by Brooks, Tori
Gere laughed. “I’ve been with women, I just prefer men. I prefer their company. Women are beautiful, but their physical charms don’t outweigh the games they play. To put your mind at ease, I’m not playing with Dev.
“I’m outgoing where he’s private. He keeps secrets, I don’t. It’s not a game to him, that’s just what he feels he needs to do. I’d like him to tell me his secrets. We both feel deeply but Dev can’t hide his emotions as easily as I can. It bothers him that people read him, see everything. I’d love to teach him how to handle himself. It’s adorable that he blushes.
“I know Dev’s not interested in the same relationship I am. I also know that it wouldn’t matter because he’s not ready. It would be nice if he was adventurous enough to let me tempt him, but I’m not sure I would take him up on the offer right now even if he were. He would just be testing the water and I’d like something more. He has the potential to be special. I don’t have any other prospects, so I’ll be patient.”
Kenny stared at Gere a moment and processed that. He was in for the long game? With someone who wasn’t interested in even a trial run? That didn’t make sense. He shook his head. “In two weeks we’re gone. It’s not like you’re going to see him regularly to keep the offer alive in his mind.”
The man across from him simply shrugged. “We talked about Lindsay. Dev’s head over heels for her, that says something. That you and Jess dislike her as intensely and unreasonably as he described says more.”
“Unreasonably?”
“From his point of view. He loves her, he’s protective and biased. I think you know he’s headed for heartbreak,” Gere said and held Kenny’s eyes.
Kenny nodded. “And you plan to be there to pick up the pieces? No. We can handle him.”
“You’re not sympathetic.”
“Neither are you,” Kenny said, gaping at Gere’s audacity. “Jess and I don’t like Lindsay, but you’re trying to sleep with him. We’re all biased. It doesn’t matter anyway because when it happens he’ll lean on Bryan, and Bryan has me on his speed dial, not you. I assume you’ve figured that out by now.”
Gere nodded. “I know. It’s hard for him to make close friends. That’s why he’s stayed with the band. The thing is, Bryan’s still part of the band and he isn’t the only person Dev can turn to. Depending on where he is when it happens, he might turn to James or even Oskar. They’re out of your control. If Bryan starts towing the party line, Dev will reject his advice if anyone else is nearby. Consider that before you start interfering, Kenny.
“Dev’s sensitive. You know it, you cater to it. That’s why you called me in here,” Gere said and stood. “All of you try to shelter him, but you manipulate him too. At some point he’s going to catch on. I’ll be a friend for now because that’s what he can handle and that’s what he needs. You don’t get to play the overprotective big brother card when you’re setting him up with Erika Atlas knowing full well he doesn’t know what’s on her mind.” Gere shook his head and walked out before Kenny had a chance to respond.
○ ○ ○
Kenny let the problem with Gere go in favor of trying to catch a quick nap before the show. It never worked. Pushing Dev out of his mind just left time for him to think about Paige. Normally that wouldn’t be undesirable, but as Preston pointed out, she came with baggage. He gave up trying to rest and got ready for the show on auto-pilot, still dwelling on her problem.
The problem was, in Paige’s mind it wasn’t a problem. She explained repeatedly about Miss North America being an ambassador and how the organization gave out scholarships and all that. Kenny honestly wasn’t paying attention to most of it because he couldn’t care less. She did something that a very vocal percent of the population didn’t like and that eliminated her from the running. Yeah, well, bigots are out there and that didn’t eliminate minorities from the competition. Kenny almost pointed that out but stopped himself, sensing he’d get slapped from half-way around the world. He wasn’t sure how Paige would manage it, just that she would.
“Get your head in the game,” Jess said, smacking the back of Kenny’s head as he walked by backstage. “We’re on soon.”
Kenny reached up to smooth his hair back into place, only to have one of the roadies place a guitar in that hand instead. Kenny smoothed his hair with his other hand and slipped on his guitar. He’d managed to get himself ready and to the arena without even paying much attention. For the next few hours, he’d be distracted by music, fans, and the antics of Jess and Dev; Kenny wouldn’t have time to worry about Paige. He suspected that was a good thing.
And then the show was over and his mind was free to wander again. Kenny left Jess in the hands of some capable fans to help him get the green goo washed off –where did Dev get that to materialize from? Kenny wondered. Dev retreated to his hotel room to either hide from Jess or call his demon girlfriend. Either way, Gere wasn’t with him. Bryan went to bed, and Kenny was happy to retreat to his own room.
He felt like he’d run a marathon and all he really wanted to do was fall into bed, but he had a routine. He’d sleep better if he had a shower first. Getting ready for a speed-shower, he remembered Paige had something planned tonight, so he was off the hook on telling her his rudimentary plan to ... something. He came up with something earlier, a vague plan. He couldn’t think now, he was too tired.
Shower over, Kenny put on shorts and crawled into bed. Banging on his door coincided with his head hitting the pillow.
“Kenny!” Dev’s voice sounded almost frantic, and it was the only thing that kept Kenny from sandwiching his ears between both pillows to ignore the assault on his door. Swearing, Kenny got up, switched on the lights and opened the door. Dev almost fell into the room.
“I had a message waiting from Cassie. It was cryptic. I just got off the phone with her. Kenny, we have to go home. There was a car accident –”
“Cassie?” Kenny asked. It couldn’t be. It just wasn’t possible. Didn’t Dev deserve a break?
“No. Tiff.”
Kenny exhaled. Not that it was much better. Dev knew Tiffany longer and better than the rest of them did. She and Cassie were best friends since they were little, they grew up together, so Dev grew up with her too by default.
He took Dev’s arm and led him to the bed, having to force him down to make him sit. Dev shook slightly with adrenaline, Kenny assumed. And he looked pale.
“How bad was it?” Kenny asked, leaving a hand on Dev’s shoulder.
“It was an auto-ped in New York. She died at the scene. Cassie was with her.” Dev looked at him asking for understanding, and he understood, but it was more than Dev’s needs that Kenny understood at that moment.
Sitting beside Dev, Kenny took a deep breath. “I assume the funeral will be in the next few days?”
Dev nodded. “We can make it. Cassie needs –”
“She’s your sister, Dev. She needs family with her. I get that. Now I want you to listen to me for a minute about Jess.”
“What about him?” Dev asked and Kenny couldn’t fail to catch the warning in Dev’s tone. First that, as much as they fought, Dev and Jess were friends. Second, Jess’s designs on Cassie were a taboo subject around the youngest of their band.
“He wouldn’t do anything to hurt her or take advantage while Cassie is grieving. You know that. But we don’t talk about Jess’s feelings for Cassie and there’s something you should know.”
Dev looked like he was going to protest, but seemed to think better of it. Not that he wouldn’t later.
“Shortly after Teri and Flynn got married, Jess and Cassie had a pivotal moment. Jess did anyway in that he was forced to acknowledge Cassie was going to live her life independent of him. He already knew he didn’t have a chance, or not much of one, but this was different. Jess realized someday she would get married, have kids, a dog, whatever. In short, she wasn’t going to choose him. It shook him up. It shook him enough to cause a problem that he admits to, but we’re keeping very quiet.”
“Quiet enough tha
t I haven’t noticed apparently,” Dev said. “Don’t tell me this is a sex thing.”
“No! Nothing like that. And you wouldn’t notice. It’s easy to overlook. Jess literally can’t speak to Cassie, and yes, I’m using the word ‘literally’ correctly in this case. It’s not an exaggeration. He can’t talk to her.”
“What?” Dev shook his head, seemingly unable to accept what Kenny was saying. “But at Thanksgiving and Christmas –”
“You know very well he avoids her.”
“He can’t avoid her completely, we have dinner.”
“He sits far enough away to make direct conversation impossible. You know this, you help him,” Kenny pointed out.
Dev sat for a moment, staring at him. “You’re saying we can’t go to Tiffany’s funeral.”
“I think Jess would want to be there to support Cassie. We all would. It’s just that he wouldn’t be very supportive. The first time he tried to offer condolences, and failed, it’d cause more problems than any amount of support our presence could offer. Worse, if he didn’t say anything, she’d question it or take it the wrong way. Especially when the look on his face would obviously show that he wanted to. And even worse yet, if we just left Jess behind, his absence would be as obvious as a neon sign. Any of ours would be. If you went, and the rest of us didn’t, Cassie would question it.”
Dev nodded. “So you’re saying we can’t go to Tiffany’s funeral.”
“I’m sorry, Dev.” Kenny sighed. “Do you understand why?”
To Kenny’s immense relief, Dev nodded again.
“We’ve got to do something about Jess. This can’t go on.”
“I’m working on it. For now, just keep it to yourself. Leave him alone and cover for him.”
“Fine. I’ll go tell Cassie we won’t make it.” Dev stood but Kenny stopped him.
“I’ll talk to Flynn and Alec. Let her think we tried, it’ll make her feel better. Flynn and Alec will cover for us. Wait to call Cassie back. I’ll let you know.
“Also, go see Bryan about taking one of his anxiety pills so you can get a decent night’s sleep. We have to tell Jess in the morning.”
○ ○ ○
Kenny called Flynn and told him the problem with Jess. Flynn wasn’t happy and Kenny promised him a longer conversation later. For now, Flynn agreed flying back wasn’t an option. In fact, Flynn couldn’t think of anywhere he’d rather Jess was when Cassie was hurting than in another hemisphere.
Dev didn’t mention it, but the car that hit Tiffany also clipped Cassie. Maybe Dev didn’t know. Tiffany caught the full impact, while Cassie would be attending her best friend’s funeral on crutches with a rainbow of bruises. Flynn said she portrayed a pathetic picture right now, and the longer they could keep Jess from seeing her, the better.
The next morning, Kenny got everything straightened out with Alec, and reluctantly even Gere, then sat Bryan and Jess down to tell them. Dev huddled miserably in a corner of the room but claimed he wanted to be there. He was stressed and, for Dev, that meant being with them was the best thing for him.
Kenny handed Jess a beer and told him the bare-bones version of what was going on.
“What?” Jess asked, staring at Kenny, then glancing back over his shoulder at Dev.
“Dev already knew. He heard it from Cassie last night. You weren’t around,” Kenny brought Jess’s attention back to him as Bryan slid back on the bed to sit quietly by the younger man. Kenny watched Dev for a moment while Jess took another drink of his beer. He didn’t look good.
“What were they even doing in New York? Cassie’s supposed to be at Berkley and Tiff was at Harvard,” Jess demanded.
“Cass flies out every now and again. It’s summer. They were probably shopping,” Bryan answered quietly. “I’ll tell Bren, assuming she doesn’t know already. She can grab Lindsay, maybe Sophie, and spend some time with Cassie. I assume she’ll be at home for a while. Doing the girl-thing at the mall or whatever might help.”
“Good idea, Bryan. It’ll distract her a bit from the fact that we won’t be there,” Kenny agreed.
“What? We aren’t going home for the funeral? Tiffany was Cassie’s best friend. She’ll need our support,” Jess protested.
Kenny looked him in the eye and let one eyebrow twitch upward in amusement.
“Oh,” Jess said. He laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
“Yeah. So, no, we won’t be able to make it. Sorry. I talked to Flynn, he knows the timing is just too tight and he understands. Dev will call Cassie back later tonight and break it to her.
“Tiff meant a lot to all of us. She was right there with us through some tough times. Sometimes we fought, sometimes she cheered us on. In a way she was like a sister maybe. It feels a little weird not to be there, but it won’t help her. It’s not really about her anymore. Now it’s about the people she left behind.
“Dev, how much sleep did you get? You look like hell.” Normally Dev was a poster-boy for how to be fashionable and well-dressed. At the moment he looked like he spent the night in a subway.
Dev didn’t answer. He just shook his head and gave a weary shrug.
“Right. Bryan, escort him back to his room, your room, wherever. Make him get some rest. Actually, first, Dev, are you going to make it tonight? Alec has this big ‘the show must go on’ spiel, but if we’re not up to it, I’d rather not disappoint our fans with a half-assed attempt to fake our way through it.”
Kenny wouldn’t have bet on it, but Dev actually made eye contact. “Yeah. Sure. Maybe pick out a song for Tiff.”
“She liked Everything For You,” Bryan said.
“We’ll run through it a couple of times before the show,” Kenny nodded. “I’ll talk to Alec about where we can work it in. I assume we all still know it? We’ve played it enough.” He looked around and everyone nodded.
“All right. Dev, to bed with you. Bryan, enforce it. Jess, sit tight, drink your beer.”
“I love German beer,” Jess said, sitting up and finishing his glass as they watched Dev and Bryan leave.
“Thought you’d need that,” Kenny nodded. He walked over to the phone and called down for room service to send up another.
“This is going to be that bad?” Jess asked when he hung up. Kenny held up a finger to indicate that he should wait. A couple of minutes later a knock on the door indicated Jess’s refill had arrived. Kenny signed for it and tipped generously.
“I told Dev,” Kenny said, handing Jess the fresh glass of dark beer.
Jess took a drink then set it on the nightstand. “It was inevitable, I suppose. So how’d the kid take it that I’m not talking to his sister?”
“Concerned. He agreed we couldn’t go home under the circumstances. That shows the depth of his concern, I think. He’s siding with your mental health over supporting Cassie in her grief.”
Jess shook his head. “That’s wrong. She’s his sister.”
“You’re his friend. He acknowledges it’d be too easy to tip off Cassie something’s wrong and that would make it worse for her too. When you get right down to it, Dev’s practical.”
“He can’t be happy about this. I fought with Tiff almost constantly and I don’t feel right about missing her funeral.”
“I didn’t say he was happy, I said he was practical. Cassie has other people there who care about her. She’ll miss us, him mostly, but Sophie and Bren have our backs.”
“Bryan knows, right?” Jess asked, picking up his drink again.
“Not sure when exactly he picked up on it, but yeah, he does. You’re covered,” Kenny told him. He wasn’t going to mention Flynn.
Nodding, Jess took another drink. “For now. I can’t avoid her for long. We’re caught here and theoretically can’t make it back for her funeral. That won’t cut it when we get home. I won’t have an excuse not to come home and avoiding her when we’re living at the same address is unforgivable.”
“You have an apartment,” Kenny pointed out.
“
I don’t actually live there. It’s just for dating. You know that.” Jess gave him a withering look.
“I do because I still have to deal with you coming home at odd hours. Flynn does because he has to edge around your car to park in the garage and he still cringes about you parking your Jag outside. Bryan takes a sort of perverse satisfaction in Flynn’s frustration over the car issue. He doesn’t have the attachment you and Flynn share for the Jaguars, you know.”
“I know. And Dev comes back for visits, as does Cassie,” Jess snapped. “I suspect she might have noticed I still sleep in the apartment over the garage with you. Just a hunch.”
“So we’ll say you moved out recently.”
“Flynn would probably cover for me, but Sophie might be a little young to get in on this, don’t you think?”
Kenny considered Dev’s younger sister. Like her brother, Sophie was practical, occasionally. He might be able to reason with her if given sufficient time. She’d be turning fourteen soon, but Kenny wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing for their purposes.
“I’m not sure how to get Sophie on board,” Kenny admitted.
“Then apparently I’m dividing my time between my two beds. It still doesn’t solve my problem.” Jess finished his beer and Kenny refused to order him another one.
“You won’t be back long, neither of us will be.”
“Doesn’t take long to fail to put my foot in my mouth, Kenny.”
“And you’re going to be coming down with laryngitis. As a matter of fact, the last concert was hard on you. Will be hard on you. Will have been – whatever. You’ll be under strict orders to rest your voice because you’re going to need it.”
Jess’s face registered surprise at this information. “I am? For what? Or are you still figuring that out too?”
Kenny hesitated. “I’m going to see if I can get us in to play the Miss North America Pageant.”
“As a favor to Paige? That’s not exactly playing fair.”
“She won’t get the title, Jess, someone else already stabbed her in the back and isn’t playing fair. I just want to level the field a little and see if I can give them a reason to keep her in longer than they would have. They don’t show the competitions for all of them, you know. Just the top dozen or so. She had a chance before, but now she just accepts she won’t make the semi-final cut.”