Page 40 of What Happened Last Night

They brought their usual chaos. Denver and Callie had decided they definitely weren’t having children, so yesterday Denver had gone to a vasectomy appointment. How this personal information had gotten out didn’t seem to matter—everyone knew. There were so many juvenile jokes to make—about the tender way Denver walked in his low-slung sweatpants, about how his vocals should go falsetto any minute. As the band grabbed drinks and settled on the sofas, Axel opened a grocery bag he was carrying and tossed a bag of frozen peas at Denver’s lap.

“Fuck off,” Denver said as he caught it. Then he tucked the bag under him with an audible sigh.

I glanced at Luna, whose eyes were wide.

“Welcome to the club, man,” Axel said to Denver as he opened a can of soda and flopped on his own sofa. “Don’t forget the follow-up appointment where you jizz in a cup. Maybe take the cup out for dinner first.”

“Fuck off,” Denver said again, though he followed it with an aaah sound that everyone heard as he adjusted his position. “Can we get down to business? Can everyone please stop discussing my scrotum?”

“Um, should I leave?” Luna asked.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You don’t have to leave,” I told her. “These guys have to learn manners.”

“I have manners,” Denver protested. “I asked everyone to please stop discussing my scrotum.”

I dropped my hand and saw that Stone was looking at me. He was in his usual position with his long legs stretched in front of him, his ankles crossed, his arms crossed over his chest. His gaze on me was a laser beam. He looked amused.

I raised my eyebrows at him in silent question. What?

In reply, my brother looked from Luna to me and back again. That was when I noticed that my assistant and I were sitting nearly hip to hip. The last time we’d been in this room with the band, we’d sat at opposite ends of the sofa.

I gave him a glare.

In response, Stone addressed the room in his usual blunt way. He lifted his hand, palm out, authoritatively. “Enough scrote talk,” he declared. “We need to work.” He lowered his hand and looked back at me. “Why were you in Seattle, Billy?”

“Meetings,” I replied.

“About what?”

I shrugged. “Something that hasn’t come to fruition yet.”

Stone narrowed his eyes at me, but Neal asked, “Is it good?”

“Only if it’s done right.” I rubbed my chin, thinking. “I believe I know how to do it right. Probably. I have more research to do.” I turned the tables. “Stone, time is running out before the band finds a replacement bass player. That was supposed to be your job.”

“Mine and Sienna’s,” Stone corrected me. They had taken on the task of going to see dozens of bands, putting their ear to the ground to find someone to replace Neal for the months after his son was born. No one in the band had ever taken a leave before.

“Well?” I prodded my brother.

Stone shrugged. “It’s done, as far as Sienna and I are concerned. We found her.”

There was a second of surprised silence in the room, but it was Luna who spoke. “Her?”

Stone grinned at her in a way that was decidedly flirty. “Yeah, a woman. She’s fucking talented, playing in a shitty band that’s way beneath her. She kicks ass.”

“The fuck?” Axel chimed in. “Were you going to tell us? Do we get to meet this woman? Did she agree?”

“Sienna is working on her,” Stone said. “So far, she’s told us to fuck off.”

“I like her already,” Denver said.

“We’ll set something up,” Stone continued, apparently confident they could convince this woman. “We’ll meet, she’ll play, we’ll jam. If you don’t like her, then fine. But you’ll like her. I saw a lot of shitty bass players. Trust me, she’s the one.”

It was hard to doubt him. Stone hated almost everyone on earth, except Sienna and—occasionally—the people in this room. He was also an incredible musician and a guitar genius. Sienna already knew more about music than most people ever learned. If those two said that someone was good, they were probably right.

“Did you talk money with her?” I asked.

“Nope,” was Stone’s reply.

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