Page 65 of What Happened Last Night

“I’m serious about Luna,” I said, because I had no one to talk to about this, so Stone got the nomination. “At least, I want to be. I plan to be. If she wants the same thing, I mean. Which I’m hoping she does.”

Stone gave me a sidelong look. “Is this how you asked her out? Because it needs work.”

“I also want her to keep working for me,” I continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “She’s a great employee, she loves the job, and she fits in well with the band. But it won’t work long term if she’s my employee. And I’d rather have the relationship than the employee.”

“Then give her a different job,” Stone said. “Make one up. Aren’t you the boss? Make up any job you want.”

“It doesn’t matter if I change her job title. She’d still report to me.”

“Then make her report to Angie,” Stone said, still looking at the game. “Or the band. Have her report to me. Hell, don’t have her report to anyone. Why does Luna need a boss, anyway? From what I can tell, she already knows everything about everything. And she’s only worked for us a few months.”

I stared at him. “How do you know that Luna knows everything?”

He gave me a glance that said he couldn’t quite believe I’d asked something that obvious. “Billy. You’re on time for everything. You’ve had a dozen new ideas in the past month because you’re not bogged down with detail shit. The band just spent ten days in the studio, writing the new album, and it went off without a hitch. You took actual time off for the first time ever. She took your T-shirt plan and ran with it. Even I can see that you two make a good team.”

I was quiet for a long time, thinking that over. Stone played Skyrim as if I wasn’t in the room. My brother and I were very good at long silences. They were never awkward.

“The new songs are genius,” I said finally.

Stone grunted. “You already said that. Twice.”

“I’m saying it again.”

“They’re good,” Stone agreed. “They need work, but they’re good. We tried some new things. We’ve never written an album like that—locked in our own studio, sober, nothing to do but write. It worked.”

“It was your idea,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, well, we’re in a good place,” Stone said. “All of us. The first ten years we were together, we were on the road nonstop and we were so fucking young. We partied and fought and did stupid shit. It was a lot of fun, but it was exhausting, too. Kind of empty. Then Axel got hooked on opiates and it got dark. We split up for five years. We had to figure things out all over again when you got us back together. We had to be grownups.”

“That’s in the music,” I said. “All of that life experience. I could hear it. That song with the lines about when you wake…”

Stone nodded. “That’s about Sam. Neal wrote the first draft of the lyrics. Denver wrote the rest. It needs another verse.”

I thought about the song. When you call, I’ll come back again. Take my hand, I’ll come back again. A beautiful thing for Neal to write to his unborn son. I would never get tired of working with musicians.

“I might cry,” I said, just to annoy Stone.

“Fuck off,” he said, making me suppress a laugh.

“But it’s just so moving.” I mimed wiping a tear from under my eye.

Stone shook his head in disgust. “Fuck off and tell me the plan you’re working on that you won’t tell anyone.”

“How do you know I have a plan?”

Another of those looks that said it was a question too obvious to get a reply.

“Okay, fine, I have a plan.” I took another swig of beer. “I’ll tell you if you give me some actual brotherly advice about something. Just this once.”

Stone sighed heavily. “It’s called the clitoris. You can find it—”

“Not that. Jesus.” I put my beer down. “Luna has three brothers. Actually, she has a huge, nosy family. But the three brothers are my immediate problem.”

Stone paused the game, put down the controller, and leaned back on the sofa, scrubbing his hands through his hair. “How are they a problem?”

“They hate me.” I thought that over. “Well, they don’t know me. But I’m sleeping with their little sister, so—yeah, they hate me.”

“So?” Stone asked. “They beat you up or something?”

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