Page 55 of Spark

When it’s my turn to hug Savage, I squeeze him tight and tell him I’m thrilled for him.

“I must admit,” I say, “I’m surprised to see how happy you are about this news.

” As long as I’ve known this boy, he’s always said he’s got no interest in becoming a father, thanks to his own difficult childhood.

At age twelve, his amazing grandma, Mimi, saved him from the hell of his early life in Phoenix by moving him to live with her in Chicago.

But before that, to put it mildly, those first twelve years of Savage’s unhappy, neglected, and abused life left more than a mark on the poor guy.

“I’m surprised, too,” Savage admits. He looks at Laila across the room. “But Laila makes everything fun for me. I want to do everything there is to do in life, now that I’ve got her. Every damned thing.”

I look across the room to where he’s gazing, to where Ruby and Laila are chatting happily, and it’s just in time to witness Ruby doing a little happy dance while laughing with Laila. “I know what you mean, my brother. When you find the right person, it changes everything.”

Savage follows my gaze. “Can you imagine yourself having babies with her one day?”

“Hell yeah.”

He returns to me with a beaming smile on his face. “Does that mean you’re planning to pop the question, or are you two just gonna live together and?—"

“Hell yeah, I’m gonna propose to her. As soon as possible.”

He gasps. “Holy shit, KC. Congrats.”

“Not so loud, dude.” I look around to make sure nobody’s lurking too close to overhear. “I just need to get the—” I covertly point to my ring finger, and Savage’s face lights up.

“If you ask her during the finale,” Savage whispers, “I know for a fact Nadine would buy you the—” He points to his ring finger. “That’s what she offered to do for me during our first season. I turned her down, but you wouldn’t have to do that.”

I remember that from when it happened. Savage said he didn’t want to propose on TV. He wanted to do it in private. Plus, he didn’t want anyone paying for his future wife’s engagement ring. He wanted to spend his own damned money on that.

“The idea wasn’t for me,” Savage continues, cutting through my wandering thoughts. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t go that route, if you want to get her a big, fat you-know-what for free.”

Savage makes a whole lot more money than I do, thanks to the show and all the side gigs that have flowed from it, and I greatly appreciate him being non-judgmental about the disparity in our financial situations.

Compared to the world at large, I’m a baller, thanks to the success of our band and my various sponsorships and endorsement deals.

But the fact remains, Savage’s bank account dwarfs mine.

Hence, his sprawling, beachside home in Malibu that didn’t cause him a moment’s pain to buy with cash vs.

the modest, three-bedroom home I stretched to buy in North Hollywood with a mortgage.

“I’d want to buy the thing myself, just like you did,” I say. “And I wouldn’t want to do it on the show. Maybe at a party, with all her friends around. I think she’d really like that. Oh! Her birthday’s coming up in a couple weeks. I could do it then.”

Savage contemplates that. “Her birthday is Titus’s, too, though. Maybe you shouldn’t mix all that together.”

I pull a face. “Adrian Savage, are you becoming wise on me? What the fuck?”

He chuckles. “Hey, a broken clock’s right twice a day.”

I peek over at Ruby again. She’s still happily immersed in animated discussion with Laila, who’s now showing her what appears to be a sonogram photo.

“I must admit,” I whisper, “now that I’ve got the idea, I want to do it as soon as possible.

I can force myself to wait till after the finale, so Nadine can’t get her grubby little paws all over it.

But that’s as long as I’m willing to wait. ”

“Nadine would absolutely find a way to use it in the show. I’m sure she’d make Cooper look like the ultimate victim.”

I roll my eyes. “Talk about lying and scheming. Nadine’s next level.”

Savage agrees. “Hey, what about doing it at a birthday party for me? The finale will air on my birthday. Did you see that?”

“No, I missed that.”

“Laila could throw me a party here that night, right after we shoot the live taping. We could all come straight here from the soundstage, and you could do it that very night.”

Excitement rockets through me. “Holy shit, Savage. Yes. You’re sure you wouldn’t mind sharing your birthday with Ruby and me like that?”

“It’d be the best birthday present you could ever give me.”

I hug him and pat his back. “Thanks for everything, man. Not just about Ruby. For my life. For making me who I am today. I wouldn’t be standing here without you.

Maybe not here at all.” Savage’s expression tells me he knows what I mean.

When I got injured in college and it became clear my football dreams were done and dusted, my will to keep going and care about pretty much anything was touch and go for a while.

“I owe you the same debt,” Savage whispers. “When I first came to live with Mimi, I would have run away if it weren’t for you and Kai living down the hall and making me feel cool. But especially you.”

“You were cool. I’m sure you popped out of the womb cool.” I grin at his reaction. “I love you, brother.”

“I love you, too. Can you believe this is how our lives have turned out?”

I shake my head and laugh. “No, sir. I cannot.”

“Okay, guys,” Ruby calls out, clapping her hands. “Unless anyone else has some major life news to share, we need to get started with the writing sesh now. I’m honestly starting to freak out.”

“ Really ?” Titus deadpans. “I hadn’t noticed.”

We resume our seats and start looking through our notes, in whatever form. But before we get too far into the process, Titus says, “Actually, as long as we’re sharing life updates?—”

“Titus!”

“This will be quick, Ruby. Calm your tits.” He returns to the group. “I broke up with Stephanie. That’s not a major life thing, but still.”

“What happened?” Kai asks. “You were just meeting her parents a week ago. And you were a monk for her through the entire tour.”

Titus shrugs. “When I met her parents, everything went downhill from there. They didn’t approve of their precious daughter dating a musician with ‘so many horrible tattoos,’ even a successful one, and I didn’t approve of me dating someone who gave more of a shit about her parents’ opinion of me than her own. ”

I flash Titus an encouraging look, and he nods at me in reply.

Thanks to Ruby, I already knew about Titus’s breakup coming here today, and, like Ruby, I couldn’t be more supportive of his decision.

Ruby and I both liked Stephanie when we met her, briefly, during the tour; but like Ruby told her brother during a recent phone call, Titus deserves a woman who appreciates him for him.

A woman who’s willing to fight for him, tooth and nail, every bit as much as he’s willing to fight for her.

“Okay, that’s enough about that,” Titus murmurs. He picks up his guitar, the same as he did during our first attempt at writing this damned song, and offers up the first idea of the day: a killer guitar riff—one that makes all of us visibly perk up.

We all say basically the same thing: it’s fucking awesome, cool, and super-catchy. Something we can build on as a group. And just like that, a familiar kind of energy courses through us—one that was noticeably lacking from our prior, tepid writing session at my house.

At Kai’s request, Titus plays his riff again, and then again and again, on a running loop, so we can all start vibing with it and formulating ideas about how to build on it.

A few loops in, Kai starts playing a bassline that perfectly complements Titus’s riff. In fact, it makes the damned thing pop and sizzle in a whole new way.

“Oooooooh, that’s sick,” Savage says, perking up. “Give me a beat, KC. I’ve got an idea.”

I grab my laptop and find a looped beat at the right tempo—one I’ll surely replace or at least supplement with live drums, when the time comes, if this seed of an idea ever blooms into an actual Fugitive Summer song.

Not surprisingly, my contribution takes Titus’s and Kai’s playing to a whole new level.

Because that’s what beats do. They make everything musical sound better.

Sicker. Cooler. And after feeling the groove for a minute, Savage strums his guitar in a way that fills out the existing sounds, which then prompts Laila to excitedly slide behind her baby grand in the corner and start adding some tasty chords.

Not to be outdone, Ruby starts adding some riffs and accents on the mini-keyboard in her lap. But even better than that, she starts humming some melodic gibberish as our topline—and, suddenly, it feels like we’re barreling toward an actual song here. A great one, in fact.

We all agree we’re cooking with gas now as our jam session gains momentum and Ruby’s vocal melodies start to solidify and take hold.

“So, what’s this song about?” Savage asks, as everyone continues jamming.

Ruby’s melodies are a slam dunk. But since she’s singing gibberish, rather than actual words, it’s now time for us to decide the direction we want to go with the lyrics, so we can fill in the syllables with something that makes sense.

But that, in turn, hinges on the emotional vibe of this budding song.

“I’m getting anger,” Titus says, still playing his riff on a loop.

“More like angst ,” Ruby supplies.

The whole room agrees with Ruby. Yes. Angst. That’s it .

“Sexual frustration?” Savage asks, and everyone laughs, because of course that’s Savage’s take on the vibe. But also, yeah, he’s kind of right. That’s definitely in there, too.

“‘Why the fuck can’t I get what I want?’” Kai offers. “That’s the vibe I’m getting. ‘I want this so badly, and I can’t have it. Why, why, why ?’”

“Love it,” Laila says. “I feel that, too.”