Page 59 of Accidental Fire
He didn’t have to give me anything but his love, and I firmly believed I had an endless supply of that.
“Hi, Mom.”
We were in the catering area to eat after Kit and I went to the large bathhouse to clean up before we joined the others. Mom called while I was standing in line for the buffet, so I walked away from the noise.
“What’s going on? Skyler called Hope, and he was upset. Did you boys fire Marshall Kensington as your agent?” Mom sounded pissed, which wasn’t a surprise. She’d do anything to keep Hope and Regal happy, but Kensington was only on the fringe of our crazy family. He was Skyler’s brother-in-law, and Sandy didn’t seem to like the guy that much either.
“We did because he wasn’t doing his damn job. For the money he makes from us, he should be kissing our asses, Mom. Not the other way around.” Now, I was getting pissed.
“Well, Regal says he’s a great manager. They used him—”
“When they were doing their has-been tour. Sure, Marshall could handle that, but he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing when it comes to operating on our level. It’s not any of Regal’s business who we hire and who we fire.” My voice was raised, and as I glanced around, I saw that people were staring, but I didn’t give a damn.
“What’s wrong?” Kit asked as he stood next to me with two bottles of beer. I took one and chugged.
“Regal and Skyler are pissed because we fired Marsh,” I said, not caring that Mom could hear me. Words were on the tip of Kit’s tongue, I could tell, but he took a sip of his beer instead.
“Mom, Marshall was worthless on the tour. He was doing other shit more than he was around, and when we got arrested, we couldn’t even find him,” I said.
“Arrested!Why did you get arrested, River?”
Shit! I hadn’t meant to sharethatwith her. “Mom, it doesn’t matter. We’re not in serious trouble. We’ll just have to pay a fine, okay? But it doesn’t matter. He’s supposed to be there to deal with anything that happens with us, and Kit had to step in and help us.”
“Kit? Who’s Kit?”
That’s why I should have called my mother sooner. She got her news filtered through Regal, and I doubted that he ever told a complete story. The fact that Hope and Mom believed everything he said blew my mind.
“Kit is my boyfriend and our equipment hauler. He takes the band’s instruments, mics, speakers, and our backdrop from city to city. He’s an amazing man, and I can’t wait for you to meet him. I’m going to move in with him.”
Kit smiled before he kissed my forehead.
“This sounds serious. I don’t think you should make such a rash decision after only knowing him for a few weeks,” Mom said.
“Nope. You don’t get to decide anything for me. I moved in with you temporarily because I didn’t want to deal with Marshall as a landlord. I’ve found where I want to be, and it’s with Kit.”
I had no doubts about my decision to move in with Kit. The two weeks in August had proved to me that he was my home and with him was the only place for me, regardless of where we lived.
Mom sniffed. “Okay, River. If you’re sure. You’ll still come see me, right?”
“Of course we will. You’re still my mom, and I love you. I met Kit’s dad, and much like his son, he’s a great man.”
“I’m happy for you, sweetie, really. It was just nice to have you living here again. Where does Kit live?”
“Just outside Los Angeles. Dockweiler Beach. He has a cottage there. It’ll be closer to LA for work, so that’s a plus.” It would be nice not to have to deal with Regal on a regular basis.
“Oh, and ‘I’ll Find You’ went gold. We were presented with the gold record as a surprise at the show. It was so cool, Mom. The crowd loved us,” I said, even though she hadn’t asked about the show.
I wasn’t upset that Mom wasn’t too interested in my career because I knew she worried I'd fall into some of the same traps Regal and his band had when they were popular. But with Kit in my life, I had no worries about following their path of destruction.
Kit had been the one to help us figure out where we were going wrong and put us on a better path. We all started working out, playing flag football games or three-on-three basketball tournaments against the roadies and the security team when we were between gigs. On nights off, if we didn’t have a gig the next day, we smoked a little—Coaster seemed to have an endless stash of Grade-A weed, and Kit would hang out with us to make sure we didn’t do anything stupid.
“I’m so glad, son. Do you want to talk to your father?” Mom asked.
No.“I would, but I need to be somewhere right now. I’ll call you tomorrow. Love you.” I hung up before she could make an argument for me to speak to Regal.
I didn’t hate the man, but he wasn’t one of my favorite people, and he seemed to thrive on making sure I knew I’d never be as good at anything as him. I heard him do the same to Skyler when we were reworking “Bury Me” for the movie that came out earlier in the year, and I learned from my brother that when youhave the right person in your life, you don’t need toxic people to make you doubt your value.
With Kit, I’d found what I needed—support, advice, affection, understanding, and best of all, love. As long as he was with me on my rock-and-roll journey, I wouldn’t need anything else.
