“Toby, answer the phone. Kat ran into Liddie today at the market and said she wasn’t looking good—skinny and sad. Kat also said that Liddie said she hadn’t seen or talked to you in two weeks. I talked to Marty, and he said you’d been back in town for about that long. What’s going on, man? I know you’re having some sort of come-undone, but I don’t know why. Gimme a call, Big Brother, or I’m gonna come to your house, and you’re not going to like what I say when I get there. Okay, that didn’t come out quite how I meant it to sound. Just call me, Toby.”

´*•.¸(*•.¸ *¸.•*´)¸.•*´

“Oi, Harper. Pick up, b’y. Mick here. I ran into your brother last night, and he told me you’ve, um, had a setback. I don’t want to pile on, but I need to know if you’re going to be good to sit with Skankin’ Janey Mac. If not, I’m going to have to find someone else. Sorry, man, but business is business. Let me know, regardless, and also know that I’m around if you need to talk. Give me a call, sooner rather than later. Bye.”

´*•.¸(*•.¸ *¸.•*´)¸.•*´

“Okay, Toby, you’re pissing me off, and you know that takes a fuckton of work to do. What the hell are you doing? I mean, besides sitting in your underwear, feeling sorry for yourself, and eating Thin Mints. You need to call Liddie and apologize for whatever your cranky ass did to her—or whatever you didn’t do for her, which is probably more likely. Just do it.”

“Man, I have got to get with the twenty-first century and get voicemail instead of an answering machine.”

Tobias plucked two cookies out of the sleeve and then threw the box back in the freezer. Leave it to Nolan to suck all the pleasure out of a good sulk. He muttered to himself as he wandered back into the living room and plopped down on the couch. Winnie and Frankie sat on their blanket on the adjoining cushion and watched him pop a cookie into his mouth.

“You can’t have these. Chocolate’s not good for little girls like you,” he said. He ate the last cookie and wiped the remnants of chocolate on his sweatpants.

“Not sitting in my underwear either, Baby Bro, because they’re all dirty.”

Tobias turned on the television and began flipping through the channels, not really even registering what was on any of them. He hadn’t done anything in a month—hadn’t picked up an instrument, hadn’t tinkered with any music, hadn’t edited any of his home recordings. Nothing. His muse had abandoned him the same day Liddie shut him out. Oh, at the beginning, she was wringing her hands and noodling around in his head, but she’d quieted down to the point of being silent except for small blips of angry riffs.

He stopped scanning the channels when he saw Lloyd Dobler. Liddie loved this damn movie. They’d gone to see it on one of the few actual dates they’d had. Damn, he missed her. Before he knew it, his phone was in his hand and the line was ringing, ringing, ringing, and then Liddie’s voicemail recording played in his ear. He hung up without leaving a message but was heartened a bit—at least she hadn’t rejected his call, unlike the last time he’d attempted to contact her.

He was still angry, so angry, but not at her—well, maybe a little at her, only because she was being stubborn and thwarting any attempt at communicating with her. He’d gone to her regular grocery store at the usual time she did her shopping, and hung around long enough for a police officer to approach him and tell him to move along. He’d even dropped by Saffy McNab’s place, which was way out of his comfort zone, and gotten honey and goat milk soap—lots of both—just in hopes that she might stop in. Saffy had given him a deep discount and patted his hand. He’d never felt more pitiful.

A loud knock on the door caused Winnie and Frankie to fly off the couch and Tobias to groan. He heaved himself up and ambled to the door, but not before another knock reverberated through the front of the house.

“Man, I’m coming. Keep your damn shirt on. Jeez,” Tobias grumbled and pulled the door open without checking to see who it was.

“Oh, hell.”

“Good to see you, too, Tobias.” Liddie’s uncle Bunny grinned at him. “Do you mind—”

“I need to sit down. Those stairs did me in.” Ace pushed past Tobias and made a beeline to the living room.

“Make yourself at home, Ace,” Tobias muttered before turning to Bunny, who was hiding a smile behind his hand. “Hello, Bunny.”

“We’ll not stay too long, Tobias. We want to talk to you about Liddie. Just please hear us out. Okay?” Bunny waited on the porch until Tobias stepped aside and gestured for him to come in.

“Go on into the living room and have a seat. Can I get you something to drink? Cold water? Sweet tea? Coca-Cola? Bourbon?” Tobias had already decided that he was having a little Coca-Cola in his bourbon. Ace’s eyes lit up when he saw the bottle of Jim Beam, which earned the older man a tongue cluck from his partner, whom he proceeded to ignore.

“Sure I can’t get you anything, Bunny?” Tobias wagged the bottle at Bunny, who threw up hands in defeat and finally nodded.

After quickly making three cocktails, Tobias joined the uncles in the living room and braced for a barrage of criticism. Instead, Bunny looked at Ace with a cocked eyebrow, and Ace rolled his eyes.

“Liddie’s in trouble,” Ace began without preamble. “She’s not doing well at all, physically or mentally.” Tobias opened his mouth to respond, but Ace held his hand up. “Just let me finish, son. We know it is not your fault. We actually didn’t know the specifics of why she was sent away in the first place until very recently. And now we understand that this situation, even though it happened thirty years ago, affects you in more ways than we’d ever imagined.”

Bunny interrupted Ace. “What we’re trying to ask is, ‘How are you doing?’ Liddie has a support network whether she wants one or not. You don’t. You never have. You have your brothers, but you haven’t told anyone about anything, have you? Do they even know about that night?”

Tobias studied his ice cubes as they clinked in the cut-glass lowball glass. Without looking up, he simply said, “Nope.”

“You should tell them.”

“Why?” Tobias bleated a helpless laugh. “Why do it? Chet’s dead and he can’t be punished for all the shit he put us through. Liddie’s old man is dead, so he doesn’t have to answer to anything. The only person who’s still around is Candy fucking Bristol, and the less anyone has to come in contact with that toxic bitch, the better.” Tobias was tempted to throw his glass at the wall, but he had company and he was down to three tumblers of the original set. Instead, he just set the glass down hard. “They ruined her—ruined her—every single one of them. And I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t know if I can fix it.” Tobias swiped at the moisture that leaked from his eyes. “Hell, I don’t even care if we end up together. I just want her to be happy and safe.”

Ace was swirling the ice in his now-empty glass. The clinking was driving Tobias nuts, so much so that he snatched the glass from the uncle and went to refill his glass. “Let me get you a refill,” he offered, grateful for a distraction.

“No hooch this time—just CoCola.”

Tobias grinned as he poured the soft drink into the glass. “Mama called it that, too.”

“I remember your mama. She was a sweet woman.” Ace accepted the glass from Tobias but didn’t drink from it. “I was always worried about her, with your father. We tried to warn her away from him, but you know how it was—the man was scary charismatic.”

Bunny snorted. “He was plain scary. He had a cruel streak a mile wide, but then again, like begets like.”

Tobias raised his eyebrows. He rarely heard stories of his grandfather. In the early days of his career, when he was still playing with Chet, a few old-timers would drop by after a performance and talk about Chester Harper Sr., but even then, those stories and visit were few and far between and had stopped by the time Tobias liberated himself from his father.

Ace shrugged. “I know you shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but I’m just saying, it’s no wonder Chet turned out the way he did.”

“But interestingly enough, none of his sons inherited that behavior,” Bunny mused. “Even though your mama was sick a lot of the time, she was one of the kindest souls I’d ever met. And she loved you boys so much. She was your saving grace, I think.”

Tobias exhaled, suddenly exhausted. “She was. I wish I could have done right by her earlier.”

“Speaking of doing right . . .” Ace set down his glass. “Back to Liddie.”

A knot formed in Tobias’s stomach as he waited for the man to continue.

“If you will, if you can, wait for her, Tobias. She’s seeing someone again.” At Tobias’s look of alarm, Ace quickly added, “A therapist. She’s doing better—not good, but better. If you can find it in your heart to wait for just a little while longer . . .”

Tobias nodded. Hell yeah, he’d wait. He’d wait as long as she needed him to.

“Anything you want us to tell her? She’s coming over for supper tonight.”

“Yeah. Tell her I said, ‘Hey.’ ” Tobias allowed himself a small grin at the tiny glimmer of hope he saw.

Ace, on the other hand, beamed at Tobias. “Will do.”