AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The discordant sounds of his guitar strings as his fingers hit the wrong chord for the umpteenth time made him grit his teeth. He couldn’t get it together today, couldn’t find peace of mind even in music and he knew exactly why. The woman had him all out of sorts, because for the first time in years he didn’t know exactly what to do about a situation.
Every time he made a decision, something would happen and he would be forced to reevaluate.
His pocket began to vibrate and Nat King Cole started to sing to him. Although he didn’t feel like talking, at least he knew his mother would distract him from his current chaotic thoughts. Hell, she’d probably give him some new chaotic ones.
“Hey mom.”
“Hi honey! You picked up! How are you?” The surprise and pleasure in her voice that he hadn’t let the call go to voicemail made him feel a little ashamed. While they talked on the phone on a pretty regular basis, it was always when he called her. He rarely picked up when she called. Having been so recently confronted with his issues, he wondered if it was a control thing with him or an emotional lashing out about keeping his relationship with her completely on his terms.
“I’m good. How are you?” With anyone else he would have asked why they were calling, but he knew it would hurt his mom’s feelings. Especially with her all the way across the ocean, he tried to follow the social niceties which made her feel like he wasn’t giving her the brush off. She’d gotten enough of that from his dad while they were still married. Not that she’d complained, which was the other part of the problem, but it didn’t mean she didn’t feel it.
“I’m wonderful, Samuel and I just got home from the river cruise we went on, which was marvelous. We’d been a little worried because we heard sometimes all you can see from the boat is the trash in the river, but there wasn’t anything like that on our cruise...” And she was off and running, not requiring anything more from him than a few non-committal responses. He could hear the joy in her voice as she described the various activities and excursions she and Samuel had indulged in on their cruise.
When he’d first met Samuel, he’d resented the Englishman had taken his mother away to another country, especially as it made the choice of which parent to spend the holidays with even more stressful. Then he’d realized what a blessing it was, not only because his mother was more understanding when he didn’t spend every holiday with her now, but because of how happy Samuel made her.
“That’s great, Mom,” he said when she finally finished her recap. “I’m glad you had such a good trip.”
“We’re thinking about coming out your way soon,” she said brightly. “Can you believe Samuel’s never seen the cherry blossoms in DC? Or been to the Natural History Museum?”
“Do you need a place to stay?” he asked, trying to keep the cringe out of his voice. The last time his mother and step-father had come to town it had only been for a weekend, but they’d flitted around his house like two honeymooners. Some things, a child did not want to know about his parents. Even if he was an adult.
“Oh, I don’t think so this time,” she said breezily. “We wouldn’t want to impose on you for an entire week, especially when you’ll be having to work. But I want to spend some time with you.”
“And I want to spend some time with you. I can take off a day or two for sight-seeing.” The relief of knowing they’d find somewhere else to stay made it easy for him to make the offer.
“That’d be wonderful!” his mother gushed. “And uh... you should feel free to bring someone along, if you have a someone to bring along.”
“Subtle, Mom.”
She made an exasperated sound. “Well I was trying to be.”
Laughing, Adam shook his head, even though she couldn’t see him. For some reason his mom had always had trouble coming right out and saying what she felt or wanted or asking what she wanted to know. It was the reason she and his Dad had ultimately not worked out. But at times like this, it was almost cute.
“There’s... there’s no one at the moment.”
“Well you can always change your mind,” she said, a hint of curiosity in her voice. Likely she was wondering about the sudden hesitation, although she wouldn’t ask. Which was good because he wasn’t sure how he would have answered.
He was suddenly wondering whether or not Angel and his mom would get along. It wasn’t such an incongruous thought since he’d been thinking about Angel before his mom had called, and they were the only two women he’d ever met who were capable of throwing him for a loop on a regular basis.
Angel
Going by the way Mike was adapting to the club, Angel was pretty sure her friend wasn’t going to be content with hanging out at the bar in the main room for long. She’d seen him looking over at the available subs more than once, although at the moment he seemed involved in his conversation with Adam, Andrew and, Patrick. Tonight he’d said he’d come along so she could play if she wanted to, without ditching Leigh, but she was still working up the courage to go over to the Lounge.
To be honest, she was waiting to see if Master Adam showed any indication of wanting to talk to her before she went over there.
She, Leigh, and Mike had arrived pretty early tonight and set themselves up at one of the bar tables; she’d wanted to give Leigh plenty of time to get settled in before she went over to the lounge. Her friend swore up and down she was okay with Angel doing a scene and leaving her for a bit as long as Mike was willing to hang out and watch over her. And Mike swore up and down he was fine with that as well.
Unfortunately, her number one choice for Dom and the man she was most attracted to seemed more interested in talking to Mike than in talking to her.
“Didn’t you say you were going to play tonight?”
“I am,” Angel said, refocusing a little guiltily on Leigh. “I’m... you know. Still deciding if it’s what I want.”
Leigh gave her a look. “And it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact you keep looking at Adam every couple of minutes?”
“Mmmmm.”
“Uh huh. You could ask him you know.”
