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Wherever these guys went, a trail of drooling women was sure to follow, and there were about a half-dozen flocked around now, including Katie’s mom. Yeah; we probably could’ve made these guys a decent career in music even if they had zero musicaltalent.
Lucky for us all, they had it inspades.
Both of them were grinning like fools as Amanda and I waded through the pheromones. They looked just a little too happy, which in my experience was rarely a good thing. When these two got up to shit they were like a couple of idiots on the playground; neither of them could back down from adare.
“No bullshit at Jesse’s wedding,” I told them, straight-up. I didn’t have it in me to deal with their shenanigans on top of everythingelse.
“Nope,” Dylan said. “Just saying how good it is to see Jessa. Jesse’s so fucking happy. Kinda feels like areunion.”
“Yeah, we could get her to stick around for a bit, we could actually make it one,” Zane said. “You know, get her out to jam, write some killershit.”
“Yeah,” I said. “If we could.” I looked around for someone to introduce Amanda to, so I didn’t have to tell Zane, here and now, that was a shit idea. And never gonnahappen.
Jessa Mayes’ days of songwriting with Dirty wereover.
Longover.
She’d made her choice, six-and-a-half years ago. She’d walked away from the band and never looked back. Fucking thing was, I knew for a fact every member of the band was more than willing to let that slide if she’d just come back and write with them again. Especially Jesse; he’d loved that girl from the second she came into the world, and he wasn’t about to stop. When Jessa was born, her four-year-old brother had named her—after himself—forging a bond that would never be broken. He would always have her back, would never turn against her, no matter what shit shepulled.
Notme.
It was my job to look out for the band, and I was never gonna let Jessa Mayes fuck us all overagain.
“What’s your deal, Bro?” Zane looked from me to Amanda and back with a devious grin; clearly, something wasn’t adding up. People could say what they wanted about Zane being a lunatic, but the man wasn’tstupid.
“Yeah, man,” Dylan said. “I’m sensing a general aura offunk.”
Great. If it was that obvious something was off, even to Dylan, by far the most laid-back—and least nosy—of my friends, this was gonna be a long fuckingnight.
“No deal,” I said. “Just airsick.Floatplane.”
Total bullshit, but the best I could do just now was spit out a few two-word sentences and turn away before they asked morequestions.
I was glad to find Dolly when I did, waiting for a hug. Zane had brought her as his date, though she would’ve been invited anyway. Dolly was Zane’s grandma; she was also the woman who’d raised him from the time he was two years old, and it was her garage that Zane and Jesse jammed in with all the shitty little garage bands they formed before we put Dirtytogether.
Grandma Dolly had also helped raise Jesse and especially Jessa while their mom battled her illness. When she died, it was Dolly who’d taken Jessa in, given her stability, a sense of family and three meals a day so Jesse could pursue the gonzo life of a musician on the brink ofsuperstardom.
I had big, big love for this woman. We all did. Tiny and white-haired, she was pushing ninety and still going strong; at least, strong enough to take the flight out here, be a part of this crazy shindig, and keep putting up with Zane’sshit.
I wrapped her up in a careful hug and kissed her soft cheek. “Zane taking good care of you,Doll?”
“Oh, he always does.” I could hear the joy and the pride in her scratchy voice. “Everything has been just lovely, and all my babies together.” She patted me on the back before letting go. “Everyone’s so happy that Jessa’s come home. Have you seen heryet?”
“I picked her up at the airport,actually.”
“She looks like she’s doing well, don’t you think? Such a beautifulgirl.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Beautiful. Dolly, this isAmanda.”
I introduced Amanda around to all the usual suspects, including Dylan’s “date,” Ash, lead singer of the Penny Pushers, one of the bands Dirty often toured with. Dylan and Ash had been besties since they’d met playing a festival about five years back and because he was Dylan’s plus one, Ash was the only Pusher who’d be attending the wedding. That’s how selective the guest listwas.
I’d told Jesse not to sweat it. If anyone was pissed about not getting invited—and they would be—I’d deal withit.
The only member of Dirty who wasn’t here yet was Elle, our bass player and Jesse’s ex-girlfriend. She was invited, of course, but wasn’t in the wedding party, so she wasn’t here for the rehearsal. She’d be arriving sometime tomorrow with the other guests. Awkward, sure, but this was Jesse and Katie’s thing and that’s just how it had tobe.
I’d be checking in with Elle and I knew my partner, Maggie, would too, to make sure she was doing okay. But this was what itwas.
Jesse was happy as fuck, he was marrying Katie, and Elle just had todeal.
