Chapter 29
“Hello?”
I can hear the question, the hesitation in my voice, even though I know exactly who’s calling and why. I hadn’t expected a phone call—not when I’d been too gutless to make one myself.
“Miles?”
“Yeah,” I say, the word coming out raspy. I swallow hard before trying again. “Yeah, hey, Dean.”
I hear his laugh through the line as he says, “Man, it’s been a long time, huh?”
“It has,” I agree, my heart pounding a nervous rhythm inside my chest. “How are you?”
He blows out a breath, letting out another laugh as he says, “Fuck, I’m...yeah, I’m good. How are you?”
His answer surprises me a little, considering how things were when I left.
It’s not like I was a fucking picture or anything.
We were all trainwrecks, and in some ways, I was probably the worst. I was so broken and bitter about the whole Isaac and Daisy thing that I just couldn’t focus, couldn’t stay still for even five seconds.
I was also drinking way too much and probably fucking too many girls too, although to be fair, I mostly just passed out before anything happened—thank god.
“I’m really good,” I tell him. “Back on Maui, back with Daze.”
“Yeah?” he asks, surprised. “Man, that’s fucking great. You two always belonged together.”
“We did,” I say, grateful he doesn’t bring up Isaac.
Isaac didn’t just fuck me over. He fucked us all over.
He might have gotten my girl, but that didn’t stop him from trashing the band either, especially after he was kicked out of something that was becoming huge.
And even though it should have brought us together, it didn’t.
Instead, it blew us apart in the most epic of ways.
“You still on the mainland?” I now ask.
“L.A.,” he says. “Working in a recording studio of all places.”
“Nice. You know where Lace or Sutton are?”
“Hmm, so Sutton is here with me, and last I heard, Lace was back on Maui.”
“You and Sutton are speaking to each other?” I ask, surprised.
Last I remember, these two were both in love with the same girl.
And she was taking full advantage of having two rock stars chasing after her too.
It got super ugly just when I left, so fuck knows how it ended up with them on speaking terms again.
“We are,” he says with a laugh. “Took a while, and he’s only been living with me for the past couple of months, but we’re in a good place. We have rules now… about girls.”
“Wow, that’s great, man,” I tell him, meaning it. “And Lace, how is she?”
When I’d texted earlier, I’d messaged the group chat we had going. The group chat that hadn’t had any action for nearly a year. The last few messages were painful to read, too, and when I sent mine, I wasn’t sure who, if any of them, would read it, let alone respond.
“I haven’t spoken to her in a really long time, and even then, it was only via text, but Jonah tells me she’s doing good.
Apparently, she’s been holed up with him at his place since she got home.
Guess she’s been laying low, but he says she’s good, has been looking after herself. You don’t see her around?”
“I didn’t even know she was back,” I say, running a hand over my hair. I wonder if Isaac knows she’s back.
The line goes silent for a few moments, as though neither of us is quite sure what to say next. Or how to address the big elephant that’s on the line with us. Eventually, it’s Dean who does it.
“So, you wanna sing again, huh?”
I huff out a laugh, knowing I never wanted to stop singing.
I just couldn’t keep my shit together enough to do it anymore.
Now, though, things feel better, calmer, and even though I know it’s still something that has the possibility to trigger shit with me and Daze, I feel like we’re in a much better place right now.
And she’s the one who wants me to do this. If she can believe in me after everything that happened, I kinda feel like I want to try.
“I do, yeah.”
Dean hums, as though he’s thinking about what this means. “So, like, are you just going solo now, or did you wanna get the band back together?”
“You’d wanna get back together?” I blurt out, never in a million years expecting him to suggest that.
He laughs, and I hear muffled chatter as though he’s talking to someone in the background before he’s back on the line speaking to me. “Well, Sutton and I can be on a flight tomorrow if ya want?”
“Dude, seriously...don’t you have a life in L.A. now?” I ask, weirdly nervous about what he’s saying.
When Daisy suggested I sing again, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would be with the band. I figured, best case, it would be me, my guitar and a microphone in Lisa’s bar, which I was totally okay with, considering how things turned out last time.
But now, Dean’s question—his comment that he would be here tomorrow if I wanted.—suddenly feels like too much, too soon. Like it’s way too much for me and Daze to handle.
I glance up, seeing Daisy through the window of her shop. She’s working on something inside, but as though she can sense me watching her, she turns, her eyes meeting mine. I watch as she smiles at me before mouthing, “Are you okay?”
I nod, scrubbing my hand across my jaw as Dean says, “Fuck, Miles. I work in a recording studio, and not in the good way. I’m sitting on the wrong side of the glass, dude. So yeah, I would get on a plane and come back, and so would Sutton.”
“What about Lace?” I ask, not wanting to commit just yet. God knows how she’s going to feel about this, considering all the shit she put up with. I’m not even sure I know the half of it, either.
“Sutton’s talking to her now,” Dean says. “But it’s sounding good. She says she’ll reach out.”
“Fuck,” I say, blowing out a hard breath. “Are we really gonna do this?”
“I mean, yeah, why not?” Dean says with a laugh. “We all want it.”
“We’d have to do things differently this time,” I say.
“I know,” he replies. “And no fucking Isaac.”
“Fuck no,” I say, knowing I’ll probably have to fill them in on all the shit that’s gone down the last couple of months.
“So, we’re doing it?” he asks again, and even through the phone, I can hear the excitement in his voice. This wasn’t just my dream; the band was all of our dreams. Something we worked really hard for, too.
“Well, I mean, don’t quit your day job just yet,” I say with a laugh. “But yeah, if you wanna give it another crack, I’m in.”
“Fuck yeah!” he shouts, relaying the message to what I guess is Sutton in the background. “I’m gonna book flights now. I’ll text you our deets, and in the meantime, go see Lace and let’s get this fucking band back together!”
After we hang up, I stay outside for a minute, trying to process everything that just happened. When I’d texted our group chat initially, I never in a million years thought I’d hear from them, let alone that they’d want to get the band back together.
And to hear that Sutton and Dean are good now, sharing a place in L.A. after all the shit they went through, I feel so relieved. As I wonder about Lacey, my phone chimes with a text.
Lacey: Hey stranger...long time no chat. Guess you wanna sing again, huh? Still looking for a drummer?
Her message makes me smile, and instead of texting back, I call her, my heart pounding in my chest as the phone rings a couple of times before she answers.
“Hey.”
Laughing, I reply, “Hey yourself.”
Lacey laughs, and just hearing that sound is enough to tell me that Dean was right. Things are better with her. “So is it true?” she asks.
“Is it true you’re back on Maui?” I fire back.
“Yeah, it’s true,” she says. “I would’ve come to see you. It’s just...”
“I get it, Lace,” I say with a sigh. “I know things were bad at the end. How is everything now? Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she replies, letting out an exhale. “I am. I’m doing good. Went and saw Lena after it happened, and I’ve been hanging out at Jonah’s since I got back. He’s been looking after me.”
I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that of everyone, it was Lacey I worried about the most. She was like a sister to us, and we were protective as hell with her.
Jonah made sure of that when we left for the mainland.
It was never anything more than friendship and family, but the three of us always felt like it was on us to look after her.
And when we failed, we all felt it. Fuck knows what Jonah thinks of us all. I’m almost scared to ask.
I feel my phone buzz with a text as Lacey’s pings through the line. She laughs as she says, “So looks like those two clowns will be back on Maui tomorrow night.”
“Shit, they didn’t waste any time,” I reply, surprised at how fast this is all moving.
“Yeah,” she murmurs. “I think this is something we’ve all wanted—for a long time.”
“Really?” I ask, figuring the last thing these guys would’ve wanted is to see or play with me again.
I know it wasn’t just my fault the band imploded, but I felt like a big part of it was on me.
After everything with Daze and then finding out about her and Isaac, it’s when it all started to go to shit.
I blamed myself for so long, even though we all had our demons. But I never expected them to forgive me so easily.
“You wanna come with me, and we’ll pick them up from the airport together?” she asks, a nervousness to her tone now.
Smiling, I say, “Yeah, I think that sounds like a great idea.”
After I hang up, I turn to go inside and tell Daisy everything that’s happening, only to find she’s standing in the open doorway, watching me. I don’t know how much she’s heard, but she’s got her arms crossed over her chest and an easy smile on her face.
“Hey,” I say, pocketing my phone.
Daisy laughs, walking down the two steps and toward me. “Hey,” she repeats, wrapping her arms around my waist. “That’s all you have to say, is ‘hey’?”
Grinning, I loop mine around her shoulders, pulling her into me as I ask, “So how much of that did you hear?”
“Not much,” she says, smiling up at me. “When you hung up the first time, I started to come out, but then you made another call, so I waited. I didn’t hear much.”
I drop a kiss to the end of her nose. “Babe, you can hear everything. No more secrets, remember?”
“I know,” she murmurs, kissing my lips now. “So, how’d it go? They okay with you singing the songs?”
I let out a nervous laugh. “Actually, no,” I start.
“No? Seriously?”
“No, they don’t want me to sing them solo,” I tell her. “They wanna get the band back together.”
“They what?!” she shouts, her whole face alive with excitement. “Holy shit, Miles, that’s awesome. You guys are gonna kill it and fuck, Lisa is going to be so excited. We’ll definitely have to push the dates, so—”
“Babe, settle down,” I say with a laugh. “We aren’t there yet.”
“But you will be,” Daisy says. “You guys were always so good together, and I know it’s been a while, but you don’t lose that kind of talent and synchronicity,” she says.
“Synchronicity?” I ask.
“Yes, you know,” she says, rolling her eyes. “Like you didn’t even need to practice.”
“We needed practice, babe,” I tell her with a laugh. “And we’re gonna need a shitload of it now if we seriously want to play together again.”
“But you’re going to do it, right?” she asks, practically buzzing with excitement.
“We’re going to try,” I tell her. “Dean and Sutton are flying in from L.A. tomorrow, and Lace and I will go pick them up from the airport. Let’s just see how things go being in the same room as each other first.”
It’s one thing to talk or text each other, but it’s totally different to actually face each other. To actually acknowledge and talk about all the shit that went down on that tour.
“Lacey’s here?” Daze asks.
“She is,” I confirm. “I had no idea, but she’s back and staying with Jonah. She’s doing good.”
“Wow,” Daisy says, and I’m grateful she doesn’t ask me more about why Lacey wouldn’t be good.
As close as we all were, and as much as I don’t ever want to keep secrets from Daze, what happened with Lacey is clearly personal.
None of us know the full deal, but it’s her story to tell whenever she’s ready to.
“Are you okay with me catching up with them all tomorrow night?” I ask her.
“Yes!” she shouts, pushing up on her toes to kiss me again. “I’m so fucking excited about this!”
Laughing, I cup her face in my hands, holding her gaze with mine. “Take it easy, Daze, we’ve got a long way to go before anything happens.”
“I know, I know,” she says.
“And if it does,” I continue, “I promise things will be different this time, okay? Nothing is going to come between us.”
She smiles at me, nothing but love and happiness in her eyes as she says, “I know, Miles. We’ve got this.”
And I can only hope she’s right.
Because I cannot go through that again.