Page 69 of This Side of Beautiful

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Thefour of us werequiet after Janae made her grand entrance and exit. The tension I’d felt when I first walked in had been replaced by anticipatory energy about who would break the ice first so we could return to the easy camaraderie The Hollow Bones had always shared.

Charles sat back. “We’re a band, and we can’t let anyone get in the way of it.”

I protested, “Janae isn’t going to get in the way.”

“I’m not talking about Janae. So far, she’s been good for us. Each night, we’re getting better and better. Off stage, she loves to have fun and hasn’t been a diva. She cooks and takes care of us like a sister. From what I can tell, she doesn’t try to take you away from us.”

“Then what do you mean?” I leaned against the wall. Cedrick and I had yet to look at each other.

“I’m talking about the two of you,” Charles said. “Handle your business like the best friends you’ve been and not with this macho bullshit.”

I folded my arms. “He started it.”

Cedrick pointed at me. “I tried to talk to you one on one, and you didn’t hear me.”

“Did you talk to me or warn me like I’m some child?” I hit my palm with the back of my other hand. “Whether you like her or not, you have to respect her because she’s with me, and I care about her. She’s not a groupie or some random.”

“I do like her,” he muttered.

“What?” Charles asked, though I knew we’d both heard.

Cedrick blew a raspberry. “Janae’s cool. She’s grown a lot since the last time we worked with her.”

“Then why are you tripping?” I dropped down in the chair beside him.

Cedrick glanced at me before staring ahead. “You’ve been the constant in my life for fifteen years. The sun will rise and set every day because Landon Hayes is there to make sure it happens. I guess I never thought the day would come when thatdidn’thappen.”

“It was one day, Ced. I’m here now, and we can be here all night if we need to.”

His jaw tightened. “Yesterday was the start of everything changing.”

I quietly said, “That might be true because music was all we needed. You just never believed it would be me who would change first.”

Cedrick twisted his lips and then slowly nodded.

“You helped me get this far, allowing me space and pushing me when I needed to use my voice. I’ll always appreciate what you’ve done for me, and because you’ve been there when my parents didn’t bother.” I held my fist out. “I hope we’ll continue to be brothers, no matter what the future holds. The Hollow Bones, forever.”

The sounds of a violin drifted over us, and I looked back to see Brian playing inside the booth. “Figured you needed music to back up this cry-fest.”

Cedrick tapped my fist. “Fuck you, Brian.”

Charles laughed. “And we’re back. Now, can we please get it together? Nineteen days, and we’re on the road.”

“No more disappearing acts, I promise.” I smiled as I walked into the booth and picked up the guitar I kept at the studio. “I need to hear what you worked on yesterday. Where’s Santi?”

“Running late, as usual. But we can show you what we did. I even wrote your part.” Cedrick joined us in the booth. “Let’s try to hammer down more while we’re here. We’ll get Janae’s done by tomorrow and I figured we could get her crew to film us making the record. Pay them to edit it and drop the video and audio by the weekend. After that, we sit back and do what we do best.”

We all said, “Make damn good music.”

“When do you want Janae to come back? I need to tell her an hour earlier than we want her to be here,” I joked. Janae still didn’t seem to understand the concept of time. “On time” for her was at least fifteen minutes later than expected.

Brian chuckled. “Facts.”

Cedrick said, “Tell her to come back in time for lunch and bring us something to eat. She doesn’t have to get me anything vegan this time.”

Charles shook his head. “Bro, give it up already. You love cheese too much.”

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