Dallas moved over to share the space with him and the pair of them sang together. They were smiling, dancing, and laughing with each other as they played. I sometimes forgot that they were good friends before we met.
We moved into ‘Dr. Feelgood’ by Mötley Crüe. All three men lit up, taking in each other’s energy. Suddenly, we weren’t just playing for ourselves. We had an invisible stadium full of people to entertain. Something about 80’s hard rock brought out the best in all of us.
We finally called it a night when that song ended. We were all sweating, out of breath, and could barely speak.
“My neighbors are going to kill me,” I laughed.
“Fuck ‘em, they just got a free concert. They should be grateful,” Dallas smirked, reaching for his water. He was heaving but chose to dump the water on his head rather than down his throat. He shook his hair out like a dog and laughed. “That was fun. We need to do that again sometime.”
“I want to add that to our set,” Tate added.
“She can’t sing that,” Ronny scoffed. Everyone began putting their equipment away. I stood and stretched my legs. “Plus, let’s wait until Cash gets back before we start adding and removing things from the set list.”
“Relax, it was just a suggestion. Does anyone know when Cash is coming back? I haven’t heard from him in a week or so,” I said.
“End of the month, I think,” Ronny said.
“You guys hungry? I can order some food. I’m craving a burger and fries,” Dallas said. We all started out of the room. I stayed back a step so I could walk with Tate. He reached for my waist, pulling me to him. Ronny glanced back at us but said nothing.
“Food sounds great, but I can’t stay tonight. I have to pick up Cara from my mom’s.”
“You still haven’t found a sitter?” Dallas shook his head, incredulous. “Man, you gotta figure out something soon.”
“You think? Thanks for that solid piece of advice pal,” Tate got sharp with him. Dallas shot him a confused look. I did too. Why was he so testy? Tate relaxed, letting me go, and walked to the door. I followed him, stopping to kiss him goodbye.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” He glanced back at Dallas and Ronny, giving them a slight wave before disappearing.
“Have you thought about asking Thing One and Thing Two to babysit? And Ben, I guess. They can’t go anywhere without him,” Dallas mentioned after Tate left.
I looked over at my brother. He had plopped down on my couch and grabbed my remote to find something to watch on TV. I joined him and Ronny.
“Lola and Rosa? You think they’d want to? They are closer than his mom’s house. He wouldn’t have to drive so far.” I sat up straight. “That actually might work. I’ll mention it to Tate.”
“Is he still going to try to play with us when Cash comes back?” Ronny asked.
“Yeah? Why wouldn’t he?”
“We can’t take a kid to shows. Or on a bus. I’m not riding on a tour bus with a crying, shitting, baby.”
“I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself there. We’ve only played a few shows. Unless you’ve suddenly got the cash to rent a bus we’re not touring any time soon. Local shows are fine until we gain some kind of following. You’re purposely trying to pick a fight.”
Ronny licked his lips and I watched his jaw tighten, then relax again.
“Yeah, I guess I am. Sorry, it’s hard to turn off.” He turned to my brother and asked about dinner, changing the subject.
We had two more jam sessions before Cash came home. They were fun, but we were all starting to miss our pal. When him and Audrey finally returned, we were all over the moon.
They stopped over the morning following their return. Audrey was practically glowing. Cash was happy too, which made me happy. They gushed about their vacation all morning. Finally, once they had told us every thing they could, Cash brought up the band.
“I’m glad to be back. I was starting to miss you guys,” he teased. “I can’t wait to play some live gigs again. My feet are itching for the stage.”
“Me too. We’ve been practicing some but now that you’re back, we can really amp up the rehearsal time. Fine tune our set list.” Ronny had once again come over with Dallas to hang out. We were enjoying coffee when they came in.
“You want to go longer?” Tate asked Ronny, taking a slow, careful sip of his drink.
“Hell yeah I do. We’re just getting started. We need to be practicing as much as possible.”
“Do any of you have day jobs?” Tate asked, looking around the kitchen.
