The Gift (11 page)

After Maggie stopped crying, Zak went to the back of the
house where his mother was reading in the den. He told her that he had patched
things up with Maggie and that they were going to get married. He said that
after everything they had been through, they just wanted to have a small
wedding, maybe go to a justice of the peace or something. He didn’t think he
could stand any more drama. Zak’s mother was surprised. She had thought that
Maggie would never forgive Zak, but she was very happy for them. She told Zak
that if he needed her help in any way, then to let her know.

Later that night, Zak and Maggie moved back into the
house with Justin. Now that the air had been cleared, they were comfortable
with one another again. The next morning, Maggie and Zak went over to see Caleb
to tell him that they had reconciled and were going to be married. Maggie had
been thinking that she would like to get married in the church in her hometown.
It was the church where she had been christened, just like her father. It was
the church where she had sung in the choir every Sunday. It would mean a lot to
her to marry Zak in that church.

Zak told Caleb that he and Maggie planned to get married
in Boston in a couple weeks. They were going to keep the wedding small, just
family and their closest friends.  They would like Caleb and his family to
come, if they wanted. Zak’s mother had already said that she would go. Caleb
said to count him in too.

Then Zak told Caleb that he and Maggie would like to
bring Chère back to their house for a day or two before they had to drive to Boston. While Zak and Caleb went to get the dog from the yard, Zak confided that Maggie was
pregnant. Caleb told him that he was happy for them. He knew they would make
great parents.

Zak, Maggie, Justin and Chère settled back into their
old routine for two days before the journey back to Boston. Chère was
exceedingly happy to see them again. She kept running up to Zak so that he
could take her for a walk, but he was still in his cast, so Justin had to walk
the dog for him. The afternoon before they were leaving for Boston, Caleb came
over to help them load the Lincoln with the band equipment and to take Chère
back to his house. Zak had decided he was going to join Maggie and Justin on
the tour. He would try to sit while playing the guitar, since it would be tough
to stand with the cast. He could get the cast removed in a few weeks and then
it wouldn’t be an issue any longer.

Zak called Spencer on the phone to ask if he could
borrow one of his amplifiers.  Spencer told him that wouldn’t be a problem, so
they only had to bring Justin’s bass amp. Justin was bringing his Fender bass
and Zak was bringing his Stratocaster and Martin guitars. Maggie packed her
Gibson guitar and violin. She was about to put her mandolin in the trunk when Zak
stopped her. He told her that he had something he wanted to give her.

He led her out to the studio and handed her the case to
his Gibson F-5 mandolin. He told her that it was his wedding gift to her. She
got teary eyed and then kissed him for a long time. He told her to open the
case. He had changed the strings and polished the mandolin until it gleamed. He
had also bought her a beautiful tooled leather strap for the mandolin. It had
been custom made for her with irises on it, her favorite flower, and Maggie and
Zak’s initials entwined. Zak had been planning to give Maggie the mandolin even
before she came back to Louisiana and they had decided to get married again. It
was that mandolin that had brought them together in the first place. Maggie
thought it was the perfect present, the perfect symbol of Zak’s love for her.

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Chapter 13

Early the next morning, Maggie, Zak and Justin
left on their long trip to Boston. Justin would have to drive most of the way
because Zak couldn’t drive with his cast. Zak sat in the back with his leg
stretched out across the seat, surrounded by suitcases. The trunk was
completely filled with the bass amp and instruments. They drove over to meet
Tom at his house in Lafayette. He was going to caravan to Boston with them, his
van was filled with his drums. 

Maggie found the trip difficult. The motion of the car
made her morning sickness even worse. She had to ask Justin to stop
occasionally so that she could buy milk or crackers to help settle her stomach.
She also found that she was incredibly sleepy most of the time. She wanted to
go sit in the back seat with Zak and snuggle up against him, but he had to keep
his leg elevated so there wasn’t any room for her.

Zak wasn’t enjoying the trip either. His leg was still
bothering him and every time the car went over a bump in the road he was in
pain. The doctor had given him some pain medication, but Zak didn’t want to
take it since he was having enough problems trying to give up alcohol and
drugs.

He was still trying to absorb the fact that Maggie and
Justin had been intimate. He realized that he wasn’t completely fine with that,
especially now there was the issue of who was the father of Maggie’s baby.
Although he had said that he didn’t care if Justin was the father, he knew that
he hadn’t been honest about that. Maggie had asked the doctor whether there was
a test that could be done to determine the paternity, and he had told her not
until the baby was over six months old. So, they were all going to have to wait
and wonder.

Justin must have been thinking along similar lines
because several hours into their trip, he quietly reminded Maggie that she had
been feeling nauseated the morning after they had slept together. He wondered
if she had been pregnant then. Maggie thought about it and said she didn’t
know. She said that she had assumed that she was sick from drinking the wine,
but she just wasn’t sure. Zak kind of perked up when they were discussing this.
He thought that there might be hope that he was actually the father of Maggie’s
baby.

Maggie started to get upset during this conversation
with Justin and told him she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. It was
pointless speculation, they would just have to wait until after the baby was
born. Justin apologized and said that he wouldn’t bring it up again. He looked
up at the rear view mirror and exchanged glances with Zak. They were both in
the same situation temporarily, and they could sympathize with each other.
There wasn’t too much discussion during the rest of the trip. Maggie slept in
the front seat. Justin continuously fed the cassette deck providing Maggie and
Zak with a sound track to their journey. At one point, Zak took the F-5
mandolin out of the trunk so he could play along with the tapes. He hadn’t
played the mandolin recently and he found it a pleasant distraction.

Finally, after several days of driving, they arrived in Boston. Maggie and Zak planned on staying at her parents’ house and Justin and Tom were
going to stay at Maggie and Spencer’s apartment. Maggie and Zak weren’t looking
forward to breaking the news to her parents that she was pregnant. Maggie hoped
that they would forgive her when they found out that she and Zak intended to
get married right away.

Everyone stopped for a while to visit with Spencer. He
was happy to see Maggie and Zak again and to finally meet Justin and Tom. On
their way up to Boston, the Bayou Blasters had decided to invite Spencer to
play rhythm guitar in their band. Zak could play lead unless he got too tired
or was having too much pain, in which case Spencer could take over for him.

While Maggie had been gone, Spencer had listened to the
Bayou Blasters tape over and over so he could learn their songs and get a sense
of the sound of the band. He thought that he could add a lot as rhythm
guitarist. Maggie had given him an idea of what their set list would be like,
and he had spent some time familiarizing himself with those tunes. Spencer was
adept at improvisation too, so he didn’t think he would have any problems
playing with the band. Their first gig was to be at Jimmie D’s in a week, so
they planned to practice a few times and get ready for that.

Maggie and Zak said goodbye to Justin, Tom and Spencer
and drove to her parents’ house. Her parents were happy to see them, they had
decided that Zak was a polite and respectful young man and they were happy that
he and Maggie had reconciled. Her parents were a little shocked to see Maggie
though. She looked extremely tired and thin and they started to wonder if she
were ill. They were even more alarmed when Maggie and Zak asked them to come
into the living room because they had to tell them something.

 “Mom and Dad,” Maggie began.

She hesitated, she knew her parents were going to be
distressed at what she had to say.

“Zak and I have to tell you something. I’m pregnant and
we’ve decided to get married.”

Her mother’s face fell, and her father looked at Zak
like he wanted to kill him.

“Zak and I were planning on getting married anyway, so
we’re just going to get married a little sooner than we thought we would.”

Her parents didn’t say anything, they were totally
stunned.

Maggie continued on through the uncomfortable silence.

“We just want to have a small wedding and I was hoping
to get married in the chapel of our church. Do you think you can help me
arrange that? Also, Zak’s mother and brother will be coming up for the wedding,
so they would need a place to stay. Maybe we could have a small dinner for
everyone someplace.”

Maggie’s mother said that she would be happy to help.
She asked them when the baby was due. Maggie said that the doctor thought it
would be in February. Maggie decided that she wouldn’t burden her parents with
the information that she didn’t know the identity of the father. They would
obviously just assume that it was Zak since they were getting married. Maggie
had suggested to Zak that maybe they should wait to get married until after she
had the baby and they knew who the father was, but Zak said that was a separate
issue. He wanted to marry Maggie anyway. He would still want to marry her even
if Justin was the father. And if the baby turned out to be Justin’s, then he
hoped that Justin wouldn’t have a problem with him helping to parent his child.
The baby could have two fathers and hopefully that wouldn’t be too confusing.

So Maggie and Zak started working out the details of the
wedding with Maggie’s mother. First they had to pick a date which had to be
some time when they could take off from the tour for a couple of days and when
the church was available. They decided on the first Sunday in October. Then
they had to find a restaurant where they could have a small party and dinner
for the family. Maggie’s mother suggested the Wayside Inn, a small historic inn
and restaurant in Sudbury, but Maggie thought it was too stuffy and formal. So
she decided she would think about it for a couple days.

Then they had to make out the guest list. Maggie and Zak
only wanted immediate family and some friends. Maggie was a little embarrassed
that she might be obviously pregnant by then. Zak didn’t seem to think that was
a problem. He said that no one would care, they would just be happy for them.
He laughed and said that at least no one would have to throw rice at them as
they left the church, a ritual which is supposed to ensure fertility. Maggie
wasn’t sure that she found that funny.

Maggie and Zak had decided to ask Justin to be their
best man. He was the obvious choice since he was Zak’s best friend and they all
shared a house together. Maggie was thinking of asking Vanessa to be her maid
of honor. She knew that Vanessa was going to be shocked to find out that she
was going to get married and that she was already pregnant. Maggie and Zak
decided to ask Spencer and Caleb to be ushers since they had both been so
supportive of them.

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Chapter 14

Maggie spent several days working on the
wedding plans, but then it was time to start their tour. Fortunately, Maggie’s
morning sickness was starting to abate by this point so she felt excited about
traveling to the gigs and playing with the band. They had gotten together
several times to rehearse in the basement at Maggie’s parents’ house and they
were sounding good.

The first gig of their tour was on a Saturday night at
Jimmie D’s. The band met at the club about two hours before they were to start
playing so they could set up their amplifiers and arrange their microphones.
Spencer, Justin and Tom had gotten there first and had already set up the
drums. It was a small stage on one side of a long, low room, so space was
somewhat tight. As Zak and Maggie walked in, Spencer asked them if Maggie would
need a stool. He had already set up a chair where Zak could sit to play guitar.
Maggie thought a stool would be a good idea in case she got tired.

Maggie carried in Zak’s guitars and her mandolin and
violin since Zak was still hobbling around on the crutches. She helped him get
settled in on his chair and then took out his guitar out his case and handed it
to him. Zak pulled her down a little so that he could kiss her and when Maggie
stood back up she noticed a look of surprise on the face of the waitress that
knew Spencer. When the waitress came over to get them something to drink,
Maggie introduced her to Zak. She told her that she and Zak were getting
married in a few weeks. The waitress seemed surprised but happy. Then she went
over to ask Spencer for his drink order and remained to flirt with him for a
while. Spencer was very handsome with his long, dark curly hair and women found
him attractive. He always remained a little remote and aloof which made him
seem mysterious. Of course Maggie knew why he was like that around women, but
she would never say anything.