Almost Ordinary (The Song Wreckers Book 2) (4 page)

Chapter 5

I meant to take a two-minute shower. Then images of Cooper being shot and lying in a hospital bed played through my head, and I couldn’t bring myself to face the world until my hands were pruney from being in the water too long.

I went downstairs to find the boys in their high chairs and Caleb on the phone with keys in hand and a jacket on, ready to leave.

“I gotta go,” he said as soon as I entered the kitchen. He gave me a quick kiss and jogged to the door.

“Caleb!” I yelled. He turned around. “What’s going on?”

“Shoot, sorry. Cooper’s condition is stable. The office is a shitstorm, though. I have to go in. I’ll call you later. I doubt I’ll be home for dinner. Love you.” He darted out the door.

Shit. Damn it. I was ready to hear the story of what I’d overheard on the phone during Gina’s party. I itched for the details, needing to match what I’d heard to what happened.

I fed the boys and myself, picked up around the house, and tried to keep my mind off of Cooper.

Really, he meant nothing. He was a man who, at one point in time, served a purpose for me. Our relationship wasn’t emotional, only sexual. At the time of my affair with Cooper, I needed to feel wanted. I needed a distraction, to pretend that I was safe. When I fucked him, he did those things for me. Getting pregnant was, without a doubt,
not
supposed to happen.

I hadn’t heard from or talked to him since I told him about the pregnancy and gave him the option of being there one hundred percent, or not at all.

Caleb had a fit over me giving Cooper that choice. In fact, he chewed my ass out good. So I’d told him to mind his own business and chewed his ass out good, too. We apologized weeks later and our friendship became stronger than ever. Mixed with the attraction we’d always had for each other, we fell in love. At seven months pregnant, we married. A bit fucked up, but I couldn’t even imagine my life if Cooper had stepped up to the plate and I made my life with him instead.

Cooper hadn’t shown an iota of interest in me or his kids, so in the grand scheme of things, would it matter all that much if he died?

Yes. Shit.

Cooper passed his DNA to my children. What if something ever happened to the boys and I needed his medical history? What if, once they were grown and knew the truth, they wanted to meet the man that fathered them? Did Cooper
ever
want to meet them?

And it shouldn’t matter, but why did he ditch me? What was so wrong with me he couldn’t stomach the idea of raising kids with me, even if we weren’t in a relationship. Did he ever think of the boys? Worry about them?

I thought I’d convinced myself that I didn’t need answers from Cooper. I had Caleb, together we were raising the twins, and our family fulfilled us both. Yeah, it was odd that Caleb still worked for Cooper, and thus far, Cooper hasn’t been an issue for us. We were happy. Our family worked for us.

I did need to know the answers to all those questions, though. I mean, I deserved answers, right? Perhaps I didn’t. Maybe getting knocked up by a man who was nothing more than a false sense of security forfeited my right to find out what went through Cooper’s head.

No. Suddenly, getting answers from him changed from
maybe someday
to important. If I haven’t lost my chance then I would go for it.

Caleb came home at dawn Sunday morning as I set the coffee maker to have a pot brewed for after my early workout. I always felt better after a good sweat.

“Morning,” he yawned, slumped posture and eyes half closed. He rubbed the two day scruff of his beard and kissed my forehead.

He had texted me late last night to let me know he wouldn’t be home until morning, and that the doctors had said Cooper’s prognosis looked good. He was going to live.

So I’d made a plan to visit Cooper in the hospital.

I threw together a quick breakfast for Caleb while he almost fell asleep at the kitchen table. Then I gave him a kiss and went to the basement to run on the treadmill and lift weights.

I showered and got ready without waking Caleb. Once I dressed the boys and brought them downstairs, I called Katie.

She’s been my best friend since the first day of ninth grade, and always had my back unless she thought I did something stupid. Boy, we had a whopper of a fight over my affair with Cooper. I wanted to run my plan by her.

“Hey Mol, how was Nashville?” she answered.

I didn’t know where to start. “Okay, I guess. You sitting down?”

“I am now.”

I told her everything, one bombshell after another: Adam followed me to the airport and he was The Creep. Adam escaped from the airport, holed up in Belinda Nord’s apartment and killed her. Caleb and Cooper were the ones to take Adam down and Cooper was shot in the process, but he’d recover.

“Good Lord, Mol,” Katie said, even twangier than normal. “Adam? How did he outwit you? Us?”

“I don’t know,” I told her. “I guess I didn’t want to believe someone I knew could be so cruel. That son of a bitch was good at being bad, and I’m good at denial. I never liked the guy, but . . . I feel so stupid.”

Katie let out a string of expletives toward Adam that I’ve never heard her use in all the years we’d been friends. She may have lived in Michigan longer than Mississippi, but she’d always clung to her southern roots with a fierce grip. Those roots did not include women screaming obscenities about how certain men deserved to have certain parts of their anatomy crammed up other parts of their anatomy, among other things.

“Katie?”

“. . . and then I’d twist those suckers with one hand while I—”

“Katie! Stop, you’re making
me
blush.”

With a huff, she cursed once more. “Good lord. What happens next?”

“I have to see Cooper, now, in the hospital. I need some answers. What do you think? Am I being a too rash? A bad wife?”

“Do you really think he’ll be able to answer questions after getting shot and going through two surgeries?”

I had thought of that, and the beauty was, “I expect him to be doped up enough that he’ll answer me without thinking about it. Good idea, right?”

“I’m not sure about good. Effective might be a better word. I think it’s something you should’ve done a long time ago, you know that. If you decide to punch him, punch him again for me.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t punch everyone.”

She choked a laugh. “Whatever. Once for me, please.” My punching people ran as a running joke for her. Being in a bar band, I’ve had to protect her many times from drunk, jealous girlfriends whose boyfriends had come on to her. Katie was The Song Wreckers’ lead singer, and beautiful with an hourglass figure, blond hair and hazel eyes. In college, guys often misread her stage persona as her looking for a man for the night, and sometimes those guys had jealous girlfriends. Any time one of those girls started a fight with Katie, I finished it. Now she was engaged to Brett, and every man at his bar knew she was off limits, so my ass-kicking days were over.

We hung up after discussing her wedding plans. I knew Caleb would sleep for several hours still, and wanted to be home by the time he woke up.

Caleb’s mom, Char, had agreed to babysit the boys for a few hours. She already watched the boys when Caleb and I were at Brett’s for Wreckers Weekends, and she always offered to watch them more if we needed her to.

This morning, I accepted her offer.

I dropped the boys off at Char’s, then the jitters set in. I had always planned on getting answers from Cooper one day, but thought it’d be a long time off. I hadn’t seen or heard from him in a year.

I composed my emotions on the drive to Detroit Receiving Hospital. My nerves stayed calm in the parking garage, and until I found out Cooper’s floor and room number. After that, total butterflies. I tapped my thumb and forefinger together and timed my breath with the taps. Four taps for the inhale and exhale. As I inched closer to Cooper’s room each breath came quicker—two taps each. When I turned the corner that led me down his hall, I spotted Taylor pacing out front. He stopped, surprised, when he saw me. Taylor worked as security for me when I played some gigs with Midnight. Adam had broken their lead singer’s arm so they needed another guitarist.

God, I played in the same band as The Creep and didn’t even know it. My gut rolled at that thought, and mixed with the nervousness, made me want to puke. I stopped and put one hand over my mouth and the other on my stomach. A few deep breaths quelled the nausea. My feet wouldn’t move, though. I was a minute away from getting the answers I wanted but was chickening out.

Taylor’s eyebrows rose, silently asking if I needed help. I put my hand up and shook my head. I mentally unpacked my big girl underpants, stepped into them, and put one foot in front of the other. Soon, I stood a few steps from Cooper’s door.

“How’s he doing?” I asked, skipping the bullshit pleasantries that most people would engage in.

He gestured to some chairs in the hallway several feet away. We sat. “He’s fine, meaning that physically he’s going to recover if he follows the doctor’s instructions. He’s grumpy and mad as hell that he can’t do cartwheels out of here. The doc says he’s going to be here for at least a week. Thank God the pain pills are making him sleep a lot of the time, because he’s being a real pain in the ass when he’s awake. Keeps trying to plan a trip to Tampa. You know about that?”

I nodded. “Yeah.” Cooper had been planning on opening another branch of 3D in Florida. “I’d like to talk to him. Make sure he really is fine.”

Taylor shook his head. “I was in there not too long ago, and the doctors don’t want any more distractions for a while. He’s sleeping.”

I didn’t give a shit, and didn’t have the time to wait. “Well then cover for me. I’m going in.”

I made it two steps when he grabbed my arm and stopped me. “Mrs. Ramsey, I can’t let you do that. Doctor’s orders.”

I whipped my head around to check if anyone was watching, then, “Ungh,” I puffed out as I shoved Taylor as hard as I could. He stumbled, no doubt from the unexpectedness of what I had done. I rushed into Cooper’s room.

I shut the door behind me, turned, and saw Taylor’s red, angry face through the window, mouthing the words
God damn it
.

I cracked the door and whispered, “Leave me alone or I’ll tell Ram you weren’t at your post.” I quickly shut the door again, hating that I acted like a total shit. I didn’t want to cause him trouble.

Turning away from the door, I knew what to expect. After all, I had been in a hospital recovering thanks to Adam too. The machines and their quiet whirring noises and beeps. Tubes going into Cooper’s arm. Sheets covering toes to mid-chest, showing the bandages from surgery. The sliding tray thingy people use to stack shit on that you had to clear off when someone brought your food. A casted leg sticking out of the sheets. A still, pale body on the bed.

The body of a son of a bitch who abandoned me after knocking me up, not once attempting to see if I was okay or take responsibility.

I stared at him for several minutes, and the anger ebbed to a reasonable level. Blah, blah, knocked me up, blah, blah, abandoned me. I needed to remember that Cooper had also been working, as well as letting Caleb work, on finding The Creep as much as possible. I knew that Caleb had done a lot of searching for The Creep over the last couple years during business hours, on Cooper’s dime.

Cooper’s chest rose and fell. It seemed weird that I’d never seen him sleep. During our affair we would have sex, then would leave the other’s house. Only once did I spend the entire night at Cooper’s because the roads were snow covered and too dangerous to drive. Cooper was out of bed before I woke the next morning, so I’d joined him in his kitchen for coffee. That’s when Caleb found out about our affair. He’d walked into Cooper’s as I sat at the table wearing my panties and Cooper’s T-shirt.

Ah, memories.

As I watched, I hated that I didn’t totally despise him. Part of me did. But he had given me my children. He had gotten hurt, almost killed, helping my husband capture Adam.

There were no flowers or get well soon cards in his room. Didn’t he have any family or friends? I guess if he did they would be here at the hospital. I felt a twinge of sadness. A small one. It was as if no one cared for him. When I lay in the hospital immediately following my attack, Katie stayed right by my side. Brett, Caleb, and Cooper waited outside, anxious to see me. Once I arrived home the rest of the band visited and offered to do anything I needed. Caleb came over and spent time with me daily until I pushed him away. Even Cooper stopped by occasionally to check on me.

Minutes later, I still stood there, waiting. Waiting for someone who gave a damn to come in and ask me who I was and what I was doing in here. I turned and peeked out of the door’s window. Just an angry Taylor.

I refocused on Cooper as I tried to sit. “Aahh!” I squealed, as I slid off the chair and onto the floor. I meant to sit on the edge, but the fabric of my jacket slipped against the vinyl of the chair so I slid off and landed on my ass. I scrambled up as fast as I could.

Cooper stirred. He rolled his head to face me. His eyes fluttered open, then closed. A second later his eyes popped open wide.

“Hey,” I greeted with little emotion. I had no idea how he felt about me being there.

His eyes darted to search the room as best they could without moving his head.

“Ram?” he croaked.

Shaking my head, I said, “No, I’m alone.”

“Why?”

I picked up the extra pillow that lay on the chair and held it out. “Because I don’t want any witnesses when I smother you to death.” I inched the pillow toward his face, keeping it far enough away so he knew I wasn’t serious. Not that I didn’t fantasize about it once in a while.