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Lauren pushed her hat up and took off her glasses.
“Lauren!”
Maggie’s surprised tone was flavored with concern, and Lauren hesitated again, wondering if she’d misstepped. “I’m sorry to just drop in. Am I interrupting?”
“No, no. Please, have a seat. I do have an appointment—” She peeked at the clock. “—in about fifteen minutes, but I’m free until then. What’s up?”
“First, Augie asked me to say hello,” Lauren said as she sat in the guest chair. “But I really wanted to stop by about my invitation to have Cole come see us record. We didn’t really get into details, but I wanted to make sure you both knew the invitation was serious. And it totally extends to you as well. The rest of the family, too, if they’re interested.” Lauren knew she was talking too quickly.
“That’s a very generous offer. I’ll give it some thought,” Maggie said.
Lauren offered Maggie a business card. “This is the number at Velocity. Tisha will help set everything up if you decide to come.”
“Seems like an awful lot of effort just to give me a phone number,” Maggie said. “You could have just called the college for my number.” She rummaged in a file drawer to find her wallet and tucked the card inside.
“When have I ever done anything the easy way?” Lauren asked as she felt the heat rise in her cheeks and neck at the gentle rebuke. “But it also gave me an excuse to hand deliver this.”
She handed the bag to Maggie. Inside was a CD of The Kingmakers’ first album,Concrete Beach. Autographs from the band were scrawled across the cover art in silver ink.
Maggie turned it over in her hands. “Signed by the band? She’ll be over the moon.”
“So many people download these days, but you can’t autograph a digital file.” While Lauren appreciated the innovation of digital music files, she preferred physical CDs and albums. Being able to hold it, to look at the cover art, read the lyrics and jacket notes always gave her a deeper sense of connection with the bands she loved. She wanted The Kingmakers fans to feel the same.
“And it is totally up to you,” Lauren continued. “But like I said, the invitation to the studio is for real. I just didn’t want Cole to think I forgot.”
Maggie laughed. “Trust me. You might forget, but Cole willnot.”
Lauren stood up from the chair. She’d taken up enough of Maggie’s time and she was due at Augie’s soon.
“Can I ask you a question?” Maggie asked.
“Sure.”
“The other day, you said the hardest thing about your job was not being able to make friends. That you always wondered if you could trust people. Do you regret choosing this life?”
Lauren faltered. Her career took a higher toll sometimes than she cared to admit. There were exceptions, but she’d learned the hard way that most people had ulterior motives.
“Regret choosing music? Never,” Lauren said. “I love what I do. I can’t imagine doing anything else. Other regrets? I have a few. Everyone probably does. One of my biggest is losing your brother. Sometimes I think letting go of Danny was the biggest mistake I ever made.”
Lauren hadn’t planned to be so bluntly honest, and Maggie’s mouth formed a small “O” of surprise. Lauren reached out and picked up a photo from the collection on Maggie’s desk. In it was Danny, Heather, and their sons. A happy, domestic scene.
“How is he, Maggie? Really?” Lauren looked away, knowing it was unfair to put Danny’s sister in that position.
Maggie paused longer than she should have, and Lauren knew she wasn’t going to get the whole story. “He’s good. But I think Cole’s paper brought up a lot of memories he hasn’t thought about in a long time.”
“It did for me, too.” It was a half-truth. She’d thought about those memories over the years, more than she should have, but the past few weeks had brought them back in high-definition color.
“But he really is good,” Maggie said. “He loves being a cop. He loves being a dad—those boys are his whole world.”
Lauren gazed down at the photo. “I don’t think I could’ve given him this life. And my world? It would have been hard for him. Maybe too hard. But… I wish… I wish I had tried. Thatwe’dtried harder. Not just assumed the things we wanted were too different.”
“You were both kids back then,” Maggie said.
“Maybe. Doesn’t really matter now, I guess. But I’m glad he’s happy.”
A flash of trepidation danced across Maggie’s face when Lauren said that, but she didn’t elaborate. Lauren looked at the photo for another moment before she put it back on the desk.
“I’ve taken enough of your time. Good to see you, Maggie.” Lauren stood up. When she got to the door, she stopped and looked back. “I really am glad Danny’s happy… but I wish we’d fought harder for each other back then. Things might have been different if we did.”
