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While I didn’t tell him Frankie was pregnant, we weren’t announcing it until after she was through the first trimester, I didn’t really care what they wanted.
The tour was going to be smaller, and more intimate. We’d do more social media splashes and keep it lowkey. Traveling would be stressful enough cause she’d have to leave the kids for a couple of weeks at a time.
It worked when we did the tour while she was pregnant with Charlie, two weeks on, one week off. No more than two weeks away from the kids or the guys. They either met us somewhere or we came home.
Period.
“…are you even listening to me?” The dry note in Jake’s voice snapped me out of the reverie.
“No, sorry. Got distracted. What’s up?” I scrubbed a hand over my face. The bristle on my cheeks reminded me I hadn’t shaved that morning. I was debating letting it grow out.
“You’ve been doing that a lot lately, new album giving you that much trouble?” The change in subject had me shaking my head.
It must have been bad if Jake was worrying about me. “No, it’s not giving me that much trouble. It’s just…I dunno, I’m probably overthinking it. But it feels like something is missing. I just can’t tell if it’s the music itself or how we’re performing it. But I’ll figure it out. “
“Good, cause you guys are leaving for that first set of dates to soft launch, right?” Jake coughed once, like he was clearing his throat.
“Not until October. As long as everything goes to plan, we’re doing the soft launch the weekend after Coop’s birthday and we’ll be back before Archie’s and Halloween.”
“Good. Then November, two weeks out and a week back?”
“That’s the plan. No holidays missed. If this is anything like last time, she’s going to be miserable by the end of week two, so it’s about as long as we can go before she has to see the kids.” It was adorable in its own way. Her emotions were all over the place when she was pregnant. The poised woman we’d married could turn into an absolute fountain and cry over the fact that her danish tasted like cardboard.
The constant crying would sometimes frustrate my angel. I would just have to keep reminding her that it was just another demonstration of her huge heart. It was why we took great care to protect that heart by making sure she could see her kids.
“Sounds good. She sees the OB next week, right?”
I frowned and flipped through my phone for the family calendar. We color coded it so it was easy to skim. Two kids in school and a toddler meant there were a lot of activities to track.
“Yeah, which you can check. What’s up?” Cause this was a weird call.
“Archie’s losing his mind,” Jake said, sounding utterly reasonable.
“Define losing his mind?” I stripped the headset fully off and stretched as I stood.
“I keep catching him sketching new equipment for the play yard, and new designs for safety features for a car.” Amusement filled his voice. So this was something funny and not something to worry about. “Then I mentioned the tour and he pretty much just left to go see her.”
Leaning back in the chair, I stared up at the ceiling. “Frankie’s in Manhattan handling meetings today.” Charlie was with Jeremy and I would take over when he went to get the kids.
“I know,” Jake said. “Tried to tell him, but he’s heading to the house. Left about fifteen minutes ago.”
I didn’t laugh. Fuck, it was hard not to laugh. Scrubbing a hand over my face, I shook my head. “I’ll take care of it.”
“I figured. You had to sit me down and then later Coop.”
I snorted. “Why didn’t you sit him down?”
“I would have tried but I didn’t even realize what was happening until he was in the car and pulling out at speed.” Jake huffed a laugh. “I mean, he was a little bit of a space cadet, but he has been since she told us. He’s waited a long time and he never said it bothered him…”
“No,” I said. “Didn’t bother you or Coop that I was first either. Fucked with my head a little but…”
“You handled it. I don’t remember anyone sitting you down.” Jake blew out a breath. “Lucky bastard.”
Yeah, he didn’t remember it ‘cause it hadn’t been them who had to do it. Jeremy did it. My dad did it. Hank had done it. In all their own ways, the dads had stepped up and they each offered some useful bit of advice.
It had helped.
“Work on the engine, you know when he catches his breath, he’s gonna be all over that.” I saved where I was at and then shut down the sound board. I’d have to listen later.
