Dan nods his head ruefully, but then perks up. “Hey… panini!”
Ryan just laughs as they head out the door and down the stairs. “Man, you’re a cliché—the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
“Dude, I don’t mean to be crude, but it wasn’t my heart that wanted to keep us in that apartment.”
Ryan laughs and they drive the few blocks to the restaurant. Ryan goes in and gets to work. Dan goes out and finds a table on the patio. He’s not there for long before he’s joined by Jeff and a freshly scrubbed Tatiana. Tat seems to be in a bit of a mood. Jeff catches Dan’s eye and makes a sort of warning face.
“Hey, Tat, glad you came,” he ventures. “Piper didn’t take too much out of you this afternoon, then?”
Tat looks like she’s torn between sulking and talking about horses. Luckily for everyone, the horse talk wins. “No, she was good. She’s really fast, isn’t she?”
Dan grins. “Yeah, she is. Thoroughbreds—they’re made for speed. But you’ve got to work on controlling her and making sure she only uses the speed when you want it.” Tat nods seriously. Dan nods to indicate Jeff and Tat together. “Are you two still going to do lessons? I can help with the horse end of things, but I honestly don’t know that much about training riders.” Tat gives Jeff a bit of a dirty look, and Dan begins to sense the general source of the sour mood, if not the exact cause. “I guess Jeff might be getting pretty busy with the art thing—your show’s in less than two weeks, right?” Jeff nods, and Dan continues, “But you should probably be taking lessons from somebody.”
Tat looks like she might be gearing up for something to say in that area, but then Ryan comes over to take their order and she pours the full weight of her disapproval onto him.
“Hey, guys, can I get you something to drink?” Dan already has a beer, so Ryan’s talking to Tat and Jeff.
“Yeah, a beer would be good, thanks,” Jeff says, and they all turn to Tat.
“Is your Diet Coke from a can or from a fountain?” she asks in a tone that Dan wouldn’t have thought she knew. He wonders if they teach that tone at rich-kid school. He wonders if Evan would mind if he washed Tat’s mouth out with soap until she forgot how to use it.
“It’s from a can.” Ryan’s smile is friendly, and Dan wants to stand up and protect him. Had he not heard the tone?
“Is it really, though? Or is that just what you’re trained to say?” Dan wants to smack her, but Ryan still smiles.
“I can bring you the can unopened with your glass, if you’d like.”
Tatiana doesn’t really have a comeback for that. “Please do,” she says as if she’s the queen, and then turns back to her menu. Dan gapes at her in astonishment before turning apologetic eyes to Ryan, who just smiles back.
“Comes with the job,” he says softly and then heads to the kitchen, Tat glowering after him.
Dan sits for a minute, but doesn’t think he can let this go. “Hey, Tat?” he says softly. She looks up at him, rebellion burning behind her innocent expression. “Tat, I consider you a friend of mine. And I think you know that Ryan’s a friend of mine.” He tries to catch her eyes, but she’s staring over his shoulder. “But that shouldn’t really matter, because I don’t think anybody deserves to be talked to that way. And it makes it really hard for me to keep thinking of you as a friend when I see you treating someone like that.” She just stares at him, and then she stands up.
“I need to go to the bathroom.” And she heads off through the restaurant. Dan stares after her helplessly, and it’s Jeff who breaks the silence.
“God knows she’d better not have details… but she’s picked up on Evan’s interest in you.” He looks a bit apologetic. “And maybe she’s got the idea that Ryan’s a threat to that somehow.” He shrugs. “I was going to call Evan, and see if he wanted to come meet us here when he’s done work, but maybe it’s not a good idea. Maybe one hostile Kaminski is enough for one night.”
Dan wonders why he and Jeff haven’t sat down and talked before this. “I… I don’t really see the two things as being connected. I mean… I thought about what you guys talked about last night, and… that’s really not something I’m ready for right now. I mean”—he looks around almost furtively—“I mean, if it was just you, that’d be one thing. And I respect what you’ve got going on with Evan, but… I’m really not up for all that jealous, possessive crap. Not right now, maybe not ever.” Jeff is looking at him intently, and Dan looks over to make sure that Tat’s not coming back. He feels like this is his opportunity to get things straightened out.
“And I don’t really understand the exact mechanics of whatever you were talking about, and, you know, if it ever came down to it we’d definitely have to work out some details.” The word “contract” dances through his head, but he suppresses it. “But… me and Ryan… we’re right now, not down the road. I don’t think we’re long-term or anything, but… we’re good for now. You know?”
Jeff nods, then looks up at Dan, and his eyes are riveting. “So are you saying you might be interested in something else eventually?”
“Might be? Eventually?” Dan shrugs his shoulders. “I can’t say there’s no attraction. But… I’m a pretty simple guy. Gay thing aside, I’m pretty traditional, I think. I mean—”
But Ryan arrives with the drinks, and then Tatiana comes back from the bathroom, eyes possibly a little red, but she’s polite to Ryan the rest of the night. Jeff and Dan don’t really have another chance to talk, but that’s okay with Dan. He doesn’t really have that much more to say, at least for now.
Jeff and Tat go home as soon as they’re done with dinner, and Dan follows soon after. He thinks about sticking around and waiting for Ryan, but they’re both tired, and Ryan’s scheduled to work until midnight.
Dan reminds himself that his priority is the horses—his and Justin’s horses—and he hauls himself home to bed.
Chapter 28
DAN SPENDS the next day working, and when he goes home for dinner, showers, reads for a while, and gets ready for bed, he realizes that he’s spent the entire day without any contact from Ryan, Jeff, or Evan. He thinks about calling Ryan, but decides against it. Maybe it would be good to take a day off. But he feels a bit like he’s going through withdrawal. He’s gotten used to a certain level of attention, and apparently he misses it.
The next day starts the same way, but around lunchtime Dan gets a call from Ryan, and he sounds excited.
“Dan, man, you’ll never believe it. We got a call yesterday from a record label—Good Dog Records—they’re not huge, but they’re a fair size, big enough to really help us out. And they had our demo, and they’re interested! They’re coming down tomorrow night to hear us play live!”
“Holy shit!” Dan doesn’t know much about the music industry, but he knows that Ryan’s been working for this for a long time. “Congratulations, man! That’s incredible.”
“Yeah, no kidding! We’re gonna be crazy busy getting ready—we don’t normally play on Thursdays, so we’ve got to call around and get people to come, and we’ve got to get the band as tight as it can be. But I wanted to give you a call.” His voice softens a little, and Dan wonders if there are other people in the room. “Wanted you to know I’m thinking about you—a lot. I just… I’ve gotta go for this a hundred percent right now.”
“No, absolutely you do. And I can come tomorrow, and I’ll try to get some other people to come too. It’ll be great.”
“Thanks, man.” Ryan hesitates a little. “Listen… I can’t be…. If it was just me, I’d say the record company should take me as I am, but… there’s the whole band to think about. And I don’t really know if the company will care about me being gay, if it’ll decrease marketability or something… but I can’t really take that chance, you know?”
Dan’s stomach has tightened up a little. “Yeah, okay. So… do you not want me to come?”
“Shit, no, of course I want you there. I just mean—don’t be offended if I don’t…
you know… if I don’t act like a boyfriend.”
“Yeah. No, we’re not really at the boyfriend stage anyway, right? Just casual.” Dan knows that Ryan’s got a good point, that it would be insane for him to risk something he’s been dreaming about for years over a person he’s known for less than a week. But it still feels a bit weird—a bit wrong.
Ryan can obviously sense Dan’s feelings on the matter. “You understand why, right?”
“Yeah, Ryan, I’m not an idiot. It’s fine.” Dan tries to put a lid on things. Ryan had sounded so excited when he called, and Dan doesn’t want to be the one who kills that excitement. “So, is there anything I can do to help you get ready? I mean, I don’t know anybody out here, and I don’t know anything about music, so probably not… but if you need someone to carry heavy things or something….”
Ryan laughs a little. “No, I think we’re good. Thanks for the offer, though. It’s… I don’t know, it’s almost too much, you know? It seems like things are happening really fast.”
“Well, you deserve it, man. Seriously. You guys are really good, and you’ve worked hard, and it’s about time somebody took some notice, right?”
“Well, yeah, when you put it that way….” Dan can hear Ryan smiling over the phone. Then he hears a voice in the background, and Ryan says, “Okay, I’ve gotta go now. Scott just got here, we’re gonna start rehearsing. But you’ll come Thursday, right?”
“Yeah, absolutely. You’ll be great, man.”
Ryan sounds a little overwhelmed. “Yeah, thanks. Bye.”
Dan waits until Tat is on a horse before he tells Robyn the news. Tat’s been better about Ryan, but she’s still obviously not a huge fan, and there’s no point in starting a scrap about nothing. Robyn is excited and starts imagining all the perks of knowing a star, and Dan leaves her to it. The barn is going to its first horse trial on the weekend, and he’s driving himself crazy trying to make sure they’re as prepared as they can be. He knows it’s important to stay flexible, remembers that Karl and Molly used to make changes at five in the morning before leaving for an event, but he’s not quite that confident yet. He wants everything totally planned, and he wants it to go smoothly.
Devin is a bit of a music fan, and when he hears the news about the record deal he gets excited even though he’s never met Ryan. So he’s in for Thursday night, and Michelle and Sara decide they’ll come along as well. Dan feels like he’s doing his part to fill the seats and make it a good show. He thinks about calling Jeff. He might like to come, but he’d probably bring Evan, and Dan doesn’t really think that having a huge rich guy glowering at him would help Ryan put on a good show. Devin is asking for details about the situation, and Dan is trying to explain the few he has, when Tatiana comes in from riding.
“Good Dog Records, he said. Said they were medium size, big enough to be useful. Seriously, man, that’s all I’ve got.” Dan holds up his hands.
Tat looks over with interest. “Good Dog Records? Why are you guys talking about them?”
Dan looks at her in some confusion. “What, you’ve heard of them?” He hadn’t really thought that Tat was into music.
“Yeah, we own them.” Tat frowns, and then corrects herself. “Well, The Kaminski Corporation owns a majority share of their parent company.” She rolls her eyes as if she’s trying to remember. “I think that’s it. Evan made me learn all this last summer, but I’ve forgotten some of it. But that was definitely the name, because every time we talked about it Evan would say the ‘good dog’ part really loud, and the dogs would get confused.”
Dan freezes a little. He’s not sure what that means, not sure if it means anything. No one else seems to think it’s more than an interesting coincidence, but Dan’s got a weird feeling.
He heads outside where he can get some peace, and pulls out his cell phone. He doesn’t like the idea of calling Evan at work, and he isn’t sure if he wants to know the answer to this anyway. If it’s a good thing for Ryan, should it matter if it came about in a non-traditional way? But he decides that he does need to know, and he dials the number.
He has Evan’s office number, but also his cell, and that’s the number Evan had told him to call if he actually wanted to talk to him in person. Apparently the office number would take him through at least a secretary and Linda before he got to talk to the man himself. So Dan calls the cell.
“Hey, Dan, how’s it going?” Evan sounds completely innocent, and Dan has a flash of doubt.
“I’m good, thanks. Listen, I’m sorry to bother you at work.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. What’s up?”
“Okay, uh….” He’s starting to feel pretty stupid, but he decides to just get it over with. “Okay. Ryan…” and he’s stuck already. Does he need to explain who Ryan is? Surely not, but it seems strange to just leave it like that.
Evan prompts him. “Ryan….”
“Ryan’s band got a call from a record company, and they’re coming up to hear them. And the company is called Good Dog Records, which Tat says you guys own.” Dan leaves it there for a second.
“Well, they’re a subsidiary of a company in which our family company has a majority share.”
Dan can’t tell if Evan is hedging, or if that’s actually an important distinction.
“Yeah, okay… what I want to know is… did you have anything to do with him getting the call?”
There’s a pause. “How would you feel if I did?”
Dan huffs out a little. “I don’t know, man. Did you?”
Evan sounds reluctant to answer. “Okay, yes, I did, but not in some sinister get-rid-of-the-competition way. Seriously. I told you that Jeff and I go there a lot to hear music, and we both really like Ryan’s band. So the other day I was looking over some papers and the Good Dog name caught my eye, and I was thinking of Ryan a bit at the same time, because… not in an angry way, just sort of a what’s-he-got-that-we-haven’t-got kind of way. You know?”
“Okay….”
“Okay, so I just thought, hey, I should mention his name to them, maybe they’d be interested. So I did. And that’s it. I got a call from their president yesterday, and he said they’d found a copy of their demo—so Ryan sent the demo in himself. It wasn’t something they had to ask for—and had a listen, and they were sending people out to see them live. That’s all I did.” There’s dead air while Dan thinks, and then Evan fills it. “It could work out totally against me, really, because maybe they’ll give him some money to stay in one place for a while and get better, rather than going on the road. Or maybe they won’t like him at all, and I wouldn’t interfere with that. I just made a little suggestion.”
Dan sighs. “Yeah, okay, but if the owner of your subsidiary or… whatever, if the top guy makes a suggestion—it’s a little more than a suggestion, isn’t it? I mean, if you suggest that I look at a new source of sweet feed, I’m gonna look at it. You know?”
“So what am I supposed to do, not speak? And there’s nothing wrong with having them look, right? As long as I don’t pressure their decision? Like, if I suggested the new food, and you looked at it and decided that it wasn’t right for your horses, I’d accept that. And if these guys go see Ryan, and they don’t like him… okay.”
Dan doesn’t really know how to deal with this. Evan’s right, it is a good thing for Ryan, and he’s right that there’s no guarantee that they’ll send Ryan out on tour right away, assuming that Evan is telling the truth and isn’t telling the company exactly what to do….
“Dan?” Evan sounds tentative. “Hey, are you mad?”
“I don’t know… no. I’m not mad. I just… do you understand how fucked-up this is, that a little word from you can change somebody’s life like that?”
“But in a good way, right? I mean, it’s not like I said they shouldn’t sign him, just ’cause I was pissed off at him. And it’s not like I went and told him that I’d get him a recording deal if he stopped seeing you… right?”
“Jesus, Evan, those are both r
eally nasty options!”
“Yeah, but they’re what I didn’t do! I did the good one!”
Dan laughs a little. “Yeah. I guess.” There’s a pause, and then Dan continues. “Listen, a bunch of us are going to hear them on Thursday. Do you want to come with us?” Then a thought hits him. “Wait, would the record guys know you by sight? Like, would they be weird about you being there? Would it influence things?”
“Nah, I don’t think so. Well, I don’t know. I wouldn’t have met them, but… they might recognize me. But even if they did, they’d just know that I liked the band. And that’s true, so… would it be so bad?”
“I don’t know. I think Ryan would probably rather know that he’d made it on his own.”
“Well, even if they recognize me, Ryan wouldn’t need to know, would he?”
“I don’t want to start lying to him, or keeping things from him.”
“So… things are still going well between you?” Evan sounds like he knows he’s getting into a tricky area.
“Yeah, they are.” Dan wants to sound confident, but he doesn’t want to rub Evan’s face in it.
“So… I shouldn’t think of Thursday night as us going on a date?” The mischief is clear in Evan’s voice, and Dan laughs.
“Uh, no, probably not.”
“Damn. Hey, how about on the weekend? Tat wants me to come along, says she’s nervous about competing. Can I consider that a date?”
“Dude, I’m gonna be working my ass off all day Sunday! If that’s your idea of a date, we are never going out!”
There’s a pause, and then Evan says, “But if I thought of something better, if I thought of something really good—maybe we would?”
Dan sighs. “Evan, it’s… there’s a lot of complicated stuff getting in the way of us going out. I like you, I do, and… you know, you’re good-looking and all… but I’m not really looking for complications right now.”
Evan sounds a bit tentative. “So… is it bugging you, me asking you out? Letting you know I’m interested?”
Dreamspinner Press Year Four Greatest Hits Page 55
