“I’ve emailed Dirty’s offer to you,” Maggie informed Seth. She was sitting on the edge of Brody’s desk. “And I have it here, in hardcopy.”
“You don’t need to sign the contract today,” Brody said. “Take a day or two. Look itover.”
Seth reached to take the paperwork Maggie offered to him. “Thanks.” As he settled back beside me on the couch, he said, “You all know I’m glad to be here. And I’ll consider the offer seriously. But…” He glanced at me. “I feel the need to let you all know, up front, that I’m gonna be adad.”
Oh,God.
“So…” he went on, “if the contract isn’t fair, it’s not gonna work forme.”
So, apparently… we were telling themnow.
Sparks fired in my stomach; morning sickness combined with total fucking nerves. I bit my lip,hard.
Brody just stared at Seth. Then he blinked, and turned his deep blue eyes onme.
Maggie recovered first. “The… uh… contract is incredibly fair, Seth.” She shot Brody a look. “I made sure ofit.”
“You guys…” Brody managed, looking from me to Seth and back. He stopped, then tried again. “You’re… having ababy?”
“Yes,” I said. “We are.” Then I reached over and took Seth’s hand inmine.
Brody looked down at our hands, tightly intertwined… and his shoulders dropped a bit. I could see it, clearly, in his eyes: the exact moment that it really sank in for him—that Seth and I were really acouple.
That we were in this,together… for the longhaul.
“Well… congratulations!” Maggie put on a cautious smile. She stepped up to give me a hug. I let go of Seth’s hand and stood to meet her. She took me by the shoulders and peered up into my eyes, concern etched on her face… like she was checking to make sure thiswasa “congratulations”situation.
“Thank you,” I said, nodding to reassure her, and she huggedme.
“Oh my God,” she whispered into my hair. “Are youokay?”
“I’m good,” I told her, as we drewapart.
“If you needanything…”
“Believe me, I’ll let you know.” I would. God knew I was gonna need a lot of things. Like help figuring out how the hell to juggle my new life as a rock starmommy.
As Maggie turned to Seth to hug him, too, I looked at Brody. He was standing now; he’d come out from behind his desk and he was watchingme.
“I’m sorry,” I said, suddenly feeling the need to apologize for getting myself—and therefore, all the rest of us—into this. “I know there’s a tour. And I know I’m gonna be pregnant and having a baby in the middle of it. I know it’s gonna fuck everythingup—”
“We’ll work it out,” Brody said,firmly.
“Definitely,” Maggie agreed. “Don’t even worry about that,Elle.”
“I amworried.”
“Why?” Brody crossed his arms over his chest. “I mean, it was so fucking easy finding a new guitarist… should be no problem at all finding a fill-in for you for awhile.”
“Oh, fuck,” Igroaned.
Brody smiled a little. “I’m kidding, Elle.” Then he got serious again, his eyebrows furling with concern. “The last thing you need to be worrying about right now is the tour. Just take care of yourself. Don’t stress aboutthis.”
I nodded and took another deep breath, as I struggled to rapidly accept the new order of priorities in mylife.
Brody took a step toward me. He glanced at Seth, but then his blue eyes landed on me again, and they warmed. He looked… well, he looked like a concerned dad. And it hit me—that he was going to be one,soon.
And maybe he really was comingaround.
