The guys listening all started laughing. God…fucking Griffin. Matt was just staring at Griffin and slowly shaking his head. Looking up at me, he mouthed, Fuck-family? I laughed at the look on his face, and I laughed at Griffin’s absolute refusal to admit he cared about Anna. God, what was he going to do when she told him she was pregnant? That thought sobered me a little. If she wanted to keep it, raise the baby with him, and he pushed her away…I really wasn’t sure how I’d handle that.

But that was a problem for a later day. Right now, we had work to do.

Matt was still laughing at Griffin’s twisted but almost sensical logic. I clapped his shoulder. “You ready to finish this, Matt?”

He looked up at me, and I could tell he knew exactly what I meant. “Absolutely,” he said, a bright smile on his face.

I nodded at him, then Evan, then Griffin. “All right…let’s get to work.”

Chapter 33

HOME AGAIN

It took two more weeks, but we finally had all the songs picked and approved. Everyone was so relieved to be done with that part of it; I swear, doing all that was going to be harder than actually making the album. Lana was thrilled with our selections. I was thrilled with the fact that the label was letting us go home right after the tour, and we wouldn’t be starting on the album until a few days after Kiera’s birthday. I was damn-near giddy to be able to spend it with her.

Surprising the hell out of me, all of Avoiding Redemption decided to join us in Seattle when we went home. They said they wanted to see Pete’s.

“It’s just a bar, man. I really don’t get why you’d want to go all the way up there just to see it.”

Justin glanced at his band where we were gathered backstage. Smiling, he shook his shaggy head. “It’s not just a bar, it’s where the D-Bags got their start. And that means it’s gonna be important one day. I want to see it before it gets all…touristy.”

I just pursed my lips and stared at him. Seriously, why was everyone I met so insistent that the D-Bags were gonna be bigger than the Beatles or something? That wasn’t how life worked. Not for me. If we were lucky, we’d get one song on the radio. Hopefully it wouldn’t be so overplayed that people started hating us. I’d like to be able to do this for a little bit longer.

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head at him. Justin laughed at the look on my face, but from his expression, it was clear he thought he was right, and I was being the ridiculous one. For a rock star, he sure was delusional.