“They’re making the arrangements now for us to play some dates in Europe and Japan,” Tucker said. “We’re really looking forward to it. Maggie is hoping to take some time to go visit her grandmother’s hometown in Sweden. There are some relatives there that she would like to meet.”
“I’m sure you will enjoy it. I had a great time when I was there,” Justin responded.
“I guess you must have, because you certainly took your time coming home,” Maggie said.
They finished their meal, and took their dishes into the kitchen.
“Maggie, why don’t you walk with me over to the studio,” said Justin. “I’m going to put my suitcase in the apartment since you’re staying in my house. I have some tapes of my new band that I want to give you.”
“Go ahead,” said Tucker. “Zak and I will finish cleaning up and get the kids ready for bed.”
Justin took Maggie’s hand and they walked out to the driveway. It had stopped raining, but there were large puddles everywhere. Justin put his arm around Maggie’s waist and said “Let me help you avoid these puddles, Maggie. They’re pretty deep.” Maggie felt like she was having a little trouble breathing, Justin was so close that she could smell his aftershave. The five years fell away in an instant, and she knew she was still as attracted to him as she had been when he played bass in her band.
Justin got his suitcase out of his rental car and then they walked down the driveway to the studio. They entered the apartment in the back where Justin planned to stay. He put his worn suitcase on the bed and unzipped a side pocket and pulled out several cassettes.
“Here are some tapes of me playing with my new band. You’ll probably like it Maggie, since it’s progressive country/rock. It’s just the kind of music that we used to play in the early days with the Bayou Blasters. I heard your recent album with Tucker and I’m not surprised it’s selling so well, it’s very commercial.”
“Maybe a little too commercial,” Maggie said. “I’m starting to miss playing bluegrass music. I’ve been talking to Spencer about getting Little Maggie back together to do another album.”
“I’d be happy to help out if you want me back on bass.”
“O.k., I’ll let you know after we decide what material we might record. Spencer came to visit me in Nashville and we worked on a few songs together. Tucker said he thought they were good.”
“Well, I’d certainly trust Tucker’s opinion, Maggie.”
“So what did you want to talk to me about, Justin?”
Maggie thought it was time to stop dancing around the subject that she knew was hanging over their conversation.
“There’s something I’ve needed to talk to you about for a long time, Maggie. I was going to come back when I heard that you and Zak were getting divorced, but then Spencer told me that you had moved in with Tucker with the kids. You didn’t waste much time.”
“I didn’t want to stay here after I found out that Zak was having an affair with the nanny. Tucker invited me to stay in his guest house and then one thing led to another. We’d always been great friends and then without Zak in the picture, it became a little more.”
Maggie thought she discerned a look of disapproval on Justin’s face.
“I know you think that Tucker is too old for me and can’t make me happy, but I am happy Justin.”
“Maggie, only you can decide what’s best for you. Let’s sit down on the couch for a minute.”
Maggie sat down on the edge of the couch and waited for Justin to get to the point. Justin reached over and took Maggie’s hand in his.
“Maggie, this is really hard for me to tell you. Do you remember the last time we slept together at Tucker’s before you went back to Zak after he finished rehab?”
“Yes, you said you wanted to make love one more time because you knew that I was going to end our relationship. You said you wanted something to remember always.”
“Maggie, I know you think that we just made love that one time, but we made love a second time in the middle of the night while you were half asleep. I don’t think that you remembered that the next morning.”
“Why are you telling me this Justin?” Maggie had a nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Maggie, I didn’t use a condom the second time. I think there’s a chance that I might be Jake’s father.”
Maggie heard a rushing noise in her ears for a minute.
“Maggie, are you o.k.?”
“Justin, Zak is Jake’s father. We made love the next day when he came home from rehab and we purposefully tried to conceive a child. Why didn’t you mention this before?”
“Maggie, I love you and Zak. I didn’t want to do anything that would hurt your relationship. Since you aren’t together any more, I thought this would be a good time to determine who Jake’s father is. I thought we should do this before you get married again.”
Maggie couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. Justin put his arms around her and started kissing her hair gently. Suddenly they heard the screen door squeak as Tucker entered the building. Justin pulled his arms away from Maggie.
“What’s going on you two? Why are you crying, darlin’,” Tucker asked quietly. This only made Maggie cry even harder.
“Oh my god, I don’t think I can tell you,” Maggie sobbed.
“Honey, you can tell me anything. I don’t want there to be any secrets between us. You know everything there is to know about me, warts and all.”
Tucker searched Justin’s eyes, but Justin had a guarded look on his face.
“It’s up to Maggie to tell you, Tucker,” he said.
Maggie waited for a moment and then said, “Justin just told me that he thinks that he might be Jake’s father. We slept together at your guest house the night before I went back to Zak.”
“I always wondered about that,” Tucker said. “I knew there was something going on between the two of you. I saw you kissing once through a window when I was walking Belle back to the guest house. So what do you want to do?”
“I would like to have a paternity test done. If Jake’s my son, I would like to know that,” Justin answered.
Tucker looked over at Maggie who had tears streaming down her face.
“I agree with Justin, Maggie. It’s important that we know who Jake’s father is.”
“We could take Jake over to the hospital in Lafayette, Maggie. I’m sure they could perform the test there,” Justin suggested.
Tucker walked over to Maggie and took her hand in his.
“Maggie, this isn’t going to change the way I feel about you. But I think we should get this done before we get married.”
“What about Zak?” Maggie said.
“I think we should wait to tell him until we have a definitive answer from the hospital. It might turn out that he’s Jake’s father, and I don’t want to upset him unnecessarily,” Justin responded.
The three of them walked back to Maggie and Zak’s house. Zak knew by their somber faces that something had happened.
“What’s going on guys?” he asked.
“Nothing, Zak. We’ll tell you later,” Justin said.
“Well, I just hope that everyone’s o.k.”
Zak could tell by Maggie’s red eyes that she had been crying but he could tell by her silence that he needed to respect her privacy at that moment. He knew that she would tell him what was going on when she was ready.
.
Chapter 3
The next morning, Justin called the hospital and made arrangements for them to do the paternity testing. They made an appointment to go into the lab in two days. Both Maggie and Justin anxiously looked forward to having the issue resolved. In the meantime, they tried to enjoy their time at home.
Maggie noticed that the children had all grown a lot while she had been on tour and decided they all needed to go into town to buy new sneakers. Tucker borrowed Zak’s van and drove everyone to the shoe store. The salesman measured everyone’s feet and discovered that Jake needed sneakers
two sizes larger than what he had been wearing. Maggie felt guilty that his feet had been pinched in his old shoes. Jake seemed to be a lot bigger than Gabriel was at the same age. Maggie wondered if this was because he was Justin’s son. Justin was several inches taller than Zak and larger boned. She wasn’t sure though, because Maggie was tall herself.
As they left the store with their new shoes, Tucker noticed a toy store across the street.
“Let’s stop in there. I’d like to buy the kids some new toys. It will help keep them busy and out of trouble,” he said and smiled at Maggie.
Maggie knew that he enjoyed indulging her children, so she acquiesced. Tucker told the kids that they could each buy one toy, so they spent the next half hour carefully surveying the store and making their choices. Gabriel picked out a truck that carried small cars, Belle decided on a Barbie doll that was dressed in a glamorous pink gown and Jake chose a Fisher Price castle complete with knights.
Everyone was tired by the time they got back to the house. They all had lunch and then the kids went to their rooms to play with their new toys. Maggie, Tucker and Zak took some guitars into the living room and quietly played together. After an hour or so, the children came into the room and listened for a while.
“Dad, let’s go out to the studio and play there,” Gabriel said. “I’d like to play with Tucker and Mom.”
“Well, I’d like to play with you too Gabe. I hear you’re really coming along on the guitar,” Tucker said.
So they all walked down the driveway to the studio. Gabriel and Zak picked up electric guitars, Tucker and Maggie had acoustic guitars, Belle took out her electric violin and Jake had his mandolin. Gabriel started to play some guitar licks loudly.
“You probably want to turn that down a little, son,” Zak said gently. “You don’t want to drown out the acoustic guitars.”
“Can we play Johnny B. Goode, Dad?” Gabe asked.
“Sure, I think everyone knows that song.”
Gabriel launched off into the tune, playing loudly and up tempo.
Maggie and Tucker were impressed. Zak had obviously been working with Gabriel on his guitar playing and he had improved enormously while they had been away. As Gabe was finishing the song, the door to the studio opened and Justin peered inside.
“Great job, Gabe,” Justin said as the final chord rang out. “Maybe in a few years, you can come out to California and play with my band. You’d like them, they really rock.”
Justin picked up a bass guitar that was in a stand in the corner and plugged it into a bass amp. He played a couple notes and Jake ran over with his eyes wide. He reached out and plucked a couple of the strings on the bass and was thrilled by how loud and low the notes were. Justin and Zak looked at each other and laughed.
“It’s a lot louder than my man’lin,” Jake said with a happy look on his face. He plucked a couple more strings as Justin moved the fingers on his left hand up and down the neck of the guitar, changing the notes.
“Maybe I could give you a short lesson later on, Jake.” Justin said.
Jake nodded and then ran over to get his mandolin.
“Wheel Hoss,” he said.
Maggie looked surprised.
“Where did you learn that, Jake?” she asked.
“Gabe taught me,” and he proceeded to play the tune slowly.
Everyone clapped when he was done and he smiled happily.
“What would you like to play, Justin?” Maggie asked.
“How about ‘I Still Miss Someone’? I remember we used to play that together at my apartment, Maggie. How about if I sing the lead and you sing harmony?”
“O.k.”
When Justin started to sing the line “Oh, I never got over those blue eyes, I see them everywhere,” Tucker noticed that Maggie’s blue eyes had filled with tears. Maggie and Justin exchanged a quick look and then Maggie looked down at her guitar and wouldn’t look at him again. When Justin was done playing, Tucker said to him, “That was beautiful Justin. Thanks for playing that, it’s one of my favorites.”
“How about you Tucker? What would you like to play?”
“I’m thinking ‘The House of the Rising Sun’. Zak and Gabe could take some good breaks on that.”
Zak pulled out his National guitar as Tucker started to sing.
“There is a house in New Orleans,
It’s called the Rising Sun.
It’s been the ruin of many a poor boy
And god I know I’m one.”
Tucker’s gravelly voice was perfectly suited for singing this blues standard and Gabe and Zak both took breaks, each trying to top the other. They even let Belle take a break on her electric violin and she smiled proudly when she was done.
“That was wonderful everyone,” Maggie said when they were done.
“What are you going to do, Mama?” Belle asked.
“How about ‘The Sweetest Gift’? I always like to do a song about mothers,” Maggie said and smiled.
Tucker played a brief introduction on his guitar and Justin joined in on the bass. He was very familiar with the song since he used to play it with Maggie in her bluegrass band Little Maggie. Justin and Maggie exchanged glances several times during the song, it brought up a lot of memories for them of when they used to play together. They smiled at each other when Maggie sang the final line, “The sweetest gift, a mother’s smile.” When they finished, Justin exclaimed, “It’s been a long time. I’ve missed playing with Little Maggie.”
“Spencer and I were planning on getting together to play while I was here. Maybe you’d like to come play with us. We could invite Carole and Jim to play too. It would be a nice reunion.”
“I’d like that Maggie. You mentioned that you were thinking about working on a new album, maybe we could get started on that.”
“I’m getting tired guys,” said Tucker as he took one last swallow of his water. “Maybe we can get together tomorrow afternoon and play some more then. Maggie and I have to run some errands in Lafayette tomorrow morning, so we probably want to have dinner and get to bed early.”
Justin gave Maggie an inscrutable look and said, “I’m tired too. It was a long trip from California.”
He helped the children put away their instruments in their cases and they all went to Zak and Maggie’s house for some dinner. Afterwards, Maggie helped Zak put the children to bed and then she and Tucker went back to Justin’s house. Justin retired to the apartment in the studio. He kicked off his cowboy boots and lay down on the bed, too tired to take off his clothes. But he couldn’t get to sleep, there were a lot of thoughts and memories swirling around in his mind. He lay awake for a long time with his eyes open, wondering what the next day would bring, and then he gradually drifted off to sleep.
Maggie lay awake for a long time too, listening to Tucker snore softly.
He woke briefly and put his arm around her.
“Go to sleep, Maggie. Everything will be fine.”
Maggie snuggled closer and was comforted by his warmth, but as she fell asleep she was thinking about the last night that she spent with Justin.
.
Chapter 4
The next morning, everyone got up early and went over to Maggie and Zak’s house for breakfast. The children were already sitting at the kitchen table having some cereal when they arrived. Zak offered to make eggs and pancakes while Justin started a pot of coffee. Neither Justin nor Maggie had slept well and needed to start the day with some caffeine. Justin brought over a large mug of coffee for Maggie and put his hand on her shoulder.
Maggie looked up into his face and then turned towards her ex-husband and said, “Zak, I’d like to take Jake over to the doctor this morning for his checkup. He’s due for some vaccinations.”
“O.k., Maggie. I can take you.”
“That’s not necessary, Zak. Tucker and Justin offered to go with me if we can borrow your van for a couple hours. That’s probably easier than taking the car seat out.”
“Sure, Maggie.”
“Can we go Mama, please?” said Belle.
“It’s just going to be a lot of waiting around at the doctor’s office, dear. Why don’t you stay here and we’ll go do something fun when we get back.”
The adults finished their coffee and then Maggie packed a bag with a few of Jake’s toys and books and then they got into the van for the trip to the hospital in Lafayette. When they got to the hospital, they went up to the lab on the second floor and checked in. A friendly nurse took Jake and Justin to a back room to get their blood samples. Maggie and Tucker stayed in the waiting room. A few minutes later they heard Jake cry as the nurse took his blood. Jake and Justin emerged from the back room, Justin had his arm around Jake’s shoulders and was telling him how brave he’d been. Jake had tears streaming down his face, but he was happily looking down at some stickers that the nurse had given him.
“How did it go?” Maggie asked.
“It was fine,” Justin responded. “Jake was very brave about his ‘vaccination’. I got one too, and we both got special bandaids with stars on them.” Justin smiled at Maggie. “We should get the results back in about a week.”
“Maybe we should change the plane reservations to Nashville, Tucker. I think we should be here for the test results,” Maggie said.
“O.k. darlin’, whatever you want.”
They all drove back to Maggie and Zak’s house and when they went inside, Jake excitedly showed his new stickers to his brother and sister.
“I got a shot, and Uncle Justin got one too,” Jake told them.
Zak looked up inquiringly when he heard that.
“Yeah, I was overdue for a tetanus shot and decided to get it out of the way while we were there,” Justin said.
The kids seemed a little wound up, so Zak offered to take them for a walk. Tucker said that he would join them as he needed to get some exercise. They left the house in a flurry, leaving Maggie and Justin alone on the front porch.
The Sweetest Gift (The Gift) Page 2