I leaned over to pet George. “Such a good boy. Tonight, when we leave, we’ll work on sitting. Get prepared for sit, George.”
And then a miracle happened. Like that, George sat. I stood and clapped my hands in excitement. “Oh my gosh! Kurt! Did you see? He sat! He sat! You’re like the smartest dog ever, George! Wait until you learn to lie down!”
George lay down and looked up at me. I kneeled in front of him, stunned. “George! That’s amazing. I’m like a super dog parent! Kurt, did you see it?”
“Yeah, he’s a smart dog.” Kurt gave him a pat.
“He needs a treat. Lots and lots of treats.”
I went to the cabinet I’d organized for George’s food and pulled out a rawhide. “Come get your tre
at, buddy.”
Like a little rabbit, George jumped to me and took the bone. This was amazing. He’d learned so fast. With a happy smile, I sat back down in front of my calendar.
Kurt gave me a kiss. “What are you doing? This looks like a rainbow threw up on it.”
“You’re so funny, Mr. Rockstar. So funny. Maybe you should stop singing and be a comedian.” Before Kurt had a chance to respond, I continued. “I’ve been looking over the schedule. I need to see the doctor at twelve weeks and sixteen weeks in Orlando. Those times almost coincide with our weekends off, but one of those weekends you have plans with the guys.”
“I’m not missing the appointments. Cancel the plans with them.”
I looked at Kurt with my insides turned to mush. His face seemed more relaxed. Something had changed. “The run looks like it did you good. You seem less…I don’t know, stressed.”
He sat at the table with a towel and wiped the sweat from his face. “I am. I’m not going to say that being a father isn’t still freaking me out, but we’re going to do this together. Seeing my mom excited helped me see that this baby is going to bring joy. I know that sounds corny as shit.”
“No, it doesn’t. I was thinking the same thing this morning. It helped seeing your mom so excited.” I glanced at the calendar again. “I’m going to start showing around here. I want to tell Cameron and Knoah before anyone else finds out.”
There was so much to do. Kurt pointed to a Saturday. “We could take my jet to Orlando here. Visit Knoah and Cameron. Then go to your appointment on Monday. We’d fly out Tuesday morning and meet the bus at the next location. I had planned to do that anyway.”
I checked the schedule. “That’s not listed here.”
“No, it’s not. I hadn’t planned on saying anything.” A somber expression fell over his face while he appeared to debate saying anything further.
No pushing.
I penciled in a few notes. “I’ll make the arrangements. Any thoughts on how you want to handle the announcement? At some point, people will notice me carrying a basketball under my shirt.”
“Why aren’t you asking about my plans?”
I put the pencil down and turned to Kurt. “Just because we’re together and having a baby doesn’t mean that you have to tell me everything. I trust you. At some point, if you feel comfortable talking to me about it, you will. I think in some ways we know more about each other than probably anyone else. But when you’ve kept barriers up for so long, it takes time to break them down.”
Kurt took a deep breath as I continued. “For instance, Knoah and I were roommates for two years and I had no idea she’d been married, lost a husband and a baby, or…” I held up my index finger. “Knew you. I mean, I played your music all the time, and she said nothing. I think she owes me makeup cupcakes for that. Oh man, mint chocolate chip cupcakes sound so amazing right now.” I gasped and pointed at his face. “This baby is taking over me! It’s your fault! I forgot something, and now I want mint chocolate chip cupcakes!”
Kurt closed his eyes and shook his head. “Do you realize you went from insightful to craving to blaming me in the span of three sentences?”
“Yes! It’s my pregnancy brain! Gah!” I snorted. “But I seriously want those cupcakes.”
“I’ll make a call.”
“You are the best baby daddy ever! So…back to the announcement. How do you want to do it? You said you wanted to stay in control of it as much as possible.”
Conspiracy theories were not something the band liked for their image. And pregnancies brought out the nasty ones quickly.
“I think we need to do a photo shoot. Have it published in a magazine with an exclusive interview with us. Show pictures of us together. A statement alone is only going to cause rumors to fly. What do you think?”
Whoa. This seemed a little more intense than I’d expected. “What kind of photo shoot?” I asked skeptically.
“I don’t know. Some sweet shit. Just us being natural. Absolutely not you holding a baseball bat and going after the family jewels.”