Page 54 of Feuds and Interludes
I found Lydia at breakfast with Unice, and she and I made a game plan. First up, hire a new manager, then fire Jeff. That was easily done when she contactedhermanager, Arthur Frye, who was a partner with the firm where Jeff worked. She laid out the tale and told him Jeff had conspired against me. Turned out Dean had already told Jeff the band wanted to quit, and he’d suggested they wait until the album was done so he’d get his cut. Jeff knew I’d be pissed when I discovered we were double booked with Stellar and he’d still let it happen.
Lydia found all this out from Rose, who’d heard Drew and Dean talking about it while she was taking a smoke break.Arthur assured me he would handle Jeff, which Lydia told me meant Jeff would be finding new employment. Arthur set me up with his protégé, Audra, and I immediately liked her.
“Don’t worry, Shane,” she assured me. “We can unfuck this situation.” She said she’d draw up an agreement and send it over and then we could have a longer talk.
Lydia and I spent the rest of the day listening to my demos together and talking over which ones had promise and which ones I should scrap. We were in complete agreement. There were only three that made the cut.
“I want to take advantage of this clean slate,” I told her. “I want to try some new ideas.”
That led to us jamming together for hours, and by late afternoon, we had the beginnings of two new songs.
Boone opened the door around four and peeked inside. “Sorry to interrupt.”
“Not at all,” I said, gesturing for him to come in as I got a load of his outfit. He was wearing a tight, almost sheer black button-up shirt with the top two buttons undone and those low-rise flared rust-colored corduroy pants. To finish off the outfit, he wore the pair of sparkly gold Converse high-tops he’d worn to the Rock Hall gig. Damn, he looked hot. He sidled up to me kind of shyly, smiling at Lydia.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him to me for a kiss, which made his cheeks all kinds of pink.
“This is quite a development,” Lydia said, hugging Boone. “I thought hickeys were, like, a middle school thing.”
The collar came up high, but my love bites peeked out when he moved. I liked it.
Boone blushed again but I pulled him against my side. “Can't help it. I get carried away with him.”
Boone’s eyes widened as if he were shocked I’d be so open. He had a lot to learn if he thought I would be closed-lipped abouthow I felt. Maybe with the press, but with friends and important people, he deserved my honesty.
“I just wondered if you were ready to meet Gran and Bruce?”
“What time is— Oh man, I lost track of time. Yeah, babe. Let me pack up.”
He smiled nervously and waited by the door. “I’m sorry to interrupt?—”
“No, no,” Lydia said. “Don’t keep them waiting on my behalf. Can’t wait to see what you guys put together for Rocktoberfest. I’ve heard it’s pretty wild out there in the desert.”
“We’re open to suggestions,” I said to her. “I gotta let the promoters know about the change. Audra said she could handle all of that. She’s awesome. Thanks for setting me up with her.”
Lydia clapped hands with me and pulled me in for a bro hug. “You got it, Butler. Nice work today.”
My heart felt so much lighter, and a lot of that was thanks to her.“Thanks for everything, Lydia. Seriously.”
She gave a bow and twirled her hand at me before waving to us and heading out the door of the cabin.
“I’m sorry if you weren’t done?—”
“Come here,” I said, standing from my stool. I held out a hand to him, and he took it. He stepped close to me with a timid smile. “Goddamn, you look good.”
He tucked his hair behind his ear and ducked his head.“Yeah, well, Gran is still going to have a coronary.”
“I’ll take full responsibility.” I leaned down to kiss him, and he gave a soft sigh that made my belly go liquid. All I wanted to do was get him back into his bed— “Oh, hey,” I said, lowering my voice. “Are you feeling okay?”
He stared at me blankly. “What do you mean? Yeah, my asthma’s been fine. My blood sugar was a little high this morning, but that’s not abnormal for me. Oh, you mean?—”
“Yeah,” I said, feeling a little awkward. It’s not like I was some hung beast or anything, but we’d gotten pretty intense last night, and I knew sometimes things—parts—were angry the next day.
He raised an eyebrow. “You mean am I suffering any aftereffects of being splayed out like a spatchcocked chicken and used heartily by one Shane Butler? Is that what you mean?”
I exhaled and planted my hands on my hips. “I see that smart mouth of yours has been working up to this moment, so please. Enlighten me.” I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing.
He crossed his arms and kicked out a hip. “I’ll have you know that no amount of stretching or CBD cream could come close to dulling the ache from doing the splits without properly stretching. Which is my fault, I really need to do better from now on.”
