he disappeared inside.
I finished off his glass and grabbed my phone off the table. It was past ten, which for us rocker types was like five pm for those with normal jobs.
I pressed the speed dial for Ricki.
She picked up on the second ring. “I was going to call you tonight. How are you? How’s your place? Ugh, I wanted to see you last night, but everything went nuts.”
I smiled. She was my oldest friend, and just hearing her voice settled the jumble of emotions inside me. “I hear that. I’m okay. Water main break, was it? How random.”
“Yeah, especially since our apartment was the only one that got the notice. We hunkered down for like no purpose last night. We found out this morning that the building doesn’t even own that number that texted us, so it must have been freaking spam. I mean, can you imagine?”
With the recent insanity in my own life, I could believe just about anything. But I filed that away under stuff to discuss later with Cooper. Things were flying so fast and furious that I’d need a notepad soon.
“Did you make good use of your time at home?” I asked, trying to keep my tone light.
Ricki snorted. “Girl, we always make good use of our time everywhere. As far as marriage slowing us down, not so much.”
“Good for when that baby practice kicks in.”
“Yeah. Soon. I just went on prenatal vitamins, actually.”
“Pre before the natal?”
“It’s a good idea to make sure all your levels are where they should be. Anything to help it along. Since, you know, no guarantee of how long it could take.”
“Yeah.” I rested my cheek on the fist. “Lila’s still trying, right?”
I couldn’t imagine trying to have another baby with a stalker after me. But there had been so much drama surrounding Ripper Records for so long, Lila and Nick had to try to find some semblance of normal amidst chaos, I supposed.
“Yes. Which is another reason I’m wary. I don’t know if it’ll be quick or take a while, so I’m just trying to pace myself.”
“Or you could end up with twins right away.”
She laughed. “I could handle that, but I’m trying not to scare Mal off the process first thing. Though he mentioned getting something for the nursery at the farm yesterday.”
“Whoa, that’s huge for him.”
“It is. Taking it slow has been the way to go for him. I want him to enjoy being a dad, and I think he will once he gets over his fear of breaking the kid. He’s a great uncle.”
“So, you’re really going through with living on a farm outside the city?”
“Not yet. We’re doing some renovations. And we’ll probably never live here full time, but with it being so close to Happy Acres, we’ll have family nearby for the kids.” She sighed. “As you can tell, I’m doing really great at the not getting my hopes up and taking things slowly.”
It felt good to smile. “I was just telling Cooper how we thought we’d be single cat ladies.”
“Yeah. Neither of us sat home on Saturday nights, but finding a forever someone is a different story than Mr. Right Now.”
“Ain’t that the truth. But music saved our bacon in more than one way.”
And may have brought chaos into our lives as well. But wasn’t that life? Bad with the good. Danger with the amazing sex, that may or may not soon involve chains.
I pressed my thighs together. That was a line of inquiry we’d definitely have to pursue later.
After possible arson and drugging and assorted other mayhem was handled.
“It did. How’s your place? Were you able to go by it yet to see the extent of the damage?”
“Yeah, we went over this afternoon. It’s a fucking mess. Some of my tapestries and other favorite things are destroyed.” I huffed out a breath. “The important thing is my place can be fixed, and there’s insurance. My instruments and some of my other stuff was in storage already, because I was about to do the remodel. Most of the rest is just things and can be replaced.” I picked at the edge of my thumbnail. “Didn’t stop me from melting down from seeing my belongings turned into ashes. Or so smoky that I could never use them or wear them again.”
“Aww, honey, that’s so awful. Losing your things like that is a gut punch, but I’m glad at least some of your most important items were in storage. Do they have any clue what