We stare into each other’s eyes. I know he’s torn, but this is a completely different situation that he and Cailin would never be in. He needs to understand that. He’ll never be like my dad. He’s going to want her to follow her dreams, and he’ll always listen to her first before jumping to conclusions.
“I’ll do right by him. I promise,” he says.
I shake my head, sighing. I love his ambition of even wanting to try. It’s a hopeless cause, but I don’t want to tell him that right now.
28
Adam
I’m sitting at the kitchen table, working on lyrics that were so strong in my head that I had to get them down on paper, when a car pulls up to our front gate. I walk to the camera system and smile when I see Jack on his motorcycle out front.
I press the code to let him in and step out onto the front porch to wait his arrival.
“What’s up, bro?” We slap hands as he steps up to my house. “How the hell are you?”
“Same old shit, just another day. Wanted to go for a ride, so I thought I’d stop by, see how things are going.”
“Cool. Yeah, come on in.”
We head toward the kitchen.
“Want something to drink?”
He eyes me. “I know you don’t have beer—lame ass—so what do you have?”
I laugh out loud. They always give me shit for not drinking, but I know they’re just teasing. “Water, Coke, or a juice box.” I playfully hold up the juice box.
“Don’t give me that shit.” He reaches in and grabs the Coke, and I place the juice box back in the fridge. “Any word on Max?”
“Nah, they said to keep the contact down for a few weeks while he goes through detox. No news is good news, I guess. They said we can email him, but I haven’t checked in yet, wanted to give him some time.”
He pulls out the stool at my kitchen counter and picks up the paper I was working on. “What’s this? New lyrics?” He reads them over.
“Just an idea I’m playing with.”
Ever since I met Sarah, I’ve been writing slower, more romantic songs. I know they aren’t for my band, but I had to get them out anyway. After hearing about the song she sang the other day, ideas have been swarming my brain, and they all include her.
“These have to do with your new girl?”
I eye him. Not because of the way he just said that, but because I can tell he’s got something to add, and I wait for him to do so.
“Look, I knew she looked familiar the other day, and I finally put it together.”
I stop him as their two stories from the past collide in my head. “New York.”
“So, it is her?”
He’s never talked about why he left New York. He just said the music scene had some shit go down, and I never cared enough to ask. Now, everything is coming together.
“It is. She just filled me in the other day.”
He leans back against the counter. “Fuck. That was some fucked up shit. Glad to hear she’s okay. I was good friends with Donnie, the drummer from her band. Honestly, I thought she died too. After the accident, I never heard her name again.”
Realization that I never asked her stage name hits me. “She moved back home after the accident and hasn’t been in the industry at all ever since.”
He grabs his phone from his back pocket, scrolling like he’s looking for something. “That’s really why I came by. I wasn’t sure what to think of it when I put it together. It’s kind of an odd coincidence that she’s in your life this way—with Cailin and all. In this world, it’s hard to make sure people are on the up and up.”
I laugh out loud. “Believe me, there’s nothing fishy going on with Sarah. If it’s an odd coincidence, then that’s because it was meant to be. She’s been through some crazy shit, and she is still dealing with it. I came unannounced into her life, not the other way around.”
