Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 121916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“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.