The Sweetest Gift (The Gift) (7 page)

One afternoon, they headed over to Spencer’s to rehearse
with Little Maggie. Maggie had decided to bring the children, they always liked
visiting their old house too. As soon as they got there, Gabe and Belle went to
see their old bedroom. It was smaller than they remembered and Spencer had
changed the paint color. There was a queen size bed where their twin beds used
to be. They found these changes vaguely disturbing, so they decided to go to
the studio and hang out with the adults and Jake.

When they got there, Justin was showing Jake how to play
his bass. Jake was sitting in Justin’s lap while his father held the heavy bass
in front of him. Justin was teaching him the notes on the fret board while Jake
plucked the strings. Maggie looked at the two of them, Justin’s head was bent
over his son, and she could see the strong resemblance. She wondered why she
had never noticed it before. Justin suddenly looked up at her and smiled.

“Listen Maggie, I’ve taught him the bass line to
‘Sunshine of Your Love’.”

Jake slowly played the line and Justin looked down at
him with fatherly pride. Maggie felt attracted to Justin in a way that she
never had before, maybe because they were both parents of this beautiful child.

“Great job Jake,” she said. Maggie and Justin smiled at
each other.

 The rest of the band arrived and started tuning up, so
the children decided to take a ball outside and play in the yard. After they
left the studio, Maggie looked at Justin and then announced that she had
something she wanted to tell everyone.

“Justin and I have recently discovered that Jake is
Justin’s son. We told Zak and the children and everyone seems to have come to
terms with this.”

The members of the band looked surprised and were quiet.

Spencer spoke up after a minute.

“Wow, this is pretty shocking news. It’s going to take a
little getting used to.”

“You said it, Spencer,” Justin said and he laughed
somewhat mirthlessly.

“Congratulations Justin,” Carole said. “How does it feel
to be a father?”

“A little overwhelming,” he answered. “It seems like a
huge responsibility.

“Well it is. But I’m sure you’re up to the task,” Carole
said and smiled at him. She walked over to him and patted him on the back.

“If you need any advice, just holler,” said Jim. “I
think I’ve been through most everything with my four kids.”

“Thanks, Jim. I appreciate your offer,” Justin answered.

Maggie and Justin felt relieved that the members of
their band seemed to accept their news well. Most of the band members had
already known that Maggie and Justin had slept together while they were on tour
in the early days of the band, so they weren’t as surprised as they might have
been.

The band spent the next couple hours playing their new
songs. When they felt like they were sufficiently rehearsed, Spencer recorded
them on his tape deck. They wanted to send a cassette of the new songs to their
record producers Abbie and Jerry to get their reaction. Abbie and Jerry had
been encouraging Little Maggie to release a new album, it had been over two
years since the last one mostly because Maggie had been living in Nashville with Tucker.

By the time they finished recording, Maggie’s children
were more than ready to go home. After hugging Spencer, Carole and Jim goodbye,
Maggie and Justin loaded the kids into the back of the car and then drove back
to Maggie’s house. Zak was still staying at Sarah’s so they had the place to
themselves. After a quick dinner, the children deposited themselves on the
couch to watch their favorite television shows, while Maggie and Justin sat out
on the porch and relaxed, tired from a long day of playing. Suddenly, there was
a soft knock on the door. It was Zak and Sarah. Maggie and Justin hadn’t heard
their car over the din of the television.

“Can we come in, Maggie?” Zak asked.

“Sure, no problem,” Maggie said as she moved over on the
couch to make room for their guests. Justin got up out of his chair and sat
next to Maggie, offering his chair to Sarah.

“What’s up, Zak?” Maggie asked.

“Not much, I just wanted to drop by and hang out with
the kids for a while. I didn’t see them much this weekend. How was your
practice at Spencer’s?”

“It went well, we made a tape of the new songs to send
to Abbie and Jerry. They’ve been after us to make a new album.”

“I was wondering if you were going to be taking the kids
to Nashville soon,” Zak asked. “Sarah and I were thinking of going on a
vacation. She would like to visit her sister in Colorado.”

“I hadn’t really decided on a date for that yet. We’ve
been kind of playing it by ear,” Maggie replied.

“What about you, Justin? Are you going back to California soon?”

“I’m not sure Zak. Now that I know Jake’s my son, I want
to spend some time with him. We have a lot of catching up to do. I feel bad
that I wasn’t around for the first five years of Jake’s life.”

“Maybe you should come to Nashville for a while with me
and the kids, Justin. I’m sure that Tucker wouldn’t mind if you stayed in the
guest house. We were planning on staying at Tucker’s for a couple months before
we go on our world tour,” Maggie said.

“I was sort of thinking that maybe you and the kids
would like to come to California with me, Maggie. I’d like my parents and
friends to meet you and Jake. Jake is my parents’ only grandchild, I’m sure
they would like to see him.”

“Oh...” Maggie said and thought for a moment. “Speaking
of parents, I’m sure that my parents would like to spend some time with you and
the kids. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen them.”

“Well, maybe we should plan a trip to Boston too,
Maggie. We could do our own little world tour with Jake and the kids,” he said
smiling at her fondly.

“I can see you need to talk about this,” Zak said. “Let
me know what you decide so Sarah and I can book our flights.”

Zak and Sarah left to go into the living room with the
kids, leaving Maggie and Justin alone. Justin took the opportunity to put his
arm around Maggie. He leaned close to her and whispered in her ear, “What do
you think Maggie? Should we introduce our son to the world?” He looked deeply
into her eyes and then at her half-open mouth. She found herself wishing he
would just kiss her. When he finally did, she didn’t resist. She had been
feeling increasingly attracted to him, and didn’t want to fight that feeling
any longer. It felt right to her that they were finally together again,
especially now that they knew they had a son. Maggie kissed Justin back just as
enthusiastically as he had kissed her until Zak walked in the room.

“Oh sorry,” he said, feeling a little embarrassed that
he had interrupted their intimate moment. “Sarah and I are going home. Just let
me know what you want to do.”

“O.k. Zak, we’ll figure it out,” Maggie said.

After he left the room, Justin said to Maggie, “Have you
ever noticed how much Sarah looks like you when you were a little younger?”

“Just because she has blonde hair and blue eyes?”

“You two could be sisters. It’s kind of creepy,” Justin
said and laughed.

“Well, that would be creepy if it was true, but it’s
not,” Maggie retorted. She hit Justin with a small pillow that was on the
couch. Justin hit her back with another small pillow from his side of the
couch.

Just then the kids came into the porch to see why Maggie
and Justin were laughing. They were shocked to see them acting like teenagers.
They always thought of their mother as being the mature parent in their lives,
so they didn’t know what to think about this new behavior. Maggie and Justin
sobered up and put the pillows back and then asked the kids to sit down for a
minute.

“Justin and I were just discussing that maybe we would
like to take some trips with you. We had already planned on going back to Nashville to stay with Tucker, but Justin would like us to come out to California to meet
his friends and family. He thought that Jake might like to meet his
grandparents.”

Jake looked confused. “I thought my grandparents lived
in Boston,” he said.

“That’s my parents, Jake,” Maggie replied. “Justin would
like you to meet his parents. They’re very excited to see you since they don’t
have any other grandchildren. We were also thinking about going to Boston so you could see my family.”

“That sounds like a lot of traveling, Mama,” said Belle.

“Well, I guess it is,” said Maggie. “Justin and I are
calling it our world tour.”

Justin smiled when Maggie said that and looked lovingly
at her and the children.

“I think it sounds great, Mom” said Gabe. “It gets a
little boring at home sometimes. I like to see new places.”

“Me too, Gabe,” Maggie said and smiled. “O.k., I guess
we’ll make the arrangements then. We probably have just enough time to fit
these trips in before school starts in September.”

Justin smiled too. He was looking forward to spending
time with Maggie, Gabriel, Isabel, and especially Jake. He had been a bachelor
for a long time and he was enjoying being part of a large, rambunctious family.

.

Chapter 9

The first stop on Maggie and Justin’s ‘world
tour’ was Nashville. They flew from Lafayette to Nashville and then rented a
car at the airport. As they drove up the long driveway to Tucker’s estate,
Maggie felt happy to be back. She and her children had lived there for two
years and she had started to look on it as being her home. Justin drove up to
the palatial main house, imposing with its white pillars. Tucker must have been
watching for them because he came out immediately when they pulled up and
parked. He walked over to get the door for Maggie, and the three kids piled out
of the back seat. They said ‘hi’ then helped Justin get the suitcases out of
the trunk and carry them into the house. They dropped them off in the front
foyer and ran up the sweeping staircase to their bedrooms on the second floor. After
a lot of noise and giggling, they came back down again, complaining that they
were hungry.

“Why don’t you come into the kitchen and I’ll make you a
snack,” Tucker suggested.

They were enthusiastic about this idea, so they all sat
down at the kitchen table while Tucker made his specialty, peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches. He made sure they all had glasses of milk and then he joined
Justin and Maggie who were sitting in the living room. Maggie had kicked off
her shoes and was lying down on the couch while Justin was taking the
opportunity to play one of Tucker’s many acoustic guitars.

“Nice tone on this old Martin,” he said.

“Thanks, those old Martin D-28’s are my favorite. I got
this one at Gruhn’s a couple years ago.”

“It’s nice to be able to afford any instrument that you
want,” said Justin.

Tucker laughed and said, “I must admit that it is. What
is your favorite bass, Justin?”

“Probably the Alembic bass that I bought out in California two years ago. It was previously owned by Phil Lesh. It can really fill an
arena,” Justin laughed. “I’m hoping that if you come out to California with the
kids Maggie, then you can hear me play it at a show with my band.”

Tucker looked surprised for a minute.

“Oh, I didn’t realize that a trip to California was in
the works,” he said.

“I was hoping that Maggie might bring the kids out so my
parents could meet Jake. What do you think, Tucker?”

“I know Maggie hasn’t been out to the west coast in a
while. She might enjoy a trip to California,” he said noncommittally.

“I’ve never been to San Francisco,” Maggie said. “Just
to Los Angeles for the Grammy awards. I’d like to go to San Francisco, my
parents met there when my mom was at Berkeley.”

“I didn’t know that Maggie,” Justin said.

“Yeah, my dad was in the Navy during World War II. He
met my mother at a party at her sorority. He told me once that the first time
he saw her he thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.”

Justin thought to himself that he could understand that.
That’s what he had thought the first time he had met Maggie in New Orleans. He would never forgive himself for letting Zak make the first move.

“Well then, maybe you should take the kids out there
Maggie,” said Tucker casually.

“Do you want to go with us Tucker?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t know. I’m kind of tired of traveling. I’d like
to stay home for a while and rest. We have that big tour coming up in a couple
months. I think you and Justin should go though.”

Maggie looked at Justin.

“We’ll think about it, I guess,” she said.

After joining Maggie and Tucker for sandwiches in the
kitchen, Justin went out to his car and drove down to the guest house. Justin
liked the guest house a lot better than Tucker’s mansion. It reminded him of
his own house in Louisiana. The house was much smaller in scale. It only had
three bedrooms, a living room and a small eat-in kitchen.

Justin carried his bag into the house and stopped for a
moment in the living room. He remembered sitting on the couch with Maggie and
kissing her. He then went into the bedroom and unpacked his clothes and put
them away in the bureau. He sat on the bed and remembered making love to Maggie
the night that she decided that she was going back to her husband Zak. He had
told her that he wanted something to remember her by. Well, he certainly got
that, he thought. Jake was conceived that night. He knew when they made love
that second time and he didn’t use a condom that there was a chance that Maggie
might get pregnant. He realized that he secretly wanted that to happen. Maggie
was so beautiful when she was pregnant, and he had wanted to see her pregnant
with his child. It had been his dream that he couldn’t acknowledge until
recently, when he found out that Jake was his son. Now, he regretted that he
hadn’t been there for Maggie during her pregnancy. Most of all he regretted
missing Jake’s infancy and early childhood. Jake was five years old now, and he
would never get that time back.