Page 25 of Chronicles of a Rockin' Mess

He shakes his head at me. “I’ll be in my room,” he sulks as he walks away.

Maria gives me a sympathetic look. I’m not sure how she has put up with Lincoln’s assholishness for as long as she has. I do know that she deserves sainthood at the very least.

“Can you let the plumber in when he arrives?” I ask her. “I should probably check in on Lincoln.”

She nods. “Of course,” she says to me. I start to walk away when she speaks again, “I’m glad you are back, Lark. He wasn’t the same without you.”

I turn abruptly. “Lincoln Grant is an adult and doesn’t need me or any other babysitter. Just remember that, Maria.”

She gives me a half smile. “You are correct that he is an adult and doesn’t need a babysitter, but he does need you,” she replies coyly and walks toward the front door. I’m left standing there with my mouth open. Maria seldom talks to me about anything non-household related. I feel like maybe she sees more than she lets on…OK, I know she sees more than she lets on, but I don’t believe that Lincoln needs me. He’s made that perfectly clear.

Lincoln

So, maybe I’m sulking like a kid. I had wanted to bring Lark back here, to really talk to her. But now we have a moat forming in my basement, so that plan’s ruined. I walk down the hall and into my music room. It’s this little space that I never really knew what to do with, so my designer hung a bunch of my acoustic guitars and put this crazy fabric mural thing on the walls surrounding them. I pluck down my favorite. A Martin D-15M that was a gift from Lark. I wanted to kill her for spending so much money on a guitar for me for what seemed like a minor event, a housewarming gift. While I have guitars that are considered better, this one is special to me.

I strum it and start to sing to myself. I play a few of my favorite songs and slowly I begin to calm down. I need a new plan to win her back. I just don’t know what that plan is going to be. Then it dawns on me. The tour would be the perfect place to tell her how I feel. I want to whack myself in the head with the guitar for not thinking of this beforehand.

I need something good, something perfect. I put down the guitar and pull out my phone, calling Kade, because Harry would definitely botch up something this important. Harry’s more of a wingman-in-a-bar type of friend, not a plan-a-romantic-evening-to-win-back-the-girl-of-your-dreams type of guy.

“Sup,” Kade answers.

“I need her,” I say to him.

“I’m sorry, what?” he asks.

“I need Lark,” I whisper, almost afraid to say the words out loud.

“OK…so why are you calling me? Isn’t she in the house? Jesus Christ, did you fuck things up again? I can’t be there all the time! Please tell me—”

“Kade, shut the fuck up, man. I didn’t fuck up anything. I just realized…” I take a deep breath. “I just realized recently that I love her.” Kade says nothing for a very long minute.

“It’s about fucking time,” he finally answers. “You need a plan. And I swear to god if you fucking hurt her in any way, I will kill you.”

“I know. That’s why I’m calling you,” I say to him.

“It’s going to have to be epic,” he says to me.

“Jesus, I know. Celia said the same thing,” I say.

“Celia?” Kade asks.

I groan and fill Kade in on the Celia breakup, and how we are now friends, and how she was giving me ideas to win over Lark. Fifteen minutes later, Kade is in on the plan. And thirty minutes later, I think we might actually have something.

Chapter 13

Lark

“Uh, ma’am?” the plumber calls from the basement. Ma’am, seriously, I’m not ninety-five, hell, I’m not even thirty. I groan and walk toward the basement stairs.

“Yes?” I answer.

“This is going to take a few days. I will have to turn off the main water supply until tomorrow,” he says. “Did you submit this to the insurance company? They could put you up in a hotel. I’ll email over the paperwork now.”

This time I groan loudly, and the man gives me a look of pity.

“Yeah, I’ll go sort it out,” I say and then, knowing it’s not his fault, I turn back. “Thanks,” I mumble.

“Uh, sure. Sorry about the inconvenience,” he adds.

---