did not say that! I’d been trying so hard to not say those words. In their presence, anyway.

“Ship,” I corrected, emphasizing the P. “Ship.”

Caleb pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. He looked up at me and I smiled as innocently as I could.

He threw his head back and laughed while mine was a forced, nervous laugh.

“Good luck with your mom,” he said once he recovered. “And let me know when dinner with Cooper and Franny will be.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll have to tell Joy to stop teaching the boys bad words, too.”

Chapter 34

I finished Gina’s album by the end of September, crushing the January deadline. Proud of myself, I perched my feet on the kitchen table and called Kent. “I’m about to make George a happy man,” I said when he answered.

“You’re finished?”

“Sure am. Can you schedule Gina and her band at the studios soon to start the rough listen through?”

I heard Kent click on his keyboard. “Hold on,” he told me. “We’ll have to wait a few months. Gina just got booked as an opening act until November thirtieth. Can you do early December?”

“Sure.”

“That’s still early and George’ll appreciate that. Let me fire this email off to tell him the good news.”

I waited while he typed. “There. You may have saved his marriage.”

Great. My good deed for the day was done.

“I’ll let you know as soon as we have definitive dates,” he said.

That was half the load lifted off my shoulders. “Have you heard anything from Gina or Dex about me?” I asked.

“Not a thing, why? You still worried about Dex not liking your songs? Molly, Gina’s debut album did better than we expected so far. “Caught Misbehavin’” cracked the top ten, and both “Dirty Dog” and “Last Chance” stayed in the top twenty for weeks. If we release this next album out sooner than expected and keep her momentum going, she’ll be on her way to joining the likes of Miranda Lambert.”

Up there with Miranda Lambert? That’s a very steep climb. No doubt she was talented, and getting more popular. In fact, between the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards, and the CMA’s, she’d been nominated for five awards and taken home two.

Gina’s success wasn’t the reason I’d wanted to know if he’d heard from either one of them. I didn’t want to tell Kent how I dug up dirt on Dex and sent it to Gina anonymously, and was pretty sure Dex intercepted the email and that’s why they eloped so soon after getting engaged, therefore causing me to wait for Dex to somehow seek revenge. “Okay, just wondering. Thanks, Kent.”

Thud, thud, thud
. Someone pounded on my door as soon I hung up the phone.

Joy met me in the kitchen. “Who would pound on your door like that?”

Thud, thud, thud
. “I don’t—”

“Mol!” Katie yelled from outside. “Let me in!”

Katie and I only knocked on each other’s’ doors if they were locked or our arms were full. I rushed to the door and opened it. She ambled in with Evelyn in one arm and a bag and purse hanging off the other.

I checked the time. Katie must’ve picked up Evelyn from daycare and headed straight here.

“Hi, Joy,” she said, setting Evelyn over the kid gate into the family room. “Mama’s this close,” she held her thumb and forefinger mere centimeters apart, “to moving here with Daddy.”

“Yeah, I talked to her the other day and she hinted about it. What’s holding them up?”

“Grandmama,” she said.

An automatic groan escaped my mouth. Katie smiled.

We settled in the family room as Joy rose to leave. “Do you and my dad want to come over for dinner later?” I asked Joy.

“We’d love that, thank you.” She hugged me and left.

“You wanna eat here too?” I asked Katie.

“Sure. Let me call Brett and tell him to meet me here for dinner.”

As Katie made her phone call, I mimicked playing a guitar then pointed to the basement. Holding up a finger, she nodded
.

“First things first,” she said after pressing
end
. “I need you to help me find some houses for sale so I can send them to Mama to look at.”

“Good idea.”

Katie pulled her laptop out of the diaper bag and set it on the coffee table. In a half hour, we found three houses within a ten minute drive of Katie and Brett’s house that Mama would love. We would’ve found the houses sooner if the boys hadn’t kept sneaking up on us and smacking the keyboard.

Katie emailed Mama the links to the houses. I started dinner preparations, taking note to double the ingredients since I’d have a full dinner table. I smiled at that thought. I remembered the days when I ate alone, or with Katie, as the norm. I could sit down and eat without getting up a hundred times, and wouldn’t have to clean up food off of the floor every day.

I wouldn’t go back to those days for anything.

I mixed and prepared as much as I could, then we gathered the kids and brought them down in the basement with us.

Katie and I screwed around with some of our old songs. I knew Katie missed The Song Wreckers every bit as much as I did, maybe more. Her job as choral director didn’t give her creative side enough of an outlet.

Our old stuffed morphed into some new ideas and we managed to make part of a song. I’d have to remember to make time to play with Katie like this.

Later that night, I picked up the phone but couldn’t press the numbers to dial.

I brought the phone to Caleb’s office. “I need to stand here for a minute.”

He linked his hands behind his head and leaned back. “You’re nervous about calling your mom.”

“Yeah.”

He motioned me over so I sat on his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and I leaned into him, relaxing enough to dial my mom’s cell number. I didn’t know her home number.

“Molly,” my mom answered.

“Hi, Mom.”

Okay, I could do this. I squeezed Caleb’s hand in thanks.

“I’m so glad you called,” she said as I made my way to the family room.

Then burst into tears.

“Mom?” I didn’t know what to say, uncomfortable. I hadn’t expected tears, and never knew what do or say when grown adults cried.

She took a stuttered breath. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. Are you pregnant again?”

I barked out a laugh. “No. Vivian’s not quite three months old.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again.

“Stop saying that. Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”

She blew her nose. “Oh, Molly, I made such a big mistake by moving out here with Victor. I believed every line he fed me about how you’d try to take advantage of me, and how this time in my life should be for me. I see Victor around his kids and grandkids, building bonds with them. It makes me sad I don’t have that.”

I was glad she felt bad about it, but didn’t want her to wallow in misery. “It makes me sad, too. Have you talked to him about it?”

“I tried once. He accused me of not supporting him.”

Vic the dick. What an ass. I despised the jerk and needed to make Victor’s assholery work in my favor. “Katie’s parents are moving to Michigan and you should move, too.” There. I’d said it.

Her breath hitched, as if she were surprised. I didn’t blame her, I surprised me too with that statement.

“Well, I’d have to find a job and a place to live all over again. I just moved out here not too long ago.”

“I’ll help you. You could even live with me and Caleb until you found your own place.”

She seemed hesitant at first, so I kept the pressure on and by the end of our call she agreed to give it some serious thought. It helped that Mama and Mr. Culver were on their way, too. At least I thought so.

Caleb’s footsteps sounded behind me and I turned to him. “What’s that smile for?” he asked.

I summarized the conversation I had with my mom.

“Good thing you bought a four-bedroom house. You ready for bed?”

As we snuggled under the covers, Caleb ran his fingers through my hair, fanning it away from him.

“Caleb?”

“Hmm?”

“When Cooper returns from Tampa I want to go talk to him alone. And I think it’d be better if we went to a restaurant or something. I think he’ll talk to me easier if we’re eating. That way we’re not focused on each other the whole time.”

My head lay on his chest, and rose and fell with every breath.

“It wouldn’t be a date, of course,” I clarified. “Just two people who need to talk, out to eat. Okay, that sounds like a date, but it would be a talking date. Not a
date
date. I mean—”

“I get it,” Caleb said. “I don’t like it, but you’re right. He’d open up to you more.”

I wondered if he could feel my rapid heartbeat. “Right. I think he’d feel stupid discussing feelings and emotional crap in front of another man.” Not to mention having to finally answer me as to why he skirted his responsibility as a father. He wasn’t getting out of that question. I was no longer a chicken shit.

Caleb didn’t say anything for a minute, then, “He’ll be here on Friday of next week. Have your talk non-date, then we’ll do the dinner with him and Franny if they agree.”

One arm was already slung across him, so I gave him a squeeze. “Thank you,” I said. I think he realized we needed to establish Cooper’s role in our lives sooner rather than later, if Cooper wanted a role. This in between and maybe shit that had been dragging out, sucked.

So. How to go about getting Cooper to agree to have a deep talk with me? Barge into his office and order him? Call Franny and have her make him?

Maybe a good, old-fashioned phone call where I asked nicely. Diplomacy should work, and if not, then I’d try barging in or going through his girlfriend.

I was still amazed that Cooper had a heart. And feelings. If I hadn’t witnessed it myself, I don’t think I’d believe it.