“It’s okay,” the pregnant sister said, shaking her head. She smiled wide and nodded toward Alex and me, giving us permission. Right as my arm landed against her shoulder blade, everything was flipped upside down.
“Oh my gosh!” she gasped. Seconds later a splash of water hit my shoe. I was so completely thrown off by hearing the sound of her voice that I almost missed what had happened to pull the sound out of her. Her water had broken, leaving all four of us with pale expressions.
“Oh my gosh,” she kept repeating, holding her hands against her stomach as she looked back and forth between my eyes and his shoes. “I’m so, so sorry,” she muttered, humiliated by what had taken place. She kept clearing her throat repeatedly as her voice shook with nerves.
“Oh my gosh, don’t worry about it. Are you okay?”
Before she could answer, her sister went into panic mode and rushed to her side. “We have to get you to the hospital. I’m sorry, but we have to go. I’m sorry about your shoes.”
I smirked. “As long as you keep considering using my name for the child, we’ll call it even. I wish you the best of luck, and congratulations.”
Alex’s light-brown eyes were bright and filled with care as he added, “You got this.”
Her eyes watered over as her smile returned to her lips. They thanked us both one more time, and the sister grabbed her phone from Tyler, who was still snapping photos with a mocking smirk on his face.
As the women began to walk away, the pregnant one looked back toward us. “Alex? Oliver?”
“Yes?”
“Your music . . . your albums . . . your music gives me light. I hope you know how important what you’re doing is to the world. You’ve saved me more than you know.”
Alex’s eyes glassed over before he blinked back his emotions and gave a halfway grin. He always was the emotional one out of us. “Without you all, our music doesn’t exist. You’ve saved us more than you know too.”
I nodded. “Without you, we’re singing in the dark. You bring us the light.”
They hurried away, and I looked down at the puddle sitting in front of us, then turned to Tyler. “I’m going to need a new pair of shoes.”
Alex smirked at me, cheesing harder than ever. “The puddle on the ground kind of makes me think of a good theme song for today.”
“What is it?”
“‘Float On,’ by Modest Mouse.”
I gave Alex the same kind of grin he was shooting my way because the song was too perfect. We did exactly that, too, after the most awkward yet somehow perfect interaction between two fans.
We floated on and went ahead to play one of our best shows to date.
7
OLIVER
Present Day
“Hey, mister! Hey, mister! Number one or number two?” that small voice asked, breaking me away from my thoughts of the past as she pounded on the bathroom door.
I almost smirked at the nosy kid. I wasn’t big on children, but I had to say, the girl was forward and bold.
“Number three.”
She gasped and dashed away. “Mommy! That guy has explosive diarrhea!” she hollered, making me wide eyed. I didn’t even know number three was an actual thing that other people knew about, and now the girl’s mother thought I was exploding my insides into her toilet.
Smooth, Oliver.
Not much later, another knock came at the door, only this time it wasn’t a tiny voice. “Uh, sorry to interrupt, but can you hurry it up? I have to get my daughter to her day camp, and I have a busy day ahead. So . . .” Her words faded as I opened the door. “I mean, only if you’re okay. If you’re sick, we can be late. Or if, well, if you have number three and—”
I swung the door open. “Sorry. I’m ready,” I said, trying to bury the embarrassment building inside. Wonderful. She thought I was blowing up her toilet.
“No, you’re not! You didn’t flush or wash your hands!” the little girl hollered my way. Again with this girl and her hollering. Did she not know what an indoor voice was?
I walked over to the toilet, flushed it, then went to the sink, quickly washed my hands, and dried them. “There,” I said, smiling a fake grin. “Happy?”
She placed her hands on her hips like the sassiest girl alive. “You’re supposed to wash your hands to the song ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ to get rid of all the germs.”
“Yeah, well, you know what? We don’t have time for this. Come on, let’s go,” the woman said, hurrying toward the front door.
We walked the hallway and then rode the elevator down in complete silence. When we hit the first floor, a man was coming out of the main office, and he shouted toward us.
“Emery! Emery! You’re late on the rent,” he said.
Emery was her name. I liked it. It fit her, from what I could tell.
Her shoulders tensed up as she grabbed her kid’s hand and started walking faster. “I know, Ed, I know. I swear you’ll have it by the end of today. I get my check from Seven.”
“I hope that’s true. Honestly, Emery. You know I like you, but I’m busting my ass here. I can’t let you keep sliding.”
Emery’s eyes shifted to the ground as embarrassment washed over her entire body. She seemed fragile, as if she’d shatter if life hit her one more time. I sensed a stern shift in her energy as she lowered her voice. “Can we talk about this later, Ed? Just not in front of my kid?”
Ed’s eyes shifted to Reese, and he gave a pathetic frown. “Yeah, all right. Just get me the money, will you?”
“Will do.”
Reese pulled on Emery’s sleeve. “Mommy, I have money in my piggy bank you can have.”
And just like that, I knew the kid had a heart of gold, even though she was sassy. Emery looked as though she was going to cry from her daughter’s offer.
Before she could reply, Ed looked over to me, and his eyes widened. “Holy shit! You’re Oliver Sm—!”
Emery gripped my arm with her free hand and pulled me closer to her in a protective manner. “Okay, we’ll chat later—bye, Ed!”
The woman handled me better than my own security team.
We hurried out of the front door and headed around the corner. Emery walked up to her car and glanced toward me. “You’re going to have to get out of Dodge before people start realizing that you are in this neighborhood. Ed has a big mouth.”
I rubbed the back of my neck and nodded. “All right. I’m sorry for any trouble I’ve caused.”
She smiled, a genuine curve to her lips, and it was clear that I was wrong—that smile was the best feature on her, not her eyes. Still, her eyes took a very close second.
But those eyes plus that smile? Phenomenal.
After seeing that pairing, something tightened in my gut. A sense of familiarity.
“Thank you for the apology.” She opened the back door of her car and helped her daughter into her booster seat. She turned back to me after closing the car door. Her hands landed on her hips, and she narrowed her eyes as the sun shone directly into her line of vision. “Well, it was nice to meet you. Even though it wasn’t the most normal night of my life.”
I nodded once.