Page 312 of Second Sets Omnibus
I take his phone, reading the messages she sent him and the email displaying the offer. It’s real. We could advance furtherwith our career with another record company. We don’t need this gig anymore.
All we have to do is walk away from River again.
I swallow hard, not wanting to hold them back from what they want again.
“What are your thoughts?” I ask, clearing my throat. My eyes fall to my empty plate in shame. I could be dragging them down again instead of lifting them.
“There’s no fucking way,” Kieran whispers, bringing my eyes back to him. He shakes his head, and his lips twist into agony. “Before all this,” he says, waving a hand and gesturing toward the house. “I would have jumped at the opportunity. That’s a lot of fuckin money, but…”
“Lyric and River,” Callum murmurs. “If we go on tour… How much more are we going to miss? We’ll be gone for months at a time, and there’s no stopping. They’d have us on the road in a matter of months.”
“And my Pretty Girl,” Rad says with a sour expression. “I’m never leaving her again. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. I love music. But I don’t love it more than my girls,” he says, swallowing a large lump in his throat. “They trump everything.”
“She sacrificed a lot for us back in the day. She took time out to build us into what we are now. Even now… She’s still working her ass off to get us back to our glory days…” I trail off with moisture pooling in my eyes. The fear from before evaporates into thin air.
Kieran’s expression softens when he looks me over, giving me a sharp nod of approval.
“I get it,” Callum breathes, setting his fork down. With a long look, he takes in all our faces and nods.
“I think it’s time we sacrifice something for River,” Callum murmurs with the smallest hint of a smile pulling at his lips.
Rad blows out a breath. “You mean, give it all up?” he whispers, blinking rapidly. “Everything?”
Kieran blows out a breath and nods. “Yeah. If we can’t be here for them every day, then I don’t want to continue on a big scale. We can still play around town and live through our music, but every night we’d get to come home to them. They’re our life now.”
“We should treat them like it,” I say, finishing his sentence. “You guys are sure? We’d be…”
“Throwing it all down the drain. But they’re worth it…”
“More than worth it,” Rad says, slamming his fist onto the table. “I’m ready to give myself over to my girl!” He grins now, joy lighting up his face. “Maybe now she’ll marry us.” He waggles his brows playfully, looking around the room.
“Maybe,” Callum chuckles with a glint in his eyes, letting me know he agrees with that sentiment.
“All right,” I say, feeling the relief of our decision lifting all the weight off my chest.
“It’ll be so weird,” Kieran says, rubbing a spot on his chest. “Not having the tours or the recording time…”
“We still can. You know? We can rent out a studio and create albums. We just won’t put on shows out of town. There are plenty of venues in town we could play at,” Callum adds.
“We could have a big ass show every year at the stadium or some shit. Like people will fly from everywhere just to come here and see us. River could be there, and Ly could get on stage with us,” Rad says with renewed energy, practically vibrating in his seat.
“This isn’t the end of anything. This is a whole new chapter in our band… Our fucking life,” Kieran says, heaving a big breath. “Once we talk to her brothers and let them know, we can talk to her about it.”
“If she finds out we’re doing this now, she’ll try to stop us,” I say with a sharp nod.
“She wouldn’t want us to give up our dreams.” Cal says.
“But we’ve already lived that part of it. Now, it’s time to live our River dream and help her raise Ly and be a fucking family,” Kieran says.
“Shh,” Rad hisses, putting a finger to his lips. “My Little Pretty Girl is stomping down the stairs,” he chuckles when the sound of heavy little footsteps stomps our way. “We’ll talk after River takes her to school. Maybe go talk to Seger and Zepp?”
We all nod in agreement.
“Slow down,” River reprimands in her motherly voice, only earning a giggle in return.
Lyric bursts into the dining room with an enormous grin, running straight toward Kieran.
“Little Blue,” he murmurs, pulling her into his lap. “Good morning.”
