They did a ballad next, the one he had sold to Tim McGraw. TJ didn’t announce that JD had written it, nor did he say it was a cover. He just started singing, and one by one the instruments joined in to back him up. They had added a longer instrumental to give TJ a vocal break. They launched immediately into a third song, and Alex wailed on his drums. His kit took up most of the small stage and JD swore he was getting a wind off Alex’s sticks.
The crowd changed. Faces were looking at them now, instead of at each other. The floor, which had walking room when they’d started, was now packed. JD scanned up and down the long bar in the back, only three people were facing the bartender. That was good, as long as one of them wasn’t an agent.
After the sixth song they stopped for a break. The crowd had clapped and cat-called, and that was good, too. For three minutes they talked out what they needed to, adjusted what required it, and let TJ be quiet for the few moments in his life when it happened. JD rolled his head around on his neck. He held himself with every muscle taut while playing; most people didn’t realize what a workout it could be. When they were ready again, he turned back to the audience and played a chord. Instantly the crowd reconvened.
Why wasn’t there a damned agent here? Or someone, anyone, who worked with a record label? Wilder could command this crowd. With one chord the floor had filled up again, just waiting for them to play. It was the end of nights like these that he felt they could make it.
He tried his best to wipe the surliness off his face and just enjoy playing. Finally, he reminded himself that an agent or manager might be out there, and he’d better look salable.
Four songs later, he saw her.
She was laughing with the woman next to her, and had on more make-up than he had expected, but her face was turned toward the stage. Kelsey finished what she was saying and looked up at him, meeting his eyes, even while he continued to play. His fingers jerked just for a second, but he saved the riff, and didn’t think anyone would notice. When his hands didn’t need his brain again he looked up at her. She smiled.
JD tried to deny the shift that occurred in him. But he wasn’t truly able to.
Kelsey was here. She had come to see them.
She raised her margarita glass in salute, and he couldn’t stop the return smile that hit his face.
He played the rest of the set, keeping one eye to her. At one point her table emptied, and he lost her for a full song. He was just convinced that she’d gone home, when he spotted her closer to the front.
He didn’t know what to do with the relief he felt. So he turned away from where she sat now, almost directly under him.
JD wasn’t one to be timid about women. He asked them out, he made his play, he lived with the results. But this whole mess with Kelsey was going too far. There were a million and one reasons to squash it before he sank any deeper.
For one, she was older. She’d want someone stable and able to give her the life she deserved.
Two, she was his friend, and the pull inside him would fuck that up.
Three, she was his baby sitter, and in her own words, you don’t screw the babysitter.
Four, she lived next door to him and walked the same route to school. When she found out about his feelings, they would both have to go way out of their way to avoid each other.
Five, there was Andie . . .
He kept counting as far as he could.
It was a damn long list.
He tried his best to focus on the music. He wasn’t going to blow his chance with whoever was in the audience over a woman he couldn’t have.
Finally, the set ended.
The crowd called for an encore and, flattered, the guys played another song. And another before the bar manager shut them down. He had to clear the place out by midnight on weeknights. Lights were going up in fifteen minutes.
Turning back to the table that was almost smack up against the stage, he found Kelsey right where he’d last seen her. Her empty margarita glass twirled lazily in her fingers, but she didn’t seem any the worse for wear.
He wanted to jump down off the stage and kiss her.
He wanted to not want that. So he tamped it down.
“I see your girlfriend showed up.” TJ almost startled him out of his skin.
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Your face on her boob says otherwise.”
“What?” He looked. She was wearing a clingy little black tee-shirt, just like the one her friend had on. She had stolen the Wilder logo that Alex had put on his bass drum last year, and she had assembled the photos she had taken this morning into what looked like it had been a group shot. She and her friend were wearing the first ever t-shirts for Wilder. His head was on her left breast. “TJ your head is there, too.”
“I know. That’s cool.”
JD couldn’t stop the words before they came out. TJ was his brother, and would read him like a book. “What’s cool? The shirt or your head on her breast?”
“You aren’t going to ask me to ‘show some respect’ again, are you?” TJ walked off to talk to Alex and Craig.
JD moved out from under his guitar strap and set the instrument in its cradle. In two short steps he was at the edge of the stage and bent down, hands pressed to his knees. “I can’t believe you did that.”
She pulled the bottom out, to show off the whole design, and looked apprehensive, “Do you like it?”
He didn’t get to answer.
“That is so cool.” Alex was right behind him.
Craig was too, “That’s what that shit this morning was about.”
She nodded, and JD turned to see all of them staring at her breasts. Her friend showed off the matching shirt and drew some of the attention away. Kelsey shrugged. “You didn’t look edgy enough until I pestered you.”
Craig conceded, “Good point. They do look really great. You have more?”
JD looked at Kelsey, who had no idea what a coup she’d scored. Craig didn’t concede to any one person, ever. Not that JD had known anyway. He’d take a vote-down, but to come back and tell Kelsey that her pestering that morning had been a good thing, that was unheard of.
“I can make more.” She stepped back.
“I want one.” Alex called from where he was disassembling his drum kit.
Craig and TJ chimed in, and somehow JD didn’t get anything said.
Kelsey took note, then changed the subject. “I want you guys to meet my friend Maggie.” She gestured to the redhead with her. “Maggie, this is Wilder: TJ, Craig, Alex, and JD.”
Maggie held her hand up, and offered a firm shake to each of them. JD didn’t like touching anyone at the end of a set. He always felt grubby, but Maggie’s pristine hand couldn’t be ignored. She smiled up at him, and her fingers lingered a little long. There was no mistaking what that smile was about, but he kept his own neutral. There were a million reasons not to get involved with anyone right now.
He turned back to getting their gear in order and heard Maggie talking to Kelsey. “We have to go. I have to get back to my sitter.”
But he didn’t hear Kelsey respond. Just then the lights went up, and the manager cleared out the last of the lingering guests. JD continued winding cords and strapping them together, until he heard the manager speaking to Kelsey and Maggie.
“I’m going to have to ask you ladies to leave. We are no longer open to the public.”
“She’s with us.” JD didn’t know where that came from, but he tried to back it up with his demeanor, now that it had been said.
Kelsey gave a reluctant shrug. “Maggie’s my ride.”
“I’ll give you a ride.” Home. He should have said ‘ride home’. He refused to turn and look at TJ, there was no telling what his brother would have to say about that Freudian slip.
“Are you sure?”
He shrugged. “You have to wait for us, but it’s not like it’s out of the way.”
“Thank you.”
He went back to the job of clearing their stuf
f from the stage, while Kelsey said good-night to her friend. The redhead let the manager show her out the front door, and JD did more clean-up before he turned back to Kelsey.
She didn’t have time for him, though. She was chatting with Alex, about the shirts. “It’s great. I need the advertising and so do you. Trust me, unless you all flat out refuse, I’m going to use these for my business, too.”
She would convince them all that she wasn’t doing them any favors. JD had begun to believe that she wasn’t really capable of holding back if someone needed her.
He glanced up and saw that she had Craig’s attention, too. “I have pictures of you all walking away. I want to put them on the back.”
Craig looked wary, but Kelsey fixed that, too. “You should all come over tomorrow and see what I have. Then we’ll modify the shirts. If you bring me a shirt, we can make you each your own.”
That won her a spot in all their hearts.
Even TJ looked up from his very careful cord wrapping. “Can I bring a tank top?”
“Sure. I don’t see why not.” Then she launched into something JD hadn’t expected. “See, the way I figure it, you guys are doing something wrong.”
“Thanks.” It was Craig, but it wasn’t harsh.
JD abandoned his work for a moment; this he wanted to hear.
“No, really.” She held her hands, palm out, toward them. “Maggie, she goes out all the time. I don’t think she’s seen a movie in five years, but she seen tons of local bands. She’s never heard of you. Why not?”
“Because we suck?” Alex volunteered.
Kelsey laughed, and JD realized she had every one of them eating out of the palm of her hand.
“That is clearly not the case.” Her hands waved around, looking for a purpose. “I’m guessing you guys have been too busy playing and not spending enough time doing advertising. I need the portraits for my business, and these are perfect. So I just made the shirts. You might consider giving them out, or selling them at your next job.”
“Who’s gonna pay for our shirt? You just said no one’s heard of us.”
The manager walked up to them, “You guys quit jabbering and clear out. I want to go home.”
They all turned back to work. Apparently so did Kelsey. While they loaded equipment into their cars, making trips out into the alley and back, he heard Kelsey ask the manager what the till looked like for the night. And how did that compare to other Tuesdays?
They all walked out to the alley as the manager turned the bolts behind them, but the guys clearly weren’t through questioning Kelsey. She was answering each question with a clear point.
“Listen, why don’t we just reconvene at my place?” He put his hand on the driver’s side door handle, ready to go.
“I’m starving.” TJ was probably feeling their new cash, however small it was, burning a hole in their collective pocket.
“Me, too.”
JD was unofficially the keeper of the money. The most reluctant to spend it, he had been the natural choice. But for some reason when Kelsey’s voice added in that she, too, could use something to eat, he suggested they order a pizza.
She slid into the passenger side, and he cranked the engine, grateful that it didn’t embarrass him.
Once they were on the street, he turned to Kelsey. “The shirts are amazing. I can’t believe you did that for us.”
She shook her head, but he didn’t let her deny it.
“So, how did things go with your client tonight?”
Her laughter ricocheted around the small car, hitting him several times. He still couldn’t believe she’d just shown up.
“I lied. No client.”
“You did that just for us?”
She looked sideways at him, as though he were nuts. “No. It’s for me, too.”
His hand wanted to reach across to hers. And it pained him to realize that if she were anyone else, he would. Instead, he simply clutched the shift so his hand couldn’t move. “You didn’t really need any Fabio pictures.”
It wasn’t a question, but it opened the topic. Kelsey responded. “No, I was just trying to get you to look at me with something other than kindness. I needed something with some attitude. It was hard getting you to give it.”
He’d felt so bad, trying to get away from her, but he’d been stuck between a rock and a hard place, and she’d caught exactly that in the photo.
Alex and TJ both tailed them to Kelsey’s house, and she ran inside to set Bethany free after saying they should just meet at her place. The guys shrugged, and continued carting the equipment back into the garage. They didn’t set it up, but they had to get it under lock and key. JD shuddered to think what might happen to the band if any of their stuff got stolen. They really couldn’t afford to replace it. Leaving it in a car was a sure way to get it ripped off.
As Alex, TJ and Craig followed him in the back door, JD held his finger to his lips. The kids would be sleeping, and he didn’t want to deal with an awake Andie. He didn’t let any of them utter a word until they met up with Kelsey in the kitchen. She was thumbing through a phone book and muttering.
“I haven’t been this hungry since . . . was someone smoking weed in that bar?”
Craig looked at her sideways, “You would even know what it is?”
She almost snorted in return. “I went to college. I’d know it if I smelled it. I wasn’t always a mom.”
They spent far too long ordering the pizza, then Kelsey let them raid the fridge for drinks, and she started back in while they were guzzling sodas like there was no tomorrow. JD for one was going to spend his morning walking Andie to school like a zombie and then climbing back into bed.
“So I was trying to figure out why Maggie hasn’t heard of you. Then I realized that there’s nothing in print. No shirts, no posters. You need a manager.”
“And you’re going to be it?” TJ looked her up and down.
“No way. I don’t have that kind of talent or those connections. But I will do what I can until you get one.” She shrugged. “I really thought I’d be more of a ‘groupie’ if you don’t mind.”
Craig shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
JD wanted to slap him upside the head. Why not? Because you never agree to anything this easily. When he wanted something from Craig it was like pulling teeth. For a moment he paused as an odd thought hit. Was Craig into Kelsey?
Kelsey was speaking again, and all three of the others were listening with rapt attention. JD decided he’d better focus, too.
“I asked what the take was at the bar tonight, and what it was on other nights. You guys helped them pull in more money than they do without a band, and more than some of the other groups.”
“Okay?” Alex was taking mental notes and you could tell from his expression.
“You all should be playing Friday and Saturday nights. But you probably won’t until you can prove that you’re good for business. So we need to advertise the next job you have.”
Craig nodded, understanding, but shrugging. “We don’t have a next job yet.”
Kelsey smiled that smile, and JD knew what was coming. “You’re back at McMinn’s next Wednesday if you want it. One of you has to call Jeff and confirm by tomorrow, or he’s looking for someone else.”
“Are you serious?” TJ lifted Kelsey into a fierce hug and twirled her around her own kitchen. Her squeal of glee was punctuated by the doorbell, which JD ran to get before the pizza man rang it again and woke up the kids. His brain stayed a little too focused on the kitchen, and he tried shaking it off. He wasn’t successful until he reminded himself that TJ wasn’t going to liplock with Kelsey right there in front of Craig and Alex.
He paid for the pizza out of his own pocket, saving the band money for later, then walked the boxes back into the kitchen. TJ finally set Kelsey down in favor of food, and JD fought one last time to remove her from his brain. Jeff? She knew McMinn’s manager on a first name basis after one night? And TJ?
No. He wasn’t going to
get her out of his system easily.
All of them, including Kelsey, tucked into the pizza. The guys were on their second and third pieces each, as Kelsey daintily finished her first and started talking again. “There’s tons of places around town to put up posters. I have an account at the printers. I can get real posters. If you want them.”
They all agreed that they did, and Kelsey started explaining their options. The vote was unanimous for more of the cheaper black-and-whites.
“That’s what I figured you’d say.” She motioned to her shirt, “I thought we might use this shot for the poster.”
“What about something else?” Craig asked.
“Well, right now we need to keep the name and photo simple and repetitive, make it recognizable around town. So the posters and even the t-shirts ought to all be the same.”
TJ was leaning his face into his hand, his elbow propped on the kitchen table. “Where did you learn all this?”
“My roommate was a marketing major in college.” Kelsey smiled and picked up one of the last pieces of pizza. She took a bite, and when she finished it, she broke the silence. “The question is: do you want to go with this, or is there anything you want to change?”
They all admired her chest for a while, then she stopped them. “If we can go quietly, we can look at what I have on the computer, or if you want something really different, we can shoot more tomorrow.”
“I like what we have.”
“This is good.”
“Tomorrow’s for sleep.”
JD didn’t weigh in. Just followed the others down the hall he was already familiar with. She opened the door to reveal a pristine office and she sat down at the computer. Kelsey began opening photos. Individuals of each of them, some headshots, some each of them walking away.
She pulled a print on some filmy paper off the printer, and gingerly held it out to them. It was each of them walking away, composited to look like they had just been standing there together, and had all scattered. “I was planning to put this on the back of the shirts, but I didn’t get done in time for tonight . . . It’s an iron-on.”
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