AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Wylie looked up from his mug and gave me a sad smile. “I thought it was going to be my big, grand gesture,” he said. “But when I gave her a copy of the song—and told her—she’d moved on. And that was that.” He shook his head and gave me a slightly forced smile. “Sorry—I thought I was just going to tell you the story of your name. I didn’t mean to go into all that.…” He took a sip of his coffee, and it was like he was trying to shake himself out of this. “It all worked out for the best.” He looked around, and it was like I could see him taking it in—mansion, dogs, two kids watching Moana. “Because if something had happened with us, I wouldn’t have met Kenya, which means no Wallace, and probably not any of the rest of the monsters, either. But still…”
“What’s that quote?” I asked. It was one of the ones that Katy really wanted to use for her senior yearbook quote, when she was in the throes of a breakup, and Didi and I had forcefully talked her out of it. “About how the saddest words are It might have been.”
Wylie smiled. “Well, it’s certainly true. I don’t know the quote, though, but I bet Russell does.”
“He does love his facts.” I smiled as I thought about it—about how much I’d liked the way his face had lit up when he had one to share.
Wylie gestured to the table, and it was like we were turning a page, changing the subject. “Need anything else?”
“No,” I said, snagging another piece of toast. “This is all great. Thanks so much.”
Wylie leaned back in his chair and took a sip of coffee. “You said you’re taking the red-eye? Tonight?” I nodded. “Where are you going?”
“New York,” I said. “Well—Connecticut, but I’m flying into JFK. I start school—orientation is on Wednesday.”
“Where are you going?”
“Stanwich College.”
“Like Montana’s ex!” He nodded, then shuddered. “She was kind of a nightmare, actually. You’re not studying physics, are you?”
“Not planning on it,” I assured him.
“Oh, good.” He leaned back in his chair—or tried to, but Tidbit had placed both his paws on the arm of Wylie’s chair and was staring at him with a forlorn expression. Andy was jumping up and down next him, clearly trying to achieve the height Tidbit had. These were two dogs who’d clearly waited what they thought was an unacceptably long time for food. “Okay, you beggars.” He placed some eggs on the floor and the dogs snapped them up. “Too bad you’re not driving.”
“To Connecticut?”
My horror must have been apparent on my face, because Wylie laughed. “What? There’s nothing better than a road trip.”
“I guess?” I’d never really been on one, unless you counted driving up to San Francisco or visiting my uncle in Fresno. “That just seems like kind of a long one.”
Wylie shook his head. “The longer the better, as far as I’m concerned. There wouldn’t be the Nighthawks without a road trip.”
“What do you mean?”
“That’s where we first started talking about what a band could be—on a drive from Colorado to Chicago. And we were so excited, and so fired up, that once we got there we turned around again so we could keep the conversation going. It’s the trip that changed all our lives.”
“Well—maybe you and Russell can drive to Michigan?” The second I said it, Wylie’s face changed, and I remembered, a moment too late, that this was not an uncontroversial topic.
“So you know… about Michigan.” He studied me over the rim of his coffee cup. “I guess Russell told you?”
“He told me that he wrote a musical, but maybe that it needed more work? That he didn’t get into any of his BFA programs.” I looked at him and took a breath. “And… he mentioned the donation.”
“Yeah,” Wylie said with a deep sigh. “Probably I went about that the wrong way. He’s really talented, you know. But he’s the only one of my kids who’s interested in music, which also makes it harder.”
I nodded toward the couch and the three-year-olds. “Well—I mean, so far.”
He gave me a ghost of a smile. “It’s a good point. I don’t know. I was trying to help, but clearly I made things worse.”
“I think,” I said, after I’d verified that Russell wasn’t lurking in the doorway of the kitchen, listening in, “that the whole thing made Russell think that you didn’t believe in him. Like you didn’t trust that he would get in on his own.”
“Of course I didn’t think that.” Wylie looked so alarmed by this, I knew he was telling the truth. “He’s such a smart kid—”
“But now he’ll never know,” I pointed out. “If he could have done it on his own.”
“I never thought of it like that—that he would think I didn’t believe in him. I guess I just…” He hesitated, then ran a hand through his hair, his rings glinting under the kitchen lights. “It’s stupid,” he muttered, a flush starting to appear in his cheeks, which was truly shocking. Wylie Sanders, rock legend, was embarrassed to tell something to me?
“I’m sure it’s not.”
