Bree felt as if she hardly had a second of free time. Once everyone they’d chosen for the band accepted, practices were scheduled. Since Zelda had already booked so many jobs for Bree, she was playing at night and practicing during the day. It was an exciting whirlwind, but it also left her tired most of the time. She was living off of coffee and other forms of caffeine.
Jordan was directing their practices. He arrived far too enthusiastic for Bree’s taste early in the morning. “Hey, gang! I think the older stuff is really starting to come along. Let’s give it one more day with the songs you've been working on, and then, tomorrow, I’d like to turn it over to the new stuff. Zelda is looking to get some gigs scheduled for next month, so we need to get some new jams together, get everyone hyped up about the new album, which we’ll start laying down soon, too. Y’all are really starting to sound like a band now, so it’s time to crank things up a notch and get some killer new songs out there.”
Bree stared at him for a moment, hoping she’d at least gotten the gist of what he was saying. They’d practice the old songs today and move to the new songs tomorrow. That shouldn’t be a problem since she had dozens of songs ready to go, but none of them had been worked through with a band. At least the older songs had been arranged with a full band for their recordings, so the new musicians could just play what had been played before. This was brand new territory for her, and she’d have to collaborate with her bandmates to make her new songs sound like she’d wanted them while also making sure everyone got a chance to contribute. It was a little unsettling to her.
“Let’s work through this like it’s a playlist, what do you say?” Jordan proposed, and everyone agreed. “All right. I’ll put it in my recommended order, we can chat about it if you have suggestions, and then will get at it.”
“I have a playlist I usually use, if you want it,” Bree offered. “There’s no sense in reinventing the wheel.”
“I’m sure your playlist works just fine for when you’re playing solo, but when you’re with a band, there are other considerations we’ve got to think about.”
“There are?” Bree asked, really not having ever thought about that before. “Would you mind explaining?” She was genuinely curious and hoped she didn’t sound sarcastic.
Jordan didn’t seem to be offended. “Sure thing. So some of these songs have strong guitar solos in them now that they didn’t have when you were playing them by yourself. We want to make sure we spread those out. Same for the other instruments. You’ve got a strong piano melody in ‘Lead Me Home’ that wasn't there when you played it on the guitar alone. Same with ‘Can’t Take It.’ We don’t want those back to back. Make sense?”
“It does. Thanks for explaining.” Bree gave him a smile, and Jordan winked at her, which was a little creepy, but she got that it was an older-guy sort of way of saying, “No problem.”
“We’ll get started in ten,” Jordan said, clicking his pen annoyingly as he walked back to the booth.
Most of her bandmates put their instruments away now that they had a small reprieve. Cat hopped up from her stool. “I’m going to go grab some more coffee. Anyone else need a refill?”
“Yes, please!” Bree said, handing over her nearly empty cup.
Cat giggled. She’d gotten Bree more than a few refills recently, so she knew how she took it. “You got it.”
The rest of the guys started talking about a baseball game, and Bree pulled her phone out to check it. Trent had sent her a text, saying he hoped she was having a good day. He was so sweet. She knew he had a building he was thinking about leasing to start his new firm here in Nashville. She texted him back to tell him she hoped it was going well.
“Trent doing okay?” Zach asked over her shoulder. She turned to see he wasn’t looking at her text, which was a relief. It must’ve just been a good guess that she was texting her boyfriend. Not that she had anything to hide.
“Yeah. He’s good. Thanks.” She watched as he messed around with his pedals on the floor, stepping on one and then another. She figured he must be reprogramming them or something. She rarely played an electric guitar, and when she did, she didn’t use the pedals. “Are you seeing anyone, Zach?” It seemed like a legitimate question. She’d never asked him before, and she felt like she should have since they’d been playing together for a while now, and they were in the same band, after all.
“Not at the moment. Please don’t say you have a friend you wanna hook me up with either. That never works out for me.”
Bree laughed. “No, I just realized I’d never asked. I think Cat has a boyfriend and Dominic is married. I know Chase is seeing someone and Griffin has sworn off all relationships for all time, but I’ve never heard you talk about it at all.”
He shrugged. “The last girl I was dating was a little bit psycho, to put it mildly. I try not to think about her or dating, if I can help it.”
“How can one be a little bit psycho?” Bree wanted to know.
Zach chuckled. “You’re right. She’s a lot bit psycho.”
Before Bree could ask why he said that, Jordan was back with the playlist. Bree felt sorry for Zach that he’d been dating a crazy woman, but she was glad he’d at least gotten out of it. It spoke volumes to Bree that she couldn’t even come up with one potential name of a girl she could maybe hook him up with when he was ready. Only Christy really came to mind, and she didn’t live nearby. Not that Zach was looking to date anyway.
“All right--this look good to everyone?” Jordan asked, holding up a list as he read the songs off.
Bree liked the order. He’d put a few songs back to back that she typically avoided playing in that order because they had similar messages, but she was definitely willing to let the expert’s list speak for itself.
“Let’s get at it, then,” Jordan said with his trademark enthusiasm.
Cat handed Bree her coffee, and she took a long pull off of it before she stepped over to her microphone. It was weird not having a guitar in her hands, but she trusted her band and liked focusing on the vocals. Dominic counted them down with his drumsticks, and the band started playing the first song on the list, “Blue Skies.” Bree closed her eyes and let the music carry her away as her song came to life in ways it never would have without these amazing musicians. She was so proud to call them her band.