The Sweetest Gift (The Gift) (20 page)

“Is that the Lloyd Loar?” Maggie asked.

“Yes, I thought you might like to have it when you’re
recording the new album.”

“Well, thanks for traveling with it. I was afraid to fly
with it since it’s probably worth as much as my house.”

“Maybe not quite that much, maybe more like Zak’s
Porsche,” Tucker said and laughed. “You had plenty to worry about traveling
with the three kids and all their luggage. It was just easier for me to deal
with it.”

Maggie took the case from Tucker and put it down next to
her other mandolins. She hugged Tucker and kissed him on the cheek. Justin
walked over and shook Tucker’s hand.

“So how’s it going with the new album?” Tucker asked.

“Pretty good,” Maggie replied. “I was hoping that you
would be able to play guitar and sing with me on the songs we wrote in Nashville. We’ve been rehearsing them with Carole, Jim, and Spencer, and they sound good
with a full band.”

“Is Zak going to sit in with us?”

“Not on the bluegrass record, but Justin and I have been
rehearsing with him and Tom the drummer. We’re thinking about reuniting the
Bayou Blasters. I didn’t realize how much I missed singing with a rock band
until I played with Justin’s band out in California.”

“I heard you put on a great show at the Oakland
Coliseum,” Tucker said.

“Where did you hear that?”

“A friend of mine was in the audience. He called me up
to tell me about the show.”

Maggie looked at Justin. Suddenly she wondered if Tucker
had found out about her engagement to Justin before they had come back from California. Maybe that was the reason Tucker had called off his engagement to her as soon
as they returned to Nashville. She realized that Tucker probably broke up with
her first as a way of saving face.

“”Well, thanks for helping me out with the album,”
Maggie said. She put her arms around Tucker and hugged him and kissed him on
the cheek.

“No problem, partner. I’m looking forward to it,” Tucker
said and hugged Maggie back. Then he walked over to his suitcase, opened it and
took out a manila envelope and handed it to Maggie.

“I brought some extra wedding invitations with me, I
thought you would like to have them.”

She looked inside the envelope and took out an
invitation.

“They did a great job printing them,” Maggie said as she
held the invitation close to her face so that she could read it.

“My secretary sent out all the invitations two weeks
ago. We’ve already started to get responses, not too many regrets.”

“Everybody knows that it’s going to be a great party
Tucker, since you’re hosting it.”

“Well, thank you darlin’. I’m going to do my best to
make sure everybody has a good time. We did get an acceptance from Vanessa,
your former college roommate. Wasn’t she the maid of honor at your last
wedding?”

“Yes, she was,” Maggie said. She looked at Justin and
started to laugh.

 “I almost didn’t invite her this time since she and
Justin ended up sleeping together the night after my wedding reception,” Maggie
continued.

“That sounds more like something that Zak would do,”
Tucker said looking surprised.

“I was pretty depressed when Maggie married Zak,” Justin
said. “I ended up drinking a lot more than I should have, so I couldn’t resist
Vanessa’s overtures. If it’s any consolation Maggie, I don’t remember much
about it. It only happened that one time.”

Maggie kissed Justin briefly.

“That’s o.k., you’re forgiven. Just don’t let it happen
again. Vanessa recently got divorced, so she’s probably on the prowl for a new
husband.”

“Well, I’m single too, maybe we should hook up,” Tucker
said.

“Just don’t marry her without a pre-nup,” Maggie said
with a laugh. “She’ll take you to the cleaners.”

 Maggie looked at Justin remembering how Vanessa wasn’t
interested in him the first time they met because she didn’t think much of his
financial prospects. It was ironic that he probably had made a lot more money
than the anesthesiologist that Vanessa had just divorced.

“Speaking of the wedding, Tucker,” Maggie continued.
“Justin and I have been thinking that we might like to have a very small
ceremony here just with the children and a couple friends and then have the big
reception at your place. I think that we would like to keep the ceremony as
private as possible, just for us and the people that we love the most.”

“Darlin’, it’s your wedding. It should be just the way
that you want it.”

Tucker took Maggie by the hand and kissed her cheek.

“Maggie, we could go down to the parish clerk’s office on
Monday and apply for a marriage license. There’s a 72 hour waiting period, so
we could get married on Thursday next week,” Justin said.

Maggie kissed Justin.

“Thank you, my love. That sounds perfect to me.”

.

Chapter 25

It was hot and sticky on Thursday morning.
Maggie and Justin planned to get married at the parish clerk’s office at noon.
Their family and friends assembled at Justin’s house beforehand so they could
all go over to the clerk’s office together. Zak was there with his brother
Caleb and his wife, and their mother. Spencer showed up with his new boyfriend
Matt. Carole brought her husband Adam while Jim arrived with his wife Mary.
Maggie put Tucker in charge of her three children.

“Now don’t tell anyone that we already got married,”
Maggie requested. “We want everyone to think when we get married at Tucker’s
that it’s the first time.”

“I can’t believe that this wedding is going to be even
smaller than our wedding was, Maggie,” Zak said.

“You know how nervous I got the first time, Zak.”

“Do you really think that would happen again?” Zak asked
Maggie.

“Actually no,” Maggie said and smiled at Justin. “I
don’t have any doubts this time. I just want it to be an intimate wedding for
us. I don’t want to share this moment with the world.”

“Seems reasonable to me, my love,” Justin responded.

“O.k., then let’s go over to the clerk’s office.”

Zak loaded the three children into his van. Justin and
Maggie were borrowing his Porsche for the day. Everyone else got into their
cars and followed the Porsche over to the clerk’s office. Maggie realized that
she didn’t feel nervous about getting married this time, she was looking
forward to it. As she got out of the Porsche, Carole came over and handed her a
bridal bouquet that she had bought for Maggie that morning. It had some of
Maggie’s favorite flowers in it - blue iris, pink roses and white daisies. Maggie
was touched. She thanked her friend and kissed her on the cheek.

It was blazing hot, and Maggie was glad that she had
worn a simple pink sleeveless sundress. Justin wore a light blue shirt and
off-white linen trousers. Everyone else had dressed as comfortably as possible,
Jake was even wearing shorts. They all walked over to the town building and
filed into the clerk’s office. The office was barely big enough to hold the
sixteen of them.

The clerk asked them if they were ready to get married,
and when they assented he began the short ceremony which took only ten minutes.
The clerk pronounced Justin and Maggie “husband and wife”, and everyone
applauded as they kissed each other. Then the clerk signed the marriage license
along with Maggie and Justin and the witnesses. They went outside and posed for
pictures under a shady oak tree, and then got in their cars to drive back to
Spencer’s house. He had planned to have a light lunch and lemon cake to
celebrate their wedding. Maggie noticed that someone had placed a Just Married
sign on the back of the Porsche and tied tin cans onto the bumper of the car.

She leaned out the open window of the car and said, “Did
you do that Zak?”

“I had to, Maggie. Justin did it for us when we got
married.”

“I remember,” she said looking over at Justin. She
kissed Justin briefly and said “Let’s go over to Spencer’s.”

After a nice lunch of finger sandwiches and cake, Maggie
and Justin sat down together on the couch in the living room. Justin was
twirling his new platinum wedding band around his ring finger.

“What do you think? Do you think you’ll have any
problems playing bass while wearing your wedding ring?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t think so, and if I do I can always take it
off,” Justin answered.

“Well, I suppose I could always take off my wedding ring
too then.”

Justin leaned over and kissed Maggie.

“Maybe we should both keep our wedding rings on. I think
that was part of Zak’s problem, that he never wore a ring. It might have
reminded him to behave like a married man,” Justin said.

“O.k., I will if you will,” Maggie said and laughed.

Justin put his arm around her and she snuggled up next
to him.

She started to reflect on her life since she first moved
into Spencer’s house with Justin and Zak almost a dozen years ago.

“Remember when we first lived here together? I was so
happy living with you and Zak. I remember wishing once that we could just keep
doing that forever.”

“Well, you almost got your wish Maggie. Now we all live
next door to each other. We can still play together whenever we want. I think
we’re going to enjoy playing with the Bayou Blasters again.”

“Yes, I know it’s going to be a lot of fun. Sometimes I
think that my life has come full circle. When I started, I was singing in a
rock band and going out with the bass player, and now I’m back in the same
place.”

Justin laughed. “I guess that’s true. Two husbands and
three children later though.”

“And several bands,” Maggie added.

“I hope you enjoyed our wedding today, my love. I wanted
to get you a special wedding gift, but I couldn’t decide on anything. I was
sort of thinking that we should buy a new van so that we wouldn’t have to
borrow Zak’s car every time we want to take the kids somewhere.”

“That would probably be a good idea, Justin. Maybe we
should get a large van because I was thinking that I would like a special gift
from you.”

“Anything, my love.”

Maggie leaned over and whispered in Justin’s ear.

“I thought that I would like to have another baby with
you. You could have the chance to be around from the beginning this time.”

Justin kissed Maggie tenderly for a long time.

“That would be in incredible gift, to have a second
chance,” he said.

“And since Zak is taking care of the kids while we’re on
our honeymoon at our house, we could start on that tonight,” she said.

Justin smiled and kissed Maggie again.

Zak came out of the kitchen with a plate of cake and sat
down on a chair next to the couch.

“You two look awfully happy,” he said.

“We are. We’ve just been making some plans for the
future.”

“What’s that?”

“I think we’re going to get a new van,” Maggie said and
looked at Justin and laughed.

“Well, that would be good because then I could have my
van back.”

Zak thought for a moment. “Any chance you’re planning on
getting a bigger van?”

“Well, not too much bigger, Maggie,” Justin said.
“Otherwise we’re going to have to get a school bus.”

They smiled at each other and at Zak.

“If you need to build an addition onto Justin’s house, I
still have the phone number of the architect,” Zak teased.

“I guess we’ll see how it goes,” Maggie said with a
laugh and the three friends all smiled at each other.

.

THE END

Attribution of Lyrics

Chapter 3

“I Still Miss Someone” – Lyrics by Johnny Cash

“House of the Rising Sun” – Traditional

“The Sweetest Gift” – Lyrics by J. B. Coates

Chapter 5

“Little Maggie” – Ralph Stanley

Chapter 15

“Piece of my Heart” – Lyrics by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert
Russell

Chapter 16

“No Forwarding Address” – Lyrics by Pamela Warren

“Hesitation Blues” – Traditional

Chapter 19

“White Freightliner Blues” – Lyrics by Townes Van Zandt

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Mary and Bruce Weber and the Weber Fine
Acoustic Instruments company for providing the cover photo and the description
of the “Weaver” mandolin referred to in the book.

Thanks to Kris Krug for his assistance in formatting
this book.

Thanks to Gabriel Krug for his advice on cover design.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I was born in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up
in a suburb fifteen miles west of the city. I started playing violin in the
third grade and played in the orchestra through high school. After I graduated
from college, I occasionally sang backup vocals in my husband's country rock
band. In 1981, we traveled to Mississippi and New Orleans to play a gig, which
served as the inspiration for my book, “The Gift”.

I have been an amateur bluegrass mandolinist
for over twenty years, studying with some of the best mandolinists in the United States. I attended mandolin camp for several years where I was fortunate to take
workshops with Sam Bush, Roland White, Rich DelGrosso, Mike Compton, Jeff
Foxall and Joe Walsh. I have also taken vocal workshops with Claire Lynch,
Laurie Lewis and Stephen Mougin thanks to the Boston Bluegrass Union.