Page 75 of This Side of Beautiful

“Janae is being hammered by fans. She and the ladies are at Junior’s in Brooklyn. Jeri is doing a Live right now. This is unbelievable.”

Everyone else pulled their phones out, and I looked over Brian’s shoulder, searching for Janae in the crowd and praying she was okay.

Jeri shouted, “Janae and The Hollow Bones just went number one with no publicity. They just dropped it the other day, and boom!” She laughed. “I see you, Brian, Ced. Y’all need to do a Live right now.”

The guys started shouting, and all I wanted to do was find Janae.

“Do you see her?” I asked Brian.

He pointed. “She’s standing on the table.”

The crowd started chanting her name, and I could hear “Fallen Star” faintly playing in the background. Janae started singing to the restaurant, and I watched, mesmerized.

“Yeah, Del, we just heard. I knew it would be a hit… Am I dreaming?” Cedrick kept shaking his head, completely stunned.

Tears ran down Brian’s face. Santiago and Charles were hugging each other.

Cedrick passed me the phone. “Del wants to speak to you.”

I eased out of the booth while they alternated between celebrating and singing along with Janae.

“Hey, Del.”

“I tried to call you on your phone. You should be smiling. If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know if Janae could handle all of this.”

I nodded numbly. I was the one who wasn’t sure I could handle what was about to happen, and I had no idea what exactly that was.

“Listen, I’m sending you a couple of suggestions for the cover we should go with for the single. The temporary cover circulating won’t do. The photos of you and Janae were the chef’s kiss.”

“Why send the photos to just me?”

“Listen, I know you love the guys, but people are asking for you.”

I looked back at my smiling brothers. “Del, we are a band. All equal.”

“You’ve always been more than them. You could go solo right now, and the labels would offer you crazy money. No one has heard the guitar as you play it since Hendrix.”

“I’m not leaving them.”

“I don’t want you to. Just making you aware of your power.”

I looked at the two pics, and my heart sank.

The first one was simply two hats. My trademark porkpie hat and the fedora she’d been wearing to hide her identity, which she’d worn most recently on stage. I couldn’t deny the appeal of its simplicity. The other one was a shirtless pic of me, though all I could see was the top of my chest and shoulders. Janae’s hand was visible as she twirled the locs of my hair that peeked from underneath my hat around her finger. I was in the bed on my side, gazing at her, though it appeared I was looking directly at the camera. The photographer had changed the pic to black-and-white, which made my eyes pop more. I looked like a certifiable star.

“Landon, are you still there?”

“Yeah,” I weakly responded, holding on to the control desk.

“What do you think?”

“We can’t use either one. I can’t exclude them.”

“They love you. They’ll listen to you.”

“Can’t we make it a celestial scene or something to represent the title? Anything but what you just sent.”

“I’ll to send it to them, too. Decide as a group.”

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