CHAPTER ONE #2
“Oh my God, dude! Text me when you’re not driving!” I’m yelling because it seems like a yelling moment. Plus, I’m holding the phone at least a foot away from my mouth, so it feels acceptable.
“Okay, fine,” she finally concedes. “Give me, like, twenty minutes.”
“You can have thirty. Or sixty. Or however many you need to arrive safely.”
I’m not sure if she hangs up on me or we get disconnected, either way, the line is dead.
It takes me a moment to shake off the anxiety the last three minutes of my life brought on, but then I remember why I’m standing in front of my pantry. “Tortilla chips.”
I grab the bag and make a beeline for the fridge, and thus, the salsa, before I scurry back up the stairs and to my office.
Half a bag of chips and re-reading the same paragraph seven times without registering anything later, and my phone dings. I have a text. From Arizona.
I’m here, safe and sound.
I roll my eyes. Apparently, we’re still not getting to the point of this conversation.
So, tell me what you wanted to tell me before you nearly killed yourself trying to drive and talk on the phone at the same time.
I hit send. It only takes a few seconds for her to respond.
I don’t want to text.
Is she fucking kidding me? I take a deep breath and hit call.
“Why are you calling me, you psychopath?” Arizona laughs. “Just come to your door and let me in so we can talk like normal people.”
Wait. “You’re here?”
“I literally texted you that.”
I try to get up from my chair but wind up stumbling over a dog, a common occurrence when you have three – yes, three! - but all the more challenging when you’re surprised already and trying to move faster than normal.
It takes me all the way across the small room and nearly stepping on dog number two on my way to the doorway before I regain my footing.
Then as soon as I’m in the hall, I speed up and run for the stairs.
“I know you literally texted it; I just didn’t know you literally meant it!
” I squeal, rounding the corner at the bottom.
Then, as I lunge for the handle, dog number three, who’s been napping in front of the door, nearly gets squashed too.
“What are you doing here?”
Arizona beams back at me the second we’re finally face to face. Her hand flies up unexpectedly, nearly punching me in the eye, waving back and forth two tickets. “I’m taking you to go see Knox Marley and The Wilds at The House of Rock, that’s what!”
Knox Marley – God of Rock...and men, as far as I’m concerned. “What? How? Those tickets sold out two seconds after they went live!” I would know, I was online all morning that day trying to get a pair.
Arizona shrugs as she lets herself in, given I’m too in shock to invite her.
She’s totally trying to downplay the massively big deal it is that she’s even standing here.
And holding two tickets to see Knox. I say, calling him by his first name like I know the man personally.
It’s hard not to feel like you do when you’ve read the man’s lyrics.
“You remember my cousin Stacie?”
I nod. Be hard not to. We all used to work together at the Mexican place. Unlike Arizona, she still lives in face-to-face talking distance to me. Not that we take advantage of that. We never were all that close even back then.
“Well, she landed the tickets through work...but then had to, you know, work .” She grins. “So, she was kind enough to pass them along. And I was kind enough to drive my happy ass across two state lines to share them with you.”
We stare at each other for several seconds while she waits for all her news to sink into my brain. There’s a lot of shit going on in there, so it takes several long moments for this new information to sift through and stick in the right places.
When it does, I practically explode into a giggling happy dance fit for a teenager.
Not the teenager’s mother. Thankfully, Arizona is right there with me which lowers the blow a bit when my actual teen shows up in our midst, grimacing at the spectacle we’re making.
Brinna, the furball I nearly squashed trying to open the door, looks equally unimpressed.
“What are you two doing? I was on the phone with Lena and even she could hear you two. Up the stairs. And through my headphones.” Sloan stands at the bottom of the stairs, arm still curled around the railing, a curious mockery dancing in her eyes.
(Something I’ve seen there a lot as of late.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with her being fourteen now.)
“We’re going to see Knox Marley!” Arizona and I both announce in a sing-song way, still happily hopping around my foyer.
“Oh.” Sloan rolls her eyes. “That old guy you like.” Then she grins.
Maybe because she just remembered that old guy is only one year older than me.
“I’m just kidding, that’s awesome!” Her gaze subtly sweeps past us to the open door and the driveway and open road beyond, probably wondering if anyone else has been able to witness our display.
“A little tip?” she offers as we start to calm down and I remember to close the front door.
“Sure.” The occasional teenage ‘tude aside, my kid and I are solid. I’ll take her tip, even if it’s likely to come out as a burn at my expense.
“Maybe don’t do any of this when you’re at the concert. Or, even within a few miles. Really anywhere beyond this house where Knox Marley could possibly see you, don’t do any of this .” She gestures at our hopping and dancing.
“Why?” Arizona asks, sounding somewhat offended as we start to make our way toward her. “You don’t know. Maybe he would appreciate our youthful enthusiasm.”
“I’m pretty sure the only youthful enthusiasm rock stars are interested in is a set of perky boobs, and all that jumping about isn’t conveying that particular message,” Sloan says dryly.
“Wow.” I’ve raised a monster. A snarky one. Whose humor I have no choice but to appreciate.
“I know.” Arizona cups both boobs with her hands. “Why you gotta drag the girls into this? I’m forty years old. Do you know what they’ve been through? Show them some kindness, man.”
Sloan laughs. “Meanwhile, can you let your girls go a sec so I can give you a proper hug hello?”
Arizona doesn’t need to be told twice. In a flash, she’s grabbed my child by the wrist and dragged her over from the stairs to smother her with auntie love.
“I feel like you’ve gotten taller in the last five months.
Have you gotten taller? We have a deal, man.
You’re supposed to stay shorter than me.
Right now, I kinda feel like you’re going to let me down and stab me in the back with your height. ”
Sloan unravels herself from her aunt’s enthusiastic embrace. “You do realize growth occurs involuntarily in children, yes?”
Arizona sighs and looks at me. “She’s getting smarter with her height. Back when we made the deal, she fully believed she could control staying small.” She shakes her head, rolling her bottom lip out in disappointment. “I miss that.”
Which reminds me. “Speaking of getting smarter, how close are you to being done with the math you put off all week but promised you’d have done before you leave?
Your dad’s going to be here to pick you up in less than two hours and now that Arizona’s here, I think we should run out and grab lunch at Mesa’s before you go. ”
“Lena was helping me, so I just have three problems left to finish. I’ll be fast,” she calls out, already running up the stairs to get back to her room and her laptop.
Nothing like lunch with her favorite aunt and mama at the best farm-to-table place in town to motivate her to finally finish up the schoolwork she spent all week trying to avoid.
“How’s that working out by the way? Teaching math?
What is she learning now, algebra?” Arizona says under her breath as we make our way further into the house.
A second later, a thunderous round of barking ensues thanks to the two dogs upstairs who only just noticed we have company.
Senior hearing is getting more apparent all the time.
Senior barking isn’t a thing though, so we get to hear their eager greeting all through our little house until they physically reach Arizona and make the switch to sniffing and slobbering.
I wait until the greetings subside to answer her questions about math.
“Found an online program so I don’t have to teach it.
” I’ve loved homeschooling my kid every step of the way.
Until Algebra. I’m a writer. I make my living with a hippy-dippy lifestyle blog.
Words are my thing. Numbers, not so much.
“Handy.”
“It is,” I agree, gesturing for her to pick her spot on the sofa while I plop down into the oversized chair in the corner, semi-across from her.
“Same program offers all the sciences as well.” My other educational nemesis.
Give me social studies. Language arts. All the histories.
I’m totally there for it. But this big bang theory nerd stuff, regrettably, not my area. “But back to more important matters.”
“Knox Marley?”
“Knox Marley.” I grin just saying his damn name. “What’s the plan?”
“Well,” Arizona starts, like she’s about to share a secret mission with me, “They open the doors at seven. Opening act takes the stage at eight, but the real show won’t start until nine.”
“Do we not care for the opening act?” In all my disappointment over missing my chance to buy tickets, I never thought to look who it was.
“Oh, no, we do.” She nods, eyes flashing wide with excitement.
“We really do. Which is why we’re going to be there at six.
To meet my cousin’s boss Tara, who scored her the tickets because her boyfriend is a manager at The House of Rock and has agreed to sneak us in during soundcheck, before they open the doors to everyone else. ”
“Shut. Up.”
Her eyes grow wider. I don’t think she’s blinked since she started talking about this. “I know!”
“This is insane,” I mumble, as my reality merges with longstanding fantasy.
I’m not the sort to fangirl over anyone.
Food, that’ll make me fangirl. A really great vegan pizza.
An out of this world chocolate cake. I’m there for it, but rock stars, or celebrities of any sort, don’t tend to do it for me that way.
Maybe because I met plenty of them in my bartending days pre-Sloan, and at the end of the day, they’re just fucking people. Some of them not even nice ones.
But Knox Marley is different. His words and his voice were with me during some of the hardest times of my life.
In my heart, he feels like a familiar friend to me, even when my brain is busy screaming ‘he’s a stranger, you delusional dumbass!
’. “I can’t believe I’m going to hear Knox Marley live.
You know he still does all his own soundchecks? ”
Arizona nods. “I do know that.” She smirks. “I also know Trip Three does theirs as well. And that’s the opening act starting the show.” She wiggles her brows suggestively. “I think we both know I’m drinking tonight.”
“Plan on making a move, huh?” That’s the only reason she’d be referring to making use of liquid courage while doing her sexy brow dance.
“You know it.” She stretches out into the cushions. “I’ve decided my bad luck with men ends tonight. All the bad blind dates of the last two years will be totally worth it if I take home one of the Trip Three boys.”
“Home is a seven-hour drive away,” I point out what may become a hiccup down the road.
“I know.” She flashes a Cheshire cat smile. “After seven hours in the car with me, I figure I’ll have him hooked for good.”
“Or you’ll have killed him, and yourself , given your skills behind the wheel. And the fact that you’re planning to use alcohol to summon the nerve to talk to him.”
She shrugs. “Either way, we’ll be together.”
Then she laughs. We both do.
“I’ve missed you.”
“Same.”
We sit quietly for a moment, the adrenaline of her big news finally wearing off.
“Thank you,” I tell her when I know the moment is serious enough for it to stick. “I know you’re really doing all of this for me and not to have your soul eternally entangled with a member of Trip Three.”
She smirks. “That wouldn’t be a bad bonus though.”
I’m sure it wouldn’t. Any more than it would hurt my feelings to wind up entangled with Knox Marley.
Not that it would ever happen.
Right?