Chapter 3
Arax
My plan was to cremate my mother here in Spruce Grove, then fly out and take her ashes to the family niche.
My father’s ashes were there, and my parents could rest eternally together.
There would be no service. I didn’t have any immediate family left, and my parents had lost touch with their relatives years ago.
While Daniel drove, I finalized my travel plans, needing to reroute my plane ticket, then get on a later flight to visit Gwen.
“You’re still going?” Daniel asked incredulously when I got off the phone.
“Of course. I told Gwen I’d be there for her audition.”
Gwen Seeley was my star pupil and a musical prodigy.
I gave myself no credit in developing her skill.
Already an excellent violinist, she had only been nineteen when we’d met and had been at the music studio the longest when I took it over two years ago.
She didn’t really need music lessons. What she needed were lessons in confidence and overcoming stage fright.
I’d had no idea if I could help her in the beginning.
All those years, I wasn’t sure what the previous owner had been doing.
I eased her in, having her play for small audiences at first—other students, instructors, and her family—and built on that by having her become an instructor and teach others.
Over time, I saw her bloom into an amazing, self-assured young woman, mature far beyond her years, and I submitted her application to the Philharmonic, without her or her parents’ knowledge.
“Given the circumstances, I’m sure she’d understand if you couldn’t make it,” Daniel reasoned aloud.
I shook my head. “She doesn’t need to know about my mom. Not yet. She needs her concentration. I’m the reason she’s in LA in the first place. I can’t leave her hanging.”
“I suppose,” Daniel said with some doubt. “Want me to come with you?”
“Thank you, but no. You’ve done so much already. Plus, you need to manage the studio while I’m gone.” I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I hadn’t been back to since I’d moved us to Spruce Grove. “I need to do it alone, you know? Reunite my parents? I owe them that.”
“I get it,” Daniel replied.
“I mean, it works out, doesn’t it?” I asked. “I was going to out there anyway. Might as well make the stop to drop Mom off with Dad.”
Daniel took his eyes off the road and looked at me in quiet bewilderment. “Jesus, your humor is morbidly dark, woman,” he said with a little grin.
“My dad would be proud. I got it from him.” I motioned toward the wheel. “Eyes ahead, Estrada.”
Daniel opted to stay with me for the week before I left. I was happy for his company, especially when we’d first walked in, and the reality of my mother’s death had confronted me in every empty silent corner of my apartment.
“Did Spencer ever call you back?” he asked while were eating dinner together the night before my departure. Damn, it had been nearly a week, and I hadn’t even thought about the guy who was supposedly my long-term boyfriend. I looked at Danny but didn’t say anything.
“Fucking jerk. Does he even know?” He pretty much spat the question at me.
I shook my head.
“What kind of boyfriend doesn’t call his girlfriend for almost an entire week?”
“We kind of had a fight before everything happened,” I said.
“Who cares! Rox, I know you don’t have many options in this town, but seriously, Spence is a prick. You’re too good for him.” He grabbed my phone from where it was sitting and punched in my code. Then he typed out a message.
“Dude, what are you doing?” I exclaimed.
“I’m not going to send it. It’s just a suggestion.” He slid the phone back to me and a two-word text was typed out under Spencer’s name: We’re over.
“Really? Breaking up through text?” I asked dryly.
“It’s more than he deserves.” Daniel scoffed. “All you have to do is hit send.”
I sighed. He wasn’t wrong for thinking what he did of Spencer. The guy had been a two-timing, sometimes-three-timing asshole. When it was good between us, it was really good. Lately, however, it had been downright toxic.
I quietly held the phone in my hand, my thumb hovering over the send button. I inhaled sharply and went for it, then looked at Daniel.
“I’m proud of you,” he said triumphantly. “Now block his number.”
“Is that necessary?”
“Yes! Cut him out, for real this time!”
“Fine.” I huffed but did as I was told. Truthfully? It felt good.
“Fuck yeah!” he shouted, but then his tone softened.
“Go, pay your final respects.” Daniel pointed at the travel urn sitting on the coffee table.
“Say hi to Gwen for me. I’ll be here till you kick me out, or until we drive each other crazy.
Either way, you’ll be coming back with a lighter load, Rox. ”
I had a lot on my mind as I got ready for bed.
I was packed for my 9:00 a.m. flight from Spruce Grove Springs Airport.
Daniel was going to drive me. I’d spend a day and a half in my hometown, then take another flight late in the morning for Gwen’s audition, which was in the afternoon and board the red eye back to Spruce Grove.
Two cities in two days. I didn’t want to be away any longer.
I hadn’t had the heart to go through my mom’s things this past week, but I knew upon my return, it was something I’d have to face.
Laying her to rest had brought a bigger sense of finality.
Daniel snuggled up next to me in my bed. He was a cuddler. Even though I wasn’t and hated sharing my space with even a steady boyfriend, I didn’t mind Daniel being up close and personal.
“Why couldn’t you like girls?” I asked him half-asleep. “Things would be so much easier if you’d just make the switch.”
“Why couldn’t you be a guy?” he asked in return.
“Because I wouldn’t smell as nice,” I replied. “Also, I think we both can agree I’d be a total douche if I were a guy.”
He laughed. “You really would, Rox. Guess we’ll just have to settle for being besties.”
I side-eyed him. “Besties, huh?”
“Yup. Whether you like it or not, you’re stuck with me.”
We kept up our witty banter until we were both yawning incessantly.
Daniel was right. We were best friends. I didn’t even know how it had happened.
After my dad had passed, the years were tough.
I was not in a good place mentally or emotionally, and to this day, I carried deep psychological scars from that time.
I didn’t like to get too close to people.
My abandonment issues prevented me from having any kind of real connection with anyone.
I felt safer when I could keep my distance.
With Danny, though, it was different. We both came from situations that had affected us profoundly.
Danny was half Native American. His mother was full-blooded Navajo, and his father was Spanish.
He’d grown up on the reservation, and as he described it, his future was cloudy.
His father had died when Daniel had been seven years old, leaving his mother with four young mouths to feed.
As the oldest, he became his siblings’ caretaker, and on the reservation with its rampant unemployment and water shortages, among many other hardships, other opportunities were slim to none.
He had studied music and left home as soon as he had been old enough to strike out on his own.
He couldn’t venture too far, however, needing to stay close to his mother and grandmother.
He had wandered into my music studio one day.
I’d barely begun operating and wasn’t looking to hire anyone, having invested nearly all my capital in renovations to get the school back up and running.
I humored him with an audition, however, and the man blew me away.
His voice was the second coming of Freddie Mercury, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hire someone with his level of natural talent.
I myself had been playing guitar and piano since I was five.
I was more skilled with musical instruments than singing, and though I could carry a decent tune, it was Danny who had the pipes.
I figured out a way to pay him while the school got on its feet, and together we achieved a level of success not really possible in a small town in the middle of nowhere.
Our enrollment included folks bringing their kids in from three or four towns away, and eventually I had to hire four other instructors who brought their own clientele with them. We thrived.
Daniel and I got along so well that most people assumed we were a couple. He kept his sexuality on the down low. Small towns often bred small minds, but he trusted me enough to tell me one night. I opened up to him too, about some of my skeletons.
I was happy to be his beard. He had no shortage of girls throwing themselves at him, and he didn’t want to deal with the scrutiny.
I couldn’t blame the women though. Danny was a looker.
He was six foot three and had beautiful, medium-tan coppery skin, gorgeous amber pools for eyes, thick, luxurious hair, and a hard, toned body that he kept in amazing shape.
Together with all his talent and a sharp mind, he was the total package.
I could only hope that one day he’d be able to escape the confines of his familial obligations.
He was meant for grander things in life.
Ironically, he’d always said the same thing about me.
Maybe the day will come when it will happen for both of us, I thought as my eyelids grew heavier and I drifted off, not looking forward to the next couple of days.