DRASTIC (Book 4 of the Soundcrush Series)

Chapter 40: Smart Girls Break Down

Ok, so lot's going on in the chapter. We're bringing in the final tension that begins to separate Bodie from Soundcrush. Alot of dynamics will slosh and shift in the band from here on out, and who knows how we are actually going to end up.

In the second part of the chapter, we answer the question...who counsels the counselor when she breaks down? I give you one guess who comes full circle with Marley and proves Wolfe wrong--women and men can be friends (ooops shameless plug for my new work The Exception That Proves The Rule. If you don't know who Wolfe is, relax, I'm just mixing my worlds and you probably aren't reading over there, though you should be, lol...)

Marley

I'm swinging Lennon in the swing Adam installed overlooking his dock, keeping an eye out on the lake hi-jinx as best I can, since Darius and most of the older Hearltey cousins are zooming in and out of the cove on Waverunners.

Since moving in, Adam has bought a fleet of personal watercraft. I count at least a dozen on the water right now.

It's too cold for sane people to be swimming, but teenagers hardly qualify. Adam, being slightly more sensible, is wearing a wetsuit as he jumps wakes and spins his machine.

Mac is taking video of him from the dock. "Looking good, Rockstar!" she yells. He stands up, giving her a heart-stopping grin and making the rock on sign with both hands as he expertly balances his gliding craft.

Darius comes screaming in and cuts a turn in front of Adam's Waverunner, creating just enough wake to cause Adam to lose his balance and dump into the lake.

Darius twirls in a circle, around Adam. "Need a hand?"

"Yeah," Adam reaches up and yanks Darius into the water, too. I laugh to hear Darius screeching from the cold.

Mac saunters up the path from the dock in a tank top, jeans, and flip-flops.

"Did you get that?" I grin.

She sits down in the swing beside me, taking her daughter into her arms as she passes me her phone so I can see their up close expressions.

"Your Cousin Darius is a clown just like his daddy," Mac babbles to Lennon, bouncing her chubby legs.

I try not to react when she says things like that so casually. On the one hand, it means so much to me that Mac has embraced Darius.

On the other hand, I'm terrified that Darius is going to overhear something he shouldn't.

Mac reads my tension. "I'm sorry," she mutters. "I just really think the longer you wait to tell him, the more betrayed he's going to feel."

"I'm well aware," I say dryly. Mac has made her feelings strongly known. Apparently now that Darius is officially one of their own, these rock stars hold nothing back.

If Mac feels that way, Trace is ten times more adamament. We actually had a tense discussion that would have probably turned into a fight if I hadn't deliberately switched to counselor mode and de-escalated.

Before he went back to LA, I mentioned to Trace that maybe he should think about getting another counselor because the lines are getting blurred and he just hooked an arm around me and said, "No way. Now that you are family, it just means this counseling thing goes both ways. So sometimes we'll talk shit out and sometimes we'll yell about it. You let me know if you need a safe space from me," he grinned.

Lately he's been calling me at least four times a day, worried about Leed's drinking. My advice there is always the same. You can't make someone sober up. Leed has to be recalled to his purpose.