“He and Maysie are having a baby? That’s wonderful news!” Mom cut in enthusiastically.
I smiled. “Yeah, it’s great for them, but it also means he doesn’t want to go on tour or spend days in a recording studio when he has a newborn at home. Not that I blame him or anything. I also have a feeling Garrett’s going to move up to Boston to be with his girlfriend. Things are changing and I needed to change with them or get run over.”
Mom looked thoughtful. “What does Sophie think of you getting this job? What are your plans?”
“Sophie and I broke up,” I said, returning to my seat at the kitchen table.
“My goodness, you sure like to do everything at once,” Mom commented, pursing her lips. “Though I can’t say that I’m surprised. There’s a reason you refused to bring her around to see your family. And when a man can’t introduce his lady to his mother, that says a lot.”
“I didn’t refuse to bring her over, Ma,” I protested.
“I met the girl twice, Mitch. Twice. You used to bring Gracie around all the time. Sophie seemed nice enough, she just wasn’t for you.” My mother got up and went over to stir the chili. “Does that mean you’ll bring Gracie over for dinner sometime soon? I miss that girl. She always loved my carrot cake. She has good taste.”
My mother was observant. Way too observant sometimes. She had the mother’s intuition thing down to a science. “What makes you think this has anything to do with Gracie?” I asked, more for my own amusement than anything else. There was no fooling Eileen Abrams.
Mom gave me a look that could only be described as a bitch, please. I covered my mouth with my fist and coughed to cover my laughter.
“I may be old, but I’m not stupid, child. Now get into the cabinet and find the chili flakes for your dear mother.”
I did as I was told and grabbed the spice she needed. “Sophie and I broke up because we weren’t right for each other.”
“And it took you a year to figure out? It seems you’ve become a little soft in the head in your old age. Maybe it’s all that noise from your amplifiers. It short circuited something,” Mom teased.
“You’re hysterical, Mom,” I deadpanned.
Mom shook in a handful of red flakes and passed the container back to me so I could put it away. “I didn’t raise you to be a runner, Mitch. And it seems to me that you’ve been running a marathon.”
“What did Charlotte tell you?” I asked, instantly suspicious. Charlotte knew something had happened with Gracie, even though she didn’t know the particulars. I was sure she and Mom had been having a good gab at my expense.
Mom widened her eyes innocently. “What would Charlotte have told me, hmm?”
I gave my mom a sideways hug. “You’re sneaky, Ma, I’ll give ya that. But I’ve grown immune to your machinations.”
She put her arm around my waist and hugged me in return. “So, you didn’t answer my question. Will you be bringing Gracie over soon? I can make lasagna.”
I kissed the top of my mother’s head. “I’ll work on it,” I said.
“You guys had to know this was coming. It breaks our hearts to lose you,” Tate was saying.
Cole rolled his eyes and Garrett yawned.
Jordan was checking his phone and texting Maysie updates.
The conversation was going exactly as we had expected.
Danvers and Tate from Pirate Records had launched into a lengthy explanation about overhead costs versus incomings. Gross profit and other words I didn’t really understand. What I did understand was that they had other artists that were making them money. Generation Rejects, while a great commodity, wasn’t hitting their key markets. Blah, blah, blah.