Page 55 of Broken Chorus

“Same,” Aaron said. “So why don’t we get you three settled in downstairs and give your Uncle Hawk a few minutes to spend with the rest of the band, since he doesn’t get to do that very often.”

“But you’ll read us stories and tuck us in after bath time, right?” Ella asked.

“Of course. Now you finally get to see the rooms I fixed up for you so you’ll have your own places to sleep whenever you visit.”

“Yey! Yey! New room! New room!” Dani squealed, even after her energetic performance.

When Aaron turned his way and made a shooing motion, it took Hawk a moment for the whole conversation to register and another to make up his mind and do as Aaron said rather than second guess his ability to handle the three of them at bedtime.

Not after the way he’d wrangled them for tag and monkey bread and several other activities since then.

And had he said he’d made them rooms?

Like, multiple?

There was only one way for that to happen. Aaron would have had to merge some of his own spaces to make room for them. And he hadn’t even hinted to Hawk that he’d been thinking about it, let alone done it. Hell, when he’d flown out, Hawk had just planned for the kids to crash in Kelly’s guestroom while Hawk took the couch since Kelly had family that visited from time to time and thus had reserved a space for them.

Aaron’s spare rooms had consisted of a media center complete with a home theater with killer surround sound, and the game room, where systems old and new had competed for space with an eclectic collection of games, anime and Pop figurines, all removed and posed with props.

Aaron didn’t believe in buying something just to keep it in a box. Like the kid he’d never really gotten to be, he opened everything and when he couldn’t focus, or a song was being difficult and hiding its words from him, he’d come in here and he’d reposition them, creating scenes that at times had left Hawk raising an eyebrow or scratching his head at him. With a little wave, Dani took Aaron’s hand, Ella and Liam picked up their bags while Aaron picked up Dani’s, and off they went, leaving Hawk in a stupor as he stood staring after them.

“Where’d Aaron go?” Kelly asked.

Hawk turned to see Declan in the doorway with Kelly standing behind him, both of them staring past Hawk as they sought out their singer.

“Did you know he’d made rooms for the kids in his apartment?” Hawk asked instead of answering.

“He doesn’t talk to me about much of anything these days,” Kelly admitted. “He just shows up, plays and heads backdownstairs whenever we’re on break. The only plus is that he usually comes back with some solo he’s been working on, or a tweak to the lyrics, but yeah, I don’t know what he’s been up to.”

“So he left?” Declan asked, his tone both quizzical and annoyed.

“To supervise bath and story time and get the kids put to bed,” Hawk admitted. “He said it was so I could have some time with you guys.”

“Unfuckinbelievable,” Declan muttered.

“Why?” Hawk snapped, instantly on the defensive.

Declan just flipped his hands over and shook his head, clearly struggling with what to make of it. “Maybe because he does his level best to come off like an asshole.”

“Not always.”

The second voice came from behind Kelly, but it took a moment for everyone to filter through the doorway before Hawk could figure out who was speaking.

“I ran into him one night at the neon garden,” Cade said. “He was pissed off and furiously scribbling in a notebook, a scowl on his face and a poor stress ball being mashed in-between lines, but the conversation we had, man that had depth and a real understanding of how important it was for people to have access to creative spaces, even if he didn’t seem to grasp that I was speaking beyond monetarily.”

“Did he not seem to grasp it, or was he being deliberately obstruse,” Declan asked. “Because all I’ve seen out of him is him deliberately going out of his way to pretend I don’t exist and flee my presence the moment we take a break.”

Kelly glanced at Hawk and Hawk knew that look. Kelly wanted him to speak up and say something, or give Kelly some indication that he should, while Hawk gave a slow shake of his head while he narrowed his eyes at his oldest friend, refusingto share speculation and put Aaron’s business out there in the process.

“I haven’t had any issues with him since the first rehearsal he showed up for,” Micah said, stepping away from the wall where he’d been leaning. “We laid our cards on the table, which mostly consisted of us acknowledging that discussions of religious subject matter of any sort were completely off the table and him naming every damned fish he could see tattooed on me.”

“I noticed those too,” Hawk admitted. “He’s got a thing for aquariums, likes to go sit and watch the fish swim while he’s working shit out. Unfortunately, they’re closed at night, which is when he tends to find other diversions, like the neon garden.”

“I can see why,” Cade said, “it’s like being inside the fishbowl.”

Hawk rubbed his chin at hearing that, nodding and even paying attention to the conversation, even as lyrics started floating around in his head.

“Yeah well, he and I need to get on the same page,” Declan said. “I’ve toned down my embellishments but I’m going to need him to tell me when I can ramp things up again, because I’m not getting any sort of feedback or interaction from him to cue me in on how anything is working.”

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