Dylan reached across his drums to shake myhand.
Then Jesse handed me my guitar. “The past is done,” he said. “Welcome to a new beginning.” The look in his dark eyes was welcoming, if not still a littleguarded.
I nodded and took the Gibson. I strapped it on, finding my position. It was a new guitar; a gift fromElle.
I glanced at her. A few feet away, she was standing ready, her bass in her hands, the sparkly silver strap over her shoulder. She smiled at me. And I had to look away before tears formed in myeyes.
I glanced down at my feet. My old snakeskin boots, planted firmly on thestage.
And as Zane grabbed his mic and started talking to the crowd, I said a little prayer in my head—to no one in particular. To God? To the gods of rock? To my dead parents? Didn’t matter. I just put it out into the universe. It was one of only a few times I’d ever done that in my life, and as usual, the prayer wasn’t forme.
It was for myband.
ForDirty.
When I looked up, I saw all the faces in the crowd, looking back at me. I saw thecameras.
I looked around the stage at my band, and I felt their energy building—ready to tear lose. My heart beat heavily, but slowly, in my chest. I took another deepbreath.
I still had a lot to prove. I knewthat.
The door had been opened for me. Now it was up to me to walk through it, and rock the housedown.
But I was more than fucking ready for thatchallenge.
“We’re gonna start this night off right,” Zane announced, “with a kick-ass new song, written by our new/old guitarist. You know him as Seth Brothers.” Zane grinned, and winked at me over his shoulder as the crowd screamed theirapproval.
I grinned back athim.
“We like to call this one ‘To Hell and Back,’” hesaid.
Then Dylan counted usin.
And as the song kicked in, I started toplay.
Epilogue
Dylan
Beer in hand,I dropped onto a couch at the back of the bar. It was the middle of the night, and some slow, bass-heavy dance song was playing, thudding through the building. The lights were low, candles burning, and the drinks wereflowing.
Dirty had finished playing hours ago, the film crew had finished shooting, but the private after party was still goingstrong.
I’d been thinking about hooking up with some blonde girl, a friend of Maggie’s, but then I’d lost track of her. On purpose. She was cute, but I just wasn’t feelingit.
Everywhere I looked, people were making out. Surprisingly, Zane wasn’t one of them. He was sitting on the edge of the stage with Brody and Jude, talking. Jessa had gone home at some point, tired and complaining of her swollen feet. Maggie was nearby, chatting with Summer. And Jesse and Katie were holed up in a corner, suckingface.
Elle and Seth were in another corner. I watched them for a bit. Kissing slowly, talking, and smiling at each other. His hand was on herbelly.
What a mind-fuck.
But I had to admit, if Elle was happy, if this was what she wanted… the fact that Seth was now the father of her baby was definitely gonna cement him into the Dirty family for eternity. Good or bad, it was afact.
And I, for one, was happy aboutit.
As long as Elle washappy.
“Hey. I wanted to thank you,” Liv said, as she sat down next to me on thecouch.
