"Oh . . . no fucking way." Grady sat back in his chair and then leaned over for another beer. He popped the top open with an angry snap. "First of all, I won't agree to hiring her. That's off the table." He swung the hand holding the can in an arc, leaving a trail of foamy beer. "I mean, if you want to talk to her for the book, that's your thing. But I don't want to have to deal with her. I just can't."
"Grady, to be honest, I don't remember any of the dance routines. I wasn't all that good at them to begin with."
Grady nodded toward the pool. "I'm sure Oliver can teach us. We can look at old videos . . . whatever. We can do it," he said with more conviction than he felt. "I've got the old studio cleaned out and ready to use for rehearsals. I've set up a sweet-ass sound system. Seriously, how hard can it be?"
"I guess we'll find out." Jimmy looked around. "I like the recent renovations. How you changed the look, but that you can still tell that it's our childhood home. We have so many happy memories here."
"Yeah." Grady smiled but felt a pang of emotion hit him in the gut. "Since I had to get the studio ready I've spent more time here than at my beach house. Sometimes I feel like I can hear Dad's booming laughter or Mom singing."
"Oh man, if those walls could talk . . ."
"In this house the walls would sing," Grady said. "We sang so much it was like we lived in our own personal musical." He laughed. "Other people would have thought we were pretty crazy."
"We were . . . but in a good way. Normal is overrated."
"Yeah." Grady tilted his head. "God, I miss them."
"Me too," Jimmy said quietly. "Hey, and thanks for coming up with the idea for the foundation."
Grady shrugged. "It's about time I came up with something useful to do with my lame-ass life."
"You don't lead a lame-ass life."
"I kinda do." Grady arched an eyebrow, then took a long swig of his beer. After Arabella left him, he'd gone back to his wild ways and then some. Globe-hopping, seeking adventure, dead-end dating, accomplishing a whole bunch of nothing-he wasn't exactly doing the memory of his parents proud. While he wasn't a big partier or playboy, as the tabloids liked to paint him, his life lacked meaningful direction or goals, making Grady feel hollow. "You have your songwriting, Jimmy. And damn, you're good." He nodded toward Oliver and Jesse, who were doing more splashing than swimming in a butterfly race. "Those two have the music store to keep them busy. It's about time I stepped up and did some serious adulting too. I always thought it'd be sweet not to have to work for a living, but it makes it hard to stay motivated. Focused. I'm, like, all over the place and nowhere at all."
"That's a damn good line. Can I use it?"
"Feel free."
"Well, the reunion concert is a big undertaking. You should be proud. And I gotta admit, it's also a good way of getting us together. It's a damn shame that we live so close but don't hang out like this much anymore."
///
"True," Grady said, but then grinned. "We're sure going to be seeing a lot of one another during the next few months. You might change your opinion."
Jimmy laughed. "Yeah," he said, but then sighed. After a moment, he said, "Maybe just think about contacting Arabella?"
"Jimbo, I'm sorry, but there's nothing to discuss," Grady said, even though he was already thinking about Arabella. . . . Hiring her was not going to happen. "Let's just plan the concert date, hammer out the details, and then get with Devin Parker to work on the publicity end of it with Julie Jacobs. The two of them will get the job done."
"I just don't want Devin to talk us into doing more, like a tour or something. He's wanted this reunion for years."
"We were Devin's biggest success."
"Which is why he'll press us for more." Jimmy shifted in his chair. "I don't have any interest in going on the road again. And I think that Oliver does."
"He'll have to get over it. This will just be one concert." Grady held up his index finger. "Then you can go back to songwriting. Oliver and Jesse can go back to running the music store. And I'll keep working on setting up Mom's foundation. I've already got more fundraising ideas bouncing around in my head. I want the foundation to grow quickly and the concert is a big way to get attention."
"Yeah, but Arabella-"