Page 49 of Sunsets at the Beach House

Jesse spoke to them through the intercom again. “We can definitely do that, but don’t forget, tomorrow we’ll have the rest of the band members here for practice.”

“Great.” Jules stood up and stretched. She’d been sitting for too long. “I’m happy to put in a few more hours, but I need a break.”

“You guys want to get something to eat?” Jesse asked. “I’m starving.”

She straightened to look at him through the glass that separated the studio from the control room. “You mean here at the club?”

He shook his head. “I want to take a real break and get out of here for a bit. They can live without me for an hour. I was thinking we could go to that new place that just opened up. Baja Burger. My treat. They’re supposed to be pretty good. I could murder a bacon cheeseburger right now.”

She grinned. “All right, I’m in.” She looked at Cash and Sierra. “You guys up for that?”

“Totally,” Cash said.

“I’d love to,” Sierra answered. “Thanks for including me.”

“You earned it,” Jules said.

Twenty minutes later, they were walking into Baja Burger. It was a pretty hip place with lots of orange and green and walls painted with chalkboard paint so that the menu was written right on them.

Jules pointed to the wall that held the enormous selection of milkshakes they offered. “Is that why we’re here?”

Jesse just smiled innocently. “I cannot confirm or deny that.”

“What happened to avoiding carbs and eating healthy?”

“We’re celebrating.”

“Are we? What exactly are we celebrating?”

He shrugged. “You inviting me to join you on tour. You starting to work on your demo. Sounding so good today. Getting some tracks down. Sierra working out as a background singer. Pick one.” He nudged her. “One small milkshake isn’t going to hurt.”

Maybe not. And it had been a while since she’d had a milkshake. She couldn’t remember the last time, actually. “Okay, but just a small one. And I’m getting a bunless burger.” She pointed. “See? Says right there they can do any burger bunless upon request.”

“Okay, bunless burgers for both of us. So what kind of burger and what kind of milkshake?”

“Tough question.” Baja Burger only really did three things: burgers, fries, and milkshakes. But they had a lot of variations of those things.

Standing beside her and looking up at the menus, he nodded. “I know. I might do the banana cream pie milkshake with the hatch chili burger.”

“Sweet and spicy.”

He snorted. “Just like me.”

She laughed. Jesse was definitely sweet, but spicy was not a word she’d use to describe him.

“Come on,” he said. “What are you getting?”

“This is hard.” She put her hands on her hips. “Okay, the Cali burger and the peach cobbler milkshake. Or maybe the key lime pie milkshake. Which one would go better with guacamole?”

“Key lime,” he answered. “There’s already lime in guacamole.”

She nodded. “Good point. I’m getting the peach.”

He chuckled. “Then why did you ask?”

“Because I needed help making up my mind. But then I just realized I really want the peach.”

A few feet away, Cash and Sierra were doing the same thing: staring up at the vast menu selections.

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