Page 44 of On The Rocks

“Yeah, if you wanna pay us the same,” he quipped.

I cocked my head. “We’re giving you exposure.”

“We get exposure on TikTok,” he explained, shaking his head like I was a clueless fucking idiot. “And YouTube.”

“Oh my God!” a sweet voice exclaimed from behind me. “Are you in a band?”

Slowly, I craned my neck to see my wifey standing in the doorway, her eyes shining excitedly at Carbine.

“Yeah, babe,” he told her, grinning at her enthusiasm.

“I’d love to hear you play,” she cried. “That would beso awesome! Oh my God! You could play here!”

He studied Maeve’s excited face, and after a brief pause, he sighed his surrender. “Alright, How about my band plays your opening night?”

“Really?” she squealed, then her face fell. “That would be grand. The thing is, though, we’re trying to build the bar back up, so I’m really not sure if we can pay you much, Noah.”

I shot him an accusing look and growled, “Noah?”

Carbine, or ‘Noah,’ grinned at my wife. “Seeing asyouwant to see us play, and your ol’ man’s a friend of the club, we’ll do the first gig free. After that, a grand should cover our travel expenses. Plus, we’ll definitely want the beer.”

My shoulders relaxed, and I held my hand out. “Deal.”

He took it in a hard grip and shook on it, his eyes sliding toward Maeve. “Your wife drives a hard bargain, Callum. One look from those pretty eyes and I turn into a damned sucker.” His stare came back to me. “You’re a lucky man.”

I squeezed his hand slightly too hard in a silent warning. “Yeah, bud. Tell me something I don’t know.”

Carbine squeezed right back, eyes still on mine. “Just make sure you don’t forget it. You never know who’s waiting in the wings to shoot his shot.” He dropped my hand, turned, and made for the doors. “I’ll tell our manager to call ya. His name’s Braden Hunt.”

“Sounds about right. Braden Hunt’s definitely a name for a music manager. Bet you fifty bucks there’s a good reason it rhymes with cunt.” Donny stood to his full height so he could study Carbine leave and saunter down the street, a contemplative expression on his face. “Maeve, you know you just saved Callum two grand a month on a band that’s worth paying every cent of that and more. You won’t be able to move in this place whenDischordiumplays. People will come from as far as Laramie, and the cash registers won’t stop ringing.”

“Did I?” She smiled innocently, her eyes twinkling at my brother. “Now you come to mention it, Bowie may have remarked when we were chatting about Noah being in an up-and-coming band that had started to gain traction and was garnering interest from record labels in New York and LA. Also, I may have eavesdropped a little on your conversation when I came back downstairs.”

My head jerked around to face Maeve. “You knew?”

She shrugged, a small smile playing around her lips. “Maaaybeee.”

My brother threw his head back and roared with laughter before hooting, “You’re a fucking shark, woman.”

Maeve punched her hands to her hips and popped one out. “Donovan O’Shea, I haven’t lived with Patrick Doyle and his snaky wife and daughters for twenty years and not picked up a few tricks.” Her eyes swung to me, and her stare hardened. “I may not be,” she held her hands up to do the quotation sign with her fingers, “everyone’s type to look at. But I’m far from stupid.”

My chest tightened at the meaning behind her words.

I did that. I made Maeve feel like she wasn’t good or pretty enough when, in reality, she was worth everything.

I’d just watched Mae charm Atlas, who incidentally was a man not easily won over. And she did it by being herself. No airs, no graces, just a natural ability to make a man feel like he was the only person in the room worth talking to.

The word idiot didn’t scrape the surface of what I embodied.

“One thing I never thought you were was stupid, Mae,” I told her softly. “You’re the smartest fucking person I know. As for ‘not my type,’” I copied her move and did her quotation gesture, “I’m starting to discover that ‘my type’s’ changing drastically, and it’s veering toward little redheads with smart mouths and cosmic eyes.” I dipped my chin to look at her intently. “Now tell me, wifey, have you eaten today?”

Maeve’s lips parted, and she peered into my face like she was seeing me for the first time. “No.”

“Atlas was right,” I declared. “It’s about time I showed you around town. Go get your coat, and I’ll take you to the coffee shop for a lemon heaven bar.”

“Really?” she asked, a thread of shock lacing her tone.

“We can’t stay out all afternoon,” I warned. “Ma and T are coming over to discuss the bar. There’s a few things I wanna run by you all, and I want us all together making decisions as a family.”

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