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"I know what it'll take to call it even."
"Anything. Name it."
"Arrange one night for me to be alone with Adam."
The words catch in my throat, and my chest tightens again. That's the second time. Both times when she mentioned claims to Adam. I ignore the observation.
"With my history, the last thing you want me to do is get into the business of matchmaking. You have your bubbling personality and your two piece. I think you'll do fine on your own."
The line goes silent for a second, and I pray she wants to shift topics. The last thing I need on this trip is any romantic entanglements. This trip is for the music. For the future of the band.
"You know Adam, right? You guys hung out in Boston?"
"Yeah." I pause and weigh my words carefully. "I wouldn't exactly say I know him. We jammed together in a studio with a dozen other people for a couple of hours." I hear the disclaimers in my head and wonder why I'm holding back.
"Is he kind?" she asks a question of which there's no dispute to the answer.
"The kindest." A smile pulls on my face as I recall watching Adam refill his sister's water bottle whenever she stepped away from the microphone between songs.
"Is he trustworthy?"
My chest tightens and this time, I don't ignore it. "Emily. He lives in Indiana. You live in Ohio. Let's not get your hopes up based on a photo. He's a man, after all. We both know what that means." She doesn't say a word, but I can practically hear the air escape from the balloon she was holding. "You're beautiful, Emily. Charming and mad fun. We'll have a few days with the boys. That's it. I'll work with them during the day on the music, while you dial into your job. We'll have the nights together. All four of us. We'll have fun—promise."
"You're right. We'll make the best of the nights."
I hear the smile return to her voice and can't wait to meet her at the airport. The plan is forming. I have Emily. I have the brothers. In my head, I've worked out a rough sketch of how I want the music sessions to go. All I have to do now is figure out the rest. "Here's to Summer Nights."
****
Chapter Five
Adam
"You promised to behave this time," I tease Laredo as we stroll down the boardwalk in Seaside. The familiar scent of fried goodness and sea air fill my nostrils, and I think how little of it has changed in the last year, yet so much has changed for us.
"Yeah, I did." Laredo smirks as he replies to me. His eyes cut to a pair of college-aged girls in cut-off jeans and swim tops. He twists his neck as his gaze refuses to let go. When he turns his entire body and continues to walk backwards, I step into his sight line and ruin his view. He snickers at me and turns. "You should know better by now."
And I should.
Laredo has been a man-whore for the last ten years. Ever since he realized how good he was with the guitar and how much chicks dig a man with a guitar. We're twenty-seven years old. Most guys have outgrown that phase by now, not Laredo. Even when life has taken him down a notch or two, he continues to hold on to this last piece of his childhood. He's like Peter Pan, refusing to grow up.
He wraps an arm around my neck and pulls me in tight, pressing a hard kiss to the side of my head. I should be thankful. He may still be an immature man-child, but at least he no longer hates me. We've reconciled our differences and get along these days. "I'll let you continue to carry the burden of being good. I'm just fine with people who have low expectations. It makes it so much easier for me to surpass them."
He laughs away his truth, not realizing overcoming a low bar isn't the achievement he believes it to be.
It's a warm summer night in Seaside. A charming, small, beach town in Oregon that somehow becomes the center of the music industry one week a year. An ocean breeze tickles my face, and I steal a glance out at the beach. Clusters of people dot the shoreline, enjoying the last of the sun, the night rapidly approaching.
I squeeze the handle of my guitar case and decide to change the subject. "Have you given any thoughts about what you'd like to play for Ariel?" I'm still in disbelief she's asked us to work with her on a new piece of music. Something different from what she's been creating with the band. I wasn't sure what impression our Boston session left. It was only a few hours, and we only played one song written by Hailey.
Laredo lifts his chin at the wind, willing it to his command. It abides, whipping through his hair in a slow-motion breeze from a music video. When we were younger, I'd try to emulate Laredo's style. The wild hair, the three-day-old growth on my chin, the whole thing. But I could never pull it off. It always felt like putting on a large and difficult to breathe Halloween mask which everyone could see right through. "Not yet. I'll let the mood of the moment speak to me." He closes his eyes for a beat, and the look of contentment on his face warms me. Maybe this trip is exactly what he needs. He's been stuck on a treadmill in Indiana. A downward spiral that was getting steeper with each gig he self-sabotaged his way through. But he's never concerned. I wish I could bottle a little of his life will work out just fine for me attitude.
I don't know what my future holds. I haven't taken the stage in over six months and until that text arrived had very little interest in ever doing so again. I fill my days with keeping tabs on Hailey, making sure Laredo doesn't wind up in jail, and writing music.
"It'll be good to play alongside you again." It's like he's reading my mind. And maybe he is. We are twins, after all. "It'll be like the old days, except with a hotter third member of the band."
I bite my tongue. There are only so many times I can tell Laredo to behave. He's obviously attracted to Ariel; he made it painfully obvious in Boston. And he had to show me the inappropriate string of texts he'd sent her when he accepted the gig. The fact that she didn't tell him not to get on the plane and didn't block his number has only encouraged him.
Laredo points ahead of us to the ice cream stand Ariel asked us to meet her. I don't spot her but didn't expect I would. We're thirty minutes early. I gave Laredo the wrong meeting time by an hour to account for him running thirty minutes late to everything. I couldn't risk us being late the first day. Ariel isn't the type of woman you keep waiting.
