Jasper pressed his lips together. He looked a little weary now; the adrenaline of a show wearing off. He did have a job. His responsibilities were vast, but less personal.
Outside a female keened drunkenly, “But Ilooooovehim. I have to see Jasper. I saw him in a dreaammm—”
A scuffling sound ensued as security hauled the woman away.
Jasper didn’t appear to even notice. This was the ambient noise of Jasper Townes’s life, no doubt. The way crickets were the ambient sound of the woods. Recess bells and lockers slamming the sound of Gabe’s.
Jasper remained motionless. His face unreadable. One hand gripping his Coors so hard it dented, the other pressed into the knee of his jeans.
“So,” Gabe continued slowly, as though speaking to a child who was one transgression away from juvie, “I’m here because I’m going to offer you a chance to make it right with Annelise, and look like a big man who just made an innocent, rookie mistake. And that’s all Eden or her daughter are going to know. Because I think the fact that you actually care enough to run away means you actually care enough to get your shit together around this. After that, you’re on your own.”
And so Gabe told Jasper his plan about how Jasper could make it right.
It was the weirdest sensation, feeling paternal toward a man not much younger than him, who was listening with all evidence of absorption. Especially a man who’d just been projected twenty feet high to a stadium of people so the ones in the cheap seats didn’t miss out seeing all his sweat and contorted expressions when he launched into the solo on “Old and Fucked Up.” A guy who probably had piles of money that somewhere down the road could impact Annelise’s future. But not every aspect of our personalities mature all at once, Gabe knew. Something only matured once it’s been tested and tempered.
For Eden and Annelise, he had to try to get the point across to Townes.
After another little silence he said, “Listen, Townes... the things that don’t come naturally to you—like showing up for a small-town grade school raffle because you ran your mouth off and promised a little girl you would, because you were showing off or because you thought that’s what you were supposed to do or you were just at a loss for conversation, who knows why you did it—that’s going to take practice. You know how to practice. Let yourself off the hook for this one. It’s a process. But...calibrate...going forward. Unless you enjoy feeling like an asshole.”
Jasper’s posture had eased. Gabe did not want to like the guy, but his instinct told him that, even if he failed, Jasper was sincere about wanting to try.
He was still pensive, though. He arpeggiated his fingers along the side of his beer can.
“I don’t know if you’re going to be in her life after this. Whatever, they’ll go on. They have each other. You’ll be lucky as hell to be a part ofthatfamily even if they kind of hate you right now. You’re just going to have to try harder. But I hope one day you do love Annelise. Because if you want to be brave...that’show you get brave. You will be willing to fight ugly, and risk failure and embarrassment or anything else that makes you wake up sweating, heart racing in terror, in the middle of the night, to make sure someone you love is safe and happy. And you’ll know it’s love when you do it without even thinking.”
Jasper reanimated then. Drained his beer in a few gulps, then meditatively, slowly crushed the can.
And sat back and regarded Gabe with his bright eyes.
“You mean you’ll do stuff like showing up in the middle of the night and finagling a backstage pass and lecturing a rock star? That kind of stuff?”
Gabe stared at him.
“I guess I’m glad you’re not stupid, Jasper.”
Jasper’s mouth curved ever so faintly. A funny smile. Achingly sad, yet pleased with himself.
Gabe stood and opened the door to the tour bus, and paused, and Jasper followed him there.
“But just so you know, Eden is not for you.”
Jasper’s grin grew crooked, cocky, ever so slightly jaded.
“But you haven’t quite got that locked down yet, have you, brother?” He leaned indolently against the doorframe. The very picture of a rock god. “If I had to guess. And all’s fair.”
They stared each other down.
“Yeah, I’m not worried,” Gabe said finally. With a smile cockier than any Townes could ever dream of issuing.
It might be the cruelest thing he’d said to Jasper Townes yet.
Chapter 21
Two days later...
Everyone looked up alertly when the old intercom system crackled in every classroom in session at Hellcat Canyon Elementary—teachers with a certain wariness—last time it had been employed it was because a snake had gotten loose in the biology lab and had last been seen lounging in a planter outside the library—the kids with gleeful anticipation.
Especially Annelise Harwood. Just because she’d studied for the math test didn’t mean she was looking forward to it. She crossed her fingers in her lap.