Decidedly Off Limits
Page 25
“Well, um, congratulations.” I hugged Hailey and gave Nolan a one-armed hug. Fortunately, the fans were too busy listening to the sideshow entertainment between Mason and the radio personalities to notice our conversation.
Nolan burst out laughing. “She’s not pregnant. We’re adopting a puppy.”
Hailey laughed. “Sorry. Couldn’t resist.”
“Not funny,” I grumbled, doing my best not to let them know how I really felt. Joking about pregnancy was never a funny matter.
Shoving away the pain and betrayal from my past, I smiled. “So, when are you getting the new addition?”
“Today,” Hailey said.
From the look on my best friend’s face, you’d have thought Nolan was four years old and it was Christmas.
Rebecca announced the next game—darts—and we returned to our respective teams. I spent the next hour flirting with the fans, signing autographs, and finding out what they loved about our songs and about the band. This was one of the things I loved most about what I did: interacting with the fans. The real fans. Not the groupies who were hoping to add us to their I-slept-with-a-celebrity tally. They usually couldn’t tell us what they loved about our music. We were just hot bodies as far as they were concerned.
“And the grand prize,” Rebecca announced, “goes to Kirk Helmson’s team.”
Cheers broke out among the teams, including Mason’s.
“Hey, bro,” Mas said with a laugh, “you finally won the Steward Cup.”
Kirk snorted. “You mean Stanley Cup.”
“Sure, whatev.”
Kirk collected the tiny metal trophy on behalf of his team and congratulated everyone as if they really had won the most coveted prize in the NHL.
“You guys want to meet up for drinks later?” Aaron asked after we had packed up our instruments to leave. As part of the event, we had agreed to play a couple of our songs off the debut album. The president of the record label had been quite clear: under no condition were we to play anything from the upcoming album. And basically whatever he said, we did. No questions asked.
“Count me in,” I said. Kirk and Mason also agreed to meet up at our favorite bar.
On my way to my apartment, I stopped at a grocery store and wandered up and down the aisles, grabbing whatever appealed to me and didn’t require much thought. Cooking wasn’t one of my favorite pastimes.
As I pushed my shopping cart down the cereal aisle, I spotted a woman I’d never thought I’d see again—a woman I had known back when we were kids. Only I didn’t remember her looking quite so hot back then, with her long copper hair in a messy ponytail. The woman who was my ex-girlfriend-from-high-school’s little sister.
The woman signing with her hands … to a four-year-old boy.
My Song For You is now available from Loveswept (Penguin Random House).