Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Johnny
Spending time with the guys was fun. It was different than when it was just the two of us, but we had plenty of privacy if we wanted it, and it was nice to catch up with them without it being on the job.
I sent Tanner an email but hadn’t heard back yet.
Not that I was surprised. I’m sure he had to take a minute to accept the fact his band was ready to retire.
“What’s on the agenda for today?” Devon asked. He was still warm from the shower and smelled amazing.
“Let’s cook them breakfast.” They’d only been here a couple of days, but we had a routine, and it had been hard to change that. We were both up early and they both slept later. But it was fine. It gave us our mornings, and they had their extra time in bed.
“I’ll go make the coffee while you shower,” Devon said and kissed me before he pulled his shirt over his head.
“That’s perfect. I thought we could do pancakes.” We hadn’t had that yet mostly because I was saving it for when the guys were here but also because I really hated making pancakes.
“Oh, my favorite,” Devon said. “Let’s use those little sausages too.
” He kissed me one more time before leaving the room.
I had worried for months about what everyone would think when I told them I wanted to leave, and all that time they were thinking the same thing.
I still couldn’t believe it, but it was all out now, and I was thankful for that.
I walked out to find the three of them in the kitchen. Mateo was at the stove cooking pancakes, and a pan of sausage was already on. “Hey, you guys should have waited.” I walked over thinking they’d want me to help but instead Devon guided me to one of the stools.
“Baby, let us do this,” he said and passed me a cup of coffee.
“Wow, thanks, guys.”
“Don’t think we haven’t noticed how much you’ve done for us. If you weren’t in the band we wouldn’t have made it at all,” Mateo said.
“I don’t know if I did that much,” I said, but we all knew that wasn’t true. The band had been through hell and if I hadn’t stepped up it would have ended years ago.
Jeremy stared at me while pointing the spatula at me he’d taken from Mateo. “It was all you, dude. We were ready to skip out after all the shit with the two fuckheads.”
“Okay, you could be right, but the four of us together was magic,” I said, and realized it was true. We were all a little lost before we found the band.
“We are, and we will be as friends,” Mateo said.
“We should plan on the Sacramento show. Devon started a song, maybe we can work on it?” I said and hoped Devon was okay with that.
“That would be great. I’m okay with lyrics but not so good with the music,” Devon said.
“Show us what you’ve got,” Jeremy said before setting a plate of pancakes in front of me. “Go ahead, we’ll eat them as they’re cooked.”
I put butter and syrup on the warm stack, and made room when they added sausages, and eggs I hadn’t noticed they were cooking.
“Here,” Devon said and slid the notebook onto the counter. Jeremy picked it up and read what we’d written.
“Mind if I add to it?” he asked
“Go for it. I’d love it if we all contributed,” Devon said, and that’s what we did.
The rest of the morning we passed the notebook back and forth, each of us adding a word or two, or even a complete sentence, and by the time we were ready to think about dinner the lyrics were done, and we had a rough idea of the music.
“You realize this might be the best song we’ve ever written,” Jeremy said.
“Could be,” I said, not wanting to admit what we all knew. This was our big goodbye, and it was going to be amazing.
“Guys, why don’t we try the hot tub today,” Devon said.
“Sounds good to me,” Mateo said and turned back to where he was still cooking pancakes. Once we were all fed, we decided it was a good idea to take a walk down to the river.
“How did you find this place?” Jeremy asked as he walked by me, and Mateo and Devon followed behind us.
“Devon said he looked online and got lucky. Want to know a secret?” I lowered my voice, not wanting to take the chance Devon would hear.
“Sure, what’s going on?” Jeremy asked but he looked concerned.
“Nothing bad. I talked to the owner about selling. This was their getaway but they’re older and it’s not as easy as it used to be. I told them they can use it whenever they want. But this place is special for Devon and me. I want us to always have that,” I said.
“Oh my god, you really are in love,” Jeremy said.
“Yeah, and it’s like nothing I’ve ever known.” I glanced at him, and he was wearing the same stupid grin I was. “You too?”
“Maybe,” he said. If the band brought us anything it was great friendships and love. Hopefully the ending of Anchor Grey would be less dramatic and chaotic than the beginning had been. Either way we were out, and none of us were sad about it.