“Gonna see some stars tonight, Jules?” I asked out loud.
Then, I set my eyes onto the gravel road again and stepped on the gas.
“It’s a good night for it,” I said to myself, smiling a wide, happy grin.
Chapter Forty-One
The Chase
I made my way across the creek slab and pulled off to the side of the road. There was a black sedan already waiting there. I smiled, reached into my backseat and then climbed out of the truck.
It was dark, but there was still a piece of the moon in the sky, so I could make out her silhouette on the hood of the sedan. She was sitting up, and her face was turned back toward me.
“Hi, Jules,” I said.
She seemed to hesitate before she spoke.
“Hi,” she eventually said.
Her voice was cheerful. She didn’t seem surprised. It made me smile wider, as I walked toward her.
“Mind if I take a seat?” I asked, when I reached the car.
“Not at all; it’s a rental,” she said, patting a spot next to her on the hood.
I nodded my head and chuckled to myself.
“Aah,” I said.
My eyes traveled from her hand to the color in her eyes. Then, I cautiously climbed onto the car’s hood, leaned my back against the windshield and made myself comfortable, all the while, trying my best to conceal the object in my hand.
“Did you know I was here?” she asked.
There was a suspicious air attached to her question. I was quiet for a second but then turned my face toward hers.
“Of course. Where else would you be?” I asked.
I watched her pause in what looked as if it was a thought.
“But how? I never…,” she started.
“Oh, you want to know how I knew you came at all?” I asked.
“That would be a start,” she said, shooting me a coy smile.
“You promised,” I said.
“Wait, you remembered that?” she asked.
“Of course, and from the looks of it, you did too,” I said, gently elbowing her arm.
“A promise is a promise,” she said so softly I almost didn’t hear it.
There was silence for a second then — that perfect kind of silence, when it almost had a hum of its own.
“But seriously, how could you have known?” she asked.
I paused and met her eyes again. She looked puzzled. I missed that puzzled face of hers. I missed all of her faces.
“Did you see the camera guy scanning the crowd?” I asked.
“Umm…yeah, I guess I might have noticed him,” she said, slowing shaking her head.
“Before the show, I gave him a photo and asked him to look for you,” I said.
“You didn’t?” she demanded.
“I did,” I said. “And turns out, he’s got a good eye.”
I gave her a wink, shrugged my shoulders and then sent a wide grin up into the heavens.
I felt her eyes linger on me before, eventually, her head fell softly back onto the windshield.
“You never cease to amaze me, Will Stephens,” she said, laughing softly to herself.
I listened to her soft laughter until it faded. Then, there was silence again — well, except for the crickets and the tree frogs. It had its place, but I wasn’t much for the quiet in this stage of the game.
“Did you hear the last song?” I asked.
She took a moment before she spoke.
“I did,” she eventually whispered.
“I meant every word of it,” I said.
“It’s a beautiful song, Will,” she said, slowly nodding her head as she spoke. “And how does ‘the one’ feel about this song?”
My head shifted to the side, and my eyes darted to her eyes. She looked serious. But it was too late to stop the smile already squeezing past my lips.
“I don’t know, Jules, how do you feel?” I asked, chuckling to myself.
I watched her let out a slow, uneasy breath before she locked her stare onto the moon again.
“You’re the one, Jules, and I should have told you years ago, but I knew it wasn’t the right time. I knew that you weren’t ready yet.”
Her eyes quickly darted toward mine again.
“Ready?” she asked. “Will, what…”
She let her words trail off.
“Jules, you’ve always been the only one for me,” I confessed.
I stopped then. I knew I had to tell her everything now, but I had to start from the beginning. I sucked in a breath and swallowed hard.
“Jules, I know I let life get in the way of us, and I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry. But I didn’t take the record deal in search of some kind of fame or elusive fortune or anything like that. I didn’t take it for me, Jules. It’s been great. You were right; it’s all been great. But you know that I would have been just as happy to spend the rest of my days playing my guitar for my number-one fan.”
I turned onto my side and faced her. Her eyes were still on me.
“But when I realized that I might not even get that dream — my dream of playing for you for the rest of my life — I remembered a promise you had made to me,” I said.
I paused and watched as a word formed on her soft lips.
“Why did you wait so long to tell me this?” she asked. “I had thought that you had moved on. I moved on. I almost got married. You know that.”
Her voice was stern, but I felt the corner of my mouth slowly lifting into a boyish grin despite it.
“Yeah, seeing the ring hurt just a little,” I said.
Her expression didn’t change, and then I knew she wasn’t in the mood for any of my stupid jokes. I lowered my eyes and then took a deep breath and slowly forced it out.
“You know, Jules, I wish I could say that I knew all along that you wouldn’t go through with it — that you wouldn’t marry him — but I didn’t know for sure,” I confessed. “I just prayed like hell that you would realize he wasn’t the one for you.”
I watched a smile fight its way to her pretty face. It was playful but also laced with sarcasm.
“Thanks, Will,” she said. “I’m glad I had your best wishes.”
My eyes fell to a spot on the sedan’s hood before they returned to her.
“I’m so sorry, Jules,” I said. “I hadn’t really realized how fast everything had gone until it was too late. I was so busy trying to find a way to get you back — listening to every piece of advice from every person who would give it — that I kind of got lost along the way.”
I stopped to take a breath.
“And Jules, I knew you had wings — wings like no one I have ever met,” I went on. “You had your dreams, and they were bigger than this town, and they were bigger than me. I knew that, and I knew you. I would have loved to follow you and to be with you when you graduated college or got into law school or passed the bar. I would have loved to be there with you living your dreams. It kills me that I wasn’t.”
My smile faded then, and my eyelids fell over my eyes, as her soft voice hit my ears again.
“Will,” she said, “when it was all said and done, it hurt, and I was hurting. I just needed time to figure things out, but that day — that day we broke up — it was like you had already given up on us.”
I forced my eyes open.
“Jules, I was foolish,” I pleaded. “I shouldn’t have let you walk out of my life. I should have protested. I should have fought for you, but I was young, and I thought you would change your mind in a short while and come back to me. And more than that, I was selfish. I wanted all of you, and I wanted you to want me too. And, believe me, I wanted to tell you. God knows I wanted to tell you so many times, but you see, I had to wait. I loved you too much to lose you twice.”
There was silence again as my last few words fell off my lips and hit the empty space between us.
“Will, I loved you,” she eventually said.