The strings of my guitar hummed as I started my tenth run-through of a song I was working on when I heard the sliding door open behind me. I twisted in the lawn chair and spotted Tic poking his head out of the house.
“Aye, Liam. Wanna give that a rest for the night and come watch a movie with us?”
“Sure. Just give me a minute,” I said, continuing to manipulate the strings.
The sliding door closed, and then I heard his footsteps.
Tic stepped in front of me, holding the extra beer in his hand out. “Come on. You’ve been at it for hours. Take a break.”
Had it really been that long?I took the beer and set down my guitar.
“It’s sounding good, man. You have lyrics for it?” Tic asked.
“None worth sharing yet.”
He nodded and took a pull from his bottle. “What’s got you working so hard?”
“I don’t know. Just trying to stay busy, I guess.”Yeah, so I wouldn’t fuck Danny’s little sister again.
“We’re way ahead of our deadlines with the label, especially after giving them ‘Hollow Again.’ We can afford to take it easy—at least until our tour is done.”
“I don’t mind the work.”
“How come you haven’t played it with Danny boy yet?”
Danny and I usually did the most work in the group when it came to songwriting, and we did better brainstorming together.
“I’m not sure I have anything yet. It’s still a work in progress.”
Tic nudged my boot with his foot and smiled. “Sure sounds like you’ve got something. I think I heard you play the entire song through at least a dozen times. You want to play around with it in the studio tomorrow? We can mess around with the other instrumentals. Maybe that will help you with the lyrics.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I already had most of the lyrics in my head, but I had yet to sing them. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have them help me come up with lyrics that weren’t about Avery. She was consuming my songwriting now too.
“Hey. You’d tell me if there was something going on, right?”
I frowned, hoping he hadn’t noticed anything between Avery and me. “What do you mean?”
The light from the pool reflected off of his face. “It’s pretty obvious you’ve been distracted lately. I don’t want to assume that’s a bad thing, but after what happened with Danny all those years ago, I don’t ever want to write off when one of us is acting a little different.”
There was a sliver of relief, followed by a squeezing in my chest. I knew what it felt like to be on his end, worrying about something that might seem insignificant but could end up catastrophic if left unchecked.
“Nah, man. It’s nothing like that. I promise.”
He chewed on that for a second. “I don’t mean to compare this to Danny’s overdose. I know with everything you went through with your dad, it wouldn’t lead to that. But if there’s anything bothering you, you know I’m always here. Right?”
I stood and quickly hugged him. “You have nothing to worry about.” I pulled away and took another sip of my beer, contemplating telling him the truth. But I feared that would make him worry about not only me, but Danny too. “It’s honestly just a girl.”
“No shit?” He chuckled. “I don’t know if that’s all that better.”
I smiled. “She’s got me writing songs, doesn’t she?”
“I guess. Just be careful, Liam.”
My smile tilted. “Relax. When have I ever had girl problems?”
He elbowed me. “Whatever, man.”
“Tic! Liam!” Nikko called from the house, holding a bowl of popcorn. “Are we watching a movie or what?” he asked, stuffing a handful of popcorn in his mouth.
