Page 110 of Two Hit Wonder

Iona appeared beside her, guitar already strapped on. When had that happened? When had any of this happened? "Come on. One song. For old time's sake. It’s good luck."

"We played three concerts last month and countless TV shows. There's no old times. There's only constant times."

"Then for new times. For the house." Iona's eyes were bright. Her smile was the one that Maeve had never been able to say no to, not really, not since they were fourteen and Iona had convinced her to audition for a school talent show that had changed both their lives.

Maeve sighed. Picked up her guitar. Took her place at the microphone. "Fine," she said. "But I'm not doing the talking bit in the middle."

They played "I Wanna Be a Star." The original version, the one they'd recorded when they were nineteen and stupid and convinced the world owed them everything. The crowd in the dining room whooped and cheered, Glinna's kids jumped up and down, Shepherd filmed on his phone and even Mo lurked in a corner with what looked suspiciously like a smile on her face.

And Maeve let herself feel it. The music thrumming through her bones, the bass vibrating in her chest, Iona's guitar weaving around her voice like it always had, like it always would. Two years of touring and recording and learning how to be a person who existed in the world again, and sometimes she still couldn't believe any of it was real.

But if it was a dream, she never wanted to wake up.

The song ended. The room erupted.

Cam stood up from behind the drums, grinning so wide it looked like her face might split. "Alright," she announced. "I have news."

✽✽✽

Iona leaned her guitar against the wall and braced herself. Cam having news was generally not a great thing. Cam having news could be anything from her joining the French Foreign Legion to her planning on adopting triplets. And anything in between.

"I don’t think people usually make official announcements about this sort of thing," Cam was saying. "But what the hell. It’s easier to tell you when you’re all together and, well, pretty much everyone that’s important to us both is in this room."

Us both, Iona thought. Who is us? Who is both?

Cam blew out a breath. "So, here it goes, Shepherd and I are dating."

The room went silent.

Iona stared at her. Then found Shepherd, who was also staring at Cam, open-mouthed and red in the face. Then she stared back at Cam, who was beaming like she'd just announced world peace.

"Sorry," Iona said. "What?"

"Dating. Me and Shepherd." Cam cleared her throat. "A couple of months."

Iona sighed and shook her head. "You two will be the death of me," was all she said. Then everyone was laughing and drinks were being poured again and Ellie was letting Charity pluck the strings on her bass.

Shepherd walked sheepishly over. "So, there’s that," he said.

"You're dating Cam."

"Yes."

"My Cam."

"I'm not sure she's yours specifically…"

"The Cam who once accidentally set a hotel room on fire and blamed it on a ghost."

"That was one time," Cam protested. "And the ghost thing could have been plausible."

"It was an electric kettle."

"A haunted electric kettle, according to her." He wrinkled his nose in a way that was still charming, even after all this time."I was trying to tell you earlier, but then you mentioned Mo wanting to get married and I got distracted."

"You got distracted."

"It's a lot to process."