Ransom(29)

“I kind of can’t believe it,” I say. “After all this time, I’m actually going to see her. It’s nuts.”

“Yeah.” He shakes his head. “Totally nuts.”

My brothers return in a cacophony of noise, as usual. Reed is yelling at Cash about something, and Lennon is laughing.

I roll my eyes. “The fine, upstanding Ransome boys are back to work like the professionals they are.”

“Shut it, little brother,” Cash says, handing me a cold beer. “Don’t think you’re too important for us not to beat the crap out of you.”

“Yeah, it’s been nearly a week since we put your hand in warm water while you were sleeping,” Lennon says.

I laugh. “Good point. You guys ready to get started?”

Lennon raises his eyebrows. “You’re in a pretty good mood. What’s that about? You’ve been hella whiny lately.”

“Yeah,” Cash adds. “A giant pussy. King pussy, even. We almost got you a crown.”

“I’m in a good mood because we’re almost done with this damn rehearsal,” I say. “And I’ll finally be able to get away from you assholes for a few minutes.”

“Good point,” Cash says. “I could use some alone time with that hottie from the bar myself.” He gets his guitar, and the others follow suit.

Levi is still looking at me strangely, probably wondering why I didn’t just tell them. My brothers love Daisy like a little sister. They’ll be nearly as excited as I am at the prospect of seeing her again.

It can wait till tomorrow. I’ll tell them when she texts to confirm they made it to Boston.

After all, it is still a little hard to believe she’s going to show up.





Chapter Eleven


Daisy





The closer we get to Boston, the more nervous I get. I have no idea how I’m going to get through the next few hours. I could be seeing Daltrey tonight. I’ll definitely be seeing him on stage, but I could see him face to face. How can I deal with that? What will I say? I pull the sleeves of my hoodie down over my fingertips and stare out the window at the increasingly urban landscape.

“We’re getting close!” Paige squeals, tapping the steering wheel.

Karen adjusts the GPS. “This doesn’t even make any sense. It’s sending us around in a circle.”

“Stop being such a downer,” Paige says. “This is the day we see Daltrey Ransome for the first time. You will not ruin it.”

“Yeah, but you might if you miss this turn,” Karen says drily.

“Oops!” Paige pulls the wheel hard, cutting off about three cars behind us as she darts across two lanes to make her exit.

In the back seat, I try hard not to cover my eyes. Paige is not the world’s best driver. I wish either Karen or I had insisted on doing the city driving. But the girls have their driving turn-taking schedule and, as with their other schedules, they stick to it religiously.

When it becomes clear that we are hopelessly lost, Karen pulls out her phone and starts trying to direct with its map feature. Unfortunately, her directions are the complete opposite of the ones from Paige’s GPS, and Paige is having a hard time deciding which to follow. The result is that we almost get killed as she hovers indecisively between lanes and tries to take sharp turns at the last minute.

“You dummy,” Karen finally yells, grabbing the GPS from the dash. “You punched in directions to the venue instead of the hotel. No wonder this isn’t matching up with my phone.”

“Oh!” Paige slaps her forehead. “Whoops.”

“Whoops,” Karen says, shaking her head. “Good God.”

“Well, on the bright side, that looks like the venue down there.” Paige points ahead. “Wanna swing by and check it out before we get back on track?”

I squint out the windshield. A couple of blocks away is a brick building surrounded with people. The line stretches halfway down the next block. “It’s only three thirty,” I murmur, shocked. “What are they all doing here already?”

“General admission,” Paige says. “They want to make sure they’re up close and personal.”

“We’re going to be way in the back,” Karen moans. “We’ll hardly see them.”

“The venue isn’t very big,” Paige says. “We’ll be able to see. Besides, from here on out, we’ll be able to be one of the early ones.”

“Great. I can hardly wait to sit outside on the sidewalk all day.”

Karen has a point. As we pass the front of the line, I see fans—mostly girls—stretched out on blankets and sitting in camp chairs. They look as though they’ve been here for a long time already.