by M. B. Feeney
"Are you okay?" When I looked up from the toilet, Gage was standing in the doorway, looking worried.
Once I was sure it was safe, I stood and rinsed out my mouth. "I'm fine. I've not missed this side of being pregnant, that's for sure." I wrapped my arms around his waist. "It may not seem it right now, but I am happy about this, honestly. Together we have . . . Well, I don't know what we have right now." I gestured at my stomach and smirked at him. "But whatever we have, we have it together."
Gage's grin was wider than I had ever seen it. "I think a return phone call to my Mother may be in order." The joy in his voice was clear as a bell.
"Go on then, before you burst."
Per Karina's strict instructions, the kids and I were not allowed to show up at the gig more than ten minutes before the show was due to start, in case Matt decided to wander around and saw us. He already knew Jenny and Wade were going, so they left the hotel a good hour before we did. I was glad of the extra time with the kids now that I was feeling better and more human. Knowing the reason behind my sickness made it easier to deal with.
Gage and I had decided not to mention the pregnancy to anyone for a while other than family. He spent most of his time before leaving on the phone trying to get me an appointment with a doctor. I managed to eat some fruit and salad without getting sick, so I got changed and made sure the kids had clean clothes on. Once we were all ready, we left the hotel and wandered along the busy, bright streets to the venue.
During the fifteen-minute walk, Grace bombarded me with questions about the show, while Sam’s head looked like it was on a perpetual spring, the amount of things he was trying to look at all at the same time. Jenny had sent me a text telling me that they were holding us a spot near the stage so that the kids could see everything and get the most out of the show. I was glad they were with me. At least I had a plausible excuse for not drinking.
We arrived at the venue, gave our names to a huge guy with a clipboard, got stamped on the back of our hands, and went inside. The children were given fancy ear defenders, which they both loved. I led them through the crowd, keeping a lookout for a familiar face.
As usual, the crowd was split into two or three different groups. There were the fans of the band itself, who tended to stand near the back so they were able to dance and be closer to the bar. The Wings fans clamoured near the stage in the hope of catching Gage's eye. I smiled to myself absently and stroked my stomach while I approached the bar to get soft drinks for me and the kids. The show hadn’t even started, and the heat was approaching unbearable.
"You sure took your sweet time getting here." Karina pounced on me when we joined her where she sat with Jade—Eli’s better half—and Drew’s wife, Kris, in their own little reserved corner. A small, round table with a few chairs had been placed by the wall. It wasn’t an all ages show, but the venue staff had taken the kids into consideration, which was reassuring. I just hoped the guys kept their language decent, even if I didn’t expect it.
"Well, I was just following your orders." I hugged Karina tight. "Bloody hell, love. America seems to agree with you."
She grinned at me when I stood back and looked her up and down. "Yeah, I love it here." When I giggled at her, she asked, "What?"
"You’ve got an American accent, but when you said 'what', you sounded like a Londoner again. " I was still snickering when the others joined us.
"You look better." Jenny hugged us both while Wade sat down, chatting with the kids, who struggled to hear him through their ear defenders.
"You were ill?" Karina asked. Shit.
"Just a bit of an upset tummy earlier. Must have been all the travelling mixed with something I ate. Most of my day was spent in bed, and the sleep did me wonders. Thanks for looking after the kids for me." I gave Jenny another hug.
"Like we had any choice. Ali ordered us to let them stay." Wade gave us both a kiss on the cheek when he joined us, leaving the kids babbling away to each other. "But it was fun."
I raised an eyebrow at Jenny, who just stared at me, giving nothing away. When I looked at the kids, I thought about the fourth that would be joining them soon. As shocked as I was, I really was pleased, and I hoped Gage had believed me when I told so. How could I not be happy that, no matter what happened between us, Gage and I would always have a reminder of our relationship?
The band came out, and we all turned to face the stage, the kids pushing past us to stand at the front. The Wings fans screamed as if they had just seen a spider, and Gage flashed them his trademark smirk. Then they launched into a song about everything not depending on outward appearance. The three kids bounced round like absolute lunatics, singing along to every song.
"It's about time we took ideas from the crowd for tonight's make-up song. Please keep your suggestions clean, since there are kids present," Drew said into the mic. Girls began screaming at him at once, and all three of our kids yelled out a suggestion together.
"Happy Birthday, Matt!"
Drew grinned and announced that it was the winning suggestion— as if there was any other option, tonight of all nights.
That was when Matt realised what was going on and why he recognised the small people in front of us. He muttered something unrepeatable about Karina into his mic and shook his head almost, glaring at the spare amp she had perched herself on. She grinned at him, unrepentant, and Becky brought a huge cake onto the stage, complete with lit candles. Drew began to play a familiar tune on his guitar, and soon the whole crowd began to sing to Matt while Karina videoed the whole thing with her little camcorder.
"Hey, crazy girl." Her head snapped up, and he leaned into the mic, a mischievous glint in his eyes "I hope you remembered to change the tape after last night."
Karina stared at him, speechless, and he cackled to himself until Gage walked up to him and, without a word, slapped him on the back of the head.
"What was that for?" Matt rubbed his head.
"There's kids present, dude."
"Shit, sorry."
I rolled my eyes. Sometimes, I really wondered whether he'd ever grow up enough to have kids, but then then I remembered that children weren’t high on Karina's priority list.
The rest of the show passed by in a blur, but Matt seemed to be distracted and wasn't interacting with the crowd as much as he usually did. The opening strands of ‘The Blind Man’ began, and all became clear—to me, at least.
“The blind man walked along a path,
His seeing eye dog his only friend
Suddenly, a flash of light filled the air
The blind man stumbled and fell to his knees
He raised his hands, pointing them to the sky above him
For it was a miracle, he could see. . . ”
Matt knew as well as I did that this was Karina’s favourite Pockets song, and if he was doing what I thought he was, I had a feeling she was either going to cry or wallop him. It might be a close call.
He continued to sing.
“He got to his feet and heard a voice
His seeing eye dog lay on the ground, his brown eyes sharp
A woman stood, bathed in a glow
Wings extended, smile wide
With hair as red as henna. . .”
The original description of her hair was ‘black as coal’, and the audience noticed the change. A couple of people followed his line of sight and turned to look at Karina, whose hair wasn’t so red anymore, but her face was.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to attract your attention to the angel sitting on the table in the corner.” Matt pointed in our direction.
I cringed when about four hundred pairs of eyes turned to Karina, who raised her hand and gave him the finger. She hated being the centre of attention in any way, shape, or form. This was turning out to be pretty close to her worst nightmare, and he hadn’t even reached the climax of his ‘act’.
“Hey Mr Blind Man
I have come to save you
But, you need to be careful on your path in
life
Or you may get attacked with a knife”
Drew’s last line was nothing like the song we all knew. Now I knew for certain that something big was happening.
“Angel dearest
Please don’t interfere with my plans in life,
I w-would like to take the chance to fulfil a . . . um . . . final dying wish."
Without any warning, Matt jumped off the stage, ploughed through the crowd like Moses and the Red Sea, and stopped in front of Karina, who looked ready to throttle him. Her lips moved while she said something to him that wasn't audible to the rest of the crowd. For a couple of minutes, they whispered back and forth.
And then the mic was back at his lips, and his voice came through loud and clear.
"Crazy lady/girl/other endearment that makes it clear this is a nickname, though you probably would attack me with a knife if I pissed you off, you’re my angel who has made me see things clearly . . . do you f-feel like m-marrying me?" He stumbled over the words, his face turning bright pink. The crowd got behind him then, and he found his voice again, "This is Vegas, after all!"
He fell to his knees like the man in the song, and when he lifted his hands above his head, they held a small box. My heart was in my mouth, unsure of what Karina’s reaction would be.
She stared at him and dropped her drink all over the floor and her shoes.
"Kar? Earth to Crazy Human/girl/biscuit?"
Wade started the crowd going in a chant. “Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.”
I wanted to slap him for putting her under so much pressure. Even the band members still on stage were joining in, straight into their mics.
"On one condition."
"Er . . . okay."
"No drive-through fat Elvises."
Matt pouted like a petulant child being told he couldn’t have sweets at bedtime.
"Okay, drive-through we can do, but no Elvis. But I quite fancy James Dean."
Matt was immobile, not sure what she was saying to him. Karina leaned into him to speak, every word caught by the mic in his hand.
"You can start celebrating, Matthew, that was a resounding yes."
The whole crowd went berserk. Jenny and I hugged each other, deliriously happy for them. Matt still hadn't moved, but when Becky showed up with a bottle of champagne and Gage sang an impromptu congratulations song, he seemed to realise what was going on around him.
"Does that mean . . ." Matt turned to the stage. "Gage, I bet you a hundred bucks I get mine knocked up first." I groaned and stared at the stage. Gage flicked his eyes my way as if to tell me he couldn't let Matt win. I nodded my head, resigned to people finding out at some point. At least we had told our parents first.
"Get your wallet out, asshole. I'm way ahead of you." I cringed when Karina glared at me, and Matt gawked at Gage. "Nearly two months ahead. Drinks are on Callaghan!"
I watched while Matt swung Karina into his arms and then she punched him on the arm. He gave her a quick kiss before running back to join the rest of the band on stage to finish the show.
"And why the hell didn't you tell us?" Jenny stood, hands on hips, in the middle of the hotel bar, Karina by her side. The pair of them looked ready to lynch me.
"Hey, leave her alone. We only found out tonight." Gage, my hero. "We were going to keep it quiet, but Callaghan just had to make that wager." He grinned at me, giving my hand a squeeze before joining the guys at the bar.
Karina wavered in place as she stood, definitely on her way to forgetting the entire evening. Her excuse earlier had been “it's a triple celebration”, and she stumbled over to me and looked me up and down.
"Shit, well done gorgeous." She pulled me into a hug, making me wonder exactly how drunk she was. "You're damn well glowing already."
"She's right. You are." Jenny wrapped her arms around us both, tears in her eyes.
"Why are you crying?" I asked her. "I'm supposed to be the hormonal one."
"I'm just happy. Now you have an excuse to come and live here."
"Here?"
"Well, not necessarily in L.A, but still in the States. Surely you're not going to move back home! Aunties Jenny and Karina will need to be involved with this baby’s upbringing."
"Aunties Jenny and Karina? That sounds like either a porn act or a really bad restaurant," Karina slurred.
"Oh, stop with the drunk act. I reckon you're faking just ‘cause I can't drink."
She had the cheek to grin at me before stumbling over to Matt, who picked her up and carried her to the lifts.
"Put me down!" she yelled at him. "I'm not done celebrating."
He surprised us all by doing as he was told.
"We are making a night of this." She wagged her finger in his face, hand on hip, her hair all dishevelled. "If I am getting married soon, I want to get totally wankered as a single woman one last time."
"How about tomorrow?" Matt asked her while they walked back towards us, his face straight despite the amount of beer he’d drunk.
"What about it? It follows today."
"Funny. How about we get hitched tomorrow? Everyone we want to be there is already here." Matt waved his arm around the room. "I'll even find a James Dean, just for you."
It was then that I noticed both their parents had made the trip to Vegas to celebrate Matt’s birthday with them.
"I haven't got anything to wear," Karina squeaked.
"Well, I kinda like those stripy socks—"
She hit him and then crossed her arms in a defensive stance. "I'm going shopping for something decent to wear."
That was the end of the conversation. They headed over to Matt's family, and I told Jenny I was going to run up to the room to check on the kids. Even though the hotel sitter was with them, I wanted to put my mind at rest.
When I returned to the party twenty minutes later, Gage had a row of multicoloured shots in front of him. He was standing next to Matt, Drew, Karina, and Becky, who all had the same set of drinks before them. I knew exactly what was going on, and it wouldn’t be pretty by the end.
"Five!" It was obvious that Karina had initiated this shit storm of alcoholism, and in unison, they all picked the fifth shot in their row and necked it. As much as I enjoyed having a drink, I was glad I wasn’t joining in with this mess, which was escalating in front of me.
"Two!" Gage yelled at the top of his lungs. Judging from the grimaces on everyone’s face, I guess it had been a shot of tequila.
"Jaeger!" Becky was clearly too drunk to comprehend the rules of shouting out numbers rather than the contents, but with a shrug, everyone complied.
I stood back, lemonade in hand, and watched them with a smile on my face. Eli and his long-time girlfriend Jade came to join me. It was the first time I’d met her, yet it felt like I’d known her for years. We laughed while the others got steadily more and more inebriated.
"NINE," Matt yelled before he fell off the only bar stool.
"I don't pity whoever's helping them to their room tonight," Eli commented before he and Jade called out their goodnights and left.
Looking down at my watch, I discovered it was almost two in the morning.
"Gage," I called out before he could yell out another number. "You coming up to bed?"
His head whipped around, and he had passed his shots across to Karina within seconds.
"Night, guys. Happy Birthday, Matty." Gage bent down, grabbed hold of Matt’s head, and planted a loud kiss on his best friend’s cheek.
"Fuck you, asshole," Matt countered, still sitting on the floor, and not hiding the fact that he was looking up Karina's skirt.
While we were walking towards the lift, Matt yelled out, "Don't go making no more babies. I need time to catch up."
I saw Karina hit him on the back of the head before the lift doors closed, leaving Gage and me alone for the first time since before the show.
"I am so glad I'm not sharing a suite with them tonight." Gage was grinning beside me. "God only knows what they'll get up to."
&nbs
p; My mind wandered back to the night Karina and Matt had met. "If you really want, I can play Bieber for you tonight."
"She told you about that?" He buried his face in my shoulder and groaned.
"Oh, she most certainly did. Revelled in doing so, too. It makes me wonder what else you have in your CD collection. You never mention that stuff in interviews."
Gage grabbed me by the waist and tickled me, taking care not to hold me too tight. "I save all those little secrets for you."
I could tell that he was on the verge of passing out. Even so, we spent the walk back to the suite with our hands all over each other, our lips locked in pure, raw passion.
Back in the room, I made a mad dash into the bathroom to clean up a little. Silence greeted me when I emerged, and I realised that Gage had passed out face-down on the couch. Beautiful.
With a sigh and feeling a little frustrated, I grabbed a blanket, flung it over him, and crawled into the huge, empty bed. I curled up and fell asleep.
Getting two excitable kids ready for the day wasn’t easy when I was as tired as I was, even with a lie in. Gage was bright eyed and bushy tailed, despite how much he’d drunk the night before. We were gathering everything we needed to take with us when there was a knock on our hotel room door. Karina was leaning against the door frame and looked decidedly bleary eyed.
"Afternoon." I grinned at the green tinge to her face. "Just got up?"
"Meh." She groaned and shook her head, "I need your help." Karina flopped down onto the sofa next to the kids, who immediately piled onto her. "Kids. As much as I love you little munchkins, Aunty Karina's feeling dog rough this morning." She untangled herself from them and looked at Gage, waving her arm in my direction. "Can I steal her away from you?"
"That's up to her, but make sure she eats."
I gave him a kiss and ushered him and the kids out of the room.
"What do you need?" Just looking at her, I could see she was starting to stress.
"Well, it seems I'm getting married." She looked like she was about to throw up. "Tonight."