Page 146 of Wreckage and Rain

At the table by the stage, Dom watches Marisol close out her set with the settled look of a man who decided a long time ago where he wanted to be.

Jake, beside me, exhales.

"Okay."

"Okay what."

"Okay. I approve."

"You don't have to approve."

"I'm approving anyway. It's what I'm here for. The brothers approve."

"There's one brother. You aren't plural."

"I represent the plural by virtue of being the one she has."

"I'm also right here," Colt says.

"You're a brother-in-law. Different department. I'm the blood."

Colt laughs.

"Holloway, you have a future in politics."

"I have a future in not being in politics. I'm going to fish on a marsh and read romance novels until I die."

"You read romance novels."

"I read my sister's books and the books her editor recommends. I'm educated. Bennet, don't start with me."

"I'm not starting."

"You were going to start."

"I was going to start gently."

"Don't."

I lean my head on Jake's shoulder. He puts his arm around me. Across the bar, Sam slides Autumn a second bourbon without being asked and her shoulders come down a quarter inch, and Colt, beside me, puts his hand on my knee under the table like he's done since we were teenagers, like he started doing again back in the fall, like I'm going to let him do for the rest of my life.

***

Saturday night.

Jake's last night in Chicago. He has been at Vibes every night.

After the Saturday show, Jake hugs me at the door of Vibes. Long. Like Daddy hugs me. He smells like Sam's bar and the cold and the cologne Jake gave Colt that Colt hasn't started wearing yet.

"I'll see you in June."

"June."

"Patricia got me a ticket to the launch event in New York. I told her I wasn't going. She told me I was. I'm going."

"Patricia got you a ticket."

"She likes me. She has called me twice this month."