Page 98 of Speak of the Devil

“You’ve gone radio silent,” he says. “Thought I should check on you.”

“I’m touched,” I reply sarcastically. “It’s been like two days tops.”

A chuckle frequents the other end of the line. “Seems longer. Hey, I have a new riff I’ve been working on. I think you’ll dig it. You have some free time this week? I can come over, and we can mess around your studio.”

“Tuesday onward.” I’m not going to lie about Cat, but I don’t need to blurt out every detail of what’s changed in my life practically overnight.

“What do you have going on this weekend?”

This is where I need to decide how I’m going to handle it. Straightforward is always best. “I just got back into the city from an overnight at Deer Lake.”

“Oh yeah, Poppy mentioned you were doing that. With a girl or just getting away?”

Wife comes to mind as the correct adjective, but he doesn’t know Cat and I are even dating. Hell, I didn’t know we were until yesterday. Things move fast. Life even quicker. The piecescame together because it was right, but I should probably ease the family in on the marriage detail. “Yeah, a woman I’m seeing.”

“Is it serious? It sounds like it, considering you called her a woman, not a girl or chick.”

He knows me well. “It’s I-took-her-to-Deer-Lake serious.”

“Damn, dude. This came out of nowhere.”

“Not so out of nowhere, Laird. You’ve just been busy with the twins and new music.”

“Yeah.” I hear crying in the background. He says, “Mack’s throwing a fit because he missed his nap.”

Staring at the plethora of plants on Cat’s patio, I say, “I do the same. How are my favorite cousins?”

“Nikki and I are great.” He laughs a little too hard.

I’m laughing too, so it’s all good. “Fucker.”

“Mack and Posey miss you. So do Poppy and I.” Laird wasn’t always sentimental. We were one and the same that way. It made it easy to maneuver through the rise in fame with a closed-off heart. Poppy changed all that in him and the twins even more so.

I’m not so opposed to wanting the same these days.

“It’s good to be missed sometimes. Let’s catch up this week about the riff and so I can see the babies.” I see Cat locking her door. “I need to go.”

“We’ll talk soon.”

Cat pulls open the door and slips into the passenger seat next to me. She doesn’t feel like a passenger. She doesn’t feel like a co-pilot. She feels like a partner—in crime sometimes, but a partner all the same. “Look what I found.” She waggles a thick and oversized blue book in front of her. “Our yearbook.”

Her excitement is contagious, but mine’s not regarding the yearbook. It’s because she’s in my life. “Oh wow. That’s great.”

“We can do our research tonight.”

“I had other ideas to pass the hours, but maybe we can fit it in.”

She laughs, buckling her seat belt. Pleased as punch, she sits back with a huge fucking smile on her face. “This is going to be fun.”

“It sure is.”

“Oh, and by the way, I took my pill.”

More fun indeed.

I seta glass of wine on the table next to the lounge chair where Cat has taken up residence. “Look how cute you were, Shane.” Tapping the page in the yearbook she has spread open in front of her, she looks up at me and grins.

My whole world is wrapped up in that gorgeous smile of hers.

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