Page 219 of Goodbye Note

ARIK

We stood in the dressing room, our opening act in the middle of their set. Nova had taken to tour life quickly and had seven new uncles, fully spoiled by all of us and our managers. She hardly spent any time with the nanny since she always wanted to be doing something with one of us.

“Dad! I tuned your guitar. Olivia showed me how.” Nova skipped in, holding a guitar that was bigger than she was and quite pricy. No one batted an eye. As rambunctious as she was, she was also quite articulate.

She was an honorary guitar tech, which we told her was like what her mom used to do. She learned how to work the booth and front of house as well, sitting with headphones on with the sound guys to watch the shows more often than in the dressing room.

“Play it. Let me see.” Varian crossed the room to stand in front of her expectantly.

She gave him a look. “I don’t have an amp. I got to go take it back to Olivia.” She walked out with more attitude than a six-year-old should have.

“Your kid’s a natural.” I laughed. I got up to stretch, listening for a second.

“I have been teaching her to play guitar since she could walk, and Fox started teaching her drums two years ago.” He reached for me, and I let him pull me into his arms. “I don’t think she’s going to want to leave.” Varian’s love for his daughter made me love him even more, which shouldn’t have been possible.

“Would you want to go back to boring life in the Hills when you could be seeing the world?” I wrapped my arms around his middle, drawing him closer.

“No, but look at what I do for a living. Even though I knew inherently it was better, or at least safer, I didn’t want to go live with my grandparents. I loved being on tour.” He closed his eyes, leaning into me as his arms went around my neck, fingers pushing into my hair.

“It’s an opportunity most kids don’t get, and we are pretty boring, so we can cater to her.” I rubbed my cheek against his.

“Olivia wants to know if you want your Gibson or the ESP for the encore, Dad?” Nova asked.

Varian stepped back quickly, turning to address his kid, clearly flustered. “Um…”

We didn’t act differently around Nova, but we’d laid off the PDA while she was awake.

“Why do you always get weird with Arik when I come in?” Nova had her mouth half-open, looking at Varian like he was stupid.

I put a hand over my mouth to not laugh.

“Ummm…” Varian made a face, clearly in parental panic mode.

“I know you love him, like Mommy loves James. You’re making it weird.” Nova put her hands on her hips.

“James?” Varian’s eyebrows raised. “Who’s James?”

“Her boyfriend who she doesn’t want me to know about,” Nova said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, really?” Varian just laughed.

She nodded emphatically.

“So you know I love Arik?”

“Obviously. Everyone knows.” Nova sounded exasperated.

I loved this kid. “Everyone?”

“He looks at you with heart-eyes. I watched a whole bunch of YouTube videos about it. I know all about your matching tattoos and all the songs Arik has written about you. It’s so romantic.” She pulled up her sleeve, showing off a ghost temporary tattoo. “I even got this.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, on the verge of losing it. Where had she gotten little ghost tattoos?

“Who the fuck let you watch YouTube without supervision?!” Color crept up Varian’s neck.

“I wasn’t unsupervised. I was watching them with Uncle Fox. We watch them and laugh.” Nova smirked like the evil GIF of the fire-starter girl, and I lost it.

“Big help,” Varian said to me.

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