"Sharing the news, good and bad."
Ryan knocked on Brody's door, bursting to tell him about the tour. Word had gotten around, and she'd gotten congratulatory calls from Annette and others, but it wasn't quite the same. She was about to knock again when he opened...
"Brody talks to his brother -- the bad news."
The incessant buzz of his alarm clock usually had Brody up right away, but this time it took him a good ten seconds of flailing before he found the button to shut it off. The team had played the night...
"Good news, bad news, and parents."
© 2011 All Rights Reserved Four weeks later, on a Friday in the middle of January, Ryan was at work but all of her attention was on Lara. "We got it?" Ryan kept her voice down as she gripped the...
"Brody watches his musician"
"They're good, Langer," Bax shouted over the crowd. "Really good." Brody nodded and watched his musician up on stage. She looked fantastic and the band sounded great. He wondered once more if she knew how happy she looked when she...
"Almost show time."
Ryan's phone beeped as she and Brody walked to the club. She checked the screen and touched the icon to see Evan's text message. I had to promise to come to dinner with Mom and Dad next week. You owe...
"Time to get cooking."
At the sound check, Ryan found herself more relaxed than she'd ever been preparing for a gig. It almost made her laugh. Jason's absence was liberating, and added weight to the others' argument that perhaps they shouldn't replace him. She...
"A little bit of stress release"
Ryan laughed to herself as she hung up the phone. She did feel a little guilty about conning Brody into bringing her food, but she reminded herself that they had had plans, and he likely would have made dinner anyway....
"Ryan's turn to go to a game."
The next night, Ryan was sitting with her guitar, deep into a song when she heard Lara come in. "So, how's it going with the boyfriend?" Ryan looked up to see her friend leaning against the wall, a gleam in...
"Brody's friend questions his motives."
Three days later, on a game-free Tuesday night, Brody whistled as he flipped a zucchini pancake over. Mark eyed the contents of the pan warily. "What is that?" "A zucchini pancake with angel hair pasta and a few other things....
"Ryan finally tells someone about Brody."
A week later, Ryan was on the UMD campus. She walked over to the statue of the diamondback terrapin, symbol of the school's teams, and rubbed its head. The week had been hectic, including a tense dinner with her parents,...