“Mom, come out—”Jake said, but stopped when he saw she was on the phone.
Lacey looked up at Jake. “It’s my mom,” she mouthed and held up her finger to indicate she’d only be a minute.
Jake rolled his eyes, turned, and walked away.
Lacey stopped him. “Mom, hold on a minute.” She pressed mute and called out to Jake, “Honey, what’s wrong?”
He walked back toward her. “Nothing’s wrong. We’re ready for you to hear our first song and help us pick out a band name.”
“Well, there’s no need to sound so annoyed. Just give me a couple of minutes to talk with Mom, okay? I promise I won’t be long.” She was practically pleading with him now to let her have a few minutes of desperately needed conversation with her mom to help her make sense of her self-inflicted chaos.
Jake stood in the door of he
