Page 73 of Feuds and Interludes
“Schedules are important. Taking your medicine at the same time every day is important. Eating meals at the same time?—”
“Yeah, yeah,” I’d say, and when he went to object, I’d blow him a kiss and he’d smile at me. I could get used to this.
Sleeping in his arms every night, though, did wonders for my peace of mind. I’d never lived with a partner before, and he made it so easy.
Now, he probably would have adifferentopinion on the peace and harmony of our living situation. He was mostly patient with the destruction I left in my wake. He was neat and I…well, we’ve established that I’m not.
We never fought. Not even once. I think it surprised everyone around us. By the end of the three weeks, we were finishing each other’s sentences, he was choosing my food for me, and he even let me shave his head one night. In the bathtub. Together. Life was unbelievably good.
Annie and Bran seemed the most shocked, and though they didn’t say anything to burst my happy bubble, I could tell they were waiting for the other shoe to drop. I should have been too, probably, but I was so blissfully happy I likely wouldn’t have listened.
“So,” Annie said at the end of our last scheduled day at Bolder Breed. Two new bands were scheduled to work with the producers the following week, and though Morrison and Lydia said we could stay as long as we wanted, that they had rehearsal space for us, the twins were getting restless. Bran hada girlfriend he wanted to get home to, and Annie missed her cat. “What’s the plan?”
Shane and I looked at each other. We hadn’t discussed much past our time at Bolder Breed.
“We have Rocktoberfest in three weeks. We should probably rehearse pretty much the whole week before, at the very least. And next week we have a meeting with our label to play the rough mixes, talk release dates, and schedule our tour.” I looked to Shane.
He didn’t have much on his agenda. After Rocktoberfest, he was a man without a country. We had the music we’d written together, but we hadn’t decided what to do with it. There were two things…well,threethat I had to decide immediately:
Did I want to jump into Butler Collins, record with Shane, and go on tour together?
Did I want to continue with my focus solely on Stellar? Where would Shane fit if I did?
And probably the biggest question I had was, where the fuck was I going to live?
This all seemed so big, and I couldn’t go to any of my usual confidants to discuss my options because, well, they were all going to be impacted, no matter what I decided.
“Well,” Shane said, his gaze darting around the three of us. “About that. Boone and I haven’t talked about it, so I might be asking prematurely…but what would you two think about recording music with us? Boone and I have written a bunch of songs together, and I would love to have the Thompson Rhythm Section on them.”
Annie and Bran looked at each other, wide-eyed, and then they did that twin thing where they communicated without speaking. I’d learned to decipher some of their language, and what I was picking up wasn’t completely positive. This was such an awkward position to be in. I didn’t want to force my newboyfriend down their throats, but I also wanted them to love him as much as I?—
Wow.
I did. I loved him.
“That’s…thank you, Shane. That’s a huge compliment,” Annie finally said. “Can we talk about it?” She looked to me with her eyebrows up.Uh-oh.
“Absolutely, and I know you guys are about to have a full schedule too. I just wanted to put that out there.” He smiled at them with confidence. It seemed like either way was truly okay with him.
They nodded, looked at each other, then looked at me.
“I know you guys need to get home, though,” I said. “Go ahead. We can regroup back in LA next week for our meeting. Sound good?”
They nodded, hugged us, and set off toward the lodge to pack and book flights for the following day.
And then it was Shane and I, and some big fucking conversations to be had.
Twenty-Five
Shane
Suffice it to say, my delivery could have used a little more planning and panache.
Poor Boone. We hadn’t talked about the end result for the music we’d been working on. It had just been so fun for both of us to see what would happen, and I knew he was as excited as I was about it. But his allegiance needed to be with his band, and I got that. I didn’t want to be clingy or anything, it just felt like I’d finally found my musical soul mate, who happened to come with a phenomenal pair of musicians and…now what?
The door closed after the twins and Boone set about cleaning up our trash from the day, which was a very un-Boone-like activity. I’d yet to see him clean something up.
“If I overstepped with Annie and Bran, I’m sorry.”
