Page 13 of To Bring You Back
“Doesn’t seem to have cured you.”
She’d made pot pie, the ultimate comfort food, to help with that. As if eating could erase the past any more than a beautiful lake could give a person peace.
He glanced at Tegan again. “You’ve never talked about him, but given the little I’ve seen, there’s hard history between you.”
Drew and Tegan must’ve planned this conversation together. Adeline pressed her lips shut and willed the tears not to rise.
Drew gave an apologetic smile, as if her struggle to maintain composure were completely evident.
Tegan neared, head tilted with sympathy. “We’re here for you. It doesn’t matter to us who he is.”
Drew grinned. “Even a herd of high school girls couldn’t drag a detail from me—if you choose to share anything, that is.”
She hadn’t shared anything as deeply personal as her history with Gannon since … well since her history with Gannon.
Her secrets weighed on her, but she’d fought back by staying busy with good causes. If only busy were lonely’s opposite, the distraction might’ve worked forever. But since Gannon had shown up, none of her old coping mechanisms were doing the trick anymore.
Maybe the time had come to implement a new strategy.
Adeline finishedthe last of her water and set the cup on the arm of her Adirondack chair. She, Tegan, and Drew had settled in the most solid corner of the porch, where they could look out at the lake and enjoy the summer evening. Bruce lounged nearby.
When they’d gone in for pot pie, the conversation had skipped from Gannon to home-cooked meals and had strayed from there. But as Drew finished the last gravy-coated piece of chicken and leaned back into his chair, he and Tegan exchanged another loaded glance.
Tegan interlaced her fingers and peered pointedly at Adeline.
She regretted every bite of food for the way her stomach clenched, but these two wouldn’t let her stay silent forever. She started easy. “In middle school, when I had to pick an instrument, I elected upright bass.”
Drew laughed. “I can just imagine.”
“It looked as goofy as you’re thinking.” Her mom had pictures of her, maybe ninety pounds, lugging the instrument around. “I loved it. About halfway through our senior year of high school, the guy I was seeing, Fitz, joined a rock band with Gannon and John. Fitz asked me to play electric bass with them until he or Gannon could learn. They both caught on, but they preferred guitar, and I played well, so they kept me around.”
Tegan, who sat on the porch and leaned on the railing, pushed her long hair back. “That’s how Awestruck started?”
She lifted a heavy shoulder. The Awestruck the world knew wasn’t the same one she’d been a part of. “We got some gigs, but no record deal. When we graduated high school, the guys decided to move to LA to try to make it, but my parents wouldn’t hear of me canceling my college plans and going along.”
“Can’t say I blame them.” Drew tapped the heel of his hiking boot on the porch.
“Gannon, Fitz, and John recruited another bass player. Matt replaced me. It was kind of last minute, but Matt jumped at the chance.”
“So they went to LA and made it big without you.” Tegan spoke wistfully, as if this fairytale would have a happy ending.
“It wasn’t that simple. Before they left, Fitz, who had been my boyfriend for eight months, proposed. I said yes, and the next day, the guys got in their clunker of a van and set off.”
Tegan slapped the porch. “You were engaged?”
“For a while.” If the engagement was a revelation, other facts would be a shock. If not for Drew’s calm demeanor, she might’ve tried to get out of sharing more. “They got day jobs in LA. Nothing fancy, just enough to cover rent. They couldn’t afford trips home, but I talked with Fitz on the phone a lot. He was always full of promises of how things would be when they made it, always sure the dream was just another show or two away.”
His hope hadn’t been convincing, so when his tone dampened, she didn’t do much to rekindle his faltering dreams. To her shame. “We grew apart, but I wasn’t interested in anyone else and he was so down already. I didn’t want to pile on by breaking it off. Gannon came home for Christmas about a year and a half after they’d left. He seemed optimistic, but …” She shrugged, an ache in her throat. Did she have to get into this part of the story? Was this the time and place for confession?
No. Her story was shocking enough without getting into the part only she, Gannon, and Fitz knew. Oh, and God. Her vision blurred to gray, and she skipped ahead.
“A few months later, Awestruck was offered a deal on one condition: Fitz had to go. He’d gotten mono and had been struggling through shows. Though he was an excellent musician, he must’ve seemed like a weak link. Or something. I don’t know.”
Drew rubbed his thumb over his fingernail, something she’d seen him do while studying for sermons. “They went along with it?”
“The three founding members of the band had equal voting power. John wanted to wait for an offer that included all of them, so he and Fitz could’ve overruled Gannon, no matter how Matt, who had less say, voted. But it didn’t come to a vote. Fitz took Gannon and the label trying to get rid of him hard, so he quit and came home. The others signed the deal.”
“What happened with Fitz?”
