Page 55 of Sexy Dirty Fun

“We can invite him too,” he said, walking into the kitchen.

I followed behind him. “I don’t think he’ll go.” I stopped and leaned against the counter. “David, I’m worried about him.”

“Why?” He asked, looking around for the car keys.

“You haven’t noticed?” For someone so smart, he sure was dumb. “He doesn’t sleep or get dressed. He walks around in that robe Mom got him. He looks like shit.” My eyes welled up with tears. “I don’t think I can leave him yet and go back to LA.”

He stopped moving around and looked at me thoughtfully. “Now that you mention it, I guess I did notice. I assumed it was a man grieving for his wife. Are you sure you’re not overreacting?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head. “No, I don’t. I’m going to see if I can get him into some grief counseling. I talked to my boss and he’s okay with me working from here a little bit longer.”

“Thank you for looking out for him, Linds. Mom would appreciate it too. I’m sorry I have to go back to New York tomorrow but I’ll check in often and call me if you need my help with anything.” He grabbed the keys from the hook on the wall. “Let’s leave Dad alone then and go eat. I want to hear more about you and Cane.”

I reached for my purse on the kitchen island and rolled my eyes. Maybe talking about Cane would be a good distraction.

The rest of the evening was a lot of fun with my brother and it was exactly what we needed to reconnect after the stress of the last few weeks. We reminisced about our times growing up and I told him all about Cane and the stupid skank that showed up claiming to be his wife. He rolled his eyes a few times, but refrained from making any rude comments.

When we got home, we watched a few of our favorite movies together after checking on Dad. He was sitting in his bedroom with the TV on, but I wasn’t so sure he was watching it. I wished there was a way I could pull him out of this.

I tried calling Cane before I went to sleep, but he didn’t answer. He must have been passed out cold. He said he was going to go home and sleep until it was time to go to the studio since there would be so many sleepless nights ahead. I couldn’t help but be a little bit disappointed that I didn’t get to hear his voice before drifting to sleep.

The next day David left for New York. He insisted on taking a cab and wouldn’t let me drive him to the airport. He left with little fanfare, hugging me tight before walking out the door. It was typical fashion for my brother - show no emotion. He always said that showing emotion made you look weak.

I checked on Dad and got him some coffee before sitting down to do some writing. In addition to the articles for the magazine, I was working on a book about my time around the music scene. I was already shopping it around to a few publishers and was extremely excited about it. No one knew about it yet; I didn’t want to jinx myself until it was closer to being ready to publish and someone picked it up.

I still hadn’t told Cane that I had to stay in Madison a bit longer. Every time we got on the phone with each other, the conversation was cut short by someone calling him back into the studio. I was going to have to tell him via text pretty soon so he knew. He wasn’t kidding when he said he would be hard to reach once they started working.

I managed to get Dad in to see a counselor. At first, he didn’t want to go, but I managed to talk him into it. I finally told Cane I wasn’t coming back to LA and I didn’t know when I would. I told him Dad needed me. His reply was better than I expected. He said he was so busy with the album it was fine because we wouldn’t see each other much anyway.

A few weeks went by and I was busy writing and taking care of Dad. The counselor put him on some medication and he seemed to be coming out of his shell. I was hoping to get back to LA within the month.

I talked to Cane less and less as time went by. I kept telling myself he was busy but it felt like he was pulling away from me. Maybe he got spooked by our relationship going too fast. Whatever it was, I needed to see him soon and figure it out.

I ran to the grocery store one morning to get some more coffee and other things for the house. The lady in line in front of me was taking forever. She had a million coupons and I rolled my eyes. I glanced over at the magazines in the rack next to me. The middle one caught my eye. There was a picture of Cane with the headline about him being a father. What the fuck!

I pulled it from the rack, my hands shaking. This had to be a mistake. I looked closer and saw a small picture of Destiny. I wanted to throw up. I put it back and fought back the tears until I was able to get out to the car.

I threw my groceries into the seat next to me and gripped the steering wheel. This had to be why Cane was so distant when we talked and why he was pulling away from me. The asshole was too chicken shit to tell me.

Maybe my brother had been right in telling me not to trust Cane.

27

CANE

Things in the studio had been going well. The songs I wrote while in Madison were coming together great and we felt like we had some big hits on our hands. The whole process was grueling as usual, but I loved it. The only thing that sucked was that I barely could talk to Lindsey. I missed her voice and that body of hers like crazy.

Then there was the whole mess with Destiny. I left it up to my manager to take care of it since I was too busy. I didn’t want to talk to her anyway. I was afraid I would lose it and there would be a scene. I had to keep this out of the press until we figured it out. I wanted to tell Lindsey, but it wasn’t something you told someone over the phone. Originally, she was supposed to be out here a week after I got back, but her dad wasn’t handling her mom’s death very well and she had to stay in Madison.

I hadn’t heard anything from my manager on the situation in a week, so I assumed it was taken care of.

Boy, was I ever wrong.

The whole shit storm starting raining down on a Wednesday. It was another day at the studio. Everyone arrived at seven AM, despite not having left the night before until two AM. Diesel saved the day, bringing us all coffee and donuts. I swore he was like a woman sometimes, making sure we were all taken care of. He sure took care of my ass on more than one occasion.

We worked all morning, all cell phones off like always. Everyone knew not to disturb us unless it was a real emergency and then they had to call the studio phone. Only those closest to us had that number. For me, only our manager had that number. I thought about giving it to Lindsey, but if she needed me, she could call him. No one ever called us there though because unless someone was dying, they knew we would be furious.

That was why the whole place got quiet when the studio phone rang that afternoon. Everyone stood there and looked at the phone. If we picked it up, it wasn’t going to be good news for any of us. We were all frozen in place, unable to move.