He felt like a schmuck that Leeanne had latched onto his balls and didn’t let go, he’d drifted through life on a guitar string and a surfboard with his head always in a tune or on a wave, so he let that happen and that played out in front of most of the band.

He was probably worried about Preacher.

He was definitely worried about Lyla.

And he was feeling the band sinking into quicksand and he didn’t know what to do about it so he’s lashing out, settling blame.

But we had occasion to brush shoulders with a lot of people in the industry by that time, the first bein’ Bobby Fuckin’ Sheridan.

Okay, Lyla hates it when someone uses the term “diva” to refer in a derogatory way to a woman in entertainment.

She says, give a diva a pair of testicles, he’d be called a visionary or a perfectionist, and everyone would race around breaking their necks to give him what he wanted because he’s gifted, knows what he needs, knows what he’s doing and the result will be worth it.

And she’s right.

But to serve my purposes for this story, I’ll use that terminology.

We’d had our run-ins with a fair share of divas, Bobby Sheridan being our first, and I’ll tell you this, most of them had dicks.

Preach was not that.

And Tim knew it.

So, he’s hitting below the belt and he’s known Preacher a long time. He knows, he breaks that particular seal, Preacher is all in for a dirty fight.

In other words, he bought it with that “faker” bullshit and that boss comment and all the way back to going off set in Phoenix.

The problem is, the band is unraveling.

And the person who’s held it together since 19-fuckin’-86 is Preacher McCade.

I’m waiting for him to get a handle on it or give Tom some sign he’s unleashed to sort shit out.

But Preacher just turns and scowls…

At me.

Lyla:

I love Jesse.

I named my son after that man for a reason.

But he fucked up.

From Phoenix, even before, all the way home, he fucked up.

And he did it huge.

Portland

Lyla:

We were in Seattle for two days and it felt like two years.

I had no idea what happened when they did their thing at the radio station, I just knew by the way Preacher was acting when he got back, it was really not good.

He wasn’t in the mood to talk because of that, but we’d also had our thing before he left, and for the first time, he does not come back after being a dick to me, remorseful and intent to smooth things out, make amends.