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I adjusted on the couch, and Quinn leaned back until the armrest was a fulcrum beneath her arched spine. She stretched her arms out and let her head fall back so all I could see of her face was the bottom of her chin.
“Hey,” she said in a muffled voice. She snapped her fingers at Renee to get her attention.
Renee looked wholly unsurprised to see Quinn looking at her from an upside-down position. She tilted her head and said, “What?”
“It’s almost Joanne’s birthday.” Quinn reached out an arm, groped until she found my hand, and pulled herself back upright. “Her twenty-seventhbirthday.”
Renee’s head whipped around at that revelation. “We arenotalmost twenty-seven.”
I tried not to snort.
“Joanne’s a year older than us, remember? So it’s next weekend.”
Renee did the calculation quickly. “That’s nine days away.”
“Do you think we have time?”
Renee pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, the way I did when I was stressed or calculating something. “Not for everything we planned. Like we definitely can’t do the road trip.”
“Wait, what?” I had pulled out my phone when the subject of Joanne’s birthday came up, but now I looked over at them. “Why the hell were you planning a road trip for Joanne’s birthday?”
Renee gave me a look that said clearly that if I had to ask, I didn’t deserve the answer.
Quinn reached over and patted my arm, like I was Noah trying to follow a conversation about nuclear physics. “Because it’s her twenty-seventhbirthday,” she said as if I knew what the hell that meant, then turned back to Renee.
Renee had pulled out her phone, too, and her thumbs began flying over the screen. “We could definitely get Jimmy’s to cater, I think. It’s not like they’re doing anything else.”
Now Ifeltlike Noah trying to follow a conversation about nuclear physics. What the hell did Jimmy’s have to do with Joanne’s birthday, and why would they cater? Jimmy’s was an all ages bar in what passed for our downtown. They were known for serving fries that were somehow both soggy and burnt. Burgers that were harder than hockey pucks. Great beer though.
“What do you mean they’re not doing anything else?” Quinn pulled her legs off my lap and leaned forward, concerned.
“The music scene around here isn’t what it was in our heyday.” Renee shrugged like it didn’t bother her as much as I knew it did. “Jimmy’s is still open, but barely.”
Quinn knew too. Her mouth pulled down in the corners. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Renee gave her a droll look. “What are you going to do about it, QC? Move back to Belmont and start playing there again?”
“Maybe.”
I was surprised to see how impassioned she sounded. I was even more surprised when she looked over at me, almost like she was considering me in that plan.
Almost like she really would stay.
CHAPTER 19
QUINN
Icouldn’t believe Renee hadn’t told me about Jimmy’s. Jimmy had been the first place to let us play on their small, sticky stage when we were fifteen years old. Then, after the tour we took between our junior and senior year, he’d built us a bigger stage, sacrificing two of his pool tables to make the space. I’d been standing on the edge of it, halfway through our version of “Popular” byThe Veronicas, when I first locked eyes with Jason Cain. An associate of his had caught one of the shows we did on that brief, parent-organized and approved tour–the one we’d gotten to do mostly because Joanne was eighteen already and could check us into the motels.
It was the beginning of everything.
I couldn’t let it end like this. Not without a fight.
After Renee left, I couldn’t sit still. I walked around the living room. Tried to sit. Got up and walked into the kitchen. Opened the refrigerator. Stared at the apple juice. Closed it and walked into the library where my guitar was waiting. Callum settledhimself at his desk, getting some work done while whatever had churned up in me settled.
“It’sJimmy’s,” I said when I passed him for the fourth time.
Callum reached out and caught me around the waist, dragging me into his lap. Normally, this was exactly where I wanted to be, but right now, I squirmed. I needed to move to think. He tightened his grip.
