The Sweetest Gift (The Gift) (13 page)

“That was a lot of fun last night, Justin. I thought
Maggie sounded great singing with the band.”

“Yeah, she did. She’s an amazing singer, she can sing
anything.”

“She sure can,” Ray agreed. “So what’s the deal with you
two? Any chance that you have an open relationship?”

“What are you saying, Ray?”

“Well, I hope you won’t take offense at this, but I
think Maggie is extremely attractive. I was just wondering if you two were
exclusive.”

“I’m not offended, but I am hoping that Maggie is going
to marry me.”

“Oh o.k., Justin. No problem, you can’t blame me for
trying.”

“No, I can’t,” Justin replied and smiled at his friend.

Just then, Maggie returned from making her phone call.
She sat down next to Justin and Ray.

“What’s up you two?” she asked.

“Not too much,” Justin said with a slightly guilty look
on his face. “How did your phone call to Tucker go?”

“O.k., he encouraged me to stay longer. He said he
thought it was good for you and Jake to have some extra time together.”

“Well, I guess we should change the plane reservations
then. We might have to postpone the trip to Boston for a while if Jake is going
to start school on time.”

“That’s probably a good idea, Justin. I’m sure my
parents will understand. Maybe we can go visit them over Thanksgiving.”

“If we’re going to change the reservations, maybe we can
take some time to go back to San Francisco for a day or two. I’d like to take
the kids to Chinatown and maybe you’d like to see Berkeley, Maggie, since
that’s where your parents met.”

“That might be nice. We probably won’t be back here for
a while,” Maggie said.

“I hope that’s not true, Maggie,” Ray said. “You and the
kids are always welcome to visit any time you want.”

“Thanks, Ray,” Maggie said and smiled at him.

Justin took one last swallow of his coffee and said to
Maggie, “It looks like things might be relatively quiet for an hour or two. I
think I’ll go down to the studio and see if I can work on your song. Can you
watch the kids for a while?”

“Of course Justin, thanks.”

After Justin left, Ray brought out an acoustic guitar
from his bedroom.

“The kids are playing happily down in the playroom,
Maggie. Why don’t you sing a few songs with me?”

“O.k., maybe just a few while we wait for Justin to get
back.”

Ray was obviously familiar with Maggie’s albums because
he played a few of the songs that she was known for, like “Truck Stop Girl” and
“Light in the Darkness”. Then he started to play the Beatles tune “Here Comes
the Sun”. Maggie stopped singing so that she could listen to him better, and
realized that he was an incredible fingerstyle guitarist. When he was finished,
he started playing and singing the “Hesitation Blues”.

“Well, a nickel is a nickel,

I said, a dime is a dime.

I need a new gal,

She won’t mind.

Tell me how long

Do I have to wait?

Can I get you now,

I said, must I hesitate
?”

Ray looked deeply in Maggie’s eyes as he sang it, until
she felt herself start to blush.

“I’ve always loved Hot Tuna,” she said.

“How about the Jefferson Airplane’s ‘Somebody to Love’,
Maggie? You’d sound great on that. We should do a set of covers of tunes by San Francisco bands.”

“Not a bad idea,” said Justin as he walked up the stairs
to the deck.

Ray started playing an intro to the song, and Justin
laughed.

“It definitely needs an electric guitar and bass,” he
said.

Maggie started singing Grace Slick’s signature song and
Justin joined her with a harmony on the chorus. When they were done, Ray said
“That definitely has possibilities. Why don’t we try it again later with the
rest of the band.”

Ray went into the house to see how Denise was coming
along with the food preparations, leaving Maggie and Justin alone on the deck.

“You might want to be careful around Ray,” Justin said.
“He’s a lot like Zak as far as women are concerned, only even worse.”

 Maggie laughed. “It’s o.k. Justin, I can take care of
myself. I had already figured that out.”

 Justin smiled at her and didn’t say anything more. He
reached for Ray’s acoustic guitar which he had left leaning against the deck
railing.

“Do you want to hear your song, Maggie?”

“Did you finish it already?”

“Yes, you have to imagine it being played by a full rock
band though.”

Then Justin played the song all the way through. Ray
came back out from the house during the middle of the song and listened
carefully.

“What’s that song?” he asked when Justin had finished.

“That’s a song that Maggie and I wrote today. What do
you think, Maggie?”

“I love the music you wrote for it, Justin. Maybe we can
try playing it together a little later.”

“Maybe I can play it with you,” said Ray. “That’s going
to need some electric guitars.”

“At the least,” Maggie said and laughed.

.

Chapter 17

As the afternoon progressed, more and more
guests arrived. Maggie hung around in the kitchen with the women and helped
prepare food for the barbeque. She made some potato salad from a recipe that
she had learned from Spencer. It had mustard in it and small pieces of bacon.
She also helped Denise make a large salad, slicing the organic tomatoes and
cucumbers with great care so that she wouldn’t cut herself.

“Do you need some help with that, Maggie?” Denise asked.
Justin had pulled her aside previously to let her know that Maggie was vision
impaired.

“No, I’m fine. I can do it, it just takes me a while.”

As Maggie was finishing the salad, the children came
running in from the back deck. An additional four kids had joined the group
since the morning. Maggie laughed to herself, thinking that they were starting
to look like a small herd. The children availed themselves of some snacks and
then disappeared again into the back yard.

 Justin walked over to Maggie and put his arms around
her waist. He whispered in her ear, “The rest of the band is here. I’m going to
go down to the studio for a while and play. Do you want to come join us?”

Maggie looked at the other women for a moment.

“Maggie, I’ll watch the kids if you want to go play for
a while,” Denise said.

“Thanks, Denise. I think I would like to do that.”

So Justin and Maggie walked over to the studio. The
drummer was just finishing setting up his drums, and the keyboard player was
playing some riffs on his Hammond organ. Four people were huddled around in one
corner of the studio and Maggie could hear some intermittent sniffing going on.
She looked at Justin and he gave a little shrug.

“Here, let me get your mandolin out for you, Maggie,” he
said.

He took out the mandolin and pulled a chair over in
front of a microphone. Maggie sat down and started to tune the mandolin as
Justin pulled his bass out of its case. Ray picked up his acoustic guitar and
came over to stand next to Maggie.

“I hope you’re careful that the kids don’t see you doing
coke Ray,” Maggie said. “I had a lot of problems with my ex-husband in that
respect.”

“Sorry, Maggie. We’ll make sure we’re careful about
that.”

“O.k.,” she said. “What do you feel like playing?”

“Why don’t we start off with some low-key bluegrass
tunes.  Justin told me that this is your favorite tune,” and Ray started
playing “Little Maggie”.

Maggie laughed and rolled her eyes at Justin.

“Thanks,” she said. “I’m starting to feel haunted by
this damn song,” but she played mandolin along with the others.

Although Justin’s band primarily played rock and roll,
they often played a bluegrass set. One of the reasons they had picked Justin to
play in their band was because he had won a Grammy award for playing bass with
Maggie’s bluegrass band as well as being nominated for a Grammy award for
playing with the Bayou Blasters. Like Maggie, Justin was a versatile musician
who could play in any musical genre.

The band proceeded to run through a dozen bluegrass
standards, some of the tunes like “Dark Hollow” and “Shady Grove” they had
learned from the Grateful Dead. Maggie had spent quite a few hours during her
college years listening to the Dead, so she knew all those songs too. The band
had obviously listened to Maggie’s album because they requested that she sing a
few songs from that, songs like “I Still Miss Someone” and “Wait a Minute”.
After a mellow hour-long set of acoustic music, the band decided to take a
break to have some food. When they returned, the sound level increased
exponentially as the guitarists plugged their electric guitars into their
amplifiers and the drums and Hammond organ were added to the band.

The guests were still outside eating barbeque, so Ray
suggested that maybe they start off by learning the new song that Maggie and
Justin had written over the weekend. Justin borrowed Dave’s Les Paul so that he
could lead them in the song. After a few times through, Dave took over as
rhythm guitarist, Ray played lead and Justin returned to playing bass. Maggie
sang lead and Justin sang harmony. It was an up tempo blues/rock song with a
memorable melody. When they finished, Ray and Dave looked at Maggie and Justin
approvingly.

“That song really kicks ass, you guys. We should play it
at the gig and maybe record it sometime,” Ray said.

Maggie and Justin smiled at each other.

“You guys certainly did it justice,” Maggie said. “That
was a lot of fun.”

The band then went on to play a two-hour set of very
loud rock and roll. Maggie sang lead on “Somebody to Love” and “Piece of My
Heart” and then sang harmony on the band’s signature tunes. After a while, she started
having trouble hearing herself over the instruments. She noticed that her ears
were starting to ring a little in between songs, so she told the band that she
was going to take a break for a while.

She went back to the house to sit on the deck. From
there she could see the children running around the yard with glow sticks.
Maggie’s children seemed unusually excited, maybe from being around so many
other kids or because of the loud music. Denise brought out some marshmallows
from the kitchen and took them over to the barbeque where she supervised the
kids roasting them on sticks over the embers. When they were done eating the
marshmallows, Denise came over and joined Maggie on the deck.

“The boys are pretty loud tonight,” she said. “I usually
won’t let the kids in the studio when they’re playing like that.”

“Yeah, I had to leave because I noticed my ears were
starting to ring.”

“Ray is starting to have hearing problems, so I wish
they would turn it down. I keep ear plugs around so sometimes I’ll let the kids
go in to hear the music if they’re wearing them.”

“One of the problems with living with a rock musician,”
Maggie commiserated.

“I guess you would know about that Maggie,” Denise said.
“Not to mention the drugs and the women. Ray likes to think that we have an
open marriage, but that’s just his excuse for fooling around. I don’t think he
would like it too much if I was sleeping with his friends.”

“No, he probably wouldn’t,” Maggie said quietly.

“It’s none of my business, but I was wondering if you
and Justin were in a committed relationship,” Denise asked. “We always kind of
wondered what was going on with him. There were always a lot of beautiful women
throwing themselves at him, but he never seemed that attracted to them. When he
told us that he had a child with you, then we realized that might have been the
reason for his disinterest.”

“Actually, Justin asked me to marry him, but I’m not
sure if I’m ready for that. I had a really rough time going through my divorce
from my first husband Zak.”  

“We assumed from that article in
Time
magazine
that you were married to Tucker Travis.”

“I think a lot of people had that impression. Tucker and
I were planning to get married until Justin came home and we found out that he
was Jake’s father. It kind of changed everything.”

“Justin seems a lot different these days. He seems more
serious and responsible. He obviously loves Jake. And Maggie, he seems to love
you too. I’ve never seen him be physically affectionate with other women, the
way he is with you.”

Maggie and Denise halted their conversation as they
heard footsteps coming up the stairs to the deck. Justin and Ray emerged from
the darkness and sat down next to Maggie and Denise.

“How are the kids doing?” Justin asked.

“Oh they’re fine, they came in a little earlier and went
down to the playroom to watch a video. I think they’re finally starting to get
tired.” Denise answered.

“Maybe we should put Jake to bed, Maggie. He probably
shouldn’t stay up too much later.”

“You’re probably right, Justin.”

Maggie and Justin went into the house and walked down
the stairs to the playroom. The kids were in their sleeping bags watching “The Little
Mermaid”. Jake could barely keep his eyes open.

“Jake, it’s time for you to go to bed,” Justin said.

“Oh, Dad. Can’t I stay up a little bit longer?”

“No, it’s bedtime now,” Justin answered firmly.

Maggie was impressed with how quickly Justin had settled
into his new role as father. Zak still had trouble denying Gabe and Belle
anything and as a result they would argue with everything he said. Maggie
always had to be the one to tell the kids to go to bed or to pick up their
rooms.

Jake got up out of his sleeping bag and Justin took his
hand and led him upstairs to the guest bedroom. Maggie followed after them and
tucked Jake into bed. She made sure that he had his stuffed sea lion and then
both Maggie and Justin kissed him good night. They turned on the night light
and then shut the door and went back out on the deck.