FG 3 - The Wedding Blitz Read online

  Riley was already there with the rest of the lighting crew, well, with the exception of one major key person. Harlow was once known for arriving at the lighting booth the same time the band took the stage but that was before Riley came along. I had become so used to his welcoming presence that the absence of it spoke volumes. When he finally did arrive, he didn’t acknowledge either Lizzie or I as he got ready for the show to start by putting on his headphones.

  Harlow who had become like a teacher to Riley, didn’t seem in the mood to explain anything to him tonight. I also noticed that his body language was tense and distant sitting there beside Riley, instead of open and relaxed like I had come to expect. I could tell Riley must have been right, being a professional meant everything to Harlow.

  “Kill the spotlight on Warren,” I overheard Harlow say with frustration causing me to look up at the stage for the first time since I had arrived in the lighting booth. Someone had propped Warren up against a large piece of stage equipment making it appear as if he was just leaning against it as he played the bass guitar. I could tell Hawkins was trying to pull everyone’s eyes in the crowd away from Warren, by playing up his interactions with Swank, the saxophonist, on the other side of the stage which for the most part I think worked. But when the show was finally over, Harlow groaned something about the show being a disaster before quickly fleeing the scene.

  “Come on,” Lizzie wrapped an arm around Riley’s shoulder and led him out of the lighting booth. “Let’s get you drunk.”

  “I think that there’s been enough drinking for one night,” he stressed and I got a sense that he partly blamed the alcohol Warren drank for what happened between Harlow and him tonight. “Besides, who’s going to make sure you don’t get lost on your way to the Gorge later?”

  “Just because Joie’s having a baby, doesn’t mean she’s a complete waste of space.”

  “Nice, Lizzie,” I smiled with a roll of my eyes.

  “Plus with Hawkins gone tonight it’s not like they can continue their endless pursuit to give that baby a twin.”

  “Eww…wait what?” I stopped her. “Hawkins isn’t coming with us tonight?”

  “He has some unfinished business he needs to take care of,” Lizzie explained.

  “Like what?”

  “I’m not allowed to tell you. Both Riley and I have been sworn to secrecy,” she pretended to zip up her lips and throw away the key.

  “So it’s a surprise? …I hate surprises.” After being abducted by Cyrus and then the men from National Security, I didn’t like anything to be a ‘surprise.’

  This is a good one,” Riley assured me as we made our way down the backstage hallway for the exit. I was hopeful that I might see Hawkins in the parking lot so I could at least give him a kiss goodbye. I knew what Lizzie had said was wrong or at least how she had gone about saying it was wrong but I did look forward to Hawkins and my nights alone together. So when I didn’t see any sign of Hawkins outside, I felt my heart drop. With all this talk about secrecy I realized that he must have wanted to make an escape without being bombard with questions.

  It was however a nice change to join my friends at the front of the bus as we got ready to leave. It almost felt like being in my dad’s old Volkswagen Van at the beginning of the tour again. The sight of Riley with his laptop balanced on his knee a step up from me brought back a lot of memories. Since we never had the kind of money it took to invest in a Garmin, we had to rely on our MapQuest directions instead. Everything felt the same that was until Lizzie finally started up the bus and decided to move ahead because surely she would find the switch for the bus’s headlights eventually. Without saying a word, Riley gently pulled my shoulder back so I could rest securely in between his legs.

  Screech!!

  Riley and I quickly turned our heads in the direction of the sound of metal scraping against metal.

  “Whoo hoo!” Lizzie hooted, completely undeterred by the ominous sound. “I finally found the lights!”

  “Lizzie I think you scratched another bus,” I went to point in the general direction of where I had heard the sound.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t hear anything”

  “What kind of mentality is that?” I asked.

  “Lindsay Lohan’s,” Riley snickered as we exited the fenced in the parking lot and were quickly ushered ahead of the other concert traffic by the venue staff. Just one of the perks of being with the band I guess you could say.

  “Can you believe it was only months ago when you guys convinced me to come along with the tour?” I recalled, feeling a bit sentimental.

  “More like forced you to come,” Riley snickered.

  “Hello, you needed a sugar momma to fund your trip,” I half laughed. “And I did have the cash, thanks to my dad’s will. It’s crazy if you think about it, did we seriously think we were going to make it through the entire summer tour with only nineteen hundred dollars? I think I spent the last of it at the end of June and we’re just now heading into September.”

  “No, we didn’t remember?” Lizzie stressed. “Riley had a job writing reviews of the shows, you had a job blogging about your encounters with Hawkins, and I had to get creative.”

  “Is that what you call it, the thing you do with Warren, creativity?” Riley snorted.

  “Hey don’t judge, especially when there seems to be enough creativity going around here to make even me jealous. If Warren could just stay sober for one day,” she sighed to herself. “Is that really too much to ask God?” she looked up through the tall windshield.

  “Is that really what you pray for?” Riley droned.

  “What did I say about judging?”

  “And what were we thinking, sleeping in Wal-Mart parking lots?” I continued in my revere.

  “That it was freaking hot,” Riley quipped. “And oh shit, was that Cyrus peeking through the curtains again?”

  “Cyrus—god that feels like a lifetime ago,” I realized as I rested a hand on my small bump. “And to think, none of this would have ever happened if we hadn’t survived the experience.”

  “Yeah, like watching the person you love being disgraced,” Riley sighed clearly saddened about what had happened earlier with Harlow. “I’m glad I’m here to see that,” he bugged his eyes out.

  “You think he’ll come around, eventually?” I looked up at him.

  “Honestly, I don’t know what to think,” he sighed. “He comes from a different generation where you don’t ask and you don’t tell.”

  “But he likes you Riley, I mean he really likes you,” I emphasized since I had watched their relationship develop over the summer. They seemed to both have a genuine passion for the technical light aspect of the shows, and with Harlow as the teacher and Riley as the student, the relationship worked. It also didn’t hurt that as a couple they were both freaking adorable to look at either.

  “I’ll try to talk to him tomorrow after he’s had some time to digest everything.”

  “Good,” I yawned and realized that the little tike inside of me and I were tired. I just didn’t realized how tired until I woke up again and it was daylight outside. Riley must have carried me back to Hawkins’ bed sometime in the middle of the night. I heard the floor creak outside the door and realized that the sound must have been what had initially woken me up. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was Hawkins as he quietly came through the door.

  I could tell by his gruff face that he hadn’t shaved since the last time I saw him. He was sporting a dark pair of Ray Bans and his disheveled dark hair was pulled back by a grey wool cap.

  “Hey you,” I croaked. “When did you get in?”

  “Sometime after two o’clock,” he glanced down at his wrist watch.

  “In the morning?” I felt my face pinch with the question.

  “No, in the afternoon,” he cracked a grin, clearly amused that I had somehow lost, give or take twelve to thirteen hours of the day due to sleep. I squinted my eyes to get a better l
ook at the time on the alarm clock nearby. Holy crap! It was already two-thirty in the afternoon!

  “Where’s Lizzie and Riley?” I sat up in bed.

  “They’re still sleeping,” he thumbed over his shoulder. “That was one hell of a drive, huh?”

  “I wouldn’t know,” I smiled sheepishly. “I slept through most of it. Maddie must have been tired.” I placed a hand over my stomach.

  “Maddie is that what you’re calling the baby today?” he snickered.

  “Today, yes…

  “Have you eaten any food yet?” he narrowed his eyes knowingly.

  “No, but I could,” I emphasized now that I was fully awake and, the desire to eat was overwhelming. Just the thought of food made my stomach grumble.

  “We’ll have to stop somewhere to eat on our way to Seattle,” he stripped off his grey t-shirt in exchanged for a light blue button down shirt from his closet.

  “What’s in Seattle?”

  “My parents,” he smiled as pulled his arms through the crisp shirt.

  “Oh no,” I fell back onto the bed to pull the covers up over my head. “They’re going to hate me.”

  “They’re not going to hate you.”

  “I literally repel parents.”

  “Like who?” he pulled the sheet down from around my head.

  “Hello, my mom.”

  With a shake of his head, he snickered, “Joie, I know for a fact that your mom loves you very much.”

  “Maybe, but she doesn’t have high expectations for me though. You’re last girlfriend was a freaking surgeon and a supermodel. How can I compete with that?”

  “She was also selfish and conniving.”

  “Yes exactly, but conniving people can hide that they’re conniving.” I remembered all too well how Gwyneth came off as a saint when at times she was more like Satan.

  “Not from my mother, they can’t,” he stressed.

  “What does that mean?” I gulped.

  “I guess you could say she’s old school, a bit of a pistol actually,” he smiled.

  “Is this your way of comforting me because I‘ve got to say, you’re doing a sucky job.”

  “No, smartass,” he flashed a wicked grin but it disappeared just as quickly as it had come and I could tell by his expression that something was troubling him.

  “She doesn’t know about the baby yet, does she?” I asked.

  His eyes suddenly locked with mine and I knew that I had hit the nail on the head. “I’ve been waiting for the right time to tell both of my parents,” he confessed. “My mom, she’s very religious and I’m afraid she’d see our little miracle as…,” he drifted off.

  “Hey, it’s okay,” I assured him. “I get it. I haven’t told my mother yet either. She’s not religious—she’s just old school too, as you well know,” I smiled up at him as I remembered that Hawkins and my mom had a little run in at her house when Hawkins realized that being apart from each other didn’t protect me from terrorists tracking the band—or so we thought, any more than us being together did. “So now that we have cleared that all up, I think the real question is, when are you going to feed me?”

  “Hey, I’m waiting on you poky.” he laughed.

  Chapter Two

  Hawkins had made good on his promise of food by finding me the nearest Denny’s so I could stuff my face with pancakes, bacon, hash browns, buttered toast, and two glasses of orange juice. I think my eyes were bigger than both the baby’s stomach and mine combined but Hawkins looked pleased that I was finally eating something. That was until twenty minutes later when I threw most of it back up in the nearby woods.

  All I had ever heard about bringing a child into this world, minus my mom’s opinion, was that it was a blessing and a joy. Well, try telling that to my stomach or Hawkins right now who had us parked along the side of the highway as I continued to toss my cookies. He would be here by my side if I hadn’t insisted that he stay in the car. I knew he wanted to feel a part of the experience of creating a baby, but I was pretty sure this wasn’t what he’d had in mind.

  On top of the fact that I was knee deep in the neighboring weeds, I realized I was standing in poison ivy and oak; two things I was highly allergic to but could not have cared less about as another gut wrenching need to hurl over took me. When I was sure I was done for now, I stumbled back to Hawkin’s black Saab and sunk down into the passenger seat again.

  Hawkins’ concerned blue eyes snapped over to mine as he asked, “Are you sure you still want to do this?”

  I gave him the thumbs up as my answer as I rested my head against the back of the seat because I wasn’t sure talking at this point was in either of our best interests.

  “Okay,” he seemed less than convinced as he glanced over his shoulder to check the oncoming traffic before merging back onto the highway again. When we finally took off I felt my stomach churn again, but knew I couldn’t blame his driving for the sloshy feeling I had in my gut; soI blamed the crazy Seattle traffic around us. Neither the baby nor I liked it very much. I had thought driving in Atlanta was bad, but this was definitely a close second especially when the roads turned and twisted in every direction like a rollercoaster. It didn’t seem to faze Hawkins though who called The Emerald City his hometown.

  I looked down at the loose navy blue cotton dress I had on, which in my world meant that I had at least made an attempt at trying to look good, but after my little detour into the woods, I noticed that it was now embellished with little weedy barbs and hooks. It didn’t matter I told myself, I was only wearing the dress to hide any signs of my pregnancy.

  I stole a glance at myself in the vanity mirror and nervously tried to straighten out what I could of my chestnut brown long layered hair. My dark brown eyes looked back at me with hopelessness since I looked pastier than my normal pale self. I slapped the sun visor back up into place thinking why even bother and noticed that at least the drive was pretty to look at.

  It seemed the further we drove away from the city, the closer we came to the rocky, tree filled terrain of the surrounding mountains that looked like they literally could touch the top of the sky. I wasn’t surprised by the secluded location when his black Saab finally turned off the main road; being a celebrity came with its downsides like having to protect your own privacy.

  My heart gave a little pounding thump as he drove the Saab up a short winding driveway. What if his parents hated me? I absentmindedly rested a hand on my stomach wondering what they would think of the baby as well whenever they eventually heard the news.

  Looking up, I could make out a three story house through the tall moss covered trees. The house’s architecture matched the rest of the buildings in the city of Seattle I noticed by looking like each floor had been stacked one on top of the other at slightly varying angles and where there normally would have been walls, there were long panels of windows. I caught a glimpse of a small serene lake in the back yard. It was the color of an emerald, green and navy blue hue blended together.

  “Wow, you didn’t tell me that you grew up in Falling Waters,” I murmured in awe as I got out of the car.

  “I didn’t,” he cracked a grin as he closed the door behind me. “But that didn’t stop me from buying it either.”

  “Joshua is that you?” I heard a woman’s voice call out as I quickly straightened out my dress, not that anyone could tell I was pregnant by just looking at me yet.

  “Hey mom,” he smiled up at a woman who looked like Paula Dean’s twin with her layered wispy white hair, wide brilliant smile and crystal blue eyes that I could see twinkling even from the driveway. Hawkins climbed the stairs to the top of the yard to give his mother a long overdue hug.

  Just when I was beginning to think that my fears had gotten the better of me, I noticed that her smile seemed a tad bit forced when she added, “And Joie.”

  “It’s so nice to finally have you home,” she murmured over his shoulder. “I don’t understand why you can’t stay for the weekend. I haven’t seen you in mon
ths.”

  “We still have to close the tour with the Gorge,” Hawkins explained.

  “I know,” she sighed as she stepped back and straightened out his button down shirt and then dusted off his shoulders.

  “Mom stop,” Hawkins murmured, looking slightly embarrassed. For a second, he couldn’t even make eye contact with me which made me want to laugh.

  “Alright, alright…well, it’s so nice to finally meet you, Joie,” she finally acknowledged me again but when she smiled I noticed that it didn’t reach her eyes.

  “Dinner’s just about ready,” she turned to lead the way into the kitchen. “Your father’s in the family room watching football.”

  Inside the house was spacious like a loft with carefully placed features like a fireplace to separate the rooms. The kitchen was center with cream and golden speck granite countertops and matching pine cabinets up above. A large island with the same granite top divided the space from the kitchen to an eating area. I noticed that each room was decorated with a one stand out piece like the large chandelier made out of antlers above the dining room table to the left of the kitchen and the cow skin rug on the floor in the family room to the right. From the entryway, we could see into the living room where Hawkins’ father was watching television.

  “Hey J.T.,” Hawkins’ father grunted as he got up from a dark leather couch to greet us. He had the same matching white hair as his mother, but the same tall and solid stature as his son. I now knew where Hawkins got his blue eyes from as his father genuinely smiled my way.

  “It’s nice to finally meet you, Joie,” he outstretched his hands and pulled me in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I’m Jack.”