I opened my eyes and noticed the bed was empty. I slowly stretched my arms and looked at the time: 9:07 AM. I think I've slept in more often this week than I have in the last three years. I heard singing coming from the kitchen and got out of bed immediately. I threw on a pair of panties and one of Morgan's t-shirts and walked down the stairs, following the voice. I had never heard him sing before, but I could see now why his songs were #1. His voice was so raspy and beautiful, full of this ineffable southern charm everyone raved about. He had earphones in and was singing 'Give Me One Reason by Tracy Chapman' while pouring pancake batter into a hot pan. I giggled at the scene but he couldn't hear me. I walked up to him and poked him in the side. He jumped.
"Girl, don't creep up on me like that! I damn near knocked you out," he chuckled, taking his earbuds out and pulling me in for a hug. "Good morning, sleeping beauty," he said, kissing my lips gently.
"Your voice is beautiful," I smiled.
"It pays the bills," he shrugged humbly. "How did you sleep?"
"Like a baby," I said, stretching my back. "Smells good, I didn't know you cooked."
"I can cook pancakes and boil pasta," he laughed. "But, Indie says I make the 'best pancakes in the whole world', so, I guess I've perfected one recipe."
"Well, well, well, quite the chef you are," I joked.
"Oh and I called Jared this morning, he's gonna email you a prescription for the pill," he said nonchalantly.
"You what?!"
"I mean, he is a doctor," he shrugged.
"Morgan! I don't need Jared to be a part of my sex life!"
"Well, apparently you don't need anyone to be a part of your sex life, jeez. 3 years, woman?! What are you, a damn monk?" he teased.
"You're a dick," I laughed, shoving him playfully.
"Your virginity, the sequel," he continued.
"Stop!" I laughed. "You're just mad 'cause you're a whore and I'm not," I teased. He opened his mouth and put a hand to his chest, acting offended. I giggled.
"Alright, eat up! We have to go get Indie from the hospital in an hour," he said, sliding a plate of pancakes in front of me and drenching it in maple syrup.
"Woah there, that's enough syrup."
"Indie says it's part of the recipe," he winked.
"Yeah, well I'm not a 2 year old, I don't need a sugar rush," I giggled.
***
We got to the hospital and Katie was already waiting for us outside the room.
"Hey," she smiled. I smiled back.
"Hey," Morgan said dryly. "Why are you outside the room?"
"I was actually hoping I could talk to you," she said looking at me. Morgan raised an eyebrow.
"What could you possibly have to say to her?"
"Privately," she added, ignoring Morgan's question.
"Are you serious right now?" he asked, obviously getting more agitated.
"Daddy!" his son called from inside the room.
"Hi, monkey," he said, waving at him.
"Come sit with me!" Indie requested. Morgan gave Katie a warning look and walked into the room, sitting on the foot of the hospital bed. She pulled me to the side so we'd be out of earshot and I started picking at my fingernails nervously.
"I know we haven't had the best start, but I wanted to formally introduce myself. Hopefully we can get along. I'm Katie, by the way," she said, shaking my hand.
"Sure, um, Aubrey," I introduced myself. "And, like I told Morgan, I don't hold it against you. I would've probably acted the same way if it had been my daughter in that bed," I assured her.
"Oh, you're a mom?"
"Yeah, I have a three year old daughter, Ellie."
"Oh, wow. How old were you when you had her?" she asked. I could already feel the judgment in her tone.
"19."
"Wow, that's young. Well, look, I'm not trying to spoil your fun or anything, but," Here we go. "I'd hold off on introducing my kid to Morgan if I were you. I know him and he always does this thing where he gets super involved with these women and the second he leaves to go on tour, he messes things up, if you know what I mean," she said, sucking her teeth. "I know he's leaving this week so, maybe wait until he gets back, see if it lasts," she suggested, scrunching her nose.
"I'm actually going with him," I stated.
"On tour?" she asked. I nodded. "You're bringing your daughter?"
"Oh, no. Lesli will watch her and we'll fly her in every now and then."
"Oh, so you've met Lesli?"
"Yeah, such a sweet woman," I commented. She raised her eyebrows at my comment and gave me one of the fakest smiles I'd ever seen.
"I guess we're just different types of moms, I don't think I could ever leave Indie for that long," she said, obviously irritated to know Morgan had asked me to come with him. I tried to bite my tongue, I really did but I couldn't.
"Yeah, I guess we really are different types of moms 'cause see, I would never let my kid play with a large dog unsupervised," I smiled. She didn't say anything back, probably too shocked to even speak. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't shocked at my own behavior. It wasn't like me to take a dig at someone, especially someone I didn't know well. But this girl was something else. I didn't know if it stemmed from jealousy or if she just genuinely had something against me, but I sure as hell wasn't about to let her stick her nose into my relationship. Especially after both Morgan and Lesli had warned me not to.
"Excuse me," I said, walking past her and making my way into the room. "Ready to go?" I asked Morgan.
"Yep, Indie, say bye to mama," he said softly, grabbing the diaper bag and putting the little boy on his hip. Indie waved his mom goodbye and blew her a few kisses, and we made our way to the parking lot. He was the absolute cutest, little blond kid ever. He looked exactly like Morgan, so much so that it made me wonder if our kids would look like that too.
We got to the car and Morgan got Indie settled in his car seat. He fell asleep almost instantly, and we drove off. A couple minutes into the drive, Morgan's phone automatically connected to the car's bluetooth and the text messages started flowing in, the automated system reading each one of them out loud.
"Katie, 11:56, I can't believe you're taking her on tour. This is ridiculous. She's a careless mom." Played on the car's speakers.
"What the fuck," Morgan said, checking his phone. I dug my nails into the palms of my hands.
"Katie, 11:58, I do not want that girl around my son. I have every right to say so."
"She's out of her fucking mind," he whispered. I turned around to make sure Indigo was still sleeping and couldn't hear what was going on.
"Katie, 12:00, I will not tolerate having a woman who mom-shamed me around Indie. Pick better girls or keep quietly fucking hoes, but don't bring this woman around my son. Period."
"Alright, that's enough," he said, disconnecting his phone from the bluetooth. "What the hell did you say to her?"
"Don't accuse me, she started it!" I defended myself.
"I'm not accusing you, I'm asking you."
"Well, I don't like your tone," I mumbled.
"Girl, will you please just tell me what the fuck happened?"
"She pulled me aside basically to tell me that I should hold off on letting you meet Ellie 'cause you were just gonna go on tour and cheat on me anyway, and that you always got super involved with women and messed it up the minute you left to go on tour-"
"She said that?!"
"Well, not verbatim, but pretty much," I summed up.
"That's fucked up."
"That's not even the fucked up part! I told her that I was actually going with you and she hit me with that 'Oh, well I guess we're different types of moms then, I could never leave Indie for that long'", I said, mimicking her. He chuckled.
"Please, tell me you didn't take that to heart."
"Well, no, but it still stung," I said. He squeezed my thigh gently.
"You're a good mom. You know that, and I know that. Don't let her get to you, she's just trying to mess with your head."
"Well, I kinda said something I'm not too proud of," I admitted. He raised an eyebrow, quietly asking me to go on. "I told her that we really were different types of moms because I'd never let my kid play with a big dog without surveillance," I mumbled. He covered his mouth, trying not to laugh.
"That's not cool," he said sternly while very obviously biting his cheeks to keep it together.
"She opened the door for me! What was I supposed to do?!"
"Baby, it's fine, but seriously, don't butt heads with her. It's not worth it," he stated. "She's the pettiest person I know and I don't want you to get dragged into her toxic bullshit. Just take the high road. Be the bigger person," he said softly.
"You're right, I shouldn't have said that. And I know she didn't do it on purpose, I mean, no mom would ever willingly let their child get hurt. I guess I just saw red when she attacked my parenting like that," I explained.
"And you had every right to. I'm just saying, for your own good, don't get sucked into her games. I'll call her when we get home and hash things out," he said. I gave him a funny look.
"I can call her in front of you if you want. Girl, if you think I still have any type of feelings for that girl, you are wildly fucking mistaken. I have absolutely nothing to hi-"
"It's fine, I didn't even say anything," I shrugged.
"Your eyes said plenty."
"Yeah? What did my eyes say?" I teased.
"That you're being a little jealous because you want me all to yourself," he winked. I scoffed and rolled my eyes. Cocky asshole.
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Hi darlings! The number of views on this has gone up a fair amount in the last day so I'm super excited to see more people are embarking on this little adventure with us! I hope you guys like this. Thanks to every single one of you, every view/vote/comment matters!
XO
LadyBug