Daisy perked up, sitting straight as she turned her head back toward me. “Did she just say that I was her favorite performer?”
I snorted and nodded. “I’d guess you’re a lot of people’s favorite performer, Daisy. I don’t think you understand what you do to people when you’re on stage.”
“She doesn’t,” Lawson agreed.
“Yeah, but…” She held her hand up toward the radio like she couldn’t believe she’d heard it.
“Keep listening,” Lawson whispered as he kissed the side of her head.
Him showing affection to our sister didn’t bother me as much as it did Van. Now anyway. She was with him and there wasn’t a damn thing we could do about it so I’d gotten used to seeing them together. Van hadn’t chilled out at all until after he got with Lexi.
“Seriously?” the DJ asked. “You’re telling me that your favorite performance was Daisy Thompson playing her violin?”
“Yeah,” the woman said the giggled nervously. “Why? Is that weird?”
Better fucking not be weird. Daisy was almost savant-like with music. Her playing her violin was a thing of beauty and something we were all a little jealous of.
“Nope.” The guy sounded like he was trying not to laugh. “Not weird at all. I bet she was awesome.”
She was. I remember the performance the woman was talking about. Daisy had been sixteen and it had been an expo kind of thing. We’d all gone to see her and apparently, so had this intern.
“She was. What’s going on? You two look like you’re about to wet your pants.”
The SUV rumbled with laughter. The intern wasn’t joining in.
“Jurnie, have you kept up with Daisy Thompson? To see what she’s up to today?”
“No. Should I have?” she asked.
“Let me show you what she’s been up to these days.”
That was when one of our songs came on. I knew by the opening notes of her violin that it was “Endless.” As it ended, the DJ cut in, “What do you think?”
“That was really good, but—”
He cut her off.
“The singer is Daisy Thompson and the band is her band, Pushing Daisies.”
“Not her band,” the other guy corrected him, for which I was grateful. We were all in this together. “She’s in it with her brothers and they’re getting quite a lot of radio play.”
“I’ve heard their name before but didn’t know enough about them to put it together. But wow, she’s still awesome.”
That was when Daltrey turned the radio back down and glanced over his shoulder at us. “Ouch.”
We all laughed with the humor he’d intended it to have.
“We’re all just trying to be part of the Daisy show,” Van said while still laughing.
“Stop.” She sat back and folded her arms over her stomach. Daisy was the only one not joining in on the fun.
The idea of us being her minions had always been uncomfortable for her, but she was the one with the most talent. This was our band, but there was no denying her star power or the fact that, while the guys and I had tinkered for years, we hadn’t been complete until we’d gotten her to join us. She had the voice of a fucking angel.
“I’m serious,” she insisted, which made us, including Mack, laugh harder. “You guys know that’s now how I feel.”
But the more she talked, the more we laughed. There was no hierarchy when it came to Pushing Daisies. We were all in this together, but damn, if we could give her shit, we were going to take the opportunity.
“They’re fucking with you,” Lawson said quietly, but the SUV was small and we could all hear him.
Daisy sighed. “I hate you all.”
It was another full minute before we were done with her.
“Poor Jurnie,” Daltrey said after we’d calmed down.
“Who the fuck is Jurnie?” I asked.
He turned toward me with his face contorted in a way that said I was being stupid. “The intern on the radio. They were harassing her to no end. We all know what it’s like to be the new guy.”
“She gave it back to them.” I brushed him off. He was right. We did all know what it was like to be the new guy.
“Yeah, she had a great personality,” Daltrey told us as if that were proof of anything.
“You know what they say about girls with great personalities,” Van told us, then he added, “Ow.”
I snorted. Lexi had shoved her elbow into his abs. I’d felt the movement before I’d seen it.
“You guys are assholes,” Daisy said with a sigh.
Though all of us wanted to laugh, we held it back.
Damn, having women around all the time was a real eye-opener.
It was another ten minutes before we were in front of our parents’ house. None of us still lived at home, technically, though Daisy lived in the add-on apartment that my parents had built ten years ago for our grandma. Once Daisy had turned eighteen, the apartment had sat empty, so my parents had let her move into it.
None of us would go into the house just yet. It was early, but our dad would’ve for sure left for work already. We’d see them later for dinner, where our parents would get to meet Lexi and Lawson for the first time.
It had to be tonight, my mother had insisted. We only had a few days because Daisy and Van were going to Chicago later this week to see Lexi and Lawson’s family. We’d already met them on the tour. It was the first time we’d all met Lexi, actually.
After dropping off Daisy and Lawson, our next stop was the apartment I shared with Van. Daltrey and Mack also shared a much bigger place in the same complex. We were never far from family.
“You don’t mind me staying here, right?” Lexi asked as we got the door unlocked.
Van sent me a warning look that I didn’t need. “It’s his place, too,” I told her. “Plus, you’re small. I can’t imagine you take up a lot of room.”
On tour, Van had started to spend most of his
