Page 43 of High Note

“Well, we’ll have one of those,” Andi said, holding up her hand. She ticked things off on her fingers. “One all meat. One all veg. One pepperoni and mushrooms. And we all want salad wagon.”

“Easy peasy lemon squeezy.” Kirsten gave her a lingering glance, then headed off.

“She’s got it back for you, blondie,” Brenda teased. “I love it. So cute.”

“Hush, you.” She was pretty fond of Kirsten already and she damn well knew it. “So, what are you lot doing tomorrow?” They’d scheduled like, two or three days on and one off, and tomorrow the band had some kind of plans.

She was going to spend the day with her damn dog, thank you. She missed her face, and she wanted to just chill and wander and look at people’s windows and maybe walk to the coffee shop. The sidewalks were magically clean most days by ten am. That made it easy to get around.

“We’re going sledding and on a sleigh ride. It’s like a whole day thing—lunch and cocoa and all.”

“Nice. Sounds cold as hell.” Not that she was tired of the snow. It was so pretty. But she was a by the fire, look out at it girl.

“What about you? You spending the day with your girl instead of us?” Andi grinned at her. They’d already invited her to come.

“I’m spending the day with Reba,” she snapped, and Andi held her hands up, obviously stung.

“Dude! Sky! I was talking about your fucking dog. Back off me.” Andi shoved Geoff.

“Move. I’m not hungry.”

Oh fuck. “Andi, I’m?—”

“No. No, you know what? You’ve been a fucking bitch to us since you got here. I don’t know if it’s the altitude or what, but I’m not the friggin’ bad guy. I’m the keyboard player. Tell me when you want me at the studio. Mich?”

Andi held one hand out to her wife.

“Coming.” Mich shot her an apologetic look before scooting out. “Sorry, lady. I’ll call you later tonight, ’kay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You know, I’m gonna go sit at the bar and take the pizza to go,” Greggo said. “I’m not going to be in the middle. Lucie?”

“Yeah. I—yeah.” Lucie sighed and hauled herself out of the booth, and before she knew it, Skyla was sitting in splendid isolation in the big space, blinking at Brenda.

“Well…okay. So, which pizza are we splitting, baby girl?”

“All the meats?”

“Serves Greggo right. He can have the veggie.”

Skyla laughed and nodded. “Yeah.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry.”

“Shh. You’re trying to figure out how to be in love the first time. That’s tough.”

“What?” It came out so loud that she clapped a hand over her mouth as heads turned. Then she coughed. “No. Brenda, no.”

“You don’t have to lie to me. I would never hurt you. You’re the closest thing I have to a daughter. I know love when?—”

“Is everything all right?” An older woman that Skyla didn’t know walked up. “Kirsten said most of your party left.”

“They decided to get stuff to go,” Skyla said with a smile that she was so not sure she was feeling. “But there’s not a thing wrong with the service or the food.”

“Oh, good. Kirsten is one of my best waitresses, and I couldn’t imagine her doing something offensive.” She smiled atKirsten and waved her over. “I had her get you both some fried cheese sticks to tide you over. On the house.”

“Oh, thanks.” Skyla relaxed her shoulders down. “We’d like the all-meats one to come to us. Just put it all on the same bill, though.”

“No problem. I’m Cherry. Holler if you need anything.”

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