"Ma'am?"
Tabitha started and gasped. "Yes! What? Yes!"
"I'm so sorry," the pretty brunette flight attendant said when Tabitha awoke so violently. "We served dinner while you were asleep and this is my final pass."
"Oh, okay. I'll have the chicken."
"What would you like to drink?"
"Water, please."
Tabitha glanced around her. The cabin wasn't very full, but the few passengers she could see were sleeping. The meal may have been good, for all she knew, but even the chicken tasted like water to her. The flight attendant cleared away the meal and came around again with a large pillow and a dark blue blanket. Tabitha wasn't sleepy anymore. She rooted around in her carryon and pulled out her portable DVD player and an album full of options. She cuddled under the blanket, popped in the earbuds and hit play on season one, disc one of True Blood.
***
Wes hugged Jazzy and she kissed his cheek. He hesitated to pull away because he didn't want to see the look she'd inevitably give him. That face full of pity and remorse, the same one she gave Blake whenever he skinned his knee or bumped his head. She grabbed his arms to pull back and look up at him. There was the look.
Wes sighed.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine Jazzy. Can we not talk about it?" He hadn't been home ten minutes after dropping Tabitha at the airport when the door bell rang.
She narrowed her eyes at him and frowned. "We came over here so you wouldn't have to be alone. We don't have to talk about anything if you don't want."
Clay entered the living room from the hallway that led to the bedrooms. He'd just put Blake down for a nap in a guest room.
"What are we drinking?" he asked dropping onto the couch.
Jazzy and Wes both glared at him.
Clay shrugged. "I thought this would be the perfect time to get blackout drunk and wallow in misery."
"Shut up," Jazzy said rubbing her brother's arm. "Wes has no reason to be miserable, it's not like someone died."
Wes folded himself onto the couch on the opposite end from Clay.
"Wes went years with no pussy and no prospects. He comes across the perfect girl for him and lets her keep him at arm's length. Now, she's on a different continent, single, and hot as hell."
Wes had never wanted to punch his best friend more.
Jazzy shook her head. "You're not helping, Clay."
Wes glanced between the two people in the world that knew him best. He couldn't help but remember when Tabitha had learned just how much the three of them meant to each other.
***
"Beautiful!" Clay exclaimed when he opened the door. He swept Tabitha up in a hug, lifting her off her feet.
"I'm going to start thinking that's my legal name," Tabitha muttered into his chest.
"I'm going to start taking this personally," Wes grumbled behind her.
"I love you too, dude. Do you want a hug?"
Tabitha laughed when Wes rolled his eyes. He thrust the gift he'd been holding into Clay's open arms. They'd been seeing each other a couple weeks and Tabitha was getting used to Clay's flirting and Jazzy's take-no-shit attitude.
"Thanks for coming, Tabitha," Jazzy said hugging her after she'd given Wes a kiss on the cheek.
"Happy birthday, Jazzy," said Tabitha.
"Thanks, I plan on making it count!"
"Just make sure you can remember it tomorrow."
"Oh, I will. I don't' drink so—no worries."
"Yeah," Tabitha said glancing up at him over her shoulder, "neither does Wes."
"Our grandmother was a functioning alcoholic. She had cirrhosis of the liver and died of pancreatic cancer," Wes explained.
"I'm sorry," Tabitha gasped turning back to Jazzy, "I didn't mean to bum you out on your birthday."
"It's fine, sometimes everyone needs to be reminded why they make certain choices."
"Mommy!" a little boy said running between them and grabbing Jazzy's legs. She bent down and scooped Blake into her arms.
"Say hello to Tabitha," Jazzy told her son. "She's your uncle's special friend."
"Hi," the little boy said looking at Tabitha from under his dark lashes.
"Hi. Your uncle talks about you all the time. It's nice to meet you." Tabitha couldn't help but stare at the little boy. He was beautiful. His hair was ink black and his eyes were cornflower blue. He was pale, but had a natural blush across both cheeks.
"Daddy is being mean," Blake told his mother.
"What's daddy doing to my baby?" Jazzy cooed.
"Tickle monster!" Blake said indignantly.
"Do you want mommy to get him for you?"
"Come on Jazzy, you're going to make him a mama's boy!" Clay exclaimed walking up and reaching for Blake.
"No daddy!" he screeched giggling.
Tabitha gasped. Wes smiled.
She whirled around. "Clay and Jazzy are—uh."
"Blake's parents," Wes offered.
She studied his face, not amused that he was making light of her shock. She turned back to the trio. "I didn't know you guys were married."
"We're not," Jazzy said handing Blake to Clay.
"Oh." Jazzy blushed.
"Clay and Jazzy are in a relationship, its not public knowledge."
"Female fans like to think they actually have a chance at him," Jazzy explained.
Clay kissed his son's round cheek and set the boy down. Blake promptly ran off toward the back of the house. Tabitha's eyes went wide when Clay slid an arm over Jazzy's shoulder. "We'll make it official soon," he said kissing Jazzy's forehead.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Tabitha asked turning back to Wes.
He shrugged. "Not my secret to tell."
Tabitha studied him for a moment.
"Come on," said Jazzy tugging on Tabitha's arm. "You guys are the last to arrive. Let's get my birthday party started."
The party was loud and raucous. All the members of Sickly Sweet were there, as well as some people Jazzy worked with at her day job. Wes had met them all before and introduced Tabitha. She looked a bit overwhelmed by the time she'd met everyone. She held the Smirnoff Ice that Clay had given her, but he'd yet to witness her take a drink. The background music was Alternative music from the 90's, the songs his sister had loved growing up. The CDs he'd stolen from her room and listened to. Most of them were songs that had influenced his taste in the music he wrote, listened to, and played.
Wes grabbed Tabitha's hand and pulled her out the back door. Jazzy and Clay lived in a two-bedroom condo with an unfenced back yard. Behind the row of houses was a steep hill, just over it were rows of cookie-cutter houses on streets and cul-de-sacs. Blake loved to climb half-way up the hill and roll down it. Jazzy hated when he did it, because by the time he got back down to their back yard, he was dizzy and stumbling.
Wes took the bottle from Tabitha's hand and set it down on the small wrought-iron patio table beside them.
"Are you okay?" he asked gazing down into her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just really loud in there. I'm not used to being around so many people in such a small space...plus the music."
"Rock stars must to have decent sound systems," Wes offered.
She laughed and glanced through the French doors at the other party guests. "Becca isn't here."
Wes nodded and pulled her into a hug. "Jazzy and Becca aren't exactly best friends."
"I could pretty much tell by the way Jazzy talked to her at the bar."
Wes laughed. "Yeah, Jazzy is kind of a bitch to Becca. She wouldn't have anything to do with her if Becca and weren't friends."
He felt Tabitha stiffen in his arms. He silently hoped she wasn't the jealous type. Becca was no threat to Tabitha and his friendship with her was strictly platonic.
"Becca won't be upset about not being invited? I mean, absolutely everyone else is here."
Wes shrugged, pulling her closer against his chest. "Becca probably wouldn't come if Jazzy invited her."
"There's something I don't get," said Tabitha stepping back and out of his embrace.
He stayed silent, waiting for her to continue.
"That night at Rock Hard, Jazzy said that Becca is waiting for you to fall in love with her. What's that about?"
Wes sighed and turned away from Tabitha. He watched his sister through on the other side of the glass doors for a moment, she was in deep conversation with Nora, Spencer's long-time girlfriend. He thought about yelling at her for saying that shit in front of Tabitha...but it was her birthday and he didn't want to be the one to piss her off on her birthday.
When he turned back to Tabitha, she was looking uncomfortable...as if she regretted saying anything about it.
"Do you want the whole story?" he asked.
"Why not?" she shrugged.
Wes huffed out a breath and pitched his hands through his hair. "Okay, Becca worked part time at Life Sounds when I first started there. She had just graduated from Adam's University and was working there until she found a real job. We started hanging out because I didn't know anyone in town besides Mr. Dennis and Jazzy. We didn't date or anything, we were just friends for almost a year...even after she quit the music store."
Tabitha nodded.
"Well, somehow she found out that I used to be in a band that did pretty well. Suddenly, she starts flirting with me and asking me out on actual dates. I was pretty shocked because she'd been adamant about wanting us to stay friends. She got drunk one night and told me that she wanted to marry a man with money. It didn't matter if he worked for it or inherited it. It didn't matter if she was a first wife or a fifth wife. She just wanted someone to give her the means to do whatever she wanted. She still doesn't remember telling me all that. Anyway, I wasn't comfortable with the idea of dating her since she didn't want anything romantic with me until she found out that I might have some change in the bank.
That's Jazzy's beef with Becca. Jazzy thinks she's shallow and makes no qualms about telling her that whenever possible."
"So," Tabitha said slowly, "am I in Becca's way here?"
