“What’s up?” she asked as she entered the cluttered room, stepping over a pile of Lego just inside the doorway.
“Want my shark pjs,” said Jesse, his hazel eyes wet with tears.
“They’re in the laundry. They’re not clean yet,” replied Lori calmly as she smiled at the sight of her young son, who was standing on a box in front of the chest of drawers in his underpants. “Let’s find the dolphin ones instead.”
“Ok, Mommy,” he relented with another yawn. “Want to go back to see the sharks and the dolphins.”
“Back to the aquarium?”
The little boy nodded as a tear slid down his cheek, “Daddy wasn’t angry that day.”
“Daddy isn’t angry with you, Jess,” reassured Lori as she fetched his pyjamas from the drawer. “I’m not sure why he’s angry but I do know it’s not your fault.”
Her son looked at her, his eyes brimming with tears.
“Come on, Jess,” said Lori, lifting him into her arms and hugging him close. “No tears. Let’s get those pjs on then you can snuggle in bed with your toy sharks and dolphins.”
“All of them?”
“As many as you like,” promised Lori, desperate to keep him calm. “And tomorrow we can go down to the beach and watch for the dolphins after Melody comes home from school.”
“It’s a date, Mommy,” he said sleepily.
By the time Lori got Jesse settled in bed, happily surrounded by plastic and plush sea creatures, his earlier tears were gone. Closing his door over, she headed down the hall to Melody’s room. The door was still closed tight.
“Hey, Miss M, are you ready for bed?” asked Lori warmly as she opened the door.
Her daughter was sitting on her bed practising her guitar exercises. From the red blotches on her tanned cheeks, the little girl had been crying.
“You ok?”
Melody shook her head.
“What’s wrong?” Lori sat on the edge of the bed and placed her hand on her daughter’s shoulder.
“Daddy scared me when he yelled,” said Melody quietly. “Daddy never yells at us like that. Never yells at me like that.”
“Angel, he didn’t mean to scare you,” assured Lori warmly. “I don’t know why he’s mad at something but I do know he’s not mad at you or Jesse. Now, time to stop playing and to get into bed.”
Carefully, the little girl climbed off the bed, placed her precious guitar on its stand in the corner then climbed back onto the bed beside her mother.
“Mommy,” she began seriously. “I think I know why Daddy’s mad.”
“And why’s that?” asked Lori as she pulled back the sheet to allow Melody to slip into bed.
“He saw that lady wearing a shirt like his,” said Melody innocently.
“What lady?” quizzed Lori, totally confused as to who Jake could have seen in the restaurant.
“The lady teacher. The lady that was at the show for Uncle Rich,” explained Melody seriously.
“Nicole?”
Melody nodded.
“When did you see her?”
Snuggling down, Melody said, “She was at the pizza place. I saw her staring at us. She was wearing the same shirt as Daddy had on at the show. Daddy saw her too. That was when he said we needed to go.”
Trying to make sense of what her daughter was saying, Lori said, “That wouldn’t make your daddy angry. It has to be something else. Something to do with the band or the album.”
“You’re wrong, Mommy,” contradicted Melody quietly. “He got mad when he saw her watching us eating our ice creams.”
“If you say so,” dismissed Lori with a smile. “Now, time you were asleep. You need to be up early for school tomorrow. Oh, I promised your brother we’d go down onto the beach after school to watch the dolphins.”
“Can I play in the ocean?”
“We’ll all play in the ocean,” promised Lori. “Now, night night, angel. Sweet dreams.”
Back out in the hallway, Lori felt a chill rattle down her spine. She still wasn’t sure what had happened back at the restaurant but something told her that Melody had innocently hit the nail on the head. Suddenly, Maddy’s warning about Nicole flashed through her mind. Was the music teacher stalking Jake?
Down in the basement, Jake sat at the desk with his head in his hands, his long blonde hair hiding his face and his tear-filled eyes. The look of fear in his kids’ faces as he’d yelled at them was haunting him almost as much as the image of Nicole sitting in the restaurant wearing his missing vest tee. How had she managed to get her hands on his shirt? Casting his mind back to the memorial show, he recalled taking his shirt off as he’d entered the dressing room just before he took his post-show shower. He’d dropped it on the table where the bottles of water had been sitting. Had Nicole been in the dressing room? He couldn’t remember. He knew she’d been at the side of the stage so following them to the dressing room would have been easy. She must have taken the shirt while he took his shower.
Upstairs, he could hear Lori moving about. He heard her pull her chair out from the desk and deduced that she’d decided to work late too. Damn! How was he going to explain his behaviour to her? If only he hadn’t yelled at the kids….
With a heavy heart, Jake lifted his Mz Hyde custom guitar from its stand and began to play, picking out a slow but delicately sad melody.
It was after two in the morning before he set his guitar back on its stand. That initial spur of the moment melody had sparked a new song with a slightly oriental vibe to it. Focussing on writing and developing the new piece of music had gradually soothed his soul. Praying that Lori
