Page 7 of One for the Road
“Wow,” I breathed. “Is this just for us?”
“Looks like it,” Grey murmured.
A bunch of the Stone Kings and their families were already there. Shouts of greeting welcomed us. Andi herself was standing not far from the Christmas tree and spotted us. She called Abigail and Chloe’s names and knelt down, spreading her arms out to grab both of her daughters in a hug as they ran towards her.
“Oh, my gosh, I have missed you so much, my little munchkins!” she cried,kissing the tops of their heads. “I could hardly sleep last night, I was so excited to see you!”
“We missed you, too, Mommy!” Abigail announced.
Andi looked up and smiled. “All the others are already here,” she told us. “And all the kids, too, of course.”
“Is Lincoln here?” Abigail asked her.
“Yep, Lincoln and Zoe are here with their mom and dad. And Mia is here, too.” She pointed. “See, they’re right over there.”
“Yaayy!” Chloe and Abigail shouted, and ran off to find their friends.
Andi got to her feet. “So glad you guys are here,” she said to me, enveloping me in a hug.
“We wouldn’t have missed it.”
“This is some spread,” Grey remarked. “Damn, you guys must be important or something.”
“Isn’t it, though?” Andi grinned and turned to embrace him too. “The hotel pulled out all the stops. I suspect it’s because… well, never mind. Anyway, they went all out.” She pointed. “Wet bar, food, the works. Ask for anything you want.”
Cal walked up a few seconds later. “Hey, y’all!” he greeted us, lifting a bottle of beer. “Merry Christmas, et cetera. Thanks for bringing the kids.”
“No prob,” Grey said. “They’ve been bouncing off the walls all damn day, excited as hell to see the rest of their crew.” He nodded toward the pack of kids over by the Santa chair. “What’s with the throne?”
“The hotel arranged a special visit from Santa Claus himself just for the kids.” Cal took a swig of his beer. “Let’s hope they don’t fuck that up, too.”
“What do you mean?”
“They screwed up some security stuff when we arrived. Some fans got in and managed to swarm the band in the lobby. Security couldn’t handle the volume of people, and it got pretty hairy. So Rudy lost her shit on them. Said if they couldn’t provide the level of service that was agreed on in the contract, the band wouldn’t be paying for their stay here. The hotel isfalling all over themselves to make up for it.” He swept his hand around the room. “All this? Comped. With a thank you to Hard Candy for staying here and an implied ‘please don’t trash us on social media’.”
While we were talking to Andi and Cal, Trig and Eva sauntered up with Kai, the drummer for Hard Candy. The slight limp that Trig, the Stone Kings VP, walked with since he’d been shot in the leg years ago gave him a distinctive gait. He had one arm around his wife, and in the other hand he held a few mini-bottles of alcohol, the kind they serve on airplanes.
“Ho ho ho, Prez!” Trig boomed in his deep bass voice, handing one of the bottles to Grey. “Meeerrrrry Christmas!”
“You bought me a tiny bottle of Jack Daniels?” Grey smirked. “Shit, your generosity knows no bounds.”
“Nah. I ain’t even that generous. They decorated the upper branches of the Christmas tree with these things. Adult ornaments!”
“That was my idea,” Kai smirked, and tipped back a mini-bottle of tequila. Trig high-fived him.
“Hey, you guys!” Cherish appeared at my side, flanked by Levi, and their two kids, ten-year-old Gracie and six-year-old Mia.
I gave Cherish a hug. “Great to see you!”
“Have you checked out the spread over there?” Cherish whistled. “It’s huge! There’s enough food for three times as many people as there are here. They have these flaky Greek triangle pastry things? With spinach and feta?”
“Spanikopita?” I asked.
“Yes!” She snapped her fingers. “I knew you being a chef would know what they’re called. Anyway, they are sooooo good! I could eat a million of them.”
“About the food, Cherish,” Andi cut in. “Can your shelter use the extra leftovers we have? We ordered way too much, and there’s sure to be a ton that doesn’t get eaten. I can’t bear to think of all this food going to waste.”
Cherish operated a shelter for women and children on the outskirts of town called Safe Haven. Though it was stable and reasonably well-funded for a non-profit, it could always use more help. Andi was one of its biggest donors — mostly anonymously — and she was always thinking of ways to give the place some assistance, financial or otherwise.