“But a different kind of beautiful than here,” she continued. “I mean, there’s a lot of traffic and a lot of people. But the ocean is perfect, and there are mountains, and there’s an orange tree in my neighbor’s front yard.”
“An orange tree, really?” I asked.
Her pretty eyes were big.
“I know, that’s what I said,” she exclaimed, nodding her head.
She looked so happy all of a sudden.
“And school?” I asked.
She laughed.
“It’s school — on steroids,” she said. “I just never thought that I could cram this much stuff into my brain at one time. It’s so much stuff.”
She emphasized the so, but she was smiling as she said it.
“You like it though?” I asked.
She nodded again.
“I do,” she said.
She paused then.
“What about you?” she asked. “How’s the job going?”
I nodded my head before I spoke.
“It’s great,” I said and meant it. “There’s always something going on. I like that about it.”
“Please, God, tell me there hasn’t been any more close calls,” she demanded.
I watched her eyelids fall over her eyes and her hand rush to her chest and cover her heart. Then, I softly chuckled to myself.
“No,” I reassured her. “No close calls, knock on wood.”
I knocked on the wooden arm of the bench.
“But I’ve also got my guardian angel,” I said, touching my hand to my heart.
She found my eyes again and smiled.
“There you are,” a voice suddenly called out from behind us. “You ready? You promised. This song.”
My eyes traveled toward the voice, as a girl with auburn hair planted her feet directly in front of Jules and me. She was smiling wide, and her head was cocked playfully in my direction. I glanced back at Julia and then back at the girl. And in that time, the girl’s eyes had fallen on Jules.
“Uh, Taylor,” I stuttered, trying to remember her name again. “This is Julia. Julia, this is Taylor.”
I watched as Julia’s eyes widened a little and her lips fell slightly open.
“Taylor,” Julia repeated then, as if she were remembering something.
Taylor extended her hand.
“Nice to meet you,” she said, in a Missouri-Bootheel twang.
Julia raised her hand to meet Taylor’s. Her smile was poised.
“You ready?” Taylor asked again, quickly redirecting her attention to me.
Everything in me was shouting no, as I stumbled onto Julia’s eyes again.
“Go,” she whispered, so softly that I was sure Taylor couldn’t hear it.
“The next one?” I asked her.
Jules smiled.
“Next time,” she said.
I hesitated. There was something in her voice that made me feel as if there wouldn’t be a next time. A sudden sadness took hold of my chest then and squeezed it tight. I almost told Taylor that I couldn’t leave Julia, but I didn’t. Julia was happy; I could tell. And there was a part of me that wondered if my interference would somehow shatter that happiness.
I reluctantly returned my gaze to Taylor. She shot me a wide grin, and then I slowly lifted myself up from the bench. But when I was on my feet again, I turned back and met Jules’s eyes one, last time. She smiled her beautiful smile, and I tried my best to force a smile too. Then, I begrudgingly followed Taylor to the dance floor.
The song ended, and immediately, I searched the faces on the dance floor for Julia. I didn’t see her, but I did see Rachel.
“Rach, have you seen Jules?” I asked, when I got close enough for her to hear me.
Rachel turned and met my eyes.
“She had to go,” Rachel said. “She’s got an early flight tomorrow — gotta get back to her big-city life. She doesn’t have time for us small-townies anymore.”
She elbowed my arm and giggled.
“God love her,” she went on. “Maybe she’ll take me with her next time.”
She eyed her boyfriend and deviously smiled.
Jon stared at her for a second. Then, without warning, he shrouded her in a big bear hug and squeezed her close to his side
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said.
Rachel giggled again and then dramatically sighed.
“Maybe another life then,” she said, staring back up at me.
I tried to force a smile, but in the end, I just didn’t have the strength. Everything in me was focused on Julia and on the one thought that was swirling endlessly around in my mind: How could I have let her get away again?
Chapter Thirty
One Step
“Is this the first time you boys have ever been inside a recording studio?” the thin man asked in a half-serious, half-joking tone.
We all looked at each other.
“Yes, sir,” I eventually said, nodding my head.
“Okay, well, you ready to record a song then?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Chris excitedly yelled.
The rest of us only nodded our heads and smiled wide.
“All right, let’s do it,” he said. “Drums first.”
We each took turns recording our own tracks, until it finally came to the vocals.
I stood there playing with the big headphones that threatened to engulf both sides of my head. I couldn’t hear anything in them except for the thin man’s voice, which would muffle through every once in a while.
My eyes eventually turned down, and I caught a glimpse of metal peeking out from in between my fingers. Her guardian angel was tightly pressed against my palm.
“Okay, Will,” I heard the man’s voice again. “I’m going to start the track.”
I looked through the glass to where the thin man was sitting and nodded my head.
A few seconds later, the music trickled through the big headphones, and I slowly brought my lips to the funny-looking microphone. I felt the words then grow in my stomach and then climb into my chest. They stayed there for a moment and then finally fell from my lips one by one — just like they had a hundred times before:
My lips hovered in front of the microphone as the last words of the ballad hit the black mesh and disappeared. But the music still played inside my big headset and filled my ears. I closed my eyes and took in each note, as a deep breath invaded my lungs. The song meant something to me, and I couldn’t sing it without feeling something too. I fought back the tightness in my chest as the small room eventually grew quiet again.
“That was great, Will,” I heard a muffled voice say into my ears. “I think we’ve got your single.”