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Nikki swallowed and tried to look as unconcerned as possible. “I was just thinking, what if she was a little bit right about me?”
“Shelby was wrong about everything,” Asa said. The muscles in his jaw tensed and flexed under his skin. “Not some things, all the things.”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Where is this coming from?” he asked.
Valid question.
“I think I’m just tired,” she admitted.
He studied her for a minute before sighing. “She does that. Gets in your head with her little rat claws and doesn’t let go.” He shuddered.
Nikki snickered.
“I’m glad I have you,” he said seriously. “I’d still be stuck in that cycle if you hadn’t been there for me.”
“Same.”
Asa pulled her into a hug with one arm and she wrapped her free hand around his back.
Some things were hard to talk about even after so much time had passed. Shelby and the end of Winking Pete might always be one of those raw areas that never fully healed.
Al and Des had moved on easily. But they had never been as close to Shelby as she and Asa had been. So when everything went to shit, it had hurt them deeper.
Asa the most, since it had been his sister.
He’d lost more than the band. He’d lost family.
“Ooh, are we hugging?” Al wrapped her long arms around the two of them and hummed softly. “I love hugs. They’re my favorite.”
After a minute, they broke apart and Al got her own coffee.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Just reminiscing about the fork-tongued lizard witch that brought us so close together,” Asa replied.
“You think she’s still stuck under that house in Munchkinland?” Al asked.
Asa barked a laugh and high-fived Al.
“Why were you talking about her?” Al asked.
Asa looked to Nikki because she was the one who’d brought her up. And maybe it was time to tell her big secret.
She chewed on her bottom lip as her two closest friends waited.
“Zara Lorna was here this weekend and we worked on a track together… And she might want me to produce her next album.”
The kitchen erupted in pandemonium. Asa yelled, Al yelled, coffee spilled, Nikki was hugged, shook by the shoulders, and hugged again.
She tried to settle them down.
“It’s still early. She was here this weekend and we worked on a track that…” She shrugged, finding it difficult to say how much she really liked how it turned out. “Well, it’s cool.” She swallowed. “It doesn’t mean that anything is going to happen though.”
“Oh my God, are you kidding me?” Al said, excited. “When can we hear it? I bet it’s badass.”
“You’re amazing,” Asa added. “I’m so proud of you.”
