March 28th 2021

Chapter 87
Our Summer of Music

She had not been on stage in almost a year. She had trouble believing it sometimes, but it was true. The last show she'd given with TXNY had definitely been a little over a year ago now, but the last time she'd taken the stage was right here, in Austin, on the final performance of the For Start tour with Ree. After that, she'd been home, waiting those last two months until Marianne would be born. Now her daughter was eight months old, and Maya was about to take the stage with her bandmates after a significantly prolonged absence.

For having been part of this band for over a decade, for having been surprised time and time again by the devotion of their supporters, she really could have been permitted to go in and trust that she would be welcomed back with open arms. Instead, she was nervous… again. She didn't exactly mind it, no. By now, she was as familiar with the nerves as she was able to tell herself they weren't a bad thing. They grounded her, kept her minded, and inevitably they amped her up to go out there and give the kind of performance where the audience would have no space to doubt her devotion.

It was also, not to be forgotten, the first performance she would give since she'd gone from up-and-coming song writer to multi-award-winning song writer. The shift in her 'narrative' had already shown itself in a surge of new fans for TXNY. It now meant that, when they put out the announcement that they were working on a new album, and that they would be doing some shows over the summer, the interest was immediate. Lucas, who continued to handle the calls now, barely had to reach out to one of their regular venues that they were working out a date for the band to appear. Finally, it had arrived. The show was that night.

"It's going to be a while before we can take her to any of these," Maya hummed as she lay on her side on the bed, Marianne next to her. The little blonde would turn her head this way and that, sending her arms and legs to twist along, before eventually turning herself over on to her stomach. Maya would give her a big wide-eyed and smiling face, and Marianne would laugh and reach for her even as she attempted to pull herself closer. "That's it, pumpkin, you almost have it," Maya encouraged her. When she'd just keep reaching for her mother, sooner or later, she would be scooped up, as Maya tipped on to her back and held Marianne close in her arms. She kissed the top of her head, and she smiled at how her baby girl just held to her. "I really wish I could bring you tonight, yes, I do," she softly promised, brushing at her hair, breathing in that baby shampoo.

"We might be able to get her backstage, in a few years," Lucas suggested, smiling as he looked on from where he sat at his desk.

"Get you some very small noise-cancelling headphones, yeah," Maya sat up with Marianne. "I really need to get ready, huh?"

"You're not stalling, are you?" Lucas wondered.

"No," she insisted, though her tone suggested otherwise. "I have to see what the others are wearing, too, see?" she reached for her phone and held it up. Almost like someone had planned it, her phone gave off a ding and she frowned. "Really?" she asked before checking the message. Marianne tried to grab at her phone, and Maya had to be sneaky to distract her from it. Lucas came over and collected the baby in order to help, which sent the girl into a momentary bit of crying for having been so thwarted. Lucas was quick on the case to get her to stop. Meanwhile, Maya moved to stand and headed down the hall toward Cara's room. She knocked at the door and heard a brief commotion and a voice… voices. "Do you guys need a minute?" Maya closed her eyes for a moment.

"What? No, I just… Hold on!" Cara called. A few seconds later, she opened the door. "What's up?" she asked, casual as could be. Maya tipped her head to look past her.

"Hey, Mateo," she waved to the boy, who sat on the floor and gave the immediate impression of 'I wasn't here until about ten seconds ago.'

"Hey," he waved back, while Maya looked back to her little sister.

"Your shirt's on backwards," she whispered, and Cara reached to her collar, felt the tag. Maya chose to ignore it. "Show, tonight? Clothes," she held up her phone to show the pictures Nadine, Morgan, and Rosa had sent. They might have worked out options between the three of them before sending it on to the two sisters. Cara did her best to also ignore things as she took the phone and started to think.

"I think I can work with this," she pointed to one of the rows. "You?"

"Yeah, I'm good. When you're ready, we can do hair."

"Got it," Cara replied shortly. They stood there quietly for a few seconds before Maya started back down the hall and Cara shut the door again.

"Did you figure out…" Lucas started to ask when Maya returned. Now he was the one sitting on the bed with Marianne, who presently found great entertainment in pressing her hands at both his cheeks at once.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Maya replied, putting down her phone once she'd texted the others with their selection so they could move forward in consequence. She fished out what she'd need and started to change.

"What happened back there?" Lucas sensed he was missing something.

"Nothing, nothing," Maya told him, slipping her dress on, and pulling it properly into place. "Zip?" He came and zipped her up. When she turned, he still had that look. "Mateo's here," she signed.

"Ah," Lucas nodded, no further explanation needed.

"Yeah," Maya continued dressing up.

They were not going to go down that road again like they'd done with Sam. Some things were different, and other things shouldn't be. Cara was old enough to decide what she wanted to do, and all they could hope was that she'd be smart about things, and she usually was. Whatever felt weird, well, that was their own problem, not hers.

"We weren't, you know?" Cara asked out of nowhere, when the sisters ended up in the bathroom to do their hair and makeup a few minutes later. "I mean, we haven't… Been thinking about it though…" she went on to admit. Maya wasn't sure what to say yet, but she couldn't pretend that she didn't appreciate Cara wanting to come to her with the subject. "He'd never force me," she added, like she worried Maya thought he might. "If he tried, I'd be out of there so fast." Maya parted a section of her sister's hair to braid it. "You're not saying anything," Cara told her. "You don't believe me?"

"Of course, I believe you," Maya reassured her.

"Then what is it? Is it about before? We were just… messing around… a bit, nothing big…" Cara explained. She wouldn't move, as Maya was doing her hair, but she looked like she was getting more stressed by the second.

"I'm just listening, that's all. That's what you wanted me to do, isn't it?"

"I… Yeah, but…"

"Let me just finish this here… There, how does it look?" Maya stood back.

"Fine, it's good," Cara sighed before turning to face her big sister. "But Mateo and…" she started. Maya silenced her with a hug. "Okay?"

"I am just doing my best to ignore the weird factor here. Went through this with Sam before, it was not pretty, let's leave it at that." She pulled back, kept hold of Cara's hands. "I trust you know what you're doing. You do, right?"

"Like ninety-nine percent, most times," Cara shrugged. Maya smiled.

"Then you're good. And whatever's out in that one percent leftover, you can ask me, anytime, just… pretend like you don't see the look of panic on my face," she pointed to herself, which got her sister laughing. "Alright?"

"Alright," Cara replied, then opened her mouth to speak.

"Does it have to be today?" Maya cut in. Cara shook her head. "Another day it is," Maya squeezed her arms, then sighed. "Am I going to have this talk with all you guys? That is so not what I signed on for…" Cara made a face now, and Maya pointed to it. "Yeah, that's the one. Who'd you think about?" She wouldn't say, was too weirded out. "Hold on to that, then we're good. Come on, we have a show tonight."

"You're not going to tell Sam, are you?" Cara asked as she moved to start on her big sister's hair.

"Yeah, no, I honestly don't know who would win in a fight between him and Mateo, and I really don't want to find out," Maya informed her. In the mirror, she caught the look on Cara's face, half horror, half curious amusement.

As lead-ups to a big stage return went, it was really not the kind of talk she'd been looking to have, but if nothing else, at least it chased away a good load of butterflies in her stomach. They finished getting ready, said good night to Granny Lizzie and Marianne, and then they were off to meet the rest of the band at the venue. Their traveling set of instruments was already out there, so all they had to do was get there, finish preparing, and then wait for the big moment. In a reverse of when she'd been the one on hiatus, Maya would be on stage tonight and Riley would be out in the audience, looking on and cheering them on. Lucas would be near her, and he'd promised to let out their call so Maya could locate him and Riley by extension.

"This is… Okay…" Cara was in awe as they approached, and she saw the people lining up outside. "There's no way they're all getting in there… right?"

"Couldn't tell you…" Maya shook her head, looking, too. It just didn't feel real sometimes. She was snapped out of that surprise by getting a look of the smile on Lucas' face. In his mind, here were all these people who'd come to see his wife's return to the stage, and oh if he wasn't the proudest husband right now…

She couldn't exactly brush the notion away, could she? The last year had been what it had been, and the numbers spoke for themselves, so… yeah… It was very likely that a lot of these people here had come specifically to watch Maya Hart up at that microphone. It should have been something great, and to some extent it was, but… No matter what, over all these years, where the spotlight had chased her for one reason or another, she'd never felt any belief that it should be on her or that the rest of the band were somehow there to back her up rather than to be alongside her.

She'd always put her foot down, made sure everyone knew they were TXNY, not Maya Hart featuring TXNY. She'd known it then, and she'd predicted it for tonight. Yes, this was her return, but she wasn't going in there like 'all eyes on me.' They had organized this set for tonight's show to make it very clear. They had no more than one song where Maya's voice was the only one that stood out. Everyone else got a definitive solo, and those other songs featured dual or triple harmonies. They had one where they all had their parts. The day she stopped fighting to keep this position very clear was the day they'd stop being TXNY. And she would never, ever let that happen.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners