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I don’t invite Leighton to the studio to meet Doug. I’m not in the mood to hear any of the comments that he’d have about her.
I find him nosing through the sheet music of the songs that I’ve been working on. He holds up a sheet he has plucked from the piano. “Looks likeDaddyhas been hard at work.”
Doug was mad as hell when he learned about Scarlett. He said that I was going to be sorry as fuck that I didn’t find out about her in time tofinancially persuadeJosie Burns into having an abortion. He said that my daughter was going to ruin my career.
And I believed him.
But then my feelings for that tiny little drowned-rat-looking kid began to change. I didn’t want her to die. I wanted her to be safe and healthy. I came to love and adore her.
But before I loved my daughter, she was already adored by Leighton. That woman showed me how to love my own flesh and blood. I’ll never be able to express my gratitude to her.
“I have new songs, thanks to my daughter. She’s been a source of inspiration for me in the studio.”
“Glad to hear that she’s been good for something.”
I have a lot of tolerance for Doug, but that ends when it comes to my child. He doesn’t need to push me where she is concerned. “Why did you come?”
“To let you know that you’re going back on the road.”
“I told you that I was taking off until July to be with my daughter.”
“Can’t. I’ve already rebooked the shows that you canceled. You leave next week.”
Next week?
What. The. Fuck?
“Scarlett has only been home for a month. I can’t leave her yet.”
“I’m confused, River. I thought you hired a nanny so that you could go on tour again.”
Doug doesn’t have a family. He doesn’t understand how a child changes you. “I hired Leighton to help me care for my daughter who was born three months early and has special needs, not raise her in my absence.”
“People understand one cancelation, but not two. The shows can’t be canceled again.”
He’s right about that much. But the shows wouldn’t need to be canceled at all if he’d done what I’d told him to do.
“How long is the stretch?”
“Eight weeks.”
Eight fucking weeks? Two months without my daughter?
“You had no right to rebook without okaying it with me.”
He knows that I would have said no. And now he’s boxed me into a corner. We both know that I risk the wrath of my fans if I cancel on them again.
“I can’t believe you did this.”
“I’m looking out for your career, River. Fuck knows that you’ve not been looking out for it yourself since that kid got here.”
“I’ve not been looking out for my career?” I pick up the sheets of music I’ve written over the last four weeks and shake them. “Then what the fuck do you call all of this?”
“I hope that I get to call them your next number-one hits.”
“It’s my best work. And it’s because of her.” I’m not the same person I was before Scarlett came into my life.
No, that’s not the whole truth. I’m not the same person I was before ScarlettandLeighton came into my life.
