One decision, and I had suddenly gotten everything I’d ever wanted.
I entered Wright Construction and took the elevator up to Whitt’s office, knocking on his door. His head whipped up, and then he waved me in.
“About time,” he said.
I shook my head at him. “Seriously? Not even a welcome back?”
Whitton shot me a twin look. “Welcome back.”
“Now, you’re just being a dick.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Let me finish this email, and then we can go meet Harley.”
I flopped back into the seat across from his desk, grabbing a pencil and flipping it between my fingers. Whitt gave me an insufferable look. But I saw the edges of his lips tug up.
We might be opposites. Whitt, the realist, to my dreamer. The suit to my rocker. The serious to my go with the flow. But he’d missed my wild energy as much as I’d missed his evenness. That was how it had always been.
“What do you think of the job?”
Whitt shrugged. “It’s a job. I’m going to get a promotion next month.”
“Yeah? You know already?”
“I’m doing three people’s jobs. They’d be stupid not to move me up. Jordan said so anyway.”
“How’s it going, working for our brother?”
“Half-brother,” Whitton snapped.
I held my hands up. “Fuck, Whitt, half-brother, if you must.”
“I like him.”
I snorted. “You don’t sound like you do.”
“He’s a fair boss. Though I don’t work directly under him.”
“Nepotism and all.”
“Look at you, remembering vocabulary,” Whitton joked.
I flipped him off. “Anyway, Nora says hi.”
Whitt’s eyes flicked to mine. “Oh, yeah? You already saw her?”
“Surprised her at work.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Don’t use that voice with me,” I groaned.
“Don’t do things that make me use that voice.”
“I have done nothing.”
Whitt went back to his email. “You like her?”
“Nah, come on, bro. She’s my roommate.”
“Right,” he said, clicking a button.
“That’s the voice again.”
“Well, because I know you.” Whitton hit another button and then nodded. “Email sent. Now, you can continue to annoy me on the way to see Harley.”
“Finally.” I jumped up and waited for Whitton to pull on his black suit coat before heading out of his office.
“So, Nora?” Whitton asked, heading toward his shiny silver Lexus instead of my baby Subi.
I regretfully followed him.
“She’s cool, but she’s also Campbell’s little sister. He’d kill me if I looked at her wrong.”
“That may be, but she seems to be a very genuine person. She’s reached out a few times to help me acclimate to Lubbock.”
Once we were in the car, he took off toward campus.
“She is. She decorated the entire house while I was gone. Which I shouldn’t have even been surprised that you decided to get your own place, by the way.”
“No, you shouldn’t have. I like things a little more modern. A little more…”
I waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, we have different tastes.”
“In women as well, which is how I know that Nora Abbey is right up your alley.”
“No way,” I lied. Because he was so fucking right, and it was dangerous to think about. “Have you met anyone?”
“I have not,” he said. “A few dates, but nothing promising.”
“No one crazy enough for you?”
Whitton, despite being the suit, had a thing for…well, I could only describe it as batshit insane girls. Like the more psychotic they were, the more he was into them. I wasn’t sure if it was his actual type, but it was the only kind of girl I’d ever seen him pursue. And there wasn’t a screening process for the level of crazy he was into.
“You’re such a dick,” Whitton said. “I don’t look for crazy girls.”
“Sure, Whitt.”
He scowled at me as we pulled up to Thai Pepper. The line was already ten people deep in the hole-in-the-wall Thai place that had the best noodles I’d ever had in my life. We had excellent Thai in Seattle, and I’d been skeptical when Nora insisted we go here. But damn, she had been right.
Harley waved from a seat at the back of the restaurant. She was in a black miniskirt with ripped fishnets and Doc Martens, paired with a white leather jacket that might have been one of my old ones. Her long, freshly dyed, blonde hair was in two pigtails, her eyes were heavily lined, and she had on bubblegum-pink lipstick. Oh, Harley.
We pushed through the space to where she was.
“West!” she cried, throwing her arms around me.
She was nearly six feet tall but didn’t hide behind her height. She never slumped or refused to wear heels or anything. She took up as much space as she wanted, and I loved that about her.
“Hey, Harley.”
“I’m glad you’re back. How was LA?”
Whitt hugged her next, and then we took the seats opposite her.
“Oh, and I already ordered for the table.”
“Thanks,” Whitton said.
“LA was great. Just wrapped the album. Best work of my life.”
“I bet it is,” she said enthusiastically. “I cannot wait to hear it. When do I get an early copy? Also, can I meet Yorke? Because hello!”
“No!” Whitt said automatically.
“That sounds like a bad idea,” I agreed.
Yorke was another member of Cosmere. He played guitar, was usually silent unless it mattered, and had an avid following called the Peppermint Patties.
She sighed and slumped back. “Y’all are no fun.”
Whitton froze. “Are you using Southern phrases now?”
“Well, I’m Southern!” Harley said, leaning in just to irritate him.
“You’ve lived in Texas for six months.”
“Yeah, but Dad is from here, which means we’re from here, which means I get to say it. I find that way better than you guys or something fucking gendered. At least y’all is neutral. You can say it about any group of people. We don’t have to be so goddamn binary.”
Whitton looked at me in panic. “This is what you’ve missed.”
“Our little sister, all grown up.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Whitt grumbled.
“Anyway, when are you going back?” Harley asked. “Can I come with?”
“I don’t know when I’m going back. I have a standing offer on the table as a producer for the studio. They loved my work with Cosmere and said they could take me on full-time.”
“That sounds like a solid job,” Whitton said.
“Yeah. It would be, but I don’t know. I feel like there’s so much happening right now, and I’m not ready to be tied down to just one thing.”
“What’s the five-year plan? What do you want out of all of this?” Whitt asked.
I knew the answer to that, but it was essentially impossible. I wanted to join Cosmere. But their keyboardist, Michael, had just quit, and he’d been with the band for years. I couldn’t imagine them ever replacing him. Not with how it had all gone down. I was a fill-in, but I wasn’t the real deal. That didn’t stop me from dreaming.