“She’s right.” Dylan backed me up, which he often did when the other two were getting out of hand. “We’re all in or it’s nothappening.”
“Who the hell is in, other than Zane?” Jesse looked around at us with dark, accusing eyes. I wanted to sink into my seat and disappear, but I stayed right where I was. It always made me uncomfortable when Jesse was mad at me, but I’d just have to deal with it; I was uncomfortable around himanyway.
“I didn’t say I’min,” Zane said cooly. “I just saidmaybe—”
“I’m in,” Isaid.
I wasn’t sure exactlywhyI said it, other than the fact that I couldn’t quite stomach this particular ending to Seth’s story. I didn’t like the first ending, or the second one, but I’d accepted them. Justbarely.
But both of those times, Seth had accepted them,too.
At least, I thought hedid.
If that wasn’t true… the least we could do was listen to whatever he had tosay.
The guys all turned to look at me. Brody, Jesse, Zane and Dylan. Jesse’s jaw flexed as he ground his teeth; he wasn’t happy about what I was about to say. But I was going to say itanyway.
“I’m in… for having theconversation.”
“Me too,” Zane said. No hesitation. I couldn’t really tell, though, if he was just “in” to irritate Jesse or if he really wanted Sethhere.
Either way, the response was not good. Jesse glared at Zane like he was seriously considering throttling him. Brody turned and walkedout.
Hewalkedout.
Brody had never walked out on the band before. It was just a fuckingconversation. Brody was our manager, and we counted on him forguidance.
But we all knew, when it came to anything to do with Jessa, Brody could be far less thanreasonable.
“Anger management,” Maggie said softly in his wake, in the strained silence. “He’s… uh… working on it.” She was sitting off to the side, quietly, listening to all of this, iPad gripped in her lap. Her knuckles looked painfullywhite.
So maybe she’d had something to do with Seth getting in here? If so, she was probably shitting herself rightnow.
Poorgirl.
Zane kicked Dylan’s boot. “Say something,man.”
“I don’t know.” Dylan looked as exhausted as he sounded. “The guy almost tore us apart before. If it’s already happening again, just over aconversation…”
“Seth Brothers is not tearing us apart,” Jesse said firmly. “We’re together on this. Aren’twe?”
“Brody just walked out,” Zane pointed out. He was poking the bear, probably still annoyed that Jesse wasn’t seeing eye-to-eye with him about that teen guitarwiz.
“So you’re gonna lose him to get Seth back?” Jesse accused Zane—and me. His dark gaze slammed into mineagain.
“No one said that,” Zane said, lounging back in his seat. The more pissed off Jesse got, the cooler Zane would get. It was a recipe for a fucking disaster. “And we’re not losingBrody.”
“You bring Seth back in here,” Jesse retorted, “and we sure as fuckare.”
“Brody will cool off.” That was Maggie. She got to her feet. “And this doesn’t have to be decided today. If there’s a dialogue to be had aboutSeth—”
“If any of you actually think I’mevergetting in the same room with Seth Brothers again without talking to my sister first,” Jesse said, steam-rolling right over Maggie, “you’re dead fucking wrong. She should be here for thisconversation.”
This time, when he glared at me, I agreed, “Yes, sheshould.”
Jesse stared at me for a beat, like maybe he’d expected me to argue. Then he got up and stalked out. As he went, his jeans brushed against mine, and I caught a whiff of his scent. Leather and cinnamon and gorgeous man, along with something that was vaguely Katie; sweet andvanilla.
Iexhaled.
