“I wasn’t!”
“Boys!”Skye said, clapping her hands.“Can we get back on topic?”
“Sorry, Mum,” Ollie said.
Liam snickered.
Skye rolled her eyes but smiled.She enjoyed this.Enjoyed being the captain steering the rock star ship with these goofy and impossible shipmates.
Her smile died a little as she glanced at West.He hadn’t said anything or even moved from his position on the couch.
Remi was eyeing him, but he didn’t say anything, so she followed his lead and proceeded with her discussion, laying out their options.She could try to get them booked at smaller venues in the same cities they were scheduled to play in, but on short notice, it was likely going to be impossible to squeeze them in.Or they could take the next week and a half off, and Skye could work on getting some tour dates added to the end of the schedule.
“Aren’t we supposed to go to the studio a few weeks after the tour?”Liam asked.“We’ll have to push it back if we add to the end.”
“Yeah,” Remi said.
“Plus, we’ll have to add more tour dates than were canceled to make up for lost time,” Skye said.“Given we still have to pay everyone, even if you guys aren’t performing.It’ll be tough to make it work financially.”
“But we have to at least try, don’t we?”Ollie asked.“I don’t want to end our first tour in the hole.”
“There’s one more option I haven’t told you about yet,” she said.
“Shocker,” West mumbled.
Remi pressed his lips together but didn’t say anything.He just gave a nod to Skye to keep going.
“Metalfest is being held in Daytona Beach,” Skye said and scrolled on her laptop, bringing up the email from a promoter she’d received the day before.“They had a last-minute dropout, so there is a stage open for us in three days.”
“Who dropped out?”Ollie asked.
“Crushing Skulls,” Skye said.
They all winced.
“They want us to replace Crushing Skulls?They’ve heard our music, right?”Liam asked.
“I know it’s not an ideal audience,” she said.“But Metalfest needs to have all of their stages full.They’re willing to pay a guarantee that will make up what we’ll lose from the canceled shows.It’s perfectly timed that we can get there a day or so early, do the show, and get back to Austin for the next gig.Since it’s a festival, the stage setup between acts is minimal.We can bring our drum kit and some of our equipment, but we don’t need the full show.They handle lights, sound, everything.We’ll bring a skeleton crew, of course, but I really think this is the best option for us.”
“Us?”West said.“Who isus?”
Skye swallowed and turned around in the booth to West.“Uh, yeah, us as in the band’s best option.I’m going to manage you guys again if that wasn’t clear.”
West snorted.“Great.”
“I’m sorry,” Skye said.She didn’t bother to disguise her annoyance.“Do you have a problem?”
West just sucked on his teeth and shook his head.
“I say we do it,” Ollie said.
“Me too,” Liam agreed.“I’ve always wanted to go to Metalfest.”
Remi chewed his lip.“What do you think, West?”His voice was soft.“We can sleep on it if you want.Or you can say no.No one will blame you.”
West said nothing.
“I was sort of leaning toward time off,” Remi continued.“Given I just got the shit beat out of me and, you know, the day it is.”
