Page 27 of Once Upon A Christmas Song

“Enoch’s love language.”

“That’s correct.”

“I am very much enjoying how annoyed you are about Luther.”

“I will remind you about this when he shows up in his long, flowing outfits and his sandals and his man bun.”

“So you’re saying there’s no more leather pants and cowboy hats?” I teased him.

“Don’t get me wrong, he’s still Luther, and I love him, but he needs to get his own place, even though we do, in fact, have an apartment over our garage.”

I didn’t say a word.

“That face you’re making right there, that’s the same face Angie’s making, but I told her, one of these days, he’s gonna bring home some weird girl, and then we’re screwed.”

“Or the girl will want him to live with her in a treehouse or something.”

“Oh, okay. Yeah. That’s good. I like your thought process there. But in the meantime, realize that Luther will be talking to all your people about their chakras and shit.”

“I can’t wait.”

He groaned. “Anyway, at the place on Telegraph, Enoch has his showroom on the first floor and his sales office behind that. On the second floor, overlooking the street, is Neville’s office, where he draws and everything, and the room behind that is their bedroom. It’s really nice, and they’re down there by a lot of other shops, not by the bars, so it works out great.”

“I will have to go check out Enoch’s stuff.”

“Oh, man, he’s got a website, he ships stuff all over the world, he’s doing great with it. He started doing all that while waiting for me and Daw to figure out our lives and get out of rehab.”

“Good for him.”

“Yeah, I’m glad he wants to work on the new album and play with us again. It wouldn’t be the same without him.”

“And how is he with Luther’s plant-based diet?”

“He might try it if he was still allowed a cheeseburger now and then.”

I was chuckling as I asked after the last member of the group, Carlos Ortega.

“Carlos married Rebecca, remember her?”

I did. “She played keyboards for you guys, didn’t she?”

“Yeah, and now she writes soundtracks for movies and TV shows, and since she can do that from wherever, and because she’s in demand, so she can pick the projects she wants to work on, they moved here as well. She loves the Quarter, was gushing about it the other night. She feels inspired here.”

“Most artists do.”

“And Carlos was more than happy to leave Crisis and rejoin us.”

“Crisis is a huge band. They were here last year and sold out the Superdome.”

He nodded.

“And Carlos was willing to leave that?”

“C’mon, man, we’re not only a band, we’re a family. But what’s different now is, even when Daw’s ready and we start recording, it’s never gonna be the same, and I mean that in a good way. In the best way.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I mean, we’ll play some live shows, do some appearances to promote the album, but the days of us being gone for nine, ten months outta the year—hell no. That’s over.”