I slid my wallet into my back pocket, grabbed my phone, and headed out to Campbell’s Range Rover. He turned on Foo Fighters as we drove toward downtown.
“How was LA?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Same old, same old.”
“Yeah.”
“Good to be back in Lubbock. Probably the last time for a while.”
“Why is that?”
“Album release, press tour, tour,” he said, ticking them off on his fingers.
I shot a glance at him, wondering if he was going to say anything else, but he just hummed along to the lyrics. As if none of that bothered him.
“How does Blaire feel about that?”
He grinned. “She’s coming with me.”
My stomach knotted. How easy it was to have someone who could pick up and go with you anywhere in the world.
“She’s going to leave Lubbock?”
“Not forever. She’d miss it too much. So would I actually. Just long-distance is hard. Nearly impossible really, and we can both fly back and forth whenever we want. It’ll be nice to have her with me.”
I bet it would. I clenched my hand into a fist and looked out the window as Lubbock passed me by. Lubbock wasn’t even my home. I’d grown up in Seattle. I was much more used to a perpetual drizzle than the dry, dusty climate. But home didn’t have to be a place. It was people, and my people were here.
We pulled into the parking lot of LBK Studios. Campbell reached into the trunk and pulled out his Fender. I held the door for him and stepped inside. We’d worked here on the first and last song we recorded for the new album. It was cozy compared to the behemoth of the studios in LA. Made me feel like coming home.
“I’ll take the back booth,” I told him. “I like that piano the best.”
“Sounds good.”
But when I headed toward the back booth, voices made my feet slow. Campbell grinned at me and kept walking.
“Are you expecting anyone else?” I asked.
“Something like that.”
I warily followed behind him. What was going on? Why did I feel like I was walking into a carefully laid trap?
“You made it!” Santi’s voice boomed before I even turned the corner.
I furrowed my brow and hurried forward to see the entire band sitting in the sound booth, beaming at me. Campbell had just clapped hands with Santi. Viv’s hair was now a vibrant hot pink, and her nails were crazy long and mint green. I had no idea how she strummed a bass with them. Yorke was the same as always—taciturn and silent. He tipped his head at me.
“What’s going on?”
Campbell grinned back at me. “We talked to Bobby.”
Worry bloomed in me. Bobby Rogers…who didn’t like me and felt like I had too much influence over the band. But then why was the entire band here? Couldn’t they have fired me over the phone or something?
“I see.”
“We don’t think you do,” Viv said, popping her bubblegum.
“We want you to join the band,” Campbell said.
Silence. There was silence in my brain. The words I’d wanted most in the world and convinced myself that I would never hear.
“What?” I managed to get out.
“Yeah, we want you to join,” Santi said, clapping me on the back.
“But…Bobby hates me. I thought he would convince you not to make any big changes. This is a big change.”
“Bobby doesn’t hate you,” Campbell burst out at the same time Viv said, “Are you trying to talk us out of it?”
“Yes, he does,” I said and then quickly, “No, I’m not.”
“It was Bobby’s idea,” Campbell said.
“What?”
“Well, all of our ideas,” Viv said, elbowing Campbell. “We’d been talking about it for a while.”
“Yeah, man,” Santi said. “We’d discussed it while putting the album together.”
“We almost said something in New York,” Viv added.
“But we wanted to make sure we could get the contracts and paperwork sorted,” Campbell said.
My mouth was open. I stared at the four of them. “You’re serious?”
“Yes,” Yorke said.
Which sealed it for me. Yorke’s word was law.
“Unless you’re not interested,” Campbell said with a smirk on his lips.
Shithead. He knew I was interested.
“Of course I’m fucking interested.”
Campbell laughed and pulled me into a rough hug. “That’s what I fucking thought. Welcome to the band.”
Viv threw her arms around the both of us, and then Santi joined in.
“Come on, Yorke,” Santi coaxed.
Yorke heaved a large sigh and then put one arm around the lot of us. As if it greatly suffered him to be involved in all of this.
We laughed and broke apart, giddy with excitement. The future was suddenly spread out before me. I was joining Cosmere. The biggest band in the world. And not as a roadie, playing my keys in the background, but as one of them. How was this my life?
“What do we do from here?” I asked.
“Well, we’re heading back to LA tomorrow to get you to sign the paperwork and shit,” Campbell said. “We can have it emailed to you to look over…have a lawyer look over.”
A lawyer. Right. I needed one of those.
“We can recommend one,” Viv said, seeing my deer-in-headlights stare.
“All right.” Then, I blinked. “Wait, tomorrow? You just got back.”
“Yeah. I know it’s short notice. But we want to get everything signed straightaway, and then Bobby wants to run a press announcement about you joining. We’ll do a few interviews next week. They were all planned and ready to go as long as you said yes.”
“Wow. That’s…”
My eyes were wide, and I couldn’t even believe it. This was really happening. Finally happening. My big break. My once-in-a-lifetime break. And I was going with them tomorrow.
“He’s speechless,” Santi said with a laugh. “Perfecto. Let’s go get a drink to celebrate.”
“As long as you’re good with all of this,” Campbell added.
“Why wouldn’t he be good with this?” Santi asked.
Which was the question. Of course this was what I wanted. It was everything I wanted. But now…I knew I had one thing I had to do before I could leave. I was going to have to tell Nora.
My stomach dropped. Things had…escalated between us. We’d started as a fling for her to get over August. We’d agreed to do this until I left. But now, I was leaving. We’d always known that was going to happen, but I thought I had more time. What the fuck was I going to say to her?
Fuck, I needed to figure it out. Because she’d get out of her wedding in a matter of hours, and I’d have to tell her.
“West?” Campbell asked.
“Yeah. Yes. I’m totally cool with it,” I said. “Just going to have a lot of people to tell before I go.”
“Well, invite everyone out for drinks tonight to say your good-byes,” Campbell said. “Because tomorrow, you become a rockstar.”
Part V
Dream Job