“He’s—it’s not—I just have something for him, and I’m hoping he’s okay with that.”
“Oooooh,” Lucas said, in the tone of someone who was about to break into the K-I-S-S-I-N-G song.
That, of course, was when Dean plopped into his chair, smiling at me and then shooting Lucas one of those brotherly “what the hell is wrong with you” expressions.
Lucas... suddenly proved that he was both smarter than he pretended, and fully capable of being circumspect, even though he often acted otherwise. “I gotta run to the bathroom now. Back in a bit.”
Dean turned to watch him go, eyes squinting in confusion. “He went just before me.”
“Maybe he drank a lot of water at work today.”
“He is distractible,” Dean sort of agreed, then turned back to me, smiling again. “How you doing?”
“Good. I’m—I’m good. How are you?”
That put a worried crease between his brows. Shit. “Landon?”
“I bought us tickets to see the Arctic Monkeys,” I blurted out, because yeah, I was just smooth like that.
Dean? His eyes went wide in surprise, then a moment later, he broke into one of the biggest smiles I’d ever seen on his face. “Seriously? They’re going on tour again? That’s awesome. And you want us to go together?”
I couldn’t help it, his joy was infectious, and I grinned right back, pulling out my phone and showing him the tickets I’d bought.
When Lucas arrived back at the table, we were both hunched over my phone, making plans of me taking the day off work and spending the whole day in the venue area, visiting other things there.
“You guys look cozy,” he said, in the same singsong tone as before.
Dean turned to him, joy not dimming for a second, and told him, “Landon’s taking me to see the Arctic Monkeys, so I’m going to show him around SoMa. We’re gonna make a day of it.”
Lucas gave me a wink as he sat down, nodding to his brother. “Sounds awesome. Frozen Monkeys for the win and stuff.”
Dean rolled his eyes, but... hell, it was just one of those perfect moments, and I could almost feel it writing itself into my brain. I would remember this forever.
Also, because we’d won trivia night the week before, our first round of the night was paid for. Best night ever.
CHAPTER 16
DEAN
Ihad new blisters on my fingers.
It’d been years since I’d felt the kind of burning on the pads of my fingertips from playing so much, but ever since Craig had dropped out, I’d spent every minute either with Landon or practicing on my acoustic guitar, locked up in my apartment.
It was like I’d lost control, and thought I could get a handle on my future if I practiced hard enough. Logically, I knew it wasn’t achieving what I wanted it to, but for at least a little while, I was giving myself a pass.
If it made me feel better in the short term, great.
Eventually, I was going to need to get real with myself, and that sounded fucking terrible.
Could I hack this on my own, or did I need to get a freaking day job?
I could push on Lucas, even though he’d said he didn’t want me giving up yet. Even with Craig out, Lucas wanted me to keep at it.
Of course, I hadn’t told him that Riley had bailed on practice because it was weird without Craig there and they’d had a chance to pick up an extra shift at work.
Worst-case scenario, I wound up working for one of those food delivery apps. It was a pain, sure, but I had a bike and a dream, and I’d heard tips weren’t bad out here.
It’d let me be flexible instead of delusional. Nobody was buying merch or EPs from Dean St. James, singer-songwriter formerly of the band Lucky Black Cat, which had a small local following but had fallen apart in his hands faster than a bunch of undermixed pie crust.
