Almost Ordinary (The Song Wreckers Book 2) (30 page)

Deena’s eyes opened wide. “Shh!” She turned her head to see if Katie’s Grandmama was within earshot. “Not so loud!”

Oh yes, Grandmama.

“Good Lord,” Katie mumbled to herself. I nudged her arm so she could see me roll my eyes.
Grandmama may prove to be a thorn in my side, but I owed her.

Mama confessed that she and Mr. Culver had freaked out “bigger than the Woodall Mountain peak” when they began to pack up their house. Feeling they were too old to suffer through Michigan winters, they almost cancelled the move.

Enter Grandmama. The old bat decided moving to Michigan was a calling to teach me and Katie—but mainly me—to be God fearing women of Christ. My Thanksgiving prayer convinced her I desperately needed her influence. The extended version of her plan included infiltrating Yankee churches to impart her Southern wisdom. Basically, she swatted Mama and Mr. Culver upside the head and told them the move to Michigan was a done deal. Although tolerating her and Deena wasn’t on the top of my list of fun things, the trade off to live near Mama compensated nicely.

Mama turned away from Char and swatted Katie’s arm, as if to say,
Be nice
.

There was no indication Katie’s grandmama overheard anything she shouldn’t, so Deena switched to her favorite subject: herself.

Deena loved working at Brett’s. Karaoke nights were her favorite. She sang at every single one. The other bartenders needed her behind the bar but didn’t have the heart to tear her away from a microphone. She blabbed on about the songs she’d sing next. I tried to care, but Brett and Caleb discussed something that seemed important several feet away. With serious faces, they stole glances at Katie and I every few seconds.

“So what do you girls think?” Deena asked.

I shifted Viv to my other hip. “I think our husbands are talking about us.”

“What did we do now?” Katie asked.

I shrugged. “Dunno.”

“Nooooo,” Deena whined. “What do you think about my next songs?”

“Perfect,” Katie said absently.

“Yup, great,” I added.

Deena stomped off. Great, she was going to curse me and I’d wake up with an extra appendage or something.

Katie and I walked over to Caleb and Brett. “Whatever it is, it wasn’t us,” Katie said.

Caleb gave me “the look.” “You sure about that?”

Okay, let me think. What had I done? “Oh, is this about me getting into your phone and changing my ringtone to ‘Smack My Bitch Up’?”

Katie and Brett burst out laughing. Caleb choked. “
What
? When did you do that?”

“Yesterday. I thought maybe you were over here planning revenge with Brett.”

“Uh-no.”

“And maybe the picture that will show up on your screen when I call is my butt.” I picked up my phone from the counter and dialed Caleb’s number. Within seconds “Smack My Bitch Up” blasted at full volume, and my jeans-clad butt popped up.

Caleb hit ‘ignore,’ and the four of us laughed.

Then Caleb said, “Remember when you punched me.”

I cleared my throat and humbled myself. It was a joke between us now, so he wasn’t being mean. Still made me cringe. “Soooo, if you weren’t plotting revenge, what were you discussing?”

Brett tapped Katie’s leg so she’d stop laughing. “Wreckers Weekends. I want them to start up again,” he said.

Katie and I froze, all traces of humor gone.

“I was asking Caleb how he’d feel if the band got back together.”

“And? What do you think?” I asked Caleb.

“I want The Song Wreckers back together, too,” he said. “Princess, you are hot up on that stage.” He snaked his hand to my rear and pinched it.

I beamed. Molly and Katie, rocking it out with their bar band. Until that moment, I had convinced myself that The Song Wreckers were done. Old news. So how could I explain the building excitement I felt through my whole body? The smile that made my cheeks feel as if they’d burst?

I glanced at Katie, whose face lit up in surprise. She lifted Viv from my arms and handed her to Caleb, then wrapped me in a hug. We jumped up and down, still clinging to each other.

“Do you think Heather, Courtney, and Josh will go for this?” she asked me.

“Yes,” Brett answered. “Heather’s been talking with me about it at the bar, and I called Josh and Courtney this morning. They’re all in.”

I pushed Katie out to arm’s length. “OhmyGod, we get to use our personalized guitar straps again!”

“And I have to order new picks!”

Brett and Caleb smiled while Katie and I squealed for a bit longer.

Once we collected ourselves, Katie climbed on a chair. “Attention, everybody!”

Half stopped and waited, the other half ignored her.

Louder this time, Katie blared, “I said, ‘Attention, everybody!’”

The adults, at least, paid attention.

“I would like to formally announce that The Song Wreckers will once again do what they do best!”

“Rip men to shreds?” Caleb’s brother, Carter, yelled.

“Encourage the general population to drink beer and shake their butts?” Franny said.

They knew us so well.

I chanced a peek at Grandmama. Confusion took hold of her features while her lips formed the words
drink beer
and
shake their butts.

“Ooh!” Deena squealed. “I could be a guest singer for y’all!”

“Y’all got that right!” Katie yelled. To Deena she said, “We’ll talk about that later.”

Everyone continued what they were doing before Katie had demanded their attention. She hopped down.

Caleb nudged me. “Pizza will be here soon. Let’s make sure everything’s set out and ready.”

Viv reached for Char and Caleb handed her over so we could finalize the kitchen set up.

And all I could think about was my life. If someone would’ve told me that, at age thirty, I’d get violently attacked, knocked up and ditched by someone, married to someone else, become a professional song writer, and have all the players in my life, well,
in
my life, I would’ve laughed, denied it, and laughed some more.

I looked up at the face of the man who I was so fortunate to share my life with.

He smiled. “Yeah, I know.”

I wasn’t surprised he’d read my mind. I wrapped my arms around his waist.

This moment, this place, this was it—where I was supposed to be, and with the people I was supposed to be with. The journey zigzagged wildly, freaking me out and scaring the daylights out of me, and it sure as hell wasn’t easy. As crazy as it had made me, I wouldn’t change a single thing.

Well, except for getting stabbed. That sucked. And also, I might think twice about renewing Caleb’s Cosmo subscription for Christmas, and for agreeing to let Deena sing for everyone after dinner while I played guitar for her. What could I do? She gave me a weird look. Ugh.

I pulled back and he kissed me quick. “All right, Mrs. Ordinary, let’s feed our small, intimate gathering of people.”

I barked out a laugh. I knew handing the party planning over to Katie would end like this. But I didn’t care. This was my life.

This was my almost ordinary.

Also from
Soul Mate Publishing
and
Crystal Firdson
:

ALMOST WRECKED

1 creep. 2 bodyguards. 3 men who change Molly’s life forever.

Guitar player Molly Davis is taunted with disturbing gifts by some creep she hopes like heck is a harmless, misguided fan. The owner of the bar where her band plays isn’t taking any chances, however, and hires Gabe Cooper and Caleb “Ram” Ramsey to stand guard over Molly and the rest of the band.

Cooper is all business and doesn’t mess with Molly’s emotions. She can handle that. Ram is a different story. He’s gorgeous, has a good heart, and is sometimes infuriating. He doesn’t take Molly’s crap, giving him the potential to be the first man to shove his way through her stubbornness and into her life.

But a violent attack proves the creep isn’t going away. And that almost wrecks everything.

Available now on Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/hbusl46