Chasing Abby(83)

Today, I’m going to learn how to record a vocal track in Chris’s home studio. Today, I’m going to use the many gifts Caleb and the world have offered me. Today, I’m going to sing while Caleb plays.


PART IV: EPILOGUE


Epilogue #1

Seventeen months later

SITTING IN A TRAILER while Abby has her hair and makeup done is surreal. I’ve only been to three shows where Abby performed, but she wasn’t the headliner. So she didn’t get her own trailer, which is fine. She’s been using Chris’s tour bus to play shows all over the country for the past seven months. Chris has been to nineteen of the forty-two shows she’s played, which is a lot when you have a new baby in the family.
But Chris has his juggling act down to a science. He’s home with me and the kids all week, then he flies out to attend the bigger shows on the weekend. While he’s gone, Junior and Ryder help me with Baby Caleb.
Jimi spent the holidays at home in December, which helped fill the void when Abby spent the holidays with Brian and Lynette at her other grandparents’ lodge. The weird thing is that I went eighteen years without Abby, and now I feel empty when I don’t get to see her during the holidays. I do wish I would have had more time with her before she went off on tour, but I’m just happy to see her blossom into such a gifted, hardworking performer. And I’m extremely proud that it was Chris who made it all possible. In the end, she needed him as much as he needed her.
Caleb is getting antsy in this trailer. I’ve taken him for three walks outside since we got here at five p.m., and it’s only 6:45. He hates being in confined spaces. He’s been sitting on the twin-size bed in the trailer, playing with a box of Legos I brought from home. But now he’s grunting and throwing the pieces all over the floor in frustration. Someone’s going to step on one of these and sue me.
I scoop him up in my arms and hold him while I kneel down to pick up all the stray Lego pieces. I thought these days were over after Ryder reached a certain age. But it turns out having a new baby in the house has been a blessing in disguise. A very stinky, messy, sickeningly adorable disguise. Even before he was born, Caleb has done a good job of keeping Abby tethered to us. He’s very hard to resist.
Abby’s personal assistant, Ariana, smiles as she approaches me in the back of the trailer. “Do you need any help, Mrs. Knight? Perhaps a video or something for Caleb to watch?”
“No, thank you, Ariana. Chris will be back soon, then we’ll be heading out.”
Caleb grabs a red Lego piece out of my hand and stuffs it inside my shirt collar. I laugh as I turn away from Ariana so I can reach inside and dig it out.
“No, Caleb. Stop,” I whisper as he tries to put another Lego in my shirt.
“Please let me know if you need anything at all,” Ariana says, but when I turn around a few seconds later, she’s gone.
I walk about ten steps to the middle of the trailer where Abby is getting her hair done. A woman in a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and a small black apron is styling her hair in perfect beach waves. In her blue peep-toe booties and that silky cream dress, Abby looks more like she stepped off a runway than a beach. But I know I’m just being overprotective. Abby is not a little girl. She’s twenty years old. And she’s endured way more than most girls her age. She deserves to be doted on and glammed up.
The hairstylist spritzes Abby’s hair with a few final squirts of hairspray, then she holds up her arms. “Done!”
“Yay!” Abby cheers, smiling at my reflection in the mirror as she stands from the chair. She turns around and holds her arms out for me to hand Caleb over. “Come here, Bubba.”
“He’ll ruin your dress, and your hair. That’s not a good idea.”