Page 19 of Once Upon a Boyband
“Shut up.”
“Don’t freak out. We just talked.”
“Wait. You went to the vet today,” Sarah says. “Is it the hot vet? Did you finally ask out the hot vet?”
“Thehot vethas a name,” I say. “It’s Elena, or Laney, really, and she’s the one who drove me home to pick up my spare key.”
“Oh my gosh. I’m a freaking matchmaking genius, and I didn’t even know it.”
“Somehow I knew you would find a way to take credit for this,” I say.
“Of course I’m taking credit,” she shoots back. “Had I answered my phone, you never would have asked her to help.” She breathes out a happy sigh. “This is so great. You’d better let me speak at your wedding.”
“How about wenotjump all the way to wedding talk?” I say. “But also, who do you think would be your competition if we were assigning speeches?”
“True. You need to make some new friends. So did you ask her out? When will you see her again?”
“I’ve texted her,” I say. “Hopefully, we’ll set something up soon. When do you see Jake again?”
“Actually, we’re going on a little getaway this weekend. Just down to Atlanta—Jake has concert tickets—so unlessyoureallyneed me tomorrow, I’ll probably take the day off so I can do some shopping before Jake gets off work.”
“If everything’s caught up, you know I don’t care.”
She lets out a little squeal. “Yay. You’re the best.” Sarah launches into a detailed play-by-play of their date, and it occurs to me, as she rambles on and on, that I’ve never heard her talk so freely aboutanyof the guys she’s dated in the past. She’s genuinely excited about this guy in a way she never has been before.
I’m happy for her, but there’s an unexpected twinge of sadness laced around the edges of that happiness, too. I was eighteen when Mom died, but Sarah was only seventeen, so she lived in foster care for three months before she aged out of the system. It killed me that she couldn’t just live with me, but my departure from Midnight Rush was fresh enough that the family court didn’t think I was prepared to give Sarah the stability she needed.
So I moved into Mom’s house, got my finances in order, and waited for her birthday.
As soon as we were together, it was us against the world.
We took care of each other. Turned into adults together—a process that was admittedly easier because of the money I’d made with Midnight Rush. I did a lot of hiding in those early years, trying to stay off the grid and out of the public eye, and Sarah is the one who made that possible. She dealt with the real estate agent when we sold Mom’s house and moved deeper into the Tennessee mountains. She dealt with bankers and accountants, she fended off curious journalists and paparazzi. She finally convinced my agent that I was, in all seriousness, finished with the music business.
We didn’t know anything about being adults.
But we figured it out together.
And I couldn’t have done it without her.
Even though I’ve logically always known our lives wouldn’t be this way forever, there’s something about hearing her talk about Jake that feels like the rest of her life is about to begin—a life that won’t involve nearly as much time with me. I’d like to think I’m moving in a similar direction, but that doesn’t make it any less weird.
“Anyway,” she finishes, “I totally promised him he could come by the rescue next week to meet all the dogs, so I was thinking that might be a great time for you to meet him.”
“Is he looking to adopt?”
“As soon as his house is done. And get this. He says he wants an older dog becausetheydeserve good homes too. Isn’t that the sweetest? I was thinking Bono would be perfect for him.”
“Maybe so.”
“Will you be around when he comes by?”
“I’m always around,” I say.
“No, I know. I just mean will you bepresentinstead of off in the fields somewhere communing with nature and talking to the dogs?”
“I don’t…” My words trail off because Ido,actually, talk to the dogs, and I tend to be much happier out in the mountains than inside. “I’ll make an effort,” I say instead.
“Yay. Tell me when you officially make plans with Laney?”
