Page 5 of My Song for You
“He can hear music, but the sound is horribly distorted. We turned the implant off while you guys played.” This wasn’t always the situation for someone with an implant, but like everything else, the results differed from person to person.
“How come you didn’t come over to say hi?”
Very good question. “I just figured you were busy with your fans.” In reality, I had been careful to make sure Jared wasn’t aware we were at the event. For the same reasons I would’ve done anything to avoid seeing him here now.
“We have a party today,” Logan said. “You come?”
The alarms went off again, drowned out by the need to be the ideal mom to a deaf boy with a cochlear implant.
“The correct sentence is ‘We are having a party today. Would you like to come?’ ” I said to Logan.
“Sounds good to me,” Jared replied. “What time and where?” He flashed his dimples, and my heart temporarily stuttered to a stop. Father and son were definitely going to kill me if given a chance.
“No, no. I was just telling Logan so he could repeat the correct sentence. It’s the only way he’ll learn.”
“But Jared will come, right?” Logan looked at Jared with those puppy-dog eyes no mere human could say no to, ignoring me and that he was supposed to repeat the sentence correctly.
I inwardly sighed and gave up the exercise for now. I had something more urgent to deal with. “I’m sure Jared has more important things to do than come to Mrs. Rogers’s birthday party.” To Jared, I said, “She’s our neighbor. She looks after Logan while I’m at work. It’s not a big deal. Just Mrs. Rogers, Logan, and me.” Nothing like those big celebrity parties he was used to. The parties he attended with his on-again, off-again supermodel girlfriend.
“She’s nice,” Logan said, referring to Mrs. Rogers. “You like her.”
Jared unfolded himself to his full height. He was a good few inches taller than me, and I wasn’t short by any stretch of the imagination. “Well, if you like her, then I know I will. Tell me the when and where and I’ll be there.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I bit out. “I’m sure you’re busy.”With groupies. With your band. With anything that doesn’t involve me and your son.
“As it is, I’m available. I just finished up with a band event for a local radio station.”
“It’s going to be boring, Jared. It’s not one of your rock-star parties. You won’t have fun at all. It’s just gonna be pizza and birthday cake.”
His mouth did that annoying trick of sliding up to one side. Damn sexy smile. “Rock-star parties are overrated. And I could go for some pizza and birthday cake.”
“And balloons,” Logan added. “Don’t forget balloons.” He didn’t bother to sign that, and I didn’t push it. As much as I didn’t want him to forget he was part of the deaf community, some days it was easier just pretending that plan didn’t exist.
“I won’t forget,” I said. “I promise.” To Jared I added, “I can guarantee you’ll be bored. I’m sure there’s a party you’d much rather hang out at. Maybe with a few celebrities.” I nodded with finality. Problem solved.
That damn sexy smile was still there. As were the damn sexy dimples. The guy wasn’t playing fair. He checked something on his phone. “Nope, no rock-star parties with celebrities on today’s calendar. So I’m definitely free.”
My traitorous nephew whooped at that news.
“Seriously, why do you want to do this?” I asked, somehow not stomping my foot at how stubborn he was being. Father was definitely like son. Logan could be pretty stubborn too.
“Because I haven’t seen you in something like five years. I thought we could catch up. Maybe give me a break from all these crazy rock-star parties I’ve been attending.” He winked at me.
I had no idea what it was about that wink, but combined with the dimples, it was lethal. If I hadn’t been in full-out panic mode, my panties would have dampened with need.
Okay, maybe there was a little dampening going on, but he didn’t need to know that. A dampening you could blame on the long drought—aka my lack of a sex life.
“What’s the sign for balloon?” Jared asked Logan.
Despite my current freak-out mode, I couldn’t help but smile. I’d always believed Jared would’ve someday been a great father. My sister, Alexis, Logan’s biological mother, had disagreed. Even before Jared formed Pushing Limits with Nolan Kincaid, Alexis predicted he would one day make it big. So far it looked like her prediction was coming true. There was already speculation that their second album, which was due out soon, would outdo their debut album on the charts.
But Alexis had been positive that once Jared hit it big, he would end up regretting Logan. She’d feared that his son would be nothing more than an inconvenience to him, especially since Logan had been the result of a one-time fling years after they had broken up. They hadn’t been in love. They weren’t even friends at that point. She had wanted so much more for Logan, more than what she’d felt Jared could give him, regardless of whether his band hit it big or not. She wanted her son to grow up loved and appreciated. She wanted her son to grow up as part of a loving family, complete with the white picket fence and a father with a white-collar job. She wanted the same thing for her son that we had growing up.
That might’ve been all true, but the man standing before me wasn’t acting like Logan was an inconvenience. Quite the opposite. But would he still feel that way if he found out the truth? Or would Alexis’s predictions come true? Pushing Limits was a favorite when it came to the media, and not always in a good way. My dead sister’s fears were justified when it came to what the media would do if they discovered Jared had a son. A son who was now deaf.
Logan would never get to be just a normal kid if that happened.
Logan proudly demonstrated the sign for balloon, which involved miming inflating one. Jared repeated it and was rewarded with a grin from the four-year-old. Warmth filled me at the bonding between father and son. I doused it with icy water. I had to end things between them before Logan got hurt. And I knew he would be. There was no way to avoid it.
