Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
Everyone is coming for Thanksgiving because it also coincides with the triplets’ first birthday. I made the mistake of asking if we’re celebrating both events in one day. The old adage if looks could kill . . . well it would also be my funeral.
Harrison and Katelyn, along with Oliver are staying at our house.
Everyone, and by everyone, I mean Peyton, Katelyn and Josie, thought it would be better this way since Oliver is still a toddler and a bit loud.
Peyton assured her mom that while she loved her little brother, she valued the triplets getting as much sleep as possible.
Josie and I didn’t mind. It not only gives Josie all the time she wants with her lifelong best friend, but it gives Harrison and me time to brainstorm about the band.
We’d like for JD to be with us, but Eden’s training in Australia for the winter and with the band on a bit of a hiatus, JD went with his daughter and wife, Jenna.
Harrison texts me that they’re in the driveway and that Ollie demanded he be the one to knock on the door. The issue there, is he’s just a little guy and his fists don’t make much of an impact on our door. I stand by the window and wait for Oliver to knock and then open it with a big hello.
“Ollie, my man.” We fist bump and then he walks in.
“Hi, E em.” He can’t say Liam yet and that’s okay. “My dad ‘dere,” he says, pointing toward Harrison who is slowly coming up the walkway. “Where da toys?”
“In the closet, buddy.” I motion over my shoulder to the closet under the staircase. It used to be our coat closet, but Josie turned it into a toy collection center. I swear we have so many kid toys. Most of them the babies can’t even play with yet.
We also have to hang our coats on the back porch until we do a remodel or move to a bigger house. Moving is out of the question for me because this is the first house Josie, Noah and I shared as a family, and I don’t want to give it up. So, remodeling it is.
Or we stop wearing jackets altogether.
Harrison comes in after Oliver, sets the arm load of bags down and we hug. It’s odd, really. He’s my best friend and we’ve hugged before, but this one feels different. I can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it’s the holidays or the fact that our grandchildren are turning one already.
Maybe it’s me realizing I’m a matchmaker extraordinaire because had I not invited Harrison and Quinn to my first Christmas with Josie, he would’ve never met Katelyn and they wouldn’t have fallen madly in love with each other.
Matchmaking could be another side hustle for me.
Katelyn begins to hug me until Josie squeals and I become an afterthought. The two take off for the kitchen discussing turkey and cake in the same sentence.
Harrison and I pick their bags up and that’s when I see him wince.
He rolls the shoulder once and acts like everything’s okay.
I follow him, up the stairs and down the hall to Noah’s old room.
This is where the triplets sleep when they spend the night, which has only happened a couple of times.
Mostly, if Noah and Peyton need an overnight, Josie and Paige will go over to Noah’s.
It’s much easier and it keeps the babies in their familiar space.
Still, we have three cribs, a dresser, and everything else the triplets need, along with a toddler bed for Ollie.
In the next room over, Katelyn and Harrison will stay. I set the bags on the bed and then sit.
“How bad is the shoulder,” I say. It isn’t really a question.
Harrison winces and rotates it again. “Bad enough. Doctor says if I keep the pace I’ve been keeping, I’m getting the surgery.”
“And if you don’t keep the pace?”
“Then I don’t get the surgery. I’ve been doing physical therapy with Xander three days a week.
It hurts like a bitch, and I think he’s a sadist.” Xander is Harrison’s brother-in-law.
He owns a gym in Los Angeles and has helped so many of us recover from ailments.
Mostly, he was vital in making sure Peyton could walk again after her accident years ago.
“My mind reminds me I toured all summer on it. My body says figure it out before I can’t use my arm anymore. ”
We are quiet and likely thinking the same thing. We’re aging, our bodies are aging, and we sure as shit had a hard time selling out venues.
We head downstairs, check in with our wives, and head down to the studio in my basement.
“You know, it’s funny, when I look at that kit and think it’s been there for twenty-some years.”
“I know,” I say. “This was the first modification I did to the house when I bought it. I needed a place to play. I never thought in a million years I’d get you and JD to move here.”
“Yeah well, you really didn’t.” Harrison looks at the ceiling. The kitchen is above us, where Katelyn is. “It was all her.”
“Thanks, man. That means a lot.”
Harrison laughs and picks up the sticks left on one of the drums. He plays for a minute, winces and then puts the sticks down. “This is who I am. This is who I’ve been since my dad was killed. I don’t know the me without these sticks in my hands.”
His words give me pause. So much of our lives have been defined by our instruments.
I remember when I really started playing my acoustic and started putting words on paper.
They made sense to me. I could express myself without having to actually say the words to someone.
If I didn’t have my guitar then, I’m not sure where I’d be today.
“For the last few months, I’ve been giving advice to people, but if you called in, I’d have no idea what to say to you. I’m at a loss. You’re my best friend, my bandmate. There’s no me without you and I wouldn’t ever think of performing unless you were on stage with me.”
“What about JD?”
I sigh and run my hand through my hair. “JD’s ten years younger than us, and I think if presented with a chance to tour with another band, he’d take it.
Sure, he’d ask or tell us, but he’s still in his prime.
I get that right now, he’s busy with Eden and her surfing career, but that’s going to change soon, and then what’s he going to do? ”
“He’s definitely not ready to hang it up,” Harrison says. “They came over before they left for Australia. He asked if this radio gig was long-term because Eden has a break coming up and he wanted to know what our plans were.”
“And he wasn’t talking about a tropical vacation somewhere?”
Harrison shakes his head.
“Damn.” I sigh heavily. “I’m going to start the 4225 West satellite channel and I really want you both involved. It can be remote, but I think it would be nice to have all of us in the studio at the same time. Fans would definitely go for it. Bex is just waiting on the permits to be finalized.”
“JD and The Love Line, he’ll totally be game.”
“Hey now, I don’t know about him taking over my show.” I laugh. I already told him he could take over anytime he wanted.
“Like I said, I’m in on the station thing. I think it gives us sustainability.”
“It absolutely does. Later, I’ll take you over to the studio and you can see the new additions. Elle’s mad we didn’t think of this sooner, size wise. More recording space, newer and better equipment, and one wall is nothing but windows. Elle wants to start a summer concert series in the park now.”
“Gotta love her ambition.”
There was a time when we questioned why she wanted to go into the music business.
It’s a nasty industry and will eat you alive.
Our first manager taught us that and it took ten years to get out from under her thumb.
Of course, I exacerbated the situation by sleeping with her.
I was young and dumb. Elle vowed to never be the type of manager we had and so far, she’s proven that.
“I’m taking Harrison over to the studio to show him the new additions,” I tell Josie and Katelyn when we come up from downstairs. “Do you need anything while I’m out?”
Josie shakes her head. “I think most of the stores are closed. Don’t be long.” She gives me a kiss and tells us to have fun.
“It’s too bad you don’t have your bike here,” I say to Harrison when we climb into my truck. “I haven’t ridden in a long time.”
“I could always ride in your sidecar,” he says, laughing.
I shake my head. First off, I don’t have one, and second, no.
When we get to the building, I’m surprised to see Bex’s car still in the lot. She’d mentioned going back to New York for the holiday. Inside, I walk Harrison through the new construction, the live rooms, Elle’s new office, a social media room for Paige, and where the 4225 West station will be.
“Who would’ve thought.”
“I know. I just wanted a place that Elle could use while she and Ben were here during his treatments. I didn’t think it would turn into this. Upstairs, we turned the top floor into lofts. My station producer lives up there.”
We head down the hall to where The Love Line is and I find Bex in her office, looking exasperated. I knock and then open her door. “I thought you were heading home?”
She shakes her head. “My mom went to Mexico.”
“Ah. Plans for dinner?”
Another shake. “Great, I think we’re eating at three. Don’t be late. Come meet Harrison,” I tell her.
Bex does and the two of them hit it off. She tells him her ideas, how she’ll implement them, and what she hopes to see from him.
“I’m committed,” he tells her and then reminds her he does have a home in California, and he’ll travel back and forth.
Bex lets Harrison play with our control board and I swear, he’s like a kid in a candy store with unlimited funds.
He then shows her what he can do on the drums for a few minutes.
He plays off the short session as us needing to get back to the house for dinner instead of telling her about his shoulder.
Bex seems impressed and tells us she’ll be over shortly.
When we get back, my driveway is full of cars. Harrison rushes in because he hasn’t seen Peyton and the triplets in a while and we all know there’s only so much video chatting one can do.