“You want this?” he asked me. “Seth in the band?” He didn’t say a word about the rest ofit.
“Yes.”
There was nothing more to say. For me, it was a resounding yes. I’d scream it off the mountaintops if they needed meto.
“And what if you guys break up?” Dylanasked.
“Oh,snap,” Zane said, recovering from the shock. “Yeah. What the fuck happensthen?”
But it wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about that scenariomyself.
“I’ve been through one breakup in this band,” I said dryly, “I can surviveanother.”
Jesse shook his head. “No one wants that for you, Elle. For you to have to go throughthat.”
“Yeah, well… it’s a risk I’m willing totake.”
They were allsilent.
Then Dylan got to his feet, leaned over and gave me a hug. “We’ll talk to Brody,” he said, and this time, it meant everything tome.
“Thank you.” I fought back tears as Zane hugged me,too.
“Thankyou,” Zane whispered in myear.
“Forwhat?”
“For bringing our boy back to us.” He slapped me on the back, kind of a man slap, but I was used to these from Zane, a guy who didn’t exactly know how to relate to women who wouldn’t fuckhim.
“You’re welcome,” I said, shoving him gentlyaway.
“So…” he said, studying me, and still trying to get his head around it, “you’re fuckingSeth?”
“Zane. Shit…” Dylan hooked him by the neck and dragged himaway.
Jesse stood to face me, filling my vision, as I heard the other guys leave the church. We were alone, for the first time in a very longtime.
He still hadn’t cut his hair and the dark curls almost touched his even darker eyes. He looked eat-your-heart-out gorgeous, as usual—and yet, it didn’t make my stomach turn over the way it usuallydid.
His hands were shoved deep in the pockets of his jeans. They were faded black with rips on the thighs, and on his feet, he was wearing black-and-white Converseagain.
I couldn’t help smirking a little. “So what’s with theChucks?”
“Huh?” He glanced down and rocked back on his heels, kinda the way Seth often did. “Oh. Katie gave them tome.”
“Uh-huh. She looks good on you,” I said, grudgingly. It was true; the man had had a nauseating glow about him ever since he met thatgirl.
His mouth twitched a little, like he might smile, but he didn’t. “You’re sure,” he said, “this is what youwant?”
“Yes.”
“You’resure.”
“Yes.”
He digested that, nodded once, then gazed up at the stage behind me. When his dark eyes found mine again, he said, “Alright. I’ll talk to Brody. We can have another band meeting, soon. Talk to him together. But I need to talk to him first. This will be hard for him, and I think he needs to hear it from me. I’m the only one he’ll trust to make the right decision, where Jessa’sconcerned.”
I knew that was likely true. Butstill…
