Paul gave him a knowing look. “Rough night?”
“Andrew is an animal,” Jem rasped.
Chuckling, his mother deposited a mug of coffee on the table. It had way more milk and sugar than Jem would’ve added, but it might as well have been the nectar of the gods. He drank half the mug before he remembered his manners. “Thanks, Mom.”
“I haven’t seen you like this since your high-school graduation,” she teased.
Jem had still been drunk at five the next day.
“Pics or it didn’t happen,” Penny put in, obviously hoping to laugh at the evidence.
Jem’s mom clucked at her. “You’ll be next. You know what they say about payback.”
Penny stuck out her tongue. Jem smiled at the exchange and thumbed open his phone.
He’d forgotten how close Colton was sitting until he almost screeched in Jem’s ear. “Holy shit! That’s River Wild!”
Because yeah. Jem was a sap and he’d made a selfie of him and River his wallpaper.
He winced and downed a little more coffee.
Jem’s mom and Paul turned around at the exact same time and chided, “Language!”
“Who’s River Wild?” Penny wanted to know.
Where’s the rest of the coffee pot?Jem wondered.
Before he could answer, Colton said, “From the Flat Tires. He’s the guitarist. How do you know him?”
Several inappropriate answers went through Jem’s hungover mind. “Uhhhh,” he stalled.
“Don’t be so nosy,” Paul chided. He set a huge waffle topped with berries and whipped cream in front of Jem.
“No, it’s okay.” Jem wasn’t going to get a lot of time with these kids. He wanted to bond with them in whatever way he could, while he had the chance. And apparently in his concern over whether people would know he’d once been River’s sugar baby, he’d forgotten that some people would just think having a rock-star boyfriend was cool as hell. “Will you think I’m lying if I say he’s my boyfriend?”
Colton squinted, assessing him. “Prove it.”
Fuck it, Jem wanted to eat his waffle. He didn’t have anything incriminating on his phone. He navigated to his camera reel and passed it over in favor of picking up his fork. He didn’t take a lot of selfies, but he had a few pictures of him and River together or separately, along with a few clips of River playing guitar at home.
Colton played a few of them, completely ignoring the waffle that appeared in front of him two minutes later. Penny rolled her eyes and stole his plate, though she did cast occasional looks over his shoulder. “Hey, I know that song.”
“You definitely don’t,” Colton told her. “I’ve never even heard it. Must be new.”
Jem ignored them and looked at Paul. “This is the best waffle I have ever had. Teach me. But like, after I finish this and maybe three more.”
It wouldhave been better, River decided the morning after the concert, if he’d gone to bed early and ridden back to California on the bus, rather than spending the night. Not because he was so hungover. At least not from alcohol. No, this was anemotionalhangover. His face was swollen and his eyes were itchy from crying and his throat tickled like the early stages of strep throat.
He had a dehydration headache too. See: crying. He was blaming Ward. He started it.
Also he was roasting, because apparently in their sad-sack shenanigans last night they’d decided to curl up together on the king-size bed in River’s room, and he was being spooned on both sides.
“Eric.”
The body behind him twitched but didn’t otherwise move. Fuck.
“Ward.”
A low, incoherent groan.
