Epilogue #2
Ellie rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.
There was color in her cheeks, a brightness that hadn't been there two years ago when everything had fallen apart and then somehow miraculously, come back together.
The Stage Women. Second album. International tour.
Three Grammy nominations, which they'd lost to a pop star with more social media followers, but still.
"Iona." Shepherd appeared at her elbow, looking slightly hunted. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Now?"
"It's sort of important."
Speaking of important, she’d almost forgotten in all of the rush of moving and then the party.
Which was inexcusable. Not that she thought Mo was serious.
And Maeve had said she was dealing with it.
But Shepherd was Mo’s father and… She took a deep breath.
"Probably not as important as the fact that our daughter is getting married. "
Shepherd's face went through several expressions before settling on confusion. "She what?"
"Getting married," Iona said.
"To?" asked Shepherd.
"Well, Oliver, obviously," said Iona. "I mean, I’m not thrilled, but at least it’s someone she’s actually been dating for two years and not a complete stranger."
"She's sixteen."
"That's what I said."
"And she thinks…" He stopped. Pinched the bridge of his nose. "I need to go find her."
"Might not be a bad plan," Iona said. Between Shepherd and Maeve, the problem would surely get solved, right?
Shepherd stared at her for a long moment, then shook his head and walked off, presumably to locate Mo and assess the damage. Iona watched him go. Whatever he'd wanted to tell her, it could wait.
"Oh god, you’re not going to be a grandmother, are you?" Ellie asked helpfully.
Iona glared at her. "Don’t start," she said. "Yours will be sixteen soon enough."
Ellie laughed and helped herself to a drink.
???
Cam had acquired a disco ball.
Maeve didn't want to know where it had come from. She especially didn't want to know how it was now hanging from the ceiling of the dining room, which didn't even have a proper light fixture yet. Some questions were better left unasked.
What the dining room did have was amplifiers. Several of them, in fact, lined up against the far wall. And someone had plugged in a microphone. In fact, Ellie was already tuning her bass.
"We're not playing," Maeve said.
"We're absolutely playing." Cam came in and settled behind her drums. Where the drums had come from, Maeve also didn't want to know.
It looked like Cam had priorities when it came to moving.
Priorities that put drums over things slightly more useful.
Like a couch, say. "This is a housewarming.
You can't have a housewarming without music. "
"You can. People do it all the time. They have wine and cheese and make small talk about curtains."
"Boring. We're a band."
Iona appeared beside her, guitar already strapped on. When had that happened? When had any of this happened? "Come on. One song. For old time's sake. It’s good luck."
"We played three concerts last month and countless TV shows. There's no old times. There's only constant times."
"Then for new times. For the house." Iona's eyes were bright. Her smile was the one that Maeve had never been able to say no to, not really, not since they were fourteen and Iona had convinced her to audition for a school talent show that had changed both their lives.
Maeve sighed. Picked up her guitar. Took her place at the microphone. "Fine," she said. "But I'm not doing the talking bit in the middle."
They played "I Wanna Be a Star." The original version, the one they'd recorded when they were nineteen and stupid and convinced the world owed them everything.
The crowd in the dining room whooped and cheered, Glinna's kids jumped up and down, Shepherd filmed on his phone and even Mo lurked in a corner with what looked suspiciously like a smile on her face.
And Maeve let herself feel it. The music thrumming through her bones, the bass vibrating in her chest, Iona's guitar weaving around her voice like it always had, like it always would.
Two years of touring and recording and learning how to be a person who existed in the world again, and sometimes she still couldn't believe any of it was real.
But if it was a dream, she never wanted to wake up.
The song ended. The room erupted.
Cam stood up from behind the drums, grinning so wide it looked like her face might split. "Alright," she announced. "I have news."
???
Iona leaned her guitar against the wall and braced herself. Cam having news was generally not a great thing. Cam having news could be anything from her joining the French Foreign Legion to her planning on adopting triplets. And anything in between.
"I don’t think people usually make official announcements about this sort of thing," Cam was saying. "But what the hell. It’s easier to tell you when you’re all together and, well, pretty much everyone that’s important to us both is in this room."
Us both, Iona thought. Who is us? Who is both?
Cam blew out a breath. "So, here it goes, Shepherd and I are dating."
The room went silent.
Iona stared at her. Then found Shepherd, who was also staring at Cam, open-mouthed and red in the face. Then she stared back at Cam, who was beaming like she'd just announced world peace.
"Sorry," Iona said. "What?"
"Dating. Me and Shepherd." Cam cleared her throat. "A couple of months."
Iona sighed and shook her head. "You two will be the death of me," was all she said. Then everyone was laughing and drinks were being poured again and Ellie was letting Charity pluck the strings on her bass.
Shepherd walked sheepishly over. "So, there’s that," he said.
"You're dating Cam."
"Yes."
"My Cam."
"I'm not sure she's yours specifically…"
"The Cam who once accidentally set a hotel room on fire and blamed it on a ghost."
"That was one time," Cam protested. "And the ghost thing could have been plausible."
"It was an electric kettle."
"A haunted electric kettle, according to her." He wrinkled his nose in a way that was still charming, even after all this time."I was trying to tell you earlier, but then you mentioned Mo wanting to get married and I got distracted."
"You got distracted."
"It's a lot to process."
"And this isn't?"
Shepherd looked down at the floor. "I've had feelings for Cam for longer than I should probably admit."
Iona's brain stuttered. "Since when?"
"Since…" He paused, considering. "I think since the first time I saw her. But she was nineteen, and… and chaos and so sure of herself and… I talked myself out of it back then. But then after all that business with Elijah, we started talking again and became friends and then… and then more."
Iona looked at his serious face and then started to laugh.
"What?" Shepherd said.
"You mean you and I got married when we both were lusting after other members of the band," she said.
"Um… when you put it like that it sounds… not great."
Iona put her arm around his waist. "We’re both idiots, aren’t we?" she said comfortably. "Are you really prepared to handle the chaos of Cam?"
He grinned. "I’ve been doing it for years. No one’s better prepared than me."
“In that case, I’m thrilled for the both of you."
Maeve appeared at Iona's shoulder. "You’re an arse for not telling us before," she said.
Iona rolled her eyes. "Jesus, Maeve, it’s only been a couple of months. Some people need privacy. Not everyone can announce that they’re dating on a stage in front of forty thousand people."
Maeve grinned. "I suppose you’re right." She put her hand on Iona’s shoulder, and Iona’s body warmed at her touch. “Speaking of dating and things, I sorted things with Mo."