Chapter 6
Five Years Ago—Dante
Dante disembarked the cruise ship in San Diego, his bass strapped to his back and the handle of his rolling suitcase in his other hand.
Above and around him was the flurry of activity as passengers hefted all of their luggage and crew rushed to clean the ship and restock before the next voyage left.
He would miss it. Not everything, not all the time, but he would miss the rush, the constant flow of new passengers, the steady paycheck. Every day somewhere new. After two years on ships, he had been a hell of a lot of places. They blurred after a point.
What didn’t blur was that after two years of being apart and talking whenever they could, Dante was finally ready to tell Ellery everything. The closet stress had driven him up the wall on every trip. With her, hopefully he could finally just…be.
As long as she came. As long as he had the courage.
“Hey! Dante!” his band mates called. They congregated just outside the embarkation zone. “Last day, huh?”
“Yeah.” Dante tilted his face toward the sky, letting the Southern California sun warm his skin. “It feels good to be here.” He slapped their outstretched hands and let himself be pulled into quick hugs.
“Take care. Keep us in mind when you decide you want to be famous.” Jill, the lead guitarist and his shipboard roommate, waved her farewell.
They had been a good team, the four of them. Playing the classic covers night after night in the cocktail lounges, or down in the pit covering the musical revues. He had learned a ton over his last contracts.
But the time away was draining. Six months on, six weeks off. It wasn’t enough. Not for them, not for him. Everything he had missed rose up and tickled the back of his neck.
Jill arched her eyebrows toward him. “We’ll see you back in six weeks?”
His phone buzzed, and when he checked the ID, his heart leaped in his throat.
Ellery. Ellery had texted him that she was here. He hadn’t seen her in two years, not since that night in Los Angeles. All that time texting, becoming friends, not telling her how every time his phone beeped with a message from her he lit up inside.
His emotions must have shown on his face.
Jill whistled. After rooming with him for the last six months, she knew almost everything there was to know. His had been pretty much the only secret kept onboard, but being closeted had been safe. “Tell Ellery to play with us on the ship next time.”
“Bye, guys.” Dante waved at them one last time, letting his eyes rest on the hull of the ship, the familiar activity of a port day, cataloging it for future reference.
Ellery was here in San Diego, and he didn’t want to lose another second before seeing her.
* * *
Ellery
Ellery bounced on her toes outside the arrivals area, ruing her short stature. Too many tall people wearing hats. It didn’t mean she would stop trying.
After two years of spotty communication and missed shore leaves, Dante was back.
She had debated—not for very long—not showing up.
Tyler wasn’t thrilled with it. But then, why did she give two shits what Tyler thought?
They had hooked up, nothing more, and that was over as of yesterday, as far as she was concerned.
She didn’t need a relationship, not while trying to balance more frequent gigs with her boring-as-hell retail job to pay the bills for the minuscule apartment she shared with three roommates.
Besides, she and Selene and Lorraine had fired Tyler from the Vendetta yesterday. They didn’t need his not-so-coy social media insinuations about Selene and Lorraine. Toxic masculine bullshit, no thank you.
She checked the time on her phone. He should have disembarked by now. The ship was already there, enormous and practically blocking out the Southern California eternal sunshine. People congregated and shuttled past, but no Dante.
Over in the departures area of the port, a woman in a sharply-tailored black jumpsuit and large floppy hat stepped from the back seat of a Town Car and paused, casting her gaze around the assembled people. Her bright red lipstick and impractical too-high heels screamed Look at me. Look at me.
Ellery rolled her eyes. Clearly someone thought she was a celebrity.
Ellery would never do that, never kowtow to the populace that way.
Being famous wasn’t about celebrity for the Vendetta, it was about sharing their sound with the world and finding success by influencing other kids with dreams like theirs.
Not about a platinum credit card and five-figure outfits.
A few feet away, she saw a family anxiously checking the arrivals gate.
“Do you see him yet?” the mother whispered, wringing her hands.
She had dark hair and hazel eyes that flashed like gold.
Something about her appearance sparked recognition in Ellery, and a warm, coiling sensation pooled inside her.
That, of course, was before the adult son turned to answer his mom and all the air rushed from Ellery’s lungs.
He was the spitting image of Dante. The dark shock of hair, the hazel eyes, the tiny dimple along the bridge of his nose as he smiled at his mother.
“Hello?” Ellery moved toward the group before she knew her feet had moved.
They turned to her en masse, their obvious kinship kindling her long-ignored homesickness. The mother smiled tentatively and opened her arms, like she had been waiting for her. “Oh my goodness, are you Ellery? Dante’s Ellery? We’ve heard so much about you.”
“That’s me. I promise, not everything he said is true.” She pulled nervously at the silver-and-velvet choker at her neck. There was something about this family that reminded her so much of her own.
She hadn’t been back to Milwaukee in far too long. Her parents came out to visit as often as they could, but she should make the gesture. It was only her stubborn wish to buy her own plane ticket, and with her expenses piling up, it had not been feasible.
Soon it wouldn’t matter. Her parents were pulling up stakes and moving to Florida in a few months with her sister. If that left her behind…
Dante’s mom wrapped her in a warm hug, as if she could hear Ellery’s inner monologue. “It’s all right, sweetheart. We are so happy to meet you at last. I’m Siobhan.”
Dante’s father, not much taller than Siobhan with a receding hairline and kind smile, patted her on the shoulder. “Dante talks about you all the time. He sent us one of your videos, from a show? You were playing Aerosmith.”
Dante’s brother shrugged but kept his gaze on Ellery.
It wasn’t predatory, more warm and assessing.
Like he was deciding which ice cream flavor she was.
“Dad’s favorite band is Aerosmith, so you made an instant fan.
I’m Casper.” Now that she was closer to him, she could mark the differences between him and Dante better, even if she had talked to her friend only via video chat.
A different spray of freckles, a tiny scar on the lower edge of his jaw.
“I know.” Though she hadn’t known about the twin thing. Not that she had seen Dante in person in two years, and even then under shitty-dive-bar lighting, but she could see the slight differences between them. Casper was a hair taller, his ears more rounded. So maybe not identical twins…
She didn’t really care. They were here for the same reason she was. “I’m so happy to meet all of you.”
“Same,” Casper replied. His voice was a little lower than Dante’s, all sultry blues to Dante’s jazz.
Siobhan leaped in the air, waving her arms high above her. The suddenness took Ellery like a whirlwind, but she understood. Understood it before she saw Dante, lips curled in a half-smile, weighed down by the bass strapped to his back.
Everything went misty and soft, and she refused to believe it was because she was crying. She stood a few steps away, just on the periphery of the family, as they embraced and helloed and laughed. Her heart swelled inside her chest.
Then Dante’s gaze found hers, and her entire body sparked like a freshly opened bottle of champagne.
Homecomings. There was definitely something about homecomings.
* * *
“Homecomings” by Ellery Vaughn (third draft)
Stayed up all night on the 405, without the A/C on.
The cars crawled on, but I kept going
Through the dark night, on.
It’s been too long since I saw you that night
And ever since then, I’ve dreamed of when
The music just flowed right.
But now you’re home
You’ve come home
Now you’re home
You’ve come home
Home home.
And I know well, it’s not me who you’re here to see.
I’ve been waiting, anticipating
But this all feels too big to me.
You’ve gone out and seen the world
While I’ve been standing still.
Do I have what it takes to keep your interest now?
But you’re home
You’ve come home
And I don’t know
What it means
For the two of us.
I’m standing on the outside, looking in,
But is this only me?
Now you’re home
It’s a chance to know
What could be between us.
I’m scared and want to hide away
From the gulf inside.
Now you’re home
You’ve come home
Now you’re home
Home home.
And I’ll always be here for you.