Stephanie got more and more insistent about us figuring out what we wanted to do as far as how many of us would be traveling for the Americas tour. Time was running short for her to make the arrangements and get the necessary paperwork done.
There was no obvious right answer, and it was a source of much discussion amongst the three of us. Even Angela’s parents weighed in on it, voicing their opinion that the tour should be canceled since Emmy was going to really show before too long.
Emmy absolutely wasn’t having that, though, so that wasn’t on the table. The questions were whether Angela goes with Emmy, and whether I do, too. With five stops in Latin America and ten in North America (not counting the final stop here at home in Los Angeles), it was nearly three months on the road. This would put Angela just a month shy of popping, and Emmy six and a half months into her pregnancy.
Honestly, my worries weren’t actually about their health, but instead their comfort. All that travel and hotel living would be tough on anybody, but just that much more difficult for two pregnant women. That said, Emmy was committed and Angela and I wanted to honor that, so our problem was how to make things easier for Emmy without putting too much strain on Angela.
I had too many demands on my time to be able to travel with Emmy for the entire South American leg, as I’d more or less proven to myself that it was impossible for me to do what I needed to out on the road. As much as I hated to do it, I really had to remain in California at least until the end of the term.
At one point Mamá even suggested that she could travel with Emmy and Angela to take care of them, but that seemed like too much of an imposition, so the idea was quickly shelved.
Ultimately we all decided that Angela would go with Emmy for at least the Latin America part of the tour, and then we’d see how she was doing. The tour dates in the US and Canada were closer together since travel would be much simpler, and really, if it came down to it, we could fly in for each show and spend the intervening days at home in LA or Manhattan for the eastern half.
I planned to fly down for the Bogotá show with the idea that we all could spend family time in Cartagena. That also cut the time we’d be separated down to two and a half weeks, which was doable.
One suggestion of mine that Angela and Emmy voted down was to hire a nurse to travel along with them. The two were unified in their insistence that they didn’t want a stranger tagging along. Angela was certain that she would be fine, and since Spanish was her native language, she’d be perfectly able to navigate any issues that might arise (even in Brazil, where they don’t actually speak Spanish).
We had a final Wednesday night dinner before the Castros had to leave to go back to Colombia, and a few days later, Angela and Emmy were going to take off for Santiago. My instinct would have been to keep it low-key, but Emmy and Angela wanted to invite a ton of people, so that’s what we did.
Angela and Mamá worked their asses off to make dinner for the twenty people we expected, but the two seemed to enjoy burying themselves in the task. All I know is that all day Tuesday and Wednesday the house smelled amazing, and every time I tried to sneak a taste I got my hand swatted for my efforts. Mamá did take pity on me and gave me a couple of sweet little cheesy cornbread rolls, which were just enough to really get my appetite going. Seeing the pitiful look on my face, Angela sneaked me an arepa when her mom wasn’t looking, but we both knew she knew.
Andy and Jenna were the first to arrive, as usual. I really appreciated that they always came early to help get things ready, even if there was never all that much for them to do. It’s the thought that counts, after all.
“Dang, it smells good in here!” Andy said as he and Jenna entered the kitchen area, carrying grocery bags full of Tupperware containers.
“It always smells good in this house,” Jenna said. “But usually it’s roses it smells like.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Andy said, thinking about it. “It does always smell like roses.”
“There have been flowers delivered every day while we have been here,” Papá said, now that he was thinking about it.
“Lee has flowers delivered every day, Papí,” Angela told him. “Every day.”
“Seriously? Roses delivered every single day?” Jenna asked.
“Three hundred sixty-five days a year,” Angela confirmed.
Turning to Andy, Jenna poked him in the chest. “Time to step up your game, buddy,” she said.
“Have I told you how beautiful you look today?” he asked, putting his hands on her hips and pulling her in close for a kiss.
“Better,” Jenna admitted after they broke the kiss.
Mamá said something in Spanish that sounded like approval for Andy’s quick recovery and Angela laughed.
Mamá said something about Papá being “muy romantico todavia,” getting a smile from Angela.
Emmy replied in Spanish and both Mamá and Angela laughed.
“There they go, being bilingual again,” Jenna said, rolling her eyes. “It’s like a thing with you guys!”
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After dinner, which everybody agreed was excellent, everybody moved to the living room. we opened the big sliding doors to the deck, but turned the heaters on out there since the evening was a bit cool- typical for the time of year.
Darius, leaning back on the couch, patted his belly. “That was a damned fine dinner, Mrs Castro,” he said to Mamá. “Damned fine indeed. It’s a good thing it’s the off-season and training camp is still a month away. It’s gonna take me that long to recover from eatin’ so much tonight.”
“Oh, God, yes,” Solange said. “It’s going to be back to the diet tomorrow for me,” she agreed, raising a few eyebrows, since she was rail-thin already. They say that the camera adds ten pounds, which in her case was necessary.
“I am very happy that you enjoyed it so much,” Mamá said, relaxing for the first time in two days. “It is good to make food for family and friends.”
Papá rested his arm on her shoulders and gave her a little hug, saying something quiet in Spanish, which earned him a smile from his wife.
“Is it play time?” Jackson asked Emmy and Lee, who both agreed that it was getting to be that time, alright. They disappeared for a few minutes, and when Teddy Bear asked where they had gone, Angela said that they went the studio to get their instruments.
“They’re going to play? For us?” Linda, Geoff’s wife asked.
“You guys need to come over for more Wednesday night dinners,” Angela told her. “They always play a few songs.”
“They do it out on tour, too,” Stephanie said. “You’d think they’d get tired of playing music so much, but…” she said with a shrug.
“This is the best, man,” Darius said to Andy. “This is livin’ at its best.”
The three members of The Downfall played something like six songs that night, with Emmy playing that old steel guitar slide-style, Jackson on harmonica and Lee using that wooden box for a drum again. Emmy and Jackson traded off singing duties, only doing one song as a duet. The two memorable tunes were when they played that old ZZ Top song ‘Dust My Broom’, with Emmy playing an extended slide guitar solo in the middle. Jackson sang the other memorable tune, one I’d never heard before. He was singing a love song about a cowboy or something.
The line that really stuck out was when Jackson sang, “Sister, don’t you understand? He’s all I ever wanted in a man,” with such a sweet tenderness it brought tears to my eyes. I made a mental note to tell them they really needed to record that song- it was heartbreaking in its beauty.
After the music finished, Angela went with Linda and her girls to swim in the big pool for a while. A few others went with them- Mamá and Cecy, and Jenna and Andy. Emmy went with them, and so did Solange.
The rest of us wandered out onto the deck, and I mixed up drinks for anybody that wanted them. While I was tending the bar, Stephanie sat at one of the bar stools to talk.
“Hey, babe, how are you doing these days? We didn’t get to spend much time together on tour,” she asked, sipping the cosmopolitan I’d just poured her.
“Good,” I said. “Happy to be home, bummed the girls are going to be gone for a month and a half,” I replied.
“Yeah, I’m gonna miss Stephen,” she said, glancing over at the guy in question. He was with Darius and Teddy Bear, who was saying something using grand gesture to illustrate his point. “At least you’re gonna come down to Colombia, right?”
“We’re gonna spend a few days on either side of the show in Cartagena, visiting the in-laws,” I agreed.
“How do you think that’s going to go?”
“Honestly, I haven’t a clue. Mamá and Papá say that everybody is going to love us and not be concerned that we’re lesbians in a threesome, but…” I said with a shrug.
“It sure looks like Angela’s parents are cool with it,” Geoff said, waiting for his Negroni.
“Yeah, they’re pretty open-minded like that,” I agreed.
“If they’ve got you calling ‘em Mom and Dad, I’d say that they’ve accepted you as their daughter-in-law. My mom still, well, ‘hates’ is a strong word, but maybe ‘still doesn’t approve of’ Linda is a better way of phrasing it. But she loves the girls, so…” Geoff said with a ‘what can you do?’ expression.
“My mom really likes Stephen. But then, he’s her ideal for a husband for me. Good-looking, has a great job making good money, and comes from a good family. All the necessary ingredients,” she said, shaking her head.
“Stephen’s a good guy,” I said.
“Yeah, he is,” Stephanie agreed. “But that part hardly plays into Mom’s equations.”
“This is from the woman whose marriage lasted what, five years? Something like that?” I said.
“Yeah, my folks split up when I was five,” Stephanie agreed. “Dad just never could measure up, I guess.”
“Hey! Why so serious?” Teddy Bear demanded as he walked up to the bar. “You all look so… so serious! This is a party with good friends, great food, and fine libations!”
“Another Jack and Coke, Teddy?” I asked.
“Yes, please, thank you kindly,” he replied. “Hey, Leah, since you’ll be in town without your two better halves for a while, want to get some track action in? I think you could use some track time with that new green Porsche of yours, if I were to judge based on Saturday’s performance.”
“That big spin-out? I meant to do that,” I said as I handed him his drink.
“Of course you did! Far be it from me to ever claim otherwise!” Teddy said with a wink.
“He can be such a cornball,” Geoff said as Teddy Bear went back to talking to Darius and Stephen.
“He’s an actor. They're paid to be like that,” I said.
“Shit! That’s where I knew him from!” Stephanie exclaimed. “He was in that movie with Brad Pitt a couple of years ago.”
“Darius over there?” I said, indicating the football player. "He calls him ‘Action Man’.”
“How do they know each other?” she asked.
“Through me and Andy. He’s been over for dinner a bunch, and so has Teddy Bear,” I explained.
“That’s peak Los Angeles for you there in a nutshell,” Geoff said. “An actor, a pro football player and a recording industry lawyer talking at a party in a rock star’s house in the Hollywood Hills.”
Stephanie laughed at that, and he said, “You’re laughing because you know it’s true."
“Oh, for sure,” she said, that familiar, easy smile of hers making her breathtakingly beautiful in that moment. “Peak LA.”
Seeing the Castro family off the next morning was only a little bit sad, since we’d be visiting them in just a few weeks anyhow. Once they’d disappeared beyond the security gates, Angela let her shoulders slump.
“I love them so much, but I’m happy we don’t live together full-time.” she said, her arm around my waist. I pulled her in close and kissed the top of her head.
“Mamá at least will be with us for a few months when the babies are born,” I said.
“I know, and I’ll be happy she’s here, but right now? I’m happy they’re going back home. Does that make me a bad daughter?”
“Not at all,” I said, giving her a squeeze. “It makes you a grown-up woman of your own now, not a little girl who needs her momma. But you know what? People learn how to be a parent from their own parents, and if you’re half as amazing a mom as your Mamá, then our little girls are going to be very lucky.”
Angela didn’t say anything in response. She just buried her face in my shoulder and held me tight for a few minutes while I held her and stroked her hair. As much as Angela might worry about her ability as a mother, I was confident that she would be the best among the three of us at the task. I knew, without a doubt, that there was nobody in the world I’d rather have raise my children than this beautiful woman in my arms. Sure, Emmy and I were going to do our best, but Angela was going to be the center of our little family.