“Come and peelthe potatoes while your wife rests,” she ordered.
Remingtonstretched out on the sofa as we all gathered around the island, peelingpotatoes and whatever else Grace asked us to do.
Peace settleddeep as I joined in on the domestic chore. These people were my family, and Icouldn’t have asked for better.
* * *
Melody
“LiLi, I’m fine,”I ground out, trying to figure out a way out of this conversation with mysister.
“You are notfine, andbecauseyou’re not fine, I’ve been in the dark about thissituation, DiDi.”
“I shouldn’thave said anything,” I grumbled. “Besides, Gill’s in the hands of the justicesystem and NiNi’s got a guitar player set up for me in Portland. If he’s not atotal dick, and he doesn’t shit the bed on opening night, I’ll keep him on forthe rest of the tour.”
“Okay, butwhat’s all this about your security team?” she asked.
“It’s fine. I’mprobably just overreacting because of what happened before. Besides Harmony ishooking me up with an additional security guy too.”
“Sweetness, I amabout to lose my religion over this.”
Whenever Lyriccalled me or Harmony ‘sweetness,’ we knew we were in trouble.
“Well, wecertainly wouldn’t want that,” I retorted.
“Melody—”
“Stop,” Iordered. “There was no reason for you to worry about any of this before, andthere still isn’t. I’ll be fine and the tour will be great. We just hit a speedbump. That’s all.”
I wasn’t sure ifI was trying to reassure my sister or myself.
“Hey.”
“What?” Isnapped.
“I love you.”
I sighed. “Ilove you too. Even though you’re a pain in my ass.”
“I’ll talk toyou tomorrow night.”
“Oh, goody,” Ideadpanned.
Lyric chuckled,then hung up.
I dropped myphone on the table of yet another hotel suite and glanced around the room. Iwas alone. I was always alone. Even when I wasn’t, I still felt the pressure ofloneliness, but being by myself was what I wanted.
Or at least,that’s what I told myself.
The only time Ifelt whole was when I was with my sisters, but these days I barely ever sawthem. They’d met their dream men, were having babies, and lived practically onopposite coasts. Lyric lived with her biker husband, Doom, in Savannah,Georgia. Harmony lived with Jaxon, and they both worked for the FBI inPortland, Oregon, so we saw each other at Christmas and once or twice duringthe rest of the year.
I hated it.
I wanted more.
I just had tofigure out how to make it happen. Lyric was my manager, and she was also theconservator of my estate. This meant, she controlled my money.
And the reasonshe controlled my money is because I had a total and complete breakdown when Iwas sixteen and Lyric had stepped in before my mother could make moves to takeover my life. I’d been the main breadwinner for the family since I was a child,but with my Dizzy show, I had a little more freedom.
