“Mom, Gracie was never my girlfriend,” I said tiredly.

“Humph. Sure could have fooled me with the way the two of you looked at each other,” she grumbled. There was no sense arguing with her. Mom lived by the adage, “Mother’s always right.”

“There’s nothing wrong with Sophie. She’s just really shy. I don’t want to make her uncomfortable.” It was a lame excuse and not even an honest one.

I knew my mother would have Sophie relaxed and at ease in no time. It was her talent.

The truth was, I had no excuse. I just never thought about inviting Sophie to hang out with my family. The two times she had been to my parents’ house had been purely by accident. We had bumped into them at the store and had been promptly invited for dinner. Sophie hadn’t been overly enthused by the whole thing so I hadn’t bothered to bring her around again.

“She seems like a nice girl,” Mom commented hesitantly as though expecting me to disagree.

“Yeah, she’s a nice girl,” I said as she took the towel off my shoulders and handed me a mirror.

A nice girl.

Constant. Always there.

That’s what had been important.

“See how much better you look when people can actually see those gorgeous eyes of yours?” Mom cooed, kissing me on the cheek.

I got to my feet and wrapped my arms around her slight frame. “You’re the only woman I need in my life, Ma.”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” she said with a laugh. “What will you do when I’m too old to make you your favorite chicken pot pie? Someone has to ensure you eat properly and have clean underwear on.”

“Mom. You haven’t checked my underwear since I was ten,” I protested.

“Um, why are we talking about Mitch’s underwear?” A woman who looked like an older, female version of me walked into the kitchen carrying a six-month-old baby who sported a head full of brown curls.

“There’s my favorite little girl,” Mom crowed with pleasure, holding out her arms so she could take the baby from my sister. Charlotte handed my niece, Madison, over to our mom and gave me a quick hug.

“Hey, baby brother. Long time no see. I got the package of baby stuff last month. Thank you so much. A gal can never have too many diapers and burp clothes. Though it would have been better to actually see you,” she said mildly, giving me her best glare.

“Yeah, if I could have gotten off the tour I would have in a fucking heartbeat,” I said.

“Watch your mouth around my granddaughter, Mitch Allen Abrams!” my mother scolded.

“Sorry, Ma,” I muttered. Charlotte smirked.

“So the tour was that bad? I thought you were going to be the next big rock star. You were supposed to be my ticket to the easy life, Mitchie. Way to crap on my dreams of swimmin’ pools and movie stars,” she kidded, sitting down at the kitchen table as Mom took the baby into the next room.

“Guess you’ll have to wait until those royalties kick in from being a pain in my ass.” Charlotte smacked the back of my head and I grinned at her.

“So how long are you home for?” she asked.

I picked at my thumbnail, dreading this part. Telling my family that the dream was most likely dead. And now I was stuck without a clue.

“Not sure. We have a call with the label next week.”

“You don’t sound too thrilled about that. What’s going on?” Charlotte was doing her big sister thing and being nosy. I knew she wasn’t trying to piss me off, but her questions still made me defensive.

“Does it matter? I don’t really want to talk about our shit tour and whether or not people are buying our music,” I snapped.

“Damn, Mitchie, are you on your man period or something?” Charlotte laughed, not bothered by my bad attitude.

“Whatever. How about we talk about the fact that somehow, someway, you and that loser Craig were able to procreate and make something that awesome.” I looked into the living room where Mom was playing with Maddy on the floor. Maddy was giggling and clapping her hands.

Charlotte’s face darkened at the mention of her ex. “Loser is right.”

“He still hasn’t seen Maddy?” I asked and Charlotte shook her head.

“Dad says I should go after him for child support, but part of me doesn’t want him to have any hold on her. Even though I could really use the extra cash, I don’t want to take it and have him decide in a year or two years that maybe he wants to be in her life. Then have her get all attached only to have him fuck off again when it suits him. He’s a flake. Always has been. I should have known he’d bail the moment things got tough. So let him be a deadbeat, she’s better off without him. We both are.” Charlotte said emphatically but I could see the pain in her eyes.

I squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry, Char. You both deserve better than that.”

Charlotte wiped her eyes and gave me a watery smile. “Yeah, well not all guys are selfish dicks. You wouldn’t punk out your own kid. Our parents raised you right.”

“Damn straight,” I agreed.

“You’ll be a great dad, Mitch. Your future kids will be lucky to have you.”

Shit, this was getting all mushy.

“You say that now. We’ll see how you feel when I take Maddy to her first heavy metal concert when she’s seven.”

Charlotte pursed her lips. “Over my dead body, kid.”

I patted her hand. “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.”