Page 49 of OctoBEARfest

Gwen mumbled, "That's not really what I did," but Sandy was gaining steam and ignored her.

"—and now he's been arrested for fraud or embezzlement or whatever it is, and Gwen's back with a new album, andeverybodyis going to want to interview her. It's a gold mine for publicity. We couldn'tpayfor that kind of publicity."

"We also can't get physical media ready for release that fast!" Gwen protested. "We could release it digitally, yeah, but even if we fulfilled physical orders ourselves we don't have anywhere to print or warehouse it!"

"We don't," Gemma said with a sharkish grin, "but Mike Piccolo does."

Another startled silence swept the band before Penny cackled. "Soooooo we're signing with a label, then?"

All eyes, including Bill's, turned to Gwen. "Oh my God. This is not a me-alone decision!"

"Let me, I don't have an oar in this race," Bill said. Everyone stared at him, and he cringed, although he did so with a laugh. "Horse in this race. Oar in this boat. Something! I don't have one, anyway! Hands up, all in favor of signing with Harlequin Renaissance Records?"

Four hands shot into the air, and Gwen, grinning so hard she thought she might cry, lifted hers, too. "Yeah," she whispered, completely overcome. "Yeah, let's do this thing."

A cheer almost knocked her over, and then Pennydidknock her over with a hug. All at once there was a dogpile of hugs and cheers and tears, everybody sort of squishing Bill, who hadended up at the bottom of the pile and who said, "It's okay, I'm big, I like bear hugs, I can take it," in a distant voice that made the whole band break down into giggles.

"You better be able to," Gwen said, trying to steal a kiss. "I don't think I can do this without you."

Gemma, somewhere in the dogpile, said, "Oh, gross. You can obviously do it without him. You can't do it withoutus.We'rethe band!"

"Right, right, my mistake." Except Gwen knew it wasn't a mistake. In just a few days, Bill Torben had changed her life. Maybe shecoulddo this without him, but she absolutely didn't want to. Stilloofing and grunting as people tried to extract themselves from the dogpile of a hug, she murmured, "So if it's okay I might just stick around this week, instead of heading back to Denver and coming over to Renaissance for the weekend?"

"What about the day job?" Bill's smile was right there, kissable and bright.

"Told you they'll let me work remotely sometimes. I'm sure they'll understand. I mean, how often does somebody find the love of their lifeandget a breakout album in one weekend?"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Love of your life? What? You're breaking my heart?" Penny demanded as she squirmed out of the hug with an injured-enough expression that Gwen saw terror flash across Bill's face before Penny began to laugh. "Oh my God, your face. No, I'm sorry, I'm just kidding. We've been watching you two make starry eyes at each other all weekend, so I'm glad you've made it official after, what, seventy-two hours?"

Gwen, with some effort, dug her phone out of her jeans pocket and checked the time, which was just after two in the afternoon. "Yep. Three days, pretty much to the minute."

"I need three days like that," Penny announced. "You and Bill, Gemma and Myles…" She trailed off and eyed Sandy. "I guess that leaves you and me, kid."

Sandy wrinkled her nose and, delicately, said, "Ew. No offense, but ew. All of that stuff is ew."

Penny flopped dramatically on the couch. "Gwen and Bill, Gemma and Myles, an ace guitarist, and pooooooor Penny all on her own."

"Poor Penny is going to be fighting off the fans in a few months," Gemma promised without a hint of sympathy. "Suck it up until then."

"Man, with these kinds of friends, who needs enemies?"

The band kept bantering as Gwen tucked herself up against Bill's side. "You know it's not just going to be my life that gets a little crazy," she said quietly. "You sure you want to be neck-deep in this?Trustme, I know how weird celebrity life can be."

"If it gets too much for me on the road I've got a brewery to run here." Bill smiled down at her. "I've got a brewery to run here anyway. If you end up touring, I do want to come along for as much of that as I possibly can, but I don't think I'm constitutionally capable of just dumping all my responsibilities here to become a roadie."

"I wouldn't want you to," Gwen admitted with a smile of her own. "I think I like this responsible streak you've got. It makes me feel grounded, and that feels good."

"Then I'd say we'll work it out." Bill dipped his head to kiss her, and Gwen sighed happily as he added, "Crazy is fine, as long as it ends up with us together. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all goes."

"Me too. As long as it goes to, like, Madison Square Garden along the way. I've always wanted to play there."

Bill laughed out loud. "Great. I don't think I can afford to buy a sponsorship there, though, so you're going to have to drinkwhatever beer they've got on hand instead of the good stuff I could sell there."

Gwen laughed, too. "Let's cross that bridge when we get to it, shall we? And until then…" She stole another kiss. "Thank you. For dealing with my dad today, for this whole weekend. For everything."

"No, thankyou. You turned my life upside-down and I had no idea how badly I needed that."

"We could do this for the rest of our lives, couldn't we? Just sit here going 'no, thankyou?'"

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