Page 33 of Baby Blue
Blue wantedto leave poor Anne alone the next morning, but then he thought of something and ran across the yard to her house. Fifteen minutes later, she was watching Indigo and he was headed to the fire station with her car. The firefighters put a car seat in it for him and he drove back, proud that he’d thought to do that so she’d have a seat if she was watching the baby and wanted to take her somewhere.
There was a big surprise for him when he got back. Anne had helped the kids get the grill started and they were grilling hot dogs and hamburgers. “You’re going to eat with us, right?” she asked when he came to collect the baby.
That stunned him. “Um, well, I don’t want to impose.”
“Impose? I just invited you!” Anne said, laughing. “I mean, if you’ve got something else to do…”
“No! No, nothing. Yeah, sure! That sounds like fun.” In less than an hour, they were sitting at the rickety picnic table in Anne’s back yard, eating dogs and burgers and chips, laughing and talking and picking on each other. He helped them clean up and thanked them again before taking the baby and heading back to his house.
Two hours later, he was tuning his bass at the club, waiting for the other guys to show. Another man stepped up on the stage and picked up Devon’s guitar, and Blue barked out, “Hey, man, not cool! That belongs to somebody else!”
The man turned and, to his surprise, it was Devon! But it was a different Devon. His hair was trimmed neatly and so was his beard. He had on a brand-new pair of jeans, a pair of nice western boots, and a very, very cool tee that was also obviouslybrand new. Emblazoned across it were the words, “I’m with the band,” and it had the image of a Stratocaster Fleet in the background. “Hey!” Devon said, laughing.
“Wow. I didn’t recognize you. Man, you clean up good!” Blue said, laughing.
“Yeah. My old lady got all over me for looking like a bum,” Devon said, plugging in his amp.
Blue shook his head, still laughing. “Well, I guess I’ll look like a bum forever. I can’t even afford a haircut.”
“Oh, it didn’t cost much. I got it all done at the beauty school. They don’t charge much of anything and they need the practice,” Devon told him.
Beauty school. That could be interesting! Maybe he’d even meet a cute hairdresser, somebody he could go out with a few times, maybe even a fuck buddy. Then he thought about Indigo and realized his free-wheeling days were probably a thing of the past. But yeah, a haircut would be great. “Can you give me the number?”
“Sure!” Devon rooted in his pocket for his phone, then pulled it out and showed it to Blue, who put the same number in his phone. “And they have classes in the evenings too, so you wouldn’t have to take time off from work.”
“That’s awesome! Thanks for telling me. I like the boots too,” Blue said, pointing at them.
“Yeah? Those were a birthday present. Pretty nice, huh?” Devon said, holding out a foot for Blue to see.
“Very nice.”Lucky guy.Blue couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a birthday gift, or even a Christmas gift, for that matter. Nobody knew when his birthday was and nobody cared either. But someday Indigo would be older. Maybe Anne or Polly could take her to the store then, help her pick out something small. He’d give her the money for it. But it would be so great to have something that was a surprise, something that someone he lovedhad given him, even if he had to pay for it himself. It was like the baby shower. He’d never been so thrilled in his life, and his eyes grew a little misty as he thought about it.
When he called at a little after eight to check on Indigo, there was no answer and he almost panicked. Then he told himself there was no need?she was fine with Anne and the kids.
The call at a little after nine was answered with, “Hello?”
“Hey! Called earlier and got no answer. Is she okay?”
“Oh, yeah! We were at the store and I didn’t hear my phone ring. Sorry,” Anne said, breathless.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Just carrying groceries in. Is it going okay at the club?”
Blue chuckled. “Yeah. Same boozers wanting the same old songs. Pretty much like always.”
“Good. Well, have fun and…”
“Not fun. This is work to me until I get to play something original that I’ve written. And that’s after it’s late and nobody is paying any attention anymore,” he told her.
“You write songs?”
“Yep.”
“Would you play me one sometime?”
Blue blushed on his end of the phone. “Um, yeah, sure, I guess.”
“Great! I’d like that. So don’t worry about her. I’ve got to get this stuff inside. See you in a bit.”
