go clothes shopping. I’d rather eat beignets and listen to jazz. Logan says he’ll bring me back during Mardi Gras. With tits like mine, I’ll be buried in beads.
And while that’s what he said, I bet he’d freak out if I actually flashed them. He has a fascination with my boobs. I’m not sure it’s healthy.
Tomorrow we’re going to work on the exclusive song for the book. Or at least they’re going to try to come up with something. Sam said it isn’t a contract breach, so yay! I’m really excited about it.
Ugh, being excited makes my stomach queasy.
Why is the floor spinning?
I’m never drinking again.
T
Twenty-Eight
Logan took a seat beside Steve’s bare feet on the sectional and waited for Toni to finish hooking up every piece of equipment she’d brought with her and even a few she’d borrowed. He knew she was tremendously excited to capture the band creating a song, but he knew from past experience that these things never, ever went well. He was positive she was going to end up disappointed. The only good thing about that was that she’d probably need him to console her. But he’d rather this session go well because he knew it meant a lot to her. He was determined to be on his best behavior.
“I think that’s everything,” she said and turned to look at them expectantly.
Was she expecting genius to flow from them all on cue and converge into a perfect melody? Yeah, right.
Dare stood and lifted good ol’ Genevieve off her pegs on the wall. He blew a puff of dust from her fretboard and sat down on the coffee table to tune her.
“You’re blocking the shot,” Toni whispered. “Do you want me to move the camera?”
Dare glanced over his shoulder at the video camera trained at his back. “I’ll move,” he said.
“But you usually sit in the middle of the room,” Max said.
“Then I’ll pull the camera over here,” Toni said. When she had a new shot lined up, she stared at them expectantly again. Logan was pretty sure he wasn’t the only one feeling awkward.
“Um,” Max said, “so I guess we should decide what kind of song to compose. I was thinking something acoustic. We haven’t done an acoustic track and since—”
“Fuck that,” Steve interrupted. “Why am I being excluded?”
“You aren’t being excluded,” Max said, raising a placating hand.
“Oh yeah?” Steve said. “How many drum tracks will you require to accompany your acoustic song?”
“Acoustic songs don’t have drum tracks,” Logan said.
“Exactly,” Steve said. “So that means I’mmmm . . . ?”
“Excluded?” Logan supplied.
Steve slapped his thigh. “Exactly.”
“We could add a drum line to an acoustic song,” Max said. “You could play snare.”
“Technically, drums are acoustic,” Dare said. “Acoustic just means without amplifiers.”
“Why are you defending him?” Steve said. “You hate playing acoustic guitar.”
“I wouldn’t say I hate it,” Dare said. “I just prefer electric.”
“So we’re scratching the acoustic idea,” Steve said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“You just don’t want to do it because it was my idea.” Max was starting to shout already.
“No,” Steve yelled back. “I don’t want to do it because it’s a stupid idea!”
Logan would normally have chosen a side by now, but he didn’t want to escalate the problem. Toni was counting on them.
“Guys!” Reagan yelled over all of them. “Calm down.”
Max rose to his feet and waved an arm in Steve’s direction. “I’m not going to calm down until he admits that he’ll think any idea I have is stupid—”
“I freely admit any idea you have is stupid,” Steve said.
“I wasn’t finished,” Max said in a clipped tone. “He will think any idea I have is stupid because it wasn’t his idea.”
“I definitely admit that too,” Steve said. “We need a song with a huge drum solo. Currently all we have is guitar solo, guitar solo, guitar solo.”
“What about a bass solo?” Logan suggested.
“No one wants to hear a bass solo,” Steve said.
“No one wants to hear a fucking drum solo either!” Logan said.
“We have to have a guitar solo,” Dare said.
“Why?” Steve said. “Because we always have a guitar solo? You’re all so predictable. Why can’t we do something different for a change? It’s not like this song is going on an album. It’s just for this stupid book.”
Logan glanced at Toni. He wasn’t sure if her shell-shocked expression was due to Steve undermining her work or because, as usual, the arguing between them was already intensifying. He hit Steve to show his support for his woman. “Toni’s book is