Are You Listening?

When Taylor entered the room, I immediately got swept up into a giant hug. He always liked to tease me because I only stood about five foot two and he was almost six foot. But it was worth all the teasing in the world to have him hug me like that again. When he set me back on the floor and I went to hug Ike, I noticed the wedding ring. “And what is this?!” I asked playfully, holding Isaac’s hand up in front of his face.

“Guilty. I’m married now. Her name is Nikki and she’s amazing. We’re expecting our first child later this year,” Isaac said sweetly. I could see by the light in his eyes that he was truly happy. And I was so ecstatic for him that I couldn’t help but hug him again. He was always choosing the wrong women when we were kids and he got hurt a lot.

“Well I demand to meet her!” I smiled. “Any girl who has you this happy needs to be given a pat on the back.”

“Me? Talk about Taylor! He’s been married five years and has three kids already!” Ike pointed to his younger brother with a grin.

“THREE?!” Ann asked with shock. “You look awfully young to have three kids.”

“I’m twenty four years old…” Tay replied quietly.

“What are their names?” Renee asked. She always perked up when someone talked about their kids.
I knew she’d be a great mom someday, and she already made an excellent teacher.

“Ezra is my oldest- he’s almost five. Penny is two and River is one.”

My mind was spinning. Tay had three babies. And Isaac was married, waiting on his first. Wow. “Well, again, I must meet the clan,” I said, cutting up some more fruit. “We should have a barbecue while you guys are home!”

“Hey that sounds like a great idea,” Renee said, opening a bottle of wine.

“Yeah, we could do that. I’ll bring Natalie and the kids. Isaac can bring Nikki and Zac can bring Kate.
You can invite your friends, your husband, whoever…” Taylor interjected excitedly.

“You have to excuse Tay- he gets a boner at every opportunity he has to show off his family,” Zac whispered to me, popping a strawberry in his mouth. I couldn’t focus on anything he was saying because I was stuck on ‘Zac can bring Kate.’ The words repeated like the lyrics to a bad song in my head. “Hey, you ok?”

“Who’s Kate?”

“What?”

“Who is Kate, Zac?”

“My uh…” he looked down at his fingers and began picking at his cuticles. I knew then he was nervous- he always messed with his nails when he was anxious. “She’s my wife Chey.”

I suddenly felt light-headed and the room began to spin. “Oh I see.”

“You ok?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” I lied. “Just don’t know why you never mentioned her. I mean we talked on the phone at least once a month for the past eight years and I even saw you two different years around Christmas a-a-and you never told m-me…” I rambled.

“That’s just the kind of news you give people in person…” he said softly. I felt like an idiot. My face was growing warm and I felt tears threaten to leave the corners of my eyes. I prayed he wouldn’t notice as I choked back the sobs with all my might. “Hey…” he whispered, pulling me in for a hug. Too late. “I’m sorry I didn’t invite you to the wedding; it’s just that it was a small ceremony and I didn’t get real involved in planning that stuff, yanno?” THAT is what he thought I was upset about? Whew!

“Looks like you’ll just have to make it up to me then,” I joked, pulling away from him. He smiled and pulled me in for a half hug. I faked the most convincing smile I could manage before grabbing food to bring my guests in the other room.

~*~

The night went well overall with my new friends talking excitedly to my old ones. I smiled broadly when Taylor called to tell his kids good night. “Ok, so I wasn’t going to say anything, but I have to…” Renee said shyly. “I LOVE your music! We all do! Honestly we didn’t believe Chey when she said she knew Hanson.”

“Not like it’s a privilege or anything,” Isaac remarked with a grin. “We’re just as big of idiots as we always were.”

“Speaking of you guys being idiots,” I interjected with a smirk, “remember when you guys went as the Blues Brothers for Halloween? And Tay, you wanted to be one too so you asked me to be Jake for you?”

His blue eyes twinkled with laughter. “I had almost forgotten about that.”

“Oh remember the first jello balloon battle we had?” Ike asked with enthusiasm. “Your mom was so pissed when she had to clean up the kitchen.”

“And the dining room,” added Zac.

“And the hallway,” I laughed. “Almost as bad as the time we tried to bath your cat and Zac said to make it dry faster, it should run around so he attached a cherry bomb to its tail!”

“Oh my God!” Randi gasped. “That’s horrible!”

“Yeah that one was pretty bad,” I agreed. “God I hope your kids aren’t as bad as you guys!”

“On that note, I should probably head back,” Taylor said with a stretch. “I like spending as much time as I can with them. Touring, recording… it takes a lot of their time and my energy.” He stood and Isaac followed. “But I love ya kiddo. I’ll call you tomorrow about that cookout.” I stood up and got one of my famous Taylor hugs. I could understand why his kids wanted him home- I was only a friend and I didn’t want to let go.

“I will probably call you too. I know I can ask my brother for details but it gives me an excuse to talk to you kiddo,” Isaac said, giving me a tight squeeze and rubbing my head.

“I’m not THAT much younger than you guys ya know!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah well, you must like it because you never complained before,” Tay called, shutting the door behind him. I realized he was right. I acted like I hated being called ‘kiddo’ but the Hanson clan were the only ones who called me that so it was special in its own way.