The High Notes: A Novel(63)

She clung to him and it started to snow. She felt as though the world was spinning around her, and she pulled away to look at him and burst into tears.

“I’m four months pregnant, and I didn’t even know,” she said, and he stared at her. It hadn’t occurred to him either, since they were usually careful, but not always.

She was crying and it was snowing, and he started to laugh. “That’s it? You’re pregnant?” He hugged her tightly again. “I thought you were dying.”

“I’m scared,” she cried into his shoulder, as he held her. “I don’t know how to be a mother. I never had one. I didn’t want a baby, and it’s already four months.”

“You’re a great mom to Jimmy. You don’t have to have a mom to be one.”

“Yes, you do. I don’t know any of that stuff. I love you, but I’ll be a terrible mother.”

“No, you won’t. You’ll be a fantastic, loving, talented superstar mom.”

“All I can do is sing. That’s all I’ve ever known. How to hit the high notes.”

“You’ll be great. We’ll do it together.” He walked her to the car then, before she froze. She was shivering in the cold. They got into the car and she blew her nose. She couldn’t stop crying and he was beaming and then he thought of something. “Do you think we should get married?” he whispered to her, and she looked surprised.

“Why?”

“Because that’s what people do. Usually, at least.”

“But you hated being married,” she reminded him.

“To Frances. Not to you. I’d love being married to you. I feel like we already are.”

“What if it spoils everything and you hate being married to me?”

“I won’t,” he promised her. “I just think it would be nice to be married if we have a baby,” he whispered so his driver didn’t hear him.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Do you want to be married?” he asked her.

“Not really, I’m happy the way we are.”

“Then we won’t,” he said. She was too upset to make sense.

“Do you want to be married?” she asked him.

“To you, yes.” She nodded, and continued crying until they got home. He was trying to remember what Frances was like when she was pregnant, but it was too long ago. All he could remember now was how mean she was during the divorce and ever since. He couldn’t remember anything pleasant before.

Jimmy was upset when they got home.

“You said you’d take me to get the new action figure,” he said to Iris.

“We’ll go tomorrow. I promise,” she said, and Jimmy slunk off to his room like any twelve-year-old.

The three of them had dinner together in the kitchen, and Iris went to bed right afterward. Clay came to find her a little while later and lay down next to her, and held her.

“I’m sorry you’re upset,” he whispered to her and stroked her silky blond hair. “I should have been more careful.”

“Maybe I wanted it to happen,” she said, and turned to look at him. She had been thinking about that for the last hour. She kissed him then. “I think I want to get married,” she said with a sigh. “I was just so shocked when the doctor told me. Maybe we should adopt Jimmy so he doesn’t feel left out.”

He was smiling at her. She made him so happy. “It sounds like a plan,” he said and kissed her. She thought that maybe everything would be all right.



* * *



—

They got married between Christmas and New Year at a little church she’d seen before and liked in the East Seventies. Boy and Star were their witnesses, and Jimmy held their rings. He was beaming, and they had asked him if he’d like to be adopted and he said yes, right away. He didn’t know about the baby yet. There was time. They wanted to adopt him first. He was their first child. The baby would be second. When they left the church there was snow on the ground. They had a snowball fight, and then the five of them went to lunch at a little Italian restaurant, and ate pasta. Boy was happy for them.

It wasn’t the way Iris had imagined she would get married one day. It was better, because she married the right man.





Chapter 17





Clay was right. Both Iris and Boy were nominated for Grammys. She for her first album, and he for his most recent single. Iris had written the song for him and it was a huge success. Clay went to the Grammys every year. It was old hat to him, although it was always exciting when his artists were nominated. He represented two of the other artists who were nominated that night, but he wanted Boy and Iris to win.

Clay and Boy wore tuxedos, and Star was wearing a sexy black dress that clung to every inch of her and was very glamorous. Iris wore a deep blue dress the color of her eyes that floated around her. You could see that she was pregnant, but not as much as she was. She was six months pregnant. They had adopted Jimmy in January and had a party afterward to celebrate. He had taken Clay’s name, but they kept his old last name as a middle name, to honor Pattie, since she had given him her last name and not his father’s. He left the courtroom as James Dixon Maddox. It sounded very distinguished.

“He’ll have to be an attorney one day with that name,” Iris said.