Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
In the morning, Paige asks if I’ll take her to school.
I don’t bother asking why she doesn’t want to drive her car or why Mack isn’t picking her up, even though I do want the gossip, I want to spend quality time with her.
Our days are numbered with her leaving for college soon and I’d give anything to have my little girl back—the one that used to crawl onto my lap for naptime while we were on tour—instead of sleeping in her own bunk.
On our way to the café for breakfast, Paige sits there, with her thumbs moving rapidly over her screen.
She’s a wiz with that thing where I can barely text.
She reads off numbers that I’m supposed to understand.
The live video from last night, is still playing in the algorithm even though it ended. I nod and pretend I get it.
I don’t.
“There are hundreds of thousands of comments,” she says and I wonder how she and Bex will answer all of them. “Bex will pick a few to answer or feature. I’ll do the same, but mine are focused on band stuff.”
“Band stuff?”
Out of my peripheral, I see her nod. “We got a good number of questions about the band. Like whether you’re breaking up, when the next album is coming out or when the next tour is. Those I can answer easily, and it gives me an opportunity to push them toward the band’s website and socials.”
“Make sure you check with Mira if you’re unsure about anything.”
“I know. By the way, the replay has over a million views on YouTube.”
“Is that good?”
“I posted it at six this morning when I woke up.”
“Wow.”
“That’s an understatement.”
I sigh heavily and signal to turn onto Main Street. “The numbers don’t mean much,” I tell her.
“Let me put it into music perspective,” she says as she pockets her phone. “You released a song a little over an hour ago and a million plus people already downloaded it.”
“That’s good!”
She smiles and I feel like she’s patronizing me. “The video I uploaded is thirty minutes, raw and unedited footage of their favorite singer talking. It’s more than good, Dad. It’s phenomenal.”
Her phone chimes and she takes it from her bag. “Well, now it’s up to four states according to Ben. He’s working with Bex and the contractor on expanding FMG Records.”
I stare out the windshield and wonder what I’m going to do without her when she goes to college. “Are you planning to go to college?”
She looks at me with the most vacant look ever. “Yes. I’m not staying here.”
“State?”
“God no. Mack and I are talking about UNLV.”
“Las Vegas?”
“Yep, or somewhere in Cali.”
“Right. Of course. Well, make sure you hire and train your replacement because I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”
I seriously don’t want her going to school in Las Vegas, the city of sin—most of it created by me, Harrison and JD—fuck my life.
We get out and walk toward the café. My phone vibrates and I glance at the text from Bex and frown.
“What’s wrong?”
“A station three states over wants to carry us.”
“That’s great,” Paige says as I hold the door open for her.
“Bex will work it out. Let her do the hard stuff.” Paige goes behind the counter, by passing the line, and gets the items we want.
A chocolate croissant for her and a cinnamon roll for me.
Trudy brings me a cup of coffee and leaves a glass of juice for Paige.
“I love the show but miss hearing you sing. Don’t give it up.”
“Thanks, Trudy. I won’t.”
Paige returns with Josie on her heels. She sits down with her breakfast and a cup of coffee. My girls are across from me, and I wonder how I got so damn lucky.
“This a nice surprise,” Josie says as she sips her coffee. “I love it when my family comes in.”
“It’s free food,” Paige says as she stuffs her face. “Besides, if I ask dad to make breakfast, it’s eggs, bacon, toast, and I don’t want all of that. This was easier.”
“Why didn’t you drive yourself?”
“I wanted to go over the numbers with dad this morning and it was just easier to do it in the car.”
“Are they good?”
“Multi-platinum,” I say, telling Josie something I know she’d understand.
Her eyes widen. “Impressive.”
“It is, but it’s all because of our daughter. Did you know she wants to go to Las Vegas for college?”
My wife laughs. “Yes, that’s why we toured the campus when we were there for New Year’s. I swear, Page. Sometimes your head . . .”
I cock my eyebrow at her, daring her to finish her sentence.
She doesn’t and lifts her mug to her mouth and sips.
Josie looks up as the door opens and stands.
I turn and see Noah and Peyton walking in, pushing a triple stroller.
I push our extra chair out of the way, slide the next table over, and tell Noah to park the babies next to their grandpa.
“Good morning,” I say to each of them. Jace is doing his thing and just staring. Junie gives me a toothy smile and Maverick’s blowing raspberry bubbles.
“They’re in rare form this morning,” Peyton says. “Is it okay if I grab us some breakfast.” She points to the back.
“Come on,” Josie says and the two disappear.
Noah sits down with a long sigh.
“What’s wrong?”
“Not a damn thing. I’m happy. Peyton’s happy. The babies are healthy.”
“You sighed.” Paige points out.
“There are happy sighs,” Noah tells her.
“I heard you went out to dinner last night?”
He nods. “Took her to the restaurant you took mom to the other night. She raved and Peyton mentioned it, so I made a reservation. It was really nice.”
I sit there, beaming. My son didn’t have to be told to take his wife out. He knew to do it as soon as his wife mentioned it. He makes me proud.
“We plan to go back soon,” I tell him.
“Have you been to the water tower lately?”
My insides go cold. How much talking is my wife doing with our daughter-in-law? “Yes, why?”
“There’s a ton of graffiti on the sides. Horrible stuff. I plan to go over today to see if I can get some of it off or covered up.”
“I didn’t notice.” I dig in my pocket for my wallet, open it and slide my credit card across the table. “Get whatever, bill me for your time.”
“I’m not billing you.”
“You should,” Paige says. “I do.”
“Dad’s paying you?”
She nods. “I would’ve done it for free, but we are pulling in massive advert contracts thanks to Ben.”
“You both need to be paid,” I tell them. “It’s no different from when you worked here.” They both look at me. “Speaking of, do you still want to work at Ralph’s?”
Paige shakes her head. “Not right now.”
“Wait, what?” Noah looks from his sister to me. “How come I don’t know about this?”
Paige shrugs. “It’s not a big deal. I thought I wanted to wait tables there. Earn some of my own money, but then I met Bex and this gig started.”
“Well, that’s good because I don’t know how I feel about you working in the bar. It’s a rough crowd and I don’t want to do jail time.”
Paige rolls her eyes and stands abruptly. She comes over and kisses my cheek. “Bye, Daddy.”
“I thought I was taking you to school.”
“You were, but then the babies came in so I texted Mack.” She beams when she says his name. Paige goes to the stroller and talks to the boys. When she gets to Juniper, her baby smile widens and she coos. “I love you, Princess. I’ll see you after cheer practice. Bye, Noah.”
When her and Mack are gone, I ask Noah, “What does she do at your house after school?”
“Mostly, homework. Talisa takes care of anything Peyton and I can’t get done or Grandma does. Paige comes over and teaches the kids about her math, she reads to them, plays games. She’ll entertain them while Peyton gets dinner ready or pumps.”
“Does she do this every day?”
Noah nods and looks over his shoulder at his wife coming toward him with breakfast. He gets up, takes everything from her and then follows her back to the table. Noah makes sure Peyton’s situated before he sits back down.
“Yes,” he says moments later.
“Yes, what?” Josie and Peyton ask at the same time.
“I’m telling him that Paige comes over every day after school to be with the kids.”
Peyton nods. “I know I’m lucky and have a ton of help, but Paige’s help is different. She plays with them, talks to them like they understand her. The other day, she was teaching them some complex math problem, and I swear Jace understood everything she said.”
I reach under the table and squeeze Josie’s hand, and wonder if she thinks the same as me, we got damn lucky in the kid department.
By late morning, just as I am about to sit down at my desk and pretend to work, Noah calls and tells me the paint job at the tower is a two-man job and asks if I could come help.
When I get there, I groan. Someone’s done a number on the lower part of the tower, and it isn’t pretty.
“Who writes shit about my daughter?”
“The girls at school who want to date Mack is my guess.”
“Are there a lot?”
“Way more than I had,” Noah says.
I turn at the sound of crunching gravel. The car parks, and my frenemy gets out dressed in scrubs.
“Sorry, Doc. No babies to be delivered here.”
“Funny, considering I don’t do that.” He comes and stands next to me. “What in the hell?”
“Yeah,” I say, sighing and trying to hold my anger in. I want to scream, punch something, and then shake the shit out of whoever did this.
Before us, spray painted multiple times reads: Paige Westbury is a slut
“Let’s get this covered up before either her or Mack see this,” Nick says. “And I’ll have a long talk with the team about coming forward if they know something.”
“Until they do, the gates are closed. No more water tower,” I say as I grab my paint brush and start covering the words.
Closing the water tower will send a message.
Long before I was in high school, this was the place to come to after a game.
There are many, and I do mean many, memories here.
This was where I told Josie I was going to marry her, where we made numerous promises to each other, and where Nick asked me to help him with Mack.
It could be the place where other memories are made, but not until the next generation learns how to treat it and people with respect.