That earned him a murderous glare and I was almost inclined to sucker punch him in the gut so he’d at least be feeling the same as me, but I decided to spare him. He seemed like he was in a really good mood and there was no reason to bring him down as well. I released a long drawn-out sigh, “I’m not for sure.” Placing my hands on my hips, “But I need to come up with something fast, I already miss her. She belongs here with me, with her family.”
“Speaking of belonging here, that’s what I initially called to tell you. Remember old man Baxtor?”
I looked at him quizzically, “The only lawyer in town?”
“That’s the one. Well he wanted to sell his law firm and retire, that’s the business I had while I was up here for the reunion. You are now looking at the sole owner and operator of Baxtor’s Law Office. I’m here to stay!”
This was definitely a turning of events and I couldn’t be more happy or proud of my best friend. Even in my state of emotional duress I couldn’t contain the smile that broke out across my face as I pulled him in for a hug and clapped him on his back.
“Congratulations, man! That is great news. Norah will be excited that her Uncle Dean will be sticking around.” We pulled away from our bro hugs and he arched a brow at me. I chuckled, “Yeah, well I can’t deny it, I’m pretty excited too.”
Dean clapped me on the back and guided me inside the house through the open garage and said, “Now, let’s figure out how you’re going to get your girl.”
Chapter 16
Eden
Three Weeks Later
Things were back to normal, for the most part. Only it was as if I was just going through the motions of life, completely void of any and all emotions, because it seemed as if my well of tears had run dry. I went to work and performed my job almost on full autopilot, came home, slept when I could turn my mind off and did the same thing over again the next day.
After I initially returned home, I cried my eyes out and had sobs torturing my entire body for an entire day, but after that I couldn’t will myself to shed another single tear. And it wasn’t for my lack of trying. I hadn’t heard from Baylor at all for the twenty-one days after my abrupt departure. I wanted to wallow in my self-pity and keep on force-feeding myself insane amounts of ice cream, but true to Julia fashion she put her foot down and quickly squashed any desire to remain in bed for days on end.
“You’re going to have to suck it up buttercup and pull up those ugly ass granny panties.” She raised a brow at my dirty laundry pile that had begun ascending up the wall, “And for Pete’s sake do some laundry.” She jutted out her hip and continued on with her rant, “At least you’re showering, because if not I wouldn’t dare come within a three mile radius.”
“And what, miss out on this nice little uneventful visit from you? Not in a million years,” I retorted as a small giggle escaped my throat. No matter how hard I tried to fight it she always had a way to make me laugh.
I was sitting at my desk with my headphones on, fiddling with my bracelet that I hadn’t dared to remove from my wrist, and stared off into space wondering what Monday morning would bring. Having spent the entire weekend washing, folding, and putting away every last piece of dirty laundry that had accumulated in my laundry basket and overflowed to the floor and cleaning my house from top to bottom I was still in need of recovery. So a nice relaxing day would certainly be appreciated.
So far it had been the exact opposite of a relaxing, easy going show; the phone lines were already ringing off the hook and it wasn’t even seven a.m. Apparently teeny boppers and fan girls alike got wind that we were going to be giving away a pair of tickets to see Two East, one of the biggest boy bands of the past couple years, and thought that they would just continuously redial the station’s number, thus clogging up our phone lines.
For every ten phone calls I answered, nine of them were teenagers begging and pleading for the tickets; why they weren’t getting ready for school I didn’t know. I was almost near the point of shouting out on air that Blaine would be in the parking lot personally giving them away just to give him a little taste of his own medicine. Let’s put him in the spotlight and see how he liked it. The show of course would have to be placed on hold because there was no absolute way that I would miss him being trampled down to the ground just for the possible chance at a ticket.
The remaining one phone call would be a random proposal to me. The stream of proposals had for the most part dwindled down since my return, but every now and again we would get the one inconsiderate fellow who thought he was the bee’s knees and had an ego to prove it, who would call in with his cocky attitude and demand my hand. I was over it, plain and simple.
Honestly, I was beyond ready to release a whole spiel about finally putting an end to the nonsense, but apparently I was the only one not amused. The producer himself said, and I quote, “This shit is quality entertainment.” So there you had it, my single life was useful for amusing radio, who would’ve thought.
I would bet if the numerous mundane proposals were spouted off to them they’d quickly be changing their tunes. So for the moment I had to bite my tongue and go with the flow, biding my time until men decided that they were done. I knew I was giving the entire male species a little too much credit by believing that they would just up and quit on their own accords.
“Eden, how about we take the next call on the air…” Blaine chuckled, his voice laced with amusement. I was nervous about taking a call live without the option to edit anything out; it wasn’t a wise decision but I guessed things could definitely get a little more interesting.
Rolling my eyes in his direction as my way of a reply, I muttered a few expletives under my breath for good measure. Pressing one of the numerous nonstop blinking phone lines, I connected it to my headphones. “Hey, you’ve got Blaine and Eden in the morning, who’s this?” I answered with my upbeat tone even though I was cringing inside and praying like crazy that the call wanted Two East tickets instead of the alternative, me.
“Oh my God!” A young girl screeched on the other end of the line. I was never so relieved to hear a teenage girl’s voice in all my life. I could have done without the screaming hysterics, but it came with the territory. “This is Meagan! Did I win? Oh my God, this is the best day of my entire life!”
Blaine chuckled upon hearing her reaction, “You did indeed win two tickets to see Two East next Saturday, Meagan! So what are you up to this morning?”
“AHHHHH!!!” she screamed again, this time a few decibels higher than before. “I was supposed to be getting ready for school, but I spent my time trying to get through, which was SO worth it! Even though now I’m going to school in my pajamas. Anything for Two East. AHHH!” I looked up to Blaine with extra wide eyes and made a cutting motion across my throat, trying to convey to him to get her the hell off the air while people still had their hearing.
“Ok, well, Meagan, hang on the line while I get your info and just try to have a good day at school, I know that’ll be hard for you.”
I quickly put the line on hold and began speaking in a normal tone to our audience, at least those still with us after all that excitement, and allowing Blaine to handle the rest of that phone call. Just as a little payback to him, I smiled brightly in his direction before I began speaking, “Wow, how about that? She was full of all kinds of excitement. Well, how about we go ahead and play a few songs, but don’t worry, if you didn’t get your chance to win a pair of tickets to Two East, we will have another chance tomorrow morning right here on 98.9 Nashville’s Powerhouse!” I turned off my microphone and quickly began playing the next song that was up in the queue which just so happened to be “Love Story” by Taylor Swift.