The Sweetest Gift (The Gift) (3 page)

As they left the store with their new shoes, Tucker
noticed a toy store across the street.

“Let’s stop in there. I’d like to buy the kids some new
toys. It will help keep them busy and out of trouble,” he said and smiled at
Maggie.

Maggie knew that he enjoyed indulging her children, so
she acquiesced. Tucker told the kids that they could each buy one toy, so they
spent the next half hour carefully surveying the store and making their
choices. Gabriel picked out a truck that carried small cars, Belle decided on a
Barbie doll that was dressed in a glamorous pink gown and Jake chose a Fisher
Price castle complete with knights.

Everyone was tired by the time they got back to the
house. They all had lunch and then the kids went to their rooms to play with
their new toys. Maggie, Tucker and Zak took some guitars into the living room
and quietly played together. After an hour or so, the children came into the
room and listened for a while.

“Dad, let’s go out to the studio and play there,”
Gabriel said. “I’d like to play with Tucker and Mom.”

“Well, I’d like to play with you too Gabe. I hear you’re
really coming along on the guitar,” Tucker said.

So they all walked down the driveway to the studio.
Gabriel and Zak picked up electric guitars, Tucker and Maggie had acoustic
guitars, Belle took out her electric violin and Jake had his mandolin. Gabriel
started to play some guitar licks loudly.

“You probably want to turn that down a little, son,” Zak
said gently. “You don’t want to drown out the acoustic guitars.”

“Can we play Johnny B. Goode, Dad?” Gabe asked.

“Sure, I think everyone knows that song.”

Gabriel launched off into the tune, playing loudly and
up tempo.

Maggie and Tucker were impressed. Zak had obviously been
working with Gabriel on his guitar playing and he had improved enormously while
they had been away. As Gabe was finishing the song, the door to the studio
opened and Justin peered inside.

“Great job, Gabe,” Justin said as the final chord rang
out. “Maybe in a few years, you can come out to California and play with my
band. You’d like them, they really rock.”

Justin picked up a bass guitar that was in a stand in
the corner and plugged it into a bass amp. He played a couple notes and Jake
ran over with his eyes wide. He reached out and plucked a couple of the strings
on the bass and was thrilled by how loud and low the notes were. Justin and Zak
looked at each other and laughed.

“It’s a lot louder than my man’lin,” Jake said with a
happy look on his face. He plucked a couple more strings as Justin moved the
fingers on his left hand up and down the neck of the guitar, changing the
notes.

“Maybe I could give you a short lesson later on, Jake.”
Justin said.

Jake nodded and then ran over to get his mandolin.

“Wheel Hoss,” he said.

Maggie looked surprised.

“Where did you learn that, Jake?” she asked.

“Gabe taught me,” and he proceeded to play the tune
slowly.

Everyone clapped when he was done and he smiled happily.

“What would you like to play, Justin?” Maggie asked.

“How about ‘I Still Miss Someone’? I remember we used to
play that together at my apartment, Maggie. How about if I sing the lead and
you sing harmony?”

“O.k.”

When Justin started to sing the line “Oh, I never got
over those blue eyes, I see them everywhere,” Tucker noticed that Maggie’s blue
eyes had filled with tears. Maggie and Justin exchanged a quick look and then
Maggie looked down at her guitar and wouldn’t look at him again. When Justin
was done playing, Tucker said to him, “That was beautiful Justin. Thanks for
playing that, it’s one of my favorites.”

“How about you Tucker? What would you like to play?”

“I’m thinking ‘The House of the Rising Sun’. Zak and
Gabe could take some good breaks on that.”

Zak pulled out his National guitar as Tucker started to
sing.

“There is a house in New Orleans,

 It’s called the Rising Sun.

 It’s been the ruin of many a poor boy

 And god I know I’m one.”

Tucker’s gravelly voice was perfectly suited for singing
this blues standard and Gabe and Zak both took breaks, each trying to top the
other. They even let Belle take a break on her electric violin and she smiled
proudly when she was done.

“That was wonderful everyone,” Maggie said when they
were done.

“What are you going to do, Mama?” Belle asked.

“How about ‘The Sweetest Gift’? I always like to do a
song about mothers,” Maggie said and smiled.

Tucker played a brief introduction on his guitar and
Justin joined in on the bass. He was very familiar with the song since he used
to play it with Maggie in her bluegrass band Little Maggie. Justin and Maggie
exchanged glances several times during the song, it brought up a lot of
memories for them of when they used to play together. They smiled at each other
when Maggie sang the final line, “The sweetest gift, a mother’s smile.” When
they finished, Justin exclaimed, “It’s been a long time. I’ve missed playing
with Little Maggie.”

“Spencer and I were planning on getting together to play
while I was here. Maybe you’d like to come play with us. We could invite Carole
and Jim to play too. It would be a nice reunion.”

“I’d like that Maggie. You mentioned that you were
thinking about working on a new album, maybe we could get started on that.”

“I’m getting tired guys,” said Tucker as he took one
last swallow of his water.  “Maybe we can get together tomorrow afternoon and
play some more then. Maggie and I have to run some errands in Lafayette
tomorrow morning, so we probably want to have dinner and get to bed early.”

Justin gave Maggie an inscrutable look and said, “I’m
tired too. It was a long trip from California.”

He helped the children put away their instruments in
their cases and they all went to Zak and Maggie’s house for some dinner. Afterwards,
Maggie helped Zak put the children to bed and then she and Tucker went back to
Justin’s house. Justin retired to the apartment in the studio. He kicked off
his cowboy boots and lay down on the bed, too tired to take off his clothes.
But he couldn’t get to sleep, there were a lot of thoughts and memories swirling
around in his mind. He lay awake for a long time with his eyes open, wondering
what the next day would bring, and then he gradually drifted off to sleep.

Maggie lay awake for a long time too, listening to
Tucker snore softly.

He woke briefly and put his arm around her.

“Go to sleep, Maggie. Everything will be fine.”

Maggie snuggled closer and was comforted by his warmth,
but as she fell asleep she was thinking about the last night that she spent
with Justin.

.

Chapter 4

The next morning,
everyone got up early and went over to Maggie and Zak’s house for breakfast. The
children were already sitting at the kitchen table having some cereal when they
arrived. Zak offered to make eggs and pancakes while Justin started a pot of
coffee.
Neither Justin nor Maggie had slept well and needed to start the
day with some caffeine. Justin brought over a large mug of coffee for Maggie
and put his hand on her shoulder.  

Maggie looked up into his face and then turned towards
her ex-husband and said, “Zak, I’d like to take Jake over to the doctor this
morning for his checkup. He’s due for some vaccinations.”

“O.k., Maggie. I can take you.”

“That’s not necessary, Zak. Tucker and Justin offered to
go with me if we can borrow your van for a couple hours. That’s probably easier
than taking the car seat out.”

“Sure, Maggie.”

Zak went over to the counter and picked up a set of keys
and handed them to Justin.

“Can we go Mama, please?” said Belle.

“It’s just going to be a lot of waiting around at the
doctor’s office, dear. Why don’t you stay here and we’ll go do something fun
when we get back.”

The adults finished their coffee and then Maggie packed
a bag with a few of Jake’s toys and books and then they got into the van for
the trip to the hospital in Lafayette. When they got to the hospital, they went
up to the lab on the second floor and checked in. A friendly nurse took Jake
and Justin to a back room to get their blood samples. Maggie and Tucker stayed
in the waiting room. A few minutes later they heard Jake cry as the nurse took
his blood. Jake and Justin emerged from the back room, Justin had his arm
around Jake’s shoulders and was telling him how brave he’d been. Jake had tears
streaming down his face, but he was happily looking down at some stickers that
the nurse had given him.

“How did it go?” Maggie asked.

“It was fine,” Justin responded. “Jake was very brave
about his ‘vaccination’. I got one too, and we both got special bandaids with
stars on them.” Justin smiled at Maggie. “We should get the results back in
about a week.”

“Maybe we should change the plane reservations to Nashville, Tucker. I think we should be here for the test results,” Maggie said.

“O.k. darlin’, whatever you want.”

They all drove back to Maggie and Zak’s house and when
they went inside, Jake excitedly showed his new stickers to his brother and
sister.

“I got a shot, and Uncle Justin got one too,” Jake told
them.

Zak looked up inquiringly when he heard that.

“Yeah, I was overdue for a tetanus shot and decided to
get it out of the way while we were there,” Justin said.

The kids seemed a little wound up, so Zak offered to
take them for a walk. Tucker said that he would join them as he needed to get
some exercise. They left the house in a flurry, leaving Maggie and Justin alone
on the front porch.

“What did they say about the DNA testing, Justin?” she
asked.

“Well, they explained how it works. Apparently if you
are doing paternity testing on a male child, you can compare the Y chromosomes
since they are passed directly from father to son. This test is extremely
accurate, Maggie. I’m glad we had this done so there will be no question as to
the identity of Jake’s father.”

“It’s all kind of overwhelming, Justin.”

“Don’t worry Maggie. We’ll just take it as it comes.”

Justin took Maggie’s hand in his and stroked it for a
minute.

“I don’t know how I’m going to get through the next
week,” Maggie sighed.

“We’ll just keep ourselves distracted. Maybe we can go
over and play with Spencer a few times. I’m sure the kids will want to go on a
couple short expeditions.”

“In the meantime, I want to hear some of those tapes
that you gave me,” Maggie said.

She went over to the stereo and loaded a cassette into
the tape deck. Loud rock music came spilling out of the speakers, the music was
supported by a thunderous bass line. Maggie went back over to sit next to
Justin on the wicker couch. He put his arm around her and she leaned back
against him and closed her eyes so she could concentrate on the music.
Suddenly, she felt him tentatively kiss her on the lips. She wanted to stop
him, but it took her a minute or two to get out an ineffectual ‘no’.

“I don’t think this is such a good idea, Justin.”

“Are you sure, Maggie?”

Justin continued kissing her and then she found herself
kissing him back. It had been a long time since she had felt so attracted to a
man, probably since the last time she and Zak had made love and that was two
years ago at this point. She pulled Justin closer and kissed him more deeply.

“Maggie, I dream about kissing your soft lips. I’ve
never been able to forget about you. Even when I’ve been with other women, it’s
always been you that I want.”

“Justin, why did you wait so long to come back?” she
asked.

“I was so torn between my friendship for Zak and my love
for you. Zak has been my best friend all of my life, I couldn’t bear to hurt
him. But I couldn’t handle being around the two of you when you were so happy. I
wanted to be your husband and the father of your kids, but I couldn’t have
that. That’s why I couldn’t come home before.”

“Justin, I’m supposed to marry Tucker now.”

Justin didn’t say anything. He continued to kiss Maggie
and when he felt her relax and begin to surrender to him, he started to touch
her breasts. He was just unbuttoning her blouse, when they heard footsteps on
the gravel. Justin hurriedly buttoned her blouse back up again and was just
finishing when Zak flung the door open.

“We’re back,” he said loudly and stood in the doorway
blocking everyone’s view for a minute.

“What have you two been up to?” he asked, but he knew by
Maggie’s heavy breathing and flushed face exactly what they had been up to.

“We were just listening to a tape of my band,” Justin
said and got up to turn the tape off.

Tucker and the three kids followed Zak into the house.
Jake ran over to his mother and handed her a flower that he had found on his
walk.

“This is for you Mama,” he said.

“Thank you darling. It’s very pretty.”

“That would look nice in your mother’s hair,” Justin
said. He took the flower out of Maggie’s hand and tenderly tucked it into her
long blonde hair behind one ear.

“That does look pretty, Mama,” said Belle.

“It kind of reminds me of when you wore the flowers in
your hair when we got married,” said Zak.

“Maggie looked beautiful that day,” said Justin.

“Well, I think she looks beautiful every day,” Tucker
agreed.

Belle giggled and Maggie looked slightly embarrassed.

“You look warm Maggie, can I get you a cold drink?”
Tucker asked.

“Yes please, Tucker. That would be great.”

Tucker went into the kitchen and came back with a
pitcher of lemonade and some glasses and then poured drinks for everyone.