I quickly flipped through all the moments I’d spent around Anna, but I couldn’t find anything to tell him. “No…sorry?” I added, confused. It wasn’t like they were actually together. What did he expect from her? Anna wasn’t the pining type, even I knew that.

Griffin swished his hand, like I could have answered him either way and he wouldn’t have cared. “Whatever, I was just curious.”

He seemed…off though. Weird. Had Griffin actually missed someone? For a reason other than sex? That had to be a first. Wanting him to feel better somehow—also a first—I shrugged and said, “She was pretty proud of her calendar. Have you seen it yet?”

A satisfied grin melted onto his face, and I suddenly regretted asking him that. “Dude…that calendar was basically my entire fucking week.” He made a jack-off motion with his hand, and I pursed my lips at him. I understood what you meant without the visual. Thanks.

Griffin’s smile grew. “In fact…” He turned his head to Matt. “Move. I gotta take care of something.”

Matt immediately stood up to let him get out; he even had his hands raised like he didn’t want to accidentally touch him. After Griffin fled to the back of the bus, Matt sat back down with a scowl on his face. “How could you ask him that?” he said to me.

The disgust on his face made me laugh. “Sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Matt rolled his eyes, then sank his head to the table, utterly defeated by his horndog cousin. Evan and I immediately started cracking up.

Damn. I’d actually missed these guys. It made coming back a little easier. Okay, a lot easier. Things were good. Really good. I couldn’t let myself forget that.

Time passed, and the four of us easily fell back into our routine of organized chaos. It surprised me a little, how familiar it felt now, when just a couple of months ago it was so foreign it had felt like a dream. It was still surreal, but that surrealness was starting to feel normal. Until one evening in early January, when it suddenly felt completely unreal again.

“Kellan, hey, there you are.”

I looked over to see Justin walking my way. The grin on his face was a mile wide. A girl was walking beside him. No…not a girl, a woman. A very sophisticated, upscale woman. She looked a little out of place in the disarray of the backstage party area, and yet, she also seemed perfectly at home here, like she belonged. Maybe more so than any of the rest of us.

Stepping up to me, Justin clapped his hands together. “I have the best news for you.”

Looking between the pair, I bunched my brows in confusion. “Okay. What’s up?”