Page 21 of Born To Be My Baby

Gloria nodded again. "Yes, it's awesome, honey. It's awesome."

"You don't seem excited. Aren't you excited for him?"

"I am. I'm very excited for him. I guess I'm just a little numb right now."

Mina looked at her for a long moment and then nodded.

"Mom, I'm sorry. I can't imagine what your emotions are right now. And I'm sorry, I was mad at you. I'm still a little mad. But I never gave it much thought of how you must have felt all those years ago when Dad broke up with you. I was selfish. I was mad for myself. That's not how you raised me."

Gloria sniffed and swiped at the tears under her eyes.

As they stepped into the room, she quietly said to Mina, "I need to use the restroom for a moment, honey. I'll be right back out."

She stepped inside the bathroom, just inside the green room. She looked at herself in the mirror and blew out a deep breath.

What a mess.

Not only her, but what a mess.

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Sean was so pumped he wanted to jump up and down and yell. What an achievement. What a career moment. What a day. What a fucking day.

He turned and Mina ran to him. He scooped her up in his arms and spun her around.

"What did you think, Mina? What did you think?"

"Oh, Dad, it was great. I've never seen you play before. I'm so stoked. You were good. You were so good. And that song. Oh, my God that song, Dad."

He nodded. Tears sprang to his eyes, and he blinked them away.

"I know, right? The instant I had the words on paper, I knew it was something. It was just too emotional to even think about recording it for years. For years and years I'd think about it and pull that old notebook from the drawer, but I'd get choked up playing it or singing it. I'm so glad Jami wanted us to start writing our own songs. I'm so glad you got to see this baby girl."

"Me too, Dad. Me too."

He looked around the room. "Where's your mom?"

Mina lifted her right shoulder slightly. "She needed a moment. She's in the bathroom right now. I think she's overwhelmed. Nervous. Scared. All of it."

He nodded. "I totally get that. I'm actually anxious for the three of us to just go somewhere now. I had mentioned to your mom earlier about driving back to Blossom Springs. Do you want to do that? I can hire someone to bring one of your vehicles. We can ride together and chat a little bit. I've got security already working on the house, surrounding the perimeter, so we can be undisturbed. I don't know what the fallout of today is going to be as far as I'm concerned.

"And I've called Jami and told him what's going on, too. Not that I had to. He saw the posts on the Internet, they all did, the band."

"I bet they did. Yeah. I'm sorry about all of that. I mean, who knew?"

"It's all right, honey. It's all right. Things work out the way they're supposed to work out. I'm a firm believer in that. So we'll deal. The band will deal. Jami's working on that part of it with the band. Not that there'll be much fallout from this, but just how to head it off at the pass. He did say there were reporters there trying to ask questions. So I had my security team expand out to the Barn too. So they're left alone."

"Oh, that's a good idea."

"OK, so as soon as Mom comes out, is that the plan, then? We're going to go to Blossom Springs. We don't have suitcases or anything, Dad. They're back at the B and B."

"I'll have somebody go get them. We don't need to go there. It's going to be a shit show, anyway."

"Are you sure? I mean, I unpacked some of my things and put them in the dresser."

"I'll have someone take care of it. I do have a couple strings I can pull."

Mina laughed. “Good thing. Thanks, Dad. We appreciate it. I think it's fine for us to go to Blossom Springs. It'll be nice to be able to be alone. But you're going to miss all the things you wanted to do here this weekend."

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