Unfortunately, I didn’t know who Courting Chaos was, either.
Maybe it was time for me to expand my musical knowledge. Especially in case Ned and Brian call me into the studio again.
2
Bonham
“Why the fuck did we have to fly in so fucking early?” my twin brother, Van, asked as he leaned his head against the window of the SUV taking us from the airport to our own places. Our oldest brother, Mack, was driving. That was part of his managerial job, I supposed.
“Aww,” I cooed as I ruffled his dark hair. “Is someone not a morning person?”
He lifted his middle finger my way without moving his head.
Our band, Pushing Daisies, was on a one-week break. Something that had been worked into the schedule not by us, but by the headliner, Courting Chaos. Most of us—Van, our other brother, Daltrey, and our sister, Daisy—still couldn’t believe that Mack had snagged us the opener gig for Courting Chaos.
Chaos had opened for Kissing Cinder, the biggest band in the fucking world, who also happened to have longevity, last year and they’d blown up. The same thing was happening to us now and it was surreal.
The week-long break couldn’t have come at a better time, to be honest. None of us were used to being on the road the way we were, though not a single one of us had been complaining. This was our chance and we were going to take it.
“Hey now,” Van’s new girlfriend, Lexi, said as she pushed his finger down.
Lexi was beautiful, looked a lot like her brother Lawson with dark hair and I have no idea what color his eyes were, yet we’d all been taken by surprise when he’d hooked up with her. There were so many reasons and some sounded a little incestuous. We weren’t related to her at all, but she was the sister of Daisy’s boyfriend. Seemed a little too much like keeping it in the family to me.
Other than Lexi, Van didn’t do relationships. Ever in his life. He hadn’t had a girlfriend the way most of us had. He was more of a fuck ’em and forget ’em until next time kind of guy. But Lexi’s dark hair and blue eyes had hooked him. She looked a lot like Lawson, Daisy’s boyfriend, which would be too close for comfort for me.
Still, if it worked for him, I was happy.
The SUV was barely big enough for all of us, but thankfully, we each only had one bag. We hadn’t brought everything with us because we’d be back on tour in a week. Mack was driving with Daltrey in the passenger seat. Van, Lexi, and I were in the back with Daisy and Lawson in the middle. Sure, we could’ve all taken separate cars, but that wouldn’t have made sense.
Mom and Dad were going to be invaded by the whole lot of us, but we wouldn’t be spending the entire week together. My family was together a lot and got along most of the time, though Van and I probably gave everyone the most shit. Twins did that, my mom had said when we kids and Van and I were identical with the exception of our tattoos.
We both had two arms of full sleeves. The difference came in what the tattoos actually were and though some of them were the same, people had to get pretty close to notice.
Mack hit a hard bump, causing Daisy to startle and lift her head from Lawson’s shoulder. “Did you run over a human?” she asked as she rubbed her eyes.
“Just a small one,” Lawson muttered.
I cracked a smile but held in my laugh. I wasn’t sure where we were supposed to be where Lawson was concerned.
At first, none of us had liked the idea of Daisy with Lawson. He was too old for her in all of our opinions. Him being twenty-seven, the same age as our oldest brother, Mack, and her being twenty-one just felt like too much.
Van had taken it the hardest for whatever reason. Of course, he’d let up now that he was with Lawson’s sister, but things weren’t what I’d call settled.
“No,” Mack told her as he gave Lawson a hard stare in the review mirror. I don’t think the guy noticed. “Just the fantastic Michigan potholes.”
The music in the car got a little louder. Glancing up, I saw Daltrey with his hand moving away from the radio. The song playing was one getting a lot of air time by Courting Chaos. Fuck, those guys were good.
When the song ended, the DJs came on. I tuned them out until something interesting happened. I didn’t give a shit about this intern woman’s history, which they seemed to want to know about. Nah. I’d listen when they got to the music.
“Let’s talk music.” One of the DJs cut through my fog. “You’re interning at a music station, so what kind of music do you listen to?”
“I grew up around the church choir, but most of the time I only listen to classical.”
The other guy let out a fake gasp. “You’re kidding me.”
“Nope.” This woman sounded unsure. Whether it was about herself or this being the first time on the radio, if that was the case, I wouldn’t know. But her voice was sweet and I hoped the guys didn’t give her too much of a hard time. “Obviously, I’ve heard more popular music and it’s great, but I grew up on classical.”
“Have you been to any concerts?”
“Tons,” she told him.
“What was your favorite?”
“Actually, my favorite performance wasn’t really a concert. It was more of a showcase of extremely talented local performers.” She was growing in her confidence. I wished I could remember her name. Assuming they said it in the beginning when I wasn’t listening. “Mostly all still in their teens, about five years ago. My favorite performer was a local violin player named Daisy
