Marrying Ember(18)

The band worked quickly to pack the RVs after the second show, and the awkward silence was broken by something unbelievably more awkward. As Ember closed one of the doors beneath one RV, Willow came around the back side, putting the resistant sisters face to face.

Willow looked as though she was going to turn and go around the other side, but Ember spoke, reaching her hand out and touching Willow’s arm.

“Can we talk?” Ember tilted her head to the empty RV. I felt the breath of every member of the band come to a halt behind me.

Willow looked down, and the color in her cheeks deepen as she looked up again. “Yeah,” she whispered and wove through those of us who were frozen in our places, entering the RV without another word.

Ember turned slowly, looking at only me. She tugged on my fingertips and gave me a quick peck on the cheek. Putting her head down and ignoring everyone else, she followed Willow into the vehicle and shut the door.

“Well,” Regan piped up, clapping his hands once, “this is awkward.”

A mix of nervous laughter and uncomfortable grumbles rose through the group.

“We’ll be in the other RV,” Mags announced, speaking for herself and Journey. “Regan, do you want to join us?”

“Sure, why the hell not?” He shrugged and gave a bright and nervous smile as he passed by me. “We’re painting The Mediator on the side of that RV.”

I grinned as I shook my head. “If they both come out alive, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Once the uninvolved trio disappeared into the second vehicle, four sets of eyes turned on me.

“What?” I asked, widening my eyes.

Ashby spoke first. “How’d you get Ember to … talk to Willow.”

“Ash, we both know no one can make Ember do a goddam thing. We didn’t talk much last night after the show. We just kind of passed out.” Warmth ran through my veins at the memory of what we had actually done.

Raven wrapped her hand around my forearm. “That may be so, but your influence on our daughter can’t go unnoticed. You ground her. And she does the same for you. You’re each others’ emotional center.” She spoke softly, arresting me with her hopeful eyes.

For the first time in twenty-four hours, I heard Michael speak as he wrapped his arm around his wife’s waist. “We’re sorry it blew up like this.”

I shrugged. “I can’t imagine how it felt to face those choices. I really can’t. I don’t know what I would have done, but I know you did what you thought was the right thing.”

Solstice rested her head on her husband’s shoulder, looking longingly at the dark RV. “Hopefully those two feel the same way. They’re just so … angry.”

“Is Willow angry with you two?” I asked, hoping for help on how to comfort Ember. Somehow.

Michael’s eyes misted over. “She was at first. Of course she’s been grappling with this for who knows how long, even though it was unconfirmed. Then, she came to me in the middle of the night last night, crying. She thanked me for loving her like she was my own. I told her she was mine …” He trailed off, looking somewhere in the distance.

“Ember hasn’t spoken to either of us,” Ashby offered up, sitting on a bench behind him and placing his head in his hands.

“Sometimes,” I started, cutting off Raven who looked like she was about to speak, “it’s best to give her a little space. I kind of speak from experience there.” I sat next to Ashby, patting his back once.

He stared blankly at the ground. “She looked at me like I was a filthy miscreant. I never imagined a look like that coming from my baby girl. I love her … just so damn much …”

Solstice and Michael moved next to Ashby, and Raven squatted in front of him. The four of them weren’t behaving any differently with each other. They were best friends, and, apparently, they were seeing this through together.

“If you guys don’t mind, I’m going to take a walk.” I rose and headed through the parking lot to the field where Ember and I sat last night before the show.

Just as I settled into the grass, my phone rang. It was Monica.

“Hey, Mon.”

“Holy shitballs, Cavanaugh, what the hell is going on in the Redwood Forest?” Her panic didn’t affect me because my anxiety was three steps above hers.

“We’re not in the Redwood’s, Monica.” I tried to use humor to calm her down.

“Shut up.”

It didn’t work.

“When did you talk to Ember? What’d she tell you?” I wasn’t about to tell a story Ember wanted to tell herself.

“That trampy willow branch is her f*cking sister?! Now Ember isn’t answering her phone, and I don’t—”

“Mon, Mon … Mon,” I repeated her name until she calmed down. “Ember and Willow are talking right now and, no, I don’t know what about.”

Monica growled into the phone. I could picture the hot-headed trucker-mouthed brunette getting herself into a tizzy. “Ember calls me at three in the morning and sobs the whole story, then tells me not to worry about it and she’ll see me in two f*cking weeks?”

I bit the inside of my cheek, upset that in my exhaustion I didn’t realize my girlfriend had left the bed and was falling apart in a bathroom ten feet away.