Different Circles

“If you can keep her with you that would work better,” Jake said. “I’m ... uh...” He lowered his voice to keep the tech from overhearing him. “I’m going in the booth to strum out a melody overdub for Matt.”

“Really?” she asked. “You and Matt, back together at last?”

“Very funny,” he said. “Are you cool keeping her for the rest of the day?”

“Sure,” Laura said. “C can hold her when I go back in the booth to finish up, can’t you C?”

“You know it,” Celia said with a smile of her own. She absolutely adored holding Caydee. “How did it go when Matt held her? Was it a life changing experience?”

“Matt held her?” Laura asked, amused at the thought. “How did that happen?”

“I had to come get my guitar out of the closet,” he said. “I really should have taken a picture of him and Caydee. It would’ve been good blackmail material.”

“You got that right,” Celia said.

“All right, all right, Little Miss Caydee,” Laura told the crying baby. “Let’s do this thing.”

“See you in a bit,” Celia said.

Laura gave Jake a kiss on the lips. It was not the normal peck of affection but a lingering, wet kiss that stopped just short of the tongue coming out.

“Mmmm,” Jake said, feeling a little thrill of lust sweeping through him. “What’s that for?”

“I think I’ll be up for a little fun and games tonight,” she said.

Jake nodded appreciably. They were still two weeks out from being able to resume traditional sexual relations, but there were other things they could do. “I’ll be looking forward to it,” he said.

“What about me?” Celia whispered quietly. “Got room for one more?”

Laura gave her a saucy smile. “I think we can accommodate you,” she whispered back. She looked at Jake. “Assuming that’s all right with you, sweetie?”

Jake gave his mock sigh of reluctant acceptance of an unpleasant task. “Yeah, I guess that will be okay,” he said with a mock roll of the eyes.

With that, Laura and Caydee headed for the empty office. Celia gave Jake a last smile and returned to the mixing board. Jake, feeling the pleasant glow of sexual anticipation, went back to Studio A. He did not feel as tired all of a sudden.

Since they were primarily working on retakes and overdubs by this point, it was not necessary for the entire band to go to the studio each day, just those who would be working on something. As such, only Celia, Jake, Laura, and Eric had gone in on this day. Tomorrow it would be Celia, Jake, Eric, and Liz, giving Laura and Caydee a day off. Coop, Charlie, and Little Stevie had all been sent back to their respective homes since all of the guitar, bass, and drum tracks had been laid down. There was usually no need for bass or drum overdubs and, while there were lots of guitar overdubs to be done, Jake and/or Celia were both quite capable of doing them themselves.

While Matt and his band (and Jim the paramedic) climbed into the Suburban for the trip back to their rented house (so far there had been no further visits from the cops, but that was always a possibility when dealing with Matt) the members of Celia’s entourage climbed into the 1995 Ford Econoline van KVA owned just for such trips. Jake was behind the wheel while Laura and Caydee sat in the middle row. Celia sat next to Jake and Eric and the Nerdlys took the back seats. The drive back to the cliffside house was a short one, only ten minutes, and the sun was just setting as they pulled into the driveway.

Liz had cooked dinner for them since she had the day off. She had roasted a couple of whole chickens in the oven and served them with mashed potatoes, gravy, and steamed cauliflower. Everyone tore into the meal except Cadence, who had her own meal of fresh breast milk while everyone else except Liz did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. After feeding her daughter, Laura then handed the baby off to Jake and poured herself a glass of chilled chardonnay. Dr. Michaels, Caydee’s pediatrician, had told Laura that one glass of wine or one mixed drink per night would not be harmful to Caydee’s growth and development (but he advised strongly against any marijuana use while breastfeeding) so Laura made a point to have her allotment and thoroughly enjoy it.

“I’m going to get her changed into her jammies and see if she’ll sleep for a bit,” Jake said.

“Sounds good,” Laura said, settling down on the couch with her wine. “Let me give her a kiss before you go.”

Jake brought her over and Laura gave her a kiss right between her nose and her eye. She told her that mommy loved her. Cadence was not quite capable of a genuine smile just yet, but she managed to convey her contentment nonetheless.