I walk up and apologize to the parents who are all pretty understanding. The twin’s mother Sheila Foster touches my arm.
“It’s okay that you’re late. You do such a wonderful job with my little angels,” She coos at me.
“Thank you, Mrs. Foster,” I say and smile. Sophia’s dad chuckles and hugs his daughter. He’s seen the woman’s advances before and likes to joke about it if he’s the first to pick up his daughter. It wouldn’t make me uncomfortable if she wasn’t married to my father’s business associate Reginald Foster. Not only is he someone I know, he’s terrifying.
“I’ve told you over and over, call me Sheila,” she moves closer as the twins run into the studio and start chasing each other. This is the moment Addy walks up.
“Hi Charlie,” she seems amused by my current predicament.
“Thank you, Shelia, I say and move away from her. “We better get started.”
The older woman gives Addy an evil glare as she walks away and I put my arm around her guiding her into the room.
“Braleen and Brady calm down and get your guitars. Addy, you can sit right here.” I pull out the only chair I have in the whole building. It’s an old black leather chair and came with the place. It’s got studs on the seat covering and looks like it belonged in some sort of S and M club.
I’m a little nervous to teach in front of Addy. She’s a teacher of music, and probably a lot better at it than I am. As I get into showing them chords and talking about music I put impressing her in the back of my mind and focus on the kids. I've always treated them like little adults. I think that's the reason they learn so much from me.
"Alright first I'm going to introduce you to a very special guest," I say as I wink at Ada. "This is Miss Springfield. She's a music teacher at the high school so you know she knows her stuff.”
All four little heads nod in agreement.
“Let’s show her how good we’re going. First, we’re going to go through the chords we learned last week.”
I walk the kids through their chords and as always, they nail it. I have been blessed with four little savants. I look over to see Ada smiling so at least I am impressing her.
We go through their chords again and then I help each of them play Mary Had a Little L
amb on their guitars. I'm so proud of all of them.
Chapter Eleven
Ada
I watch intrigued. Charlie is really good with the kids. He’s patient and funny. It’s like seeing a whole different side of him. I’m really impressed with the kids too. They are all so good and they pay attention. I’ve never taught small children and I can guess from those I’ve seen in the supermarket, they’re not all this easy to teach. Charlie is doing a fantastic job. Watching him patiently walk the kids through their steps is turning me on, and I feel my cheeks heat as I watch him. I don't need to picture Charlie with kids right now because I'm still trying to look at him as a business partner and not a sexual creature. It's hard though because I am so attracted to him.
I feel my phone buzz in my pocket. I ignore it. My ex-boyfriend has been ramping up the calls since he lost his job at Maxwell Industries, and I’m not in the mood to see his number flash across my screen.
I have not mentioned him to Charlie and I’m planning on pushing that conversation back as long as I can. Since he worked and stole from his father I’m expecting that talk to be awkward. The problem is he may show up anytime when he gets this way he becomes unpredictable so he could hurt me or anyone. I am not necessarily scared of him. I just don’t want to deal with it. And he’s just another complication between me and Charlie.
My father worked with Jimmy and liked him. He didn’t care that he stole from Maxwell. That is another thing I don’t want to venture into with Charlie. Why the hell do I want to get caught up in this drama? My eyes go to Charlie helping out one of the twins and my answer appears. Charlie really is a great guy and if I decide to take my singing public he is the perfect person to do it with.
If we get serious then it will have to be discussed. I’ll have to tell Charlie about dad, and dad about Charlie.
I try not to think about it and just enjoy watching Charlie show a little girl how to place her fingers on the guitar for the third time without any irritation.
She smiles up at him when she finally gets it and my heart melts a little.
My phone buzzes again and I finally look at it seeing it’s my dad.
I hold my phone up to him and walk out the door.
“Dad,” I say when I pick up, “Is something wrong?” My father never calls me. If we talk it’s because I called him. It’s also strange because I had been thinking about him.
“I need you to come over to the house on Sunday. There are some things we need to talk about. Okay, sweetheart?” There’s a tone in his voice I don’t quite recognize. The fact that there was no greeting also shows the importance of whatever he needs to say to me is.
“Okay, I’ll see you then.”
I hang up and go back in the studio to find a jam session in full force. Each student is playing their own version of whatever he told them to. Charlie is in the front playing with them and looks like he’s having the time of his life.