Standing By

Home Free Songs

(Kirstie)

"I wanna start now!" Scott giggled, playing on his iPad, curled up in his parents' recliner, legs tucked under him. "Can we?"

"Well, we could," I began, not quite as enthusiastic as he was. Mitch and I had come over so we could go to the movies. I was dying to see the new movie out. It was about dogs and I loved dogs. So far, since I'd gotten home, I'd reintroduced my dogs to Mom's, taken all five of them to the dog park, walked them practically all over town, and played with them until I was blue in the face. I was having so much fun with the fur babies. My mom was just thrilled to have someone else pulling doggie duty right now. If I didn't watch it, I was liable to be shipped off to LA with three new dogs. Not that I'd mind; the more the merrier, if you ask me, but I didn't know what Jeremy, my fiancé, who takes care of them when we're out on tour or out of town, would think if I were to show up with a new entourage. Probably kick me out on my dog-loving ass. He liked dogs too, but one of the last things he'd told me before we headed on our separate ways this Christmas, as we were loading my doggies up for this journey was, "OK, Kirstie, think you have enough dogs here." Granted, we were having major issues—Olaf didn't want to stay where we put him and was howling his head off indignantly, and Snowball had even got so far as to nip at him. In her defense, her leg was being bent at an awkward angle. But yeah, Jeremy would be pissed if I showed up with more dogs. "Movie?"

"We will, Kirst," Mitch mumbled, peering over Scott's shoulder. "Oh my God, this is a ton of songs. How're we supposed to go through all this?"

"Just focus on these here." Scott circled a finger around the screen. "Rest of these are old, older, oldest, and ancient."

Now on his knees behind Scott, Mitch jabbed at the iPad, giggling. "I'm nosy. Click here. I wanna see what they did to win The Sing Off."

"They sang," I grumbled, crossing my arms. "Whataya think they did, baked a cake?" It was sounding more and more like my movie was not a priority with them.

Scott clicked, making an odd face. "They had a much shorter season than us."

"Doesn't seem too fair, does it?" Mitch grumbled. "Should all be the same length. Made us work a lot harder for our win." Scott nodded along with him, ever his yes-man.

I felt like being contrary. "Ah, get off it, Mitch. We've all worked with them. They're deserving. Don't cheapen their win."

"Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying they're not talented. Still, makes you wonder how they'd have fared in a longer season," Mitch pointed out. "I mean, how would they have done in our season?"

"Second place," I said immediately, with a smirk. "To us."

"You think?" Mitch actually looked thoughtful. "I would hope so. I'd like to think so."

"Here." I pinched two fingers together and pretended to hand something to him. "Have a bag of confidence. Now let's go to the movies."

"Hold on, Kirst, there are twenty-four hours in a day," Scott groused at me. He tried to shove his iPad in my face. "Don't tell me you're not a little bit curious."

I shrugged, trying to push it aside. "I dunno. I'm more curious about the movie. We've got time to figure this all out later. Let's just play now, OK?" I looked at them pleadingly. "We work all the time. I need a mental break. I need movie popcorn."

"We can make the 6:45 showing easily," Scott pointed out, looking at his watch. "Give us an hour, OK? One hour of playing in Home Free's collection and then we'll go to the movies."

I sighed. That may be about the best I could get out of them here. "OK."

"Now sit here." Scott patted the spot to his right. "Mitch, get off me. I'm not a jungle gym."