“No shoes and you’ve yet to fasten your button-down shirt,” she pointed out.
“Nope, this is me. My house, my rules.”
Stepping forward, Lily smoothed her hand down my abs and smiled warmly up at me. “I love your house rules.”
Slinging my arm around her shoulder, I turned us toward the door. “Let’s go, our public awaits, Mrs. Black.”
Rick sauntered across the outside patio with his arms open wide. “Wow! I can see why you took your time to come down,” he remarked by way of a compliment toward Lily. “May I?” he asked before lifting her hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. He let go and took a step back. “You look incredible, sweetheart,” he remarked before he turned to his partners Lennie and Coral. “Right, guys?”
“Divine,” Coral agreed.
“Stunning, as always,” Lennie stated, smiling. Stepping forward, Coral pulled Lily in for a hug.
“It’s been what… over a year since we saw one another?” Coral remarked.
“At least. You look amazing as always,” my wife responded, smiling. She liked Coral, which was just as well since she was her bandmate’s girl.
“No one else here yet?” I asked as I walked over to the window and saw a launch coming toward the jetty. “Ah, Elle, Drew and Digs have arrived,” I announced.
Soon after, the party was in full swing with most of our friends arriving thick and fast, almost all by boat, apart from the guys from Screaming Shadows and their wives, who had hired a bus to bring them up from the Keys.
Most bands have an element of competition within the field, but I didn’t get a sense of that with everyone we’d invited to our party. And due to schedules, it wasn’t that often that we got the opportunity to form firm friendships with many other bands out there. But both Lily and I hit it off from the first time we’d met the guys from Screaming Shadows.
Jude, their drummer was generally a broody kind of guy with a cool head, and I saw him as the anchor of the band. Levi, the lead singer, was the band member I’d gotten to know first, but Irishman Greg, their replacement bassist, was my favorite of the band.
“Thanks for the invite,” Levi said, fist-bumping me. “You remember, Trinnie and Gabby, right?” he asked, presenting his beautiful wife and her daughter.
“I do. Glad you could come.” I glanced around and caught my wife’s eye. Lily smiled and came toward us. “Trinnie, I’m so happy to see you,” she said, hugging her first, then her daughter. “And look at you, Gabby, you look so grown up.”
My wife and I continued to greet the rest of the band and their wives. Then I figured I needed a few minutes with them onmy own. “Would you mind helping the ladies while me and the guys catch up?” I asked Lily.
My wife winked. “I was just about to ask. Come on ladies, you all look fabulous. Shall we head over to the bar and leave these boys to their band talk?” she asked, gesturing toward the bar with a nod and then led the way.
Once the women had gone, Drew came over and we and the bandmates spent a few minutes catching up. Then Drew led the guys outside to where Rick and his band were sitting. Screaming Shadows had opened for Cobham Street back in the day, so once they saw them no further introductions were needed.
As I mingled with our guests, I was impressed by the perfect mix of people Lily had invited. Everyone was connected to someone else in the room, and the way she’d pulled them together, no one could have felt like an outsider. Even Sienna, Kara and Poppy would be well placed because they knew me and Lily, my sister and her husband.
For a few minutes I gave advice to Jack and Mya, along with their daughter Ava, regarding a potential music career, when I saw some of our final guests pulling in to the dock.
Excusing myself, I headed down to the boardwalk to meet them. Not much had changed about Kara, the petite blonde that had been the love of my best friend’s life. The moment her amber eyes met mine, they instantly glistened with unshed tears, as she stared up at me from the boat.
“Hello, sweetheart,” I said, immediately extending a hand to help her, then her daughter, onto the dock. I noted my voice sounded calming… careful in fact.
Kara stood speechless and tried to swallow back her tears. There was a slight hesitation as she took me in, then she slipped her hand into mine and I pulled her closer beside me. Before she could talk, I pulled her in for a hug.
For a second, I felt a small, tenuous connection to Gary, and once I’d felt that, my hug tightened while I tried to bring comfort to us both. Comfort to Kara, for all she’d been through. And I supposed for a second or two, the grief that still lingered inside of me stirred, despite all the years since we’d lost Gary.
I pulled back to look at her again, still partly in disbelief at her being there, and partly curious about the changes in her familiar features that I’d remembered from a decade before. Kara hadn’t changed much through the years, but I felt relieved that her eyes now held none of the pain that had haunted me during the time that I’d tried to protect her.
“Would you give me a hand?” Sienna’s plea from the boat broke the spell of the silent connection between Kara and me. Letting go of her, I stepped to the side, offered my hand to Sienna and tugged her up on the jetty beside me.
“That trip was awesome,” Poppy gushed, hitching her thumb over her shoulder toward the ocean, distracting me from welcoming Sienna. Gazing at Poppy, I studied her more carefully than the last time we’d met. I’d been blindsided when I’d first seen her in those brief minutes at Sienna’s place.
Now, with the sun shining in her blonde hair, she mesmerized me. She no doubt had the best bits of Kara’s fine features, and the same stunning, platinum mane of hair, but Poppy was much taller than her mom and stood at around five feet eight. She stood staring up at our house, looking catwalk-model lanky, dressed in some denim dungaree shorts and a white off-the-shoulder T-shirt.
“Well, are we going inside or is this as close as us common people get to the life of luxury?” Sienna mumbled.
Shaking my head, I smiled, turning to face Sienna. “I’m sorry, y’all look beautiful,” I mumbled, complimenting them for something to say. “This just feels a little surreal… especially seeing these two after all this time,” I said to Sienna, wagginga thumb between Kara and Poppy. “Come on, let’s go up to the house and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
