Picking up the Pieces

26

January 5, 2010

At twelve and sixty-two, the mother and daughter were lounging on the couch in the living room with Karen and her husband Rick, they eloped over Christmas having been dating since two thousand and three and Christine. School would be starting back up the next day and even in seventh grade, Makenna and Brielle were both so ready to be back at school. 

"So...um, I've-I called Dave Stewart." Stevie brings up playing with her daughter's waves. Stevie's sitting crossed legged on the couch and Brielle is sprawled out, her feet thrown on the back of it and her head on her mother's lap, making her kind of look like a 90-degree angle.

"Isn't he the dude from Eurythmics?" Rick questions.

"Yeah...um,I...I asked him to produce my next record. He'll be here in a few weeks. Lori and Sharon are going to be here too and Mike Campbell and Steve Ferroni, Ben Tench...Waddy." Stevie nonchalantly lists.

"Wait a minute...are you, are you doing another solo album?" Karen asks from her perch on the chaise lounger.

"I am...we're going to do half of it here, and the other half in my Santa Monica home. It's going to be complicated but we're going to make it work. We're going to go to California probably in March if you wanted to come over spring break." Stevie looks down at Brielle.

"How is it going to work?" Christine questions.

"Well we're going to film it and because I want to keep Brielle hidden, we're only going to film in the basement studio of this house, the occasional living room but a lot of the final edits and cuts are going to be done in LA. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to make it work. I haven't put an album out since Say You Will and I'm... I'm ready." Stevie smiles.

"That means I have to do work." Karen pouts rolling her head back into Rick's shoulder.

"I'm sorry." Stevie laughs. 

"I'm just happy that Aunt Lori's coming...do you think she'll bring Jess?" Brielle sits up. 

"You could ask her." Stevie shrugs. Brielle and Jessie are only two-three years apart and they are really close despite growing up on opposite sides of the country. 

***

March 18, 2010

Sitting at dinner it was tense. They hadn't moved the recording from Michigan to California yet, but they would in a few days. The reason it was tense was that they had called Lindsey to aid in a song. Waddy nor Dave could figure out how to produce it to Stevie's liking so she called the only man that she knew could. Brielle wasn't impressed because the last interaction she had with her father was hard and even after the fiasco in the hotel room, he never came to apologize and she never went to him either. 

Brielle stuffed a piece of baked chicken in her mouth when the doorbell rang. Sulamith's loud yaps echoed throughout the house because she wasn't allowed in the dining room and she knew that so she wasn't with the family. 

"I'll get it." Brielle swallowed getting out of her chair. Stevie had recently let her have some more leeways, she was almost a teenager now and she was starting to let her stay home alone while Stevie made a quick run to the store or if she had a doctor's appointment. Opening the front door was now one of her privileges it seemed like, even though Stevie didn't necessarily call them privileges. 

Brielle opened the door and Lindsey pursed his lips looking at his daughter. She looked just like Stevie but he could see himself in her and every time he saw her he was able to pick out those little pieces or mannerisms. He opened his arms, and she gave him a quick loose hug before letting him into the household.