Page 122 of Everything After

“You never said anything about that yesterday,” he mumbled.

“I only learned about it half an hour ago,” I muttered. My statement sounded pathetic to my ears, but I wasn’t consulted about accepting it and wondered if Lennie had spoken to my bandmates beforehand.

“Holly’s wedding was a blast. Way too extravagant to be tasteful in my humble opinion. Then again, money talks and her parents have unlimited funds.”

“All that matters is that it was what Holly wanted,” I reminded him.

“All she wanted was Brett, Lily. The rest was for her parents’ benefit.”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “I guess. Look, Jack, we’re about to take off, can I call you when I get back to Miami?”

“Sure. We’re hanging out there until Thursday with Elle and Drew, then flying back to the UK.”

Alfie took my cell phone away from me. “We’re about to leave Dallas and Lily needs some rest.” He cut the call off and dropped my cell phone in my purse. “Come on, let’s get you buckled in.”

It was only minutes after we settled into our seats that the flight took off. Once we were safely in the air. Alfie stood, unfastened my seatbelt, took my hands and pulled me to my feet. “Wake us up about an hour before we reach New York,” he instructed Oscar while he led me to the bedroom at the back.

“Will do,” Oscar replied, and gave Alfie a thumbs up sign.

“You, Mrs. Black, need a nap. And I need to chill out and spoon with my wife.”

“Sounds like my day has just gotten better,” I admitted. The thought of his strong arms around me, and his warm body next to mine immediately lifted the cloud that had been hanging over me since I’d spoken to Lennie.

“Well, we have a while, maybe after you’ve had that nap, I can teach you just how much better it could get,” he replied with a wicked grin.

Despite being tired, my heart still skipped a beat when I saw that glint of humor in his eyes, and right then I regarded myself as the luckiest woman in the world.

CHAPTER 65

ALFIE

The first thing I noticed when Lily met with her bandmates was how Digs and Shawn greeted her warmly, as usual. Lennie, on the other hand, was purely business, and Cody avoided her like the plague. It appeared like both Lily and I had ruffled the feathers of some of the usually tight-knit bandmates, who appeared on their best behavior.

Conversation between Lennie and Lily was notably strained, with Lennie only addressing her to impart his instructions for the performance ahead.

Lily matched this stilted behavior when she’d merely nodded to acknowledge this before she’d walked away once he’d finished talking. When she glanced toward me following their interaction there was uncertainty in her eyes, until I held up my fist as a sign of solidarity, which made her smile.

I’d promised not to get involved, but in my view, Lennie was walking a thin line. As the only female artist in a rock band, which had a predominately male following, Lily had many more fans than Lennie. Therefore, I figured if he wasn’t careful, hisimmature reaction to Lily becoming a mom might even threaten his popularity in the band.

After a quick sound check, we were all ushered into the Green Room to wait for the interviews to be started. They were informed their segment on the show was still about fifteen minutes away.

“How are you feeling?” Digs asked when he sat down next to Lily.

“Good. Better now that I had a nap on the way over here,” she replied, smiling.

“I’m a bit beat, since I didn’t get much sleep last night,” he muttered, feeling sorry for himself.

“You expect us to feel sorry for you? Even two doors down from you did nothing to stem the noise I heard coming from your room. Don’t bring that woman again unless you pack a ball gag,” Shawn scolded.

Lily rolled her eyes. “TMI, guys,” she mumbled, biting back a grin.

“Yeah, Digs, it most definitely was TMI,” Shawn agreed.

Cody was the last to enter the green room. He sat on the edge of a couch furthest away from Lily, texting on his phone. Lily’s eyes narrowed as she glanced over at him, then her gaze darted to mine. She looked nervous and I remembered that she usually relied on Cody to help her to cope with her stage fright.

“Baby, you can do this. It’s one song. You’ve got this, and I’m right here cheering you on,” I said in support.

Lily nodded, but the way she instantly over-scrutinized the black slacks she wore, told me she had started to spiral into that self-doubt headspace she always had right before a performance.