Never Ending by Kailin Gow

Author:Kailin Gow [Gow, Kailin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: theEDGEbooks.com
Published: 2013-08-05T03:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Danny spent all that morning on the phone with Slayton, trying to track down a new bassist to join our new drummer on the earliest flight possible into LA. “Remember, Ricky,” he said, “we're replacing some pretty serious talent here. Don't get us just anybody,” he laughed softly. “Kyle and Luc are both irreplaceable.”

But replace them we had to do – whether we wanted to or not. And while we told ourselves that any replacement would be merely temporary, a stopgap measure until Kyle's dad ended up back in jail, or until Steve's hand healed, the truth was that it felt much more serious than that. Danny Blue had started out as a replacement, after all, and now here he was: the band's front-man. How would we be sure that our replacements didn't end up permanent, somehow? After all, our biggest and most high-profile gigs would be played by the new band members – what if our fans decided they wanted the change to stick? I grimaced at the thought of a Never Knights comprised mostly of strangers. But what else could we do? Kyle and Steve were united in the conviction that a complete Never Knights lineup was more important than anything else, including their pride. We had twenty venues waiting for us to turn up with new songs, high energy, and tons of inspiration. And we couldn't let any of them down.

Still, I felt a twinge of guilt as I watched Danny pace back and forth across the hotel suite floor, talking to Slayton, vetting potential candidates. “Too metal,” he'd say about one. “Too folksy” about another. “Too young. Too old.”

At last, at twenty past two in the afternoon, I heard him say: “That's just right.”

He hung up the phone and turned to me. “We have him,” he said. “Jim Barnes.”

“Jim Barnes?” I racked my brains, trying to remember where I'd heard the name. “The blues singer?”

“The same one.”

“But he's so old!” He was someone my father used to talk about – a “young upstart” back when my dad was close to retirement.

“He's not forty yet,” Danny smiled. “And, on the bright side – the fewer hot guys you have around you, the less worried I am that you'll lose your heart to a handsome stranger.” He gave a little laugh. “No, but serious – Jimbo is a brilliant bassist – and he's got quite a good voice to boot. In case I ever get laryngitis.”

“Don't even joke about that!” I cried. “With all that's been happening with the band lately, I feel like you'll be next. Maybe Roni will stick some germ-ridden handkerchief in your glove compartment – some petty sabotage like that.” It was a joke, but it hardly felt like one. The past few hours had been so exhausting that I felt like I had no energy to laugh.

Still, by that evening, I was waiting at the arrivals board at LAX Airport, watching with Danny and Luc as Roc Ilford and Jim Barnes made their way off the plane.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.