Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

T he worst, and possibly best, thing about leaving Renaissance, Colorado behind was that it meant Penny wasn't mooning over Ashley Torben at what was a clearly-defined arm's length distance. She was under the impression that generally speaking, Ashley was in to girls, but given the way the tall brewhouse manager had avoided even looking at her while she was standing around the bathroom half naked, Penny had to assume that Ashley wasn't specifically into her . And Ashley's smile had been pained when Penny had tried to show off the Thunder Bear Brewery t-shirt she'd been loaned, "So, yeah," Penny breathed to herself. She hadn't thrown away her shot, it just hadn't hit. These things happened. It didn't matter all that much.

Which was why she was still moping about it two weeks later. Penny smirked and did a drum roll that made Gwen look up from tuning her guitar. "Are you still pouting over Ashley blowing you off?"

"No!" Penny smashed the cymbals to emphasize the sincerity of her response, then grabbed them to stop the reverberations and glanced guiltily toward the studio doors. "Maybe."

Gemma, their keyboardist, snorted inelegantly. "Totally. And if you don't stop making noise they're going to throw us off the show before we get to perform."

"They're really not." Myles, on bass, was sprawled on the studio floor like they weren't about to do a live performance on Denver's most popular radio station. "Even if they wanted to throw the rest of us out, they really want Gwen on the show, and she won't be on it without us, so we could set the microphones on fire and they'd still welcome us with open arms."

"Probably not if we set the microphones on fire," Gwen disagreed. "They'd have to call the fire department. It'd be a big mess. And I think one arrest in the band's proximity is enough for the time being."

Penny exchanged glances with Sandy, second guitar and backup singer, who grimaced and said, "Yeah, but it wasn't one of us who got arrested."

"There but for the grace of God, though." Gwen flexed her hand and wrist like she was remembering the impact of punching her ne'er-do-well father in the nose. He'd tried to press charges, but the fact that she'd hit him after he showed up back in her life almost twenty years after running off with her childhood fortune had made the judge laugh in his face. The same judge had also refused him bail, on the extremely valid argument that he was obviously a flight risk, having run off once before. Penny hoped he rotted in jail for the rest of his miserable life.

A soft crackling sound alerted the band as the DJ, a woman named Keely, flicked a speaker on between the rooms. Even Myles got up, and Sandy shook herself, taking a deep breath in preparation as Keely spoke. "Ready to rock? Countdown will go from thirty up there on the screen while we introduce you, and then you're live. You have seven minutes of air time before we have to take a commercial break, and while we're doing that we'll move the whole band from the sound studio in here with me. We good?"

Gwen cast a quick grin around at the band and said, "We're good," with easy confidence. Keely had explained that all to them at least two times before, but Penny imagined people screwed up a lot and the repetition was the DJ's best way of minimizing mistakes. Keely gave them a thumbs-up through the window and a countdown light flicked on above it as Gwen turned her attention to Sandy. "Just like we always do, Sandra Dee. A cappella chorus for our intro."

Sandy wrinkled her nose affectionately at the nickname, but nodded while Penny marveled at Gwen's calm. Performing for live audiences was old hat, but Gwen was the only one in the band with any real experience with performing on air or for a studio audience. The lead singer lifted a hand, counting down with her fingers as the clock reached the last few seconds. Sandy fastened her gaze on Gwen, not the clock itself, and her alto voice, deep enough to be a tenor, soared out effortlessly as Gwen's fist closed on a zero.

They hadn't planned for their song Not Again to begin with a chorus, but after Gwen had debuted it as the encore for a free gig a few weeks ago, their fans had embraced it as their way to call the band on stage. None of the Sixty Pix were dumb enough to look a gift horse in the mouth: if the fans wanted the song that way, then they'd by gum get it. The band had added the chorus-first version of the song, both as a live recording and a new studio recording, to the album when they'd dropped it in the wake of their unexpectedly successful weekend playing at the Thunder Bear Brewpub in Renaissance.

Gemma came in on the keys after Sandy brought the guitar in, with Myles and Penny following with the bass and drums just a few measures later. Gwen, with her powerful lead vocals, waited to join them until the first verse, and Penny got a glimpse of the DJ beaming in her booth, eyes bright as the song soared. There was no transition when they finished it and moved into Midnight Kiss , an older song that had been their biggest success up until the new album's release.

It was totally different playing for a visible audience of one, even though Penny knew there were thousands of people listening to the airwaves, and even though they'd practiced and recorded the songs in-studio. They rarely got to see the effect of their efforts on one individual person, but Keely was absolutely beaming as the band poured into her booth and took their seats after their performance was done. "I have to wait to gush until we're on the air," she whispered, "but oh. my. God !"

That set everybody at ease, and the next twenty minutes flew by as the band fielded questions about where they'd come from, what their hopes were, and where they were playing next. The DJ did ask Gwen about her history as a child star, but Gwen leaned into the line Penny had used when they'd decided they were going to try to break big: the Sixty Pix were a band that looked forward, not back. Keely accepted that gracefully, and the rest of the interview went incredibly well.

Not all of them did, over the next month. Gwen had warned the rest of the band over and over again that there would be people who would insist on dragging her childhood stardom into interviews, that she'd be the focus of attention, and that she was worried about the friction it might cause among the band members. But they were adults, not the teens and tweens Gwen had been friends with the first time she'd come to fame, which made a huge difference. Everyone knew how to handle themselves.

Besides, their keyboardist, Gemma, who was possibly the bluntest person Penny had ever met, made that clear during an increasingly-disastrous interview near the end of their pre-holidays promotional tour. The show's host kept pressing Gwen about the situation with her horrible father until Gemma got up, physically placed herself between the interviewer and Gwen, and in an incredibly flat tone, said, "Would you like to talk about your senior prom, Delilah?"

The woman paled so much Penny thought she might actually pass out. As she gaped, Gemma said, "Then why don't we stick to the topics we agreed on beforehand," and continued to stand there, a blockade between Gwen and the invasive questions, until Delilah nodded and returned, shakily, to less dangerous grounds.

Afterward, Gemma only shrugged and said, "Toldja we had your back, babe," and left it to her boyfriend, Myles, to later admit that Gemma had been doing recon on every single person they were scheduled to interview with, just in case she needed ammunition to keep interviewers from haranguing Gwen.

"It turns out Gemma's terrifying when she wants to be," he said in apparent astonishment, while the rest of the band dissolved into disbelieving laughter and teasing him about never having noticed that before. Gwen had gone off to find Gemma afterward, though, and they'd come back having clearly had a good cry. The whole thing made Penny's heart want to explode with happiness. They'd been together for a long time, and worked hard to get where they were. Finding out they could probably withstand the rise of unexpected fame wasn't a surprise, but it was a relief.

Penny just wished she had somebody to share it with. Gwen had her new boyfriend, Bill, who mostly wasn't traveling with them, but to whom she was sending pics and texts and video clips all the time, and Gemma and Myles had been together forever. Sandy regarded the entire spectrum of romance and sexuality as something amusingly appalling, and of no personal interest, but Penny…

…was not daydreaming over tall gorgeous Ashley Torben any time her mind drifted. The only reason Ashley, specifically, was on her mind was that she was Bill's cousin, so Penny was reminded of her every time Gwen talked to or mentioned her paramour. That was it. Simple proximity reminder, nothing more. Not Ashley's broad smile or her slightly worried expression as she watched over the pub she was managing, or the way she raked her hand through her thick blonde hair. Penny would have been obsessed over some other beautiful blonde if it hadn't been for that. A Hemsworth brother, for example.

Although she had to admit Ashley was probably a more likely romantic option than any of the Hemsworths, due to that same proximity problem. Even if Ashley wasn't interested, she was still probably a more likely romantic possibility than a Hemsworth.

Penny, amused at herself, decided to stop worrying about it, and immediately went to find Gwen and say, "Do you know the Hemsworths? You know, from back when you were famous? Or, I mean, can you get to them?"

Gwen was, at the moment, sprawled on a deck chair despite the fact that Denver weather was grey and promising snow. She opened one eye, then the other, and snickered. "First, 'can I get to them' sounds vaguely threatening. Second, no, I don't know them. Third, are you trying to distract yourself from thinking about Bill's cousin again?"

"You cannot possibly know that." A blush climbed Penny's cheeks, totally betraying her attempted denial. "How did you know? She's so pretty ."

Gwen sat up with an out-loud laugh. She was the polar opposite of Ashley, physically: very pale, dyed black hair, ragged jeans and cut-up t-shirts under leather jackets, stompy boots and scarlet lipstick. Although, like Ashley, she was tall. Not that tall, but from Penny's vantage, pretty much everyone was tall. Gwen swung her legs over the deck chair and grinned up at Penny. "So we're not crushing on Luke, then."

Penny's eyes widened and her blush heated up even more as she realized she'd totally betrayed herself. She sat in the other chair with a thunk and put her face in her hands, mumbling, "No. I didn't even know he had a cousin named Luke."

"I think he may have a cousin with every name you can imagine. There seem to be dozens of them. Buuuut," Gwen said, sing-song, "there were only three female Torbens around when we were there, and one of them was Bill's mom, so that leaves Ashley and…Cassidy, I think. There are a lot of them," she added in a mumble. "But Cassidy was kind of quiet. Luke was the very, very blonde guy."

"Oh, him," Penny said dismissively. "Too pretty. Ashley didn't even notice me, though."

Gwen reached over to pull Penny's hands away from her face. "Want me to ask Bill if that's really true?"

"Oh my god, what are we, five? My friends talk to your friends?"

Gwen grinned and sang a couple more lines of the song it reminded them both of, then shook her head. "All right, then, new cunning plan. Come to Renaissance with me for the holidays."

"Are you nuts? For one thing, we're touring, like, all over the place through the holidays!"

"Unless Mike pulls out some kind of amazing last-minute publicity coup, we're not traveling anywhere between the twenty-first and the thirty-first, and we're performing in Renaissance on New Year's Eve. Gemma and Myles are going up to Vancouver to spend the holidays with their families, and Sandy's going to Mexico with her crew like she does every year. Usually it's you and me in Denver at Christmas anyway. Why not make it Renaissance instead?"

"Because I don't want to be a weird stalker chick if she's not into me?"

"If she's not into you," Gwen pointed out, "there are like seventy-three other Torben cousins to make a play for. You can regard it as your own personal Torbasbord."

Penny stared at her. "Just for that I'm going to wreak absolute havoc with the entire Torben clan. I will wreck relationships. I will shame your name. I will be the leading tabloid material for badly-behaved band members for months."

Gwen cackled. "No, you won't. And if you do, then oh no, they'll stop asking me about what it was like to be Emma freaking Hart. Win-win for me!"

"Dang it! Outplayed!" Penny threw herself backward in the deck chair, theatrically and without considering the fact she was sitting on it crosswise. She hit the deck on the far side, her knees and calves still on the chair, wheezing as she tried to draw air back into her lungs. Gwen squeaked with alarm, and after a couple of seconds, appeared over the edge of the chair, gazing down at Penny with worried eyebrows.

Penny, trying to scrape together the remains of her dignity, said, "Yes, I believe I'll join you in Renaissance for the holidays," in the calmest, most collected tones she had at her disposal. Then, in despair, she added, " Because apparently I'll accidentally kill myself if left alone without adult supervision, " as Gwen, treacherous BFF that she was, dissolved into gales of laughter.