“Got it,” she responds. “You coming back here for Memorial Day weekend?”
“Maybe. Haven’t thought about it. But, hey, I’m gonna hit the sack, so I’ll talk to you later,” I tell her so I can hang up.
I’m about to throw the damn phone across the room when it starts ringing again, but this time when I answer it, all I hear on the other end is panic.
“Ryan?”
“Hey, Max. What’s going on?”
“Traci’s in labor. We’re heading to the hospital.” His voice is rushed, and I can’t help but laugh at the fear in him.
“So why are you calling me? Shouldn’t you be driving?” I ask with a chuckle.
“Because I know when I get there it’s gonna be us and her crazy-ass sisters driving me insane.”
“You better watch it,” I hear Traci bark at him in the background.
“Dude—”
“Okay. I’ll admit. I’m scared shitless,” he tells me when Traci butts in, saying, “You’re scared? Are you serious? I’m the one about to have a baby here and you’re on the phone with your buddy because you’re scared?”
“Shit, you’ve got your hands full,” I laugh, and the next thing I hear is Traci as she says, “Ryan? You there?”
“Hey, Trace.”
“Tell your buddy to calm the hell down and to stop being a pansy.”
The dramatics of this late night call are cracking me up, and I do not envy Max with having his girl fed up with him.
The phone muffles and then Max says, “You coming to the hospital?”
“You need to relax before Traci rips your head off, but yeah, I’ll be there.”
Seeing Max with a baby is a head-trip for me. Traci went into labor quickly, and by the time they made it to the hospital, it was too late for her to get any drugs, so now Max has some god-awful scratches on his arms where she took her pain out on him. But in the end, they have a healthy baby boy.
The sheer happiness splayed across his face is something that any man would envy. Max is content, and I couldn’t be happier for him, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t panged with a slight sense of jealousy. I never thought that settling down and having a family was in the cards for me, but with Candace, I was starting to believe that it could be a possibility. So in my attempt to move on, I hold his baby in my arms and shut my selfish emotions out as I sit here with one of my good friends as he gushes over his new son.
42
“How was your drive?”
“Long,” my mom says as she hugs me. “It’s good to see you.”
“Come in,” I tell her as I take her bag and set it against the wall. “Max called a little while ago. He said that Traci is feeding Bennett and now would be a good time to come over, so if you still wanted to see the baby, we should head out.”
“Of course I want to see the baby.”
Grabbing my keys, we leave and make the drive over to Max’s place. My mother has gotten to know Max a little over the years, and she never passes up an opportunity to hold a baby, so when we arrive, she melts at the sight of Bennett.
We settle ourselves in the living room, and Mom doesn’t even wait for me to introduce her to Traci. She is already sitting next to her, making her own introductions, and before I know it, they’re chatting away. My mom just has this way about her that can put anyone at ease. Candace loved that about her.
“So, what’s been going on?” Max asks as he flops down on the chair.
“Just covering for you every day,” I tease.
“Ha, nice, man.”
“Got another band booked.”
“Yeah? That’s good. So what’s going on with Mark and the guys?” he asks, and I’m momentarily distracted when I hear my mom talking gibberish to the baby.
Shaking my head and laughing at her, I turn back to Max and tell him, “They’re gonna alternate Saturdays with the new band for the next four weeks, and then their contract is up.”
“Is he staying here in Seattle?”
“Yeah. He and Jase had a few interviews at some firms in the city,” I tell him.
“Nice.”
“How have you been? You look like shit.”
“Dude, this kid wakes up to eat every two hours. When we first brought him home he slept solid for the first few days, but now he’s up around the clock.”
“Sounds great,” I joke when I turn to Traci and ask, “So how’s this guy really holding up?” I laugh as I nod to Max.
She shakes her head and teases, “For such a big guy, you wouldn’t think he’d be so squeamish.”
“Don’t listen to her. I’ve got this completely under control,” he defends with a smile.
“Oh my goodness,” my mother squeals as we all turn to look at Bennett when he lets out a massive fart.
“Holy shit!” I crack up, nearly doubling over at the insane gas that baby just released.
“Ryan!” my mom scolds. “Don’t cuss in front of the baby.”
“Are you serious, Mom? He’s barely a week old. Little dude doesn’t even speak English,” I laugh out as she rolls her eyes at me.
“Speaking of having everything under control,” Traci says to Max as she picks up Bennett and hands him over. “Why don’t you take care of this issue your son has in his pants?”
“You think you’re funny, don’t you?”
She pats him on the back and mocks, “Try to control the gagging this time, huh?”
He plants a kiss on Traci’s nose, and I follow him back to the nursery. I take a front row seat in the rocker as Max lays Bennett on the changing table.
“Dear Jesus!” he says in utter disgust when he peels the diaper off, and it only takes a second for the stench to hit me.
“Ugh! What the hell is that?”
Before Max can say anything, the baby rips out another rancid fart.
“For the love of God!” Max says, and I have to clutch my stomach because I’m laughing so hard at the visual of him being taken down by his own baby, one fart after another.
Max tries holding on to his tiny ankles, when he farts again.
“Dude,” he snaps at me. “He’s shitting everywhere. Traci!”
“Oh my God,” I laugh out. “I’m dying.”
“You’re dying. This shit’s right in front of my face.”
“What is going on in here?” Traci exclaims when she walks in.
“Honey, there’s poop all over me!”
“You boys are ridiculous,” my mom says when she takes Max’s place and starts cleaning Bennett.
“Donna, let me take care of that,” Traci says.
“No worries. You go sit and relax,” she tells her. “And you boys get out of here,” she scolds as if we’re kids and not grown men.
Once Bennett is cleaned up and changed, my mom returns to the living room and lays him on the couch between her and Traci. As she’s rubbing his belly, Traci kicks her feet up on the ottoman and leans back into the couch, laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Max asks when he returns with a clean shirt.
“You.”
“Why is it that every time I change him, it winds up in a fiasco, but when you do it, it’s just a simple pee diaper?”
“Payback for me having to be pregnant.”
We continue to hang out and when Bennett falls asleep, we say goodbye and head out.
I’ve been anxious all day, knowing that tonight is Candace’s production. I feel weird about going, almost like some kind of voyeur, but I couldn’t miss seeing her dance on stage. I have only seen her in a couple of videos she had once shown me.
The whole time we were together, she was preparing for this night, so to finally have it here is bittersweet because I always thought I would be there with her. I should have wrapped her legs up last night in her crazy Saran Wrap. I should have been watching her walk around my loft all day, a neurotic nervous mess, helping her stretch and rub out her calves that had been bothering her, staring at her while she stood in the bathroom as she put her hair up in a bun with all those tiny hair pins.