Page 1 of Rocking Player
Chapter 1
Georgiana
Life wasn’t likeit was in the movies.
I tugged my brown hair into a ponytail, reminding myself that as a single mom, I had zero interest in dating. My son, Jeremy, was all that mattered since the day I had him.
Well, Jeremy and peace. I liked my life orderly and calm.
Once in a while, like today, I wondered what my vacation romance, the one that had transformed me into sudden mom, might react if I ever saw him again to tell him about his son. No other man since Michael had ever made me forget myself.
I was about to go to a professional baseball game. Jeremy had begged me to take him. My son was all about the cards and getting better at catching for his little league team.
My dad, not my mom, had taken me to one baseball game as a girl, though I’m sure I'd talked his ear off about my paintbrushes I’d loved.
Nothing stirred. Not even a leaf on a tree blew outside the windows on our cul-de-sac. Silence in the house wasn’t good, though at six years old, he was now old enough that maybe the quiet was okay, and it didn’t mean disaster was brewing. My big ears usually heard everything, and quiet ricocheted through my spine. Time to stop my wandering thoughts. Old habits kicked in and I moved faster to get ready to take him to the game today. I checked myself in the mirror of my en suite bathroom in my two-story home. Jeans that weren’t "mom jeans" and actually flattered me had been a gift from my sister, Ridley, after I’d cooked dinner for her last week. My high cheekbones were bare as blush seemed silly for a game.
I never wore makeup anymore, but all my sisters had agreed I needed to stop hiding. I wasn’t, but I just wasn’t interested in anyone, not since Michael and that dream vacation.
Jeremy was at his desk by the window overlooking our quiet street reading his baseball cards like he’d one day like to be stamped on one of them.
I backed out of his room and closed my eyes in the small hall next to the linen closet. Today I imagined Michael close and his kiss still made me tingle.Sounds so stupid when I think it, but it’s true. I opened my eyes. After Michael, no other guy had made me feel anything. And I had our boy who looked like him with those blue eyes and squared chin, so I knew whatever it was between us had happened.
Time to finish and get to the day game on time. Now. Jeans were heavy, so I paired it with a plain white t-shirt as baseball games were hot just sitting in the sun. At least, I would imagine so, because I didn’t remember many details from the one time as a girl with my dad.
Jeremy had begged and I’d do anything for my son. Unlike my mother, who often hid away as a wallflower, never taking me anywhere except the grocery store where I’d been the one to fill the cart with the list as she’d claim some headache and need to sit down, I made time to take Jeremy where he wanted.
Another of my five sisters, Indigo, had sent the baseball tickets from her job, so this wish of his wasn’t costing anything but time and lunch. Indigo had joked I needed to check out the single dads in the stands, not that I’d ever try.
Once I'd tasted perfection, no other man had ever come close.
I lathered the sunblock on myself, quickly fixed the fine strays of my hair in the ponytail then checked my traffic apps for the quickest, safest route.
This was the nicest looking I got. No makeup, no jewelry. Single mom and now raising my son in the same home where I’d been raised with my five little sisters and countless cousins who’d come to stay with us, including Phoenix Steel, the rock star, who was the closest thing I had to a friend these days.
I heard my son rumbling and pacing, so I rushed out of my bedroom and grabbed the car keys on my dresser. My phone rang. Stephanie, my sister, who had defied our sisterly bond to never marry, now lived with her husband-to-be. I answered fast and said, “I can’t believe you’re living in London now.”
She laughed. “Georgiana, you have to take Jeremy and fly over. We have room in our flat.”
The cheer in her voice couldn’t be replicated. I’d never have that, not that I needed more. Being a mom was great and, once in a while, we had wonderful calm in the house. I laughed as I said, “You already sound European. I’ll miss seeing you, but I’m so happy for you.”
“Remember that trip the six of us all took to New York?” She asked.
I cringed at the memory. Stephanie and Indigo had spent half an hour talking me off a bench in Central Park as I was overwhelmed with all the people moving.
In Pittsburgh, I loved the windy back roads with no traffic to navigate over Manhattan and being lost in a sea of people. “Yeah?”
“London’s even worse, which is why we’re getting a house in the country. When you come for the wedding, we can all stay together.”
Go to London. I worked at a superstore filling online orders. My savings from the inheritance had all gone to Jeremy. Phoenix, my sisters, and a few cousins all pooled together funds for me when I had to quit my financial job after giving birth, but that money was for Jeremy’s college and his future.
And, the superstore had insurance, which was good, as Jeremy was a kid and might need medical care. Doctor bills could wipe out every dime faster than a recession.
“I know none of us wanted to marry. I was the different one, but being in love is a good thing.”
Our mom had always tried to hide herself as the eternal wallflower who hated going outside, and once our father had died, she'd withered away like she needed the oxygen only our father provided. I’d not be that crazy.
“I want love…for Jeremy.”
