the music of my life

The truth of the matter, Ricki always did what she was told. After all, she was the girl in the family. And to some, it might look like she would have been the princess. It was supposed to look that way, she guessed.

But it was a tradition in her family, the women took care of the men. They would always come first. She'd followed the rules until now.

It wasn't like she'd ever fooled around. Yet she'd been smitten with Topher the night she met him. He made her laugh. Although, she had a feeling he hadn't meant to. But every time she was around him, she felt as if she would fall into a fit of laughter. She tried so hard to ignore him. She did. But then he needed her help.

He made her feel as if she was the smart one. Of course, driving off to Omaha might not have been the smartest thing to do. But she stared down at her stomach. It was the first time THAT was really important. Until now, it was the fact that her mother would take care of the baby, and she'd go back to doing what she did best.

She knew Topher would be mad, but her family always took care of each other.

At the moment, she couldn't help but smile. It was as if she wanted to see how far this little trip would take her. Topher held her hand.

"You're sure you're not mad?" She was waiting for bitter words. She'd heard enough already. Her dad wasn't happy about this, but they'd managed. Ricki guessed that was why she hadn't mentioned the pregnancy situation to Topher. She couldn't bare to put up with more anger.

"Well, yeah..I was..but..but you're with me now." He kept his eye on the road as if he was destined to be here with her. "And..and ..we'll figure out what to do."

Ricki kept looking at him, wondering what that might be. Would they get married? Would she stop the polka show?

"But what ..if.." She sighed thinking she might really need to keep working, yet all her money went to the family. It was her Dad's money. He was after all her manager, for the most part. She'd made a little money over the summer with a few of her own gigs. That was how she'd met Topher. That world didn't know about her other persona.

"Look, I want you to be happy. I don't want you to worry." He looked over at her for second. "I'll think of something."

Ricki breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't dare ask what that was. They were almost to Nebraska. She didn't want to dare think what was on her father's mind now.