No. No. No! I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't lose Linc to music. Even though it seemed extreme, I just couldn't let him become his father.
After he disappeared behind the curtain, I made my way backstage. Part of me felt like an asshole for confronting him now, like I should have let him bask in his moment of glory for the day before coming down on him when I picked him up from school. But, the other part of me wanted answers to the questions burning through my mind. How and when had he learned the guitar? After I had refused to get him one, where on earth had he gotten a guitar?
Weaving my way through kids and parents, I finally saw him. He had his back to me and was chattering incessantly to someone just outside my field of vision. He gesticulated wildly while bouncing on the balls of his feet. Just as I got to him, the person leaned in to hug Linc.
My heart shuddered to a stop, and I fought to breathe.
Gabe?
I shook my head furiously from side to side as if I could somehow clear my head and not see him before me. He couldn't possibly be standing with my son and congratulating him on doing something he knew I had forbidden. Surely Gabe would never go behind my back like that. He'd said he'd support my decisions as a parent.
When Gabe's image remained in front of me, bile rose in my throat. I swept my hand over my mouth, as I feared I'd vomit then and there.
After he pulled away from Linc, Gabe caught sight of me, and the smile on his face vanished. Sensing something was wrong, Linc turned around. His eyes widened. "M-Mom? W-What are you doing here?"
Yeah, that a good question. He'd already changed into someone I didn't know. He didn't even want me to hear him play. I'm going to be sick.
"I could ask you the same thing." My gaze flickered from Linc's to Gabe's. "Both of you."
Gabe jerked a hand through his hair before he stepped forward. "Listen, Rae, I can explain."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "Explain what, exactly? How you're secretly here in town and didn't think to pick up the phone to call or text me? Or how when I talked to you on the phone last night, you didn't bother to tell me my son was in a talent show? Or maybe how you seem to be supporting my son playing the guitar when you know how I feel about that?"
"You have every right to be angry with me and Linc."
Narrowing my eyes at him, I countered, "Angry? I think fucking livid is a better description for it."
After glancing around, Gabe said, "Lower your voice, okay?"
"Don't tell me what to do!" I hissed.
Linc stepped between us. "Mom, don't yell at Gabe. It's not his fault. It's all mine. I was learning to play long before Gabe came to town."
"Wait, what?" It was like I could see Linc's mouth moving, but I couldn't make out the words.
"Joey's brother has been teaching me guitar for about six months."
I stared at my child like he had suddenly grown horns. How was it possible my perfect angel had been going behind my back to do something I had forbidden him to do? Deceiving me. It was like he had become a perfect stranger.
Linc sighed. "I know you're mad, and I didn't mean to go behind your back. It's just I really wanted to learn the guitar."
Shaking my head, I countered, "But you know how I feel about it. You know why I don't want you to do it, yet you still did it."
The corner of Linc's lips turned down in a frown. "I know, but I thought once I learned and you saw how good I was, it wouldn't matter."
"It does matter. It always has, and it always will. There's no way I can just let this go."
Wincing, Linc asked, "Am I grounded?"
"Yes, for the next month."
"A month?" he questioned.
"You also won't be allowed over at Joey's house for the foreseeable future, and you give the guitar back to whoever gave it to you."
Linc's eyes bulged in horror while his lip trembled. "You mean I can't play the guitar anymore?"
"You were never supposed to play it in the first place."
"But Gabe gave me a guitar."
The world shuddered to a stop around me. Once again, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I hoped against hope I hadn't heard correctly. "He what?"
Gabe winced before taking a step toward me. "I'm sorry, Rae. I should have come clean about this a long time ago."
"What do you mean?"
"That day at Hart and Daughter when you turned me down the second time, I ran into Linc outside your office. Since he'd heard our conversation, he and I made a deal together."
"Let me guess-a deal for a guitar?"
Gabe nodded. "I would give him a guitar if he could get you to hang out with me."
Oh. My. God. Not only had Gabe given my son a guitar, he had manipulated me into hanging out with him. My mind spun back to seeing him after that morning. "That night when we ran into you at The Hitching Post?"
Linc swallowed hard. "I told him that was where we would be eating."
I shook my head. "I can't believe this. The two of you have been conspiring against me this entire time."
With a roll of his eyes, Gabe countered, "Don't be so dramatic. It was just that one dinner. Once you really got to know me, you were hanging out with me of your own volition. There was no collusion whatsoever."
"It doesn't matter what happened after that first night at The Hitching Post. It's the principle of the matter." Turning away from Gabe, I jerked my chin at the guitar case at Linc's feet. "Give the guitar back to Gabe." At Linc's hesitation, I growled, "Now."
The look Linc directed at me held the same punch as if he'd kicked me in the gut. While I'd already feared I was being too harsh in his punishment, the pure anguish mixed with hatred told me I'd made a serious mistake. I knew I should have taken a moment, or even a few hours to try to gather my emotions before I started doling out punishments. I wasn't just dealing with my anger and hurt with Linc; I was also dealing with my heartbreak over Gabe's involvement. He knew why this was so vital to me. I had opened up my heart to him.
Whirling around, I stalked over to him. "I want to talk to you-alone."
"Fine," Gabe muttered.
After dragging him over to a secluded corner, I hissed, "Let's get one thing straight: Linc is my son, not yours. You don't get to voice an opinion on how I raise him, especially after going behind my back like you did with the guitar."
"I'm fully aware he's your son, but would you stop and listen to yourself? You're getting absolutely hysterical over nothing." Hysterical. Over. Nothing. He didn't wake up to an empty house and wonder where Mommy had gone. He didn't watch the father of my son run from the hospital room. It was not nothing to me.
"Don't you get it? It isn't nothing to me. I've worked Linc's entire life to keep him away from the guitar, and you blow in and take it upon yourself to screw all that up."
"Hey, don't pawn this all off on me. Linc was learning the guitar before I even got to town, and so fucking what if he was doing it behind your back? He loves it, not to mention, he's good at it-like really good."
"That's all you have to say to me? Did you think you should be apologizing for undermining me and my parenting?"
"I can't be sorry for something I really don't feel remorse for. As far as undermining your parenting, maybe someone needs to do it since you're screwing up your kid's happiness because of your own warped issues." What the hell? Who was this man?
I jerked my head back at Gabe's response. The Gabe I knew would never be so cruel. "My warped issues? How can you say something like that?"
"I guess I'm just a bastard like your ex. I mean, I am a musician, so I fit the mold, right?"
Shaking my head, I replied, "How could I have possibly wasted the last couple of months on someone so insensitive and clueless?"
Gabe's eyes narrowed at me. "Maybe it was just for the great sex. After all, a bastard musician like me was only ever going to be good enough to be in your bed and never fully in your life or your kid's life, right?" That's what he thinks? Wow.
"You seriously disgust me."
"Hmm, that's quite a change from when you're begging and pleading for me to make you come. But I'm only good for one thing, right? I guess you are like your mom-both of you needed a little musician dick to get you through the rough times."
At Gabe's comparison of me to my mother, a blood-red haze ran before my eyes. Before I could stop myself, I swung my arm out and brought my flattened palm across his face. The smack echoed through the now silent area behind the curtain.
Gabe rubbed his cheek before smirking at me. "I guess that's my cue to leave."
While I expected him to sidestep me and go out the back door, he surprised me by walking over to Linc. My heart shuddered to a stop when Gabe opened his arms, and Linc fell into them. Instead of me comforting my child, it was Gabe.
"And the winner of the Hayesville Elementary talent show is Lincoln Hart!"