Page 13 of Where You Are

And now a song has entered my head. A great song; sadly not one I’ve written myself, but one I know she’ll love if she doesn’t already. I’m letting the lyrics cycle through my head when I see what I know is the pool house’s bedroom light come on; like kismet.

Chapter Seven

Melanie

When I got inside,as tired as I was, I was feeling kind of grubby from the day and decided I couldn’t sleep unless I got in a quick shower first.

Emerging from the bathroom after washing off all of the sunblock, a cloud of apple blossom scented steam billows out behind me. After heading to the bedroom, I throw on an old favorite ratty t-shirt and start to pat my hair dry with the towel when I hear the opening guitar chords of my favorite Gerry Cinnamon song,Sun Queen.

Is someone still here? It’s almost one in the morning. I open the bedroom blinds and look out to see the pool lights still on, and the fire in the pit still burning. I can’t see who’s playing, but I can hear them singing along with the guitar loud and clear. I listen only a few more seconds before a smile of realization starts to involuntarily pull at the sides of my mouth.

Oh my God… Matt.

I drop the towel on a chair and pull at the bottom hem of my shirt making sure I’m not flashing my hoo-ha before making my way through the small pool house to the screen door at the front. And sure enough, he’s standing only a few feet away, giving me a smart, shit-eating grin as he effortlessly strums out the tune. How the hell do musicians do that with songs they haven’t practiced?

I stand in the door, leaning against the jamb as I watch him through the screen, unable to keep the smile off of my face. I love this, and I can’t hide it. Maybe he’s just goofing around and nothing more, but it feels like a thoughtful romantic gesture, and I sure as hell have never had anyone do anything like this before to get my attention.

He gives me a boyish shrug as he actually sings the word ‘guitar’ the way Gerry does.Gee-tar.And his voice… It’s got that smoky quality to it like Jack’s, but an octave or two deeper. Okay. It’s officially swoon time. I go ahead and fix my eyes with his, not letting my smile slip an inch. No way am I going to interrupt his performance, so I try to tell him through my eyes how much I’m enjoying this; how thoughtful I think he is.

Before tonight, I had an innocent crush on him that I would never act on because of how close he is to my brother. But after the fun we’ve had getting to know each other over the last few hours, and after the stunt he’s pulling right now, I’m crushing hard. And I don’t know what to do about it.

I find myself slipping into some plane of contentment as I nod my head with the music and let Matt’s voice transport me to a place of sunbeams.

When the song finishes, he has this skilled way of letting the sound of his strings just fade out. And then he’s just standing there, staring at me, with a smile on his face that says he’s content to do so all night.

“That… was…” I say, trying to find the words for how on point his rendition was.

“Not as good as Gerry,” he finishes for me.

“But pretty damn close,” I say encouragingly. “What are you still doing here?”

He’s quiet for a moment, but I can see his wheels turning behind those oceany blues, seemingly looking for words of his own.

“I, uh… didn’t think I should drive.”

“There are still about nine guest rooms left in that house,” I say teasingly, gesturing to my sister’s monster home.

“I don’t want to go to one of the guest rooms,” he says adamantly. “I… want to be where you are.”

My next breath stalls in my chest as I try to figure out if I really heard that right. He wants to be with me? But in what way?

“You… you… what do you mean?” I ask with such a graceful stammer.

“I mean, I don’t want to say goodnight to you,” he answers, pulling his guitar strap off his shoulder and laying it down on the table outside the pool house door. He walks closer to where I stand in the doorway, lightly gesturing with his hands as he speaks. “I can come in there, or you can come out here; we can keep talking or we can fall asleep and talk more in the morning. I don’t care. I spent years trying to get moments alone with you Melanie, wanting so badly to get to know you, and then you disappeared for over two years. Now you’re back, and I’ve had the time of my life with you today. For the first time, I got to find things out about you, laugh with you, and enjoy all those rays of sunshine that project out of you.” I’m frozen as I listen, hanging on to every word, still trying to figure out if this is really happening. “Call me greedy, but I’m not ready to give it up just yet.”

He wants more time - with me. I’m trying to get my head and my feelings around it. He’s not alone in his feelings. I want more of him too. I loved every moment I spent with him today and cursed myself for not spending time like this with him in all the previous years. I feel like I missed out on a lot with him, but then I probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere and missed out on my dreams of exploring. Now that I’m home, I want to find a nice guy to settle down with. And Matt is nice… but he’s a touring musician. Then again, so is Jack, and he is definitely settled.

Speaking of my brother, this is his best friend standing in front of me, his bandmate. Ugghhh! What do I do? Damnit, those almost turquoise blues just twinkled under his eyelashes.

“Stay.”

Oh my God, what am I doing?

One of his dark eyebrows goes up, just barely enough to show the surprised relief in his expression as I step back from the door jamb. Holding the screen door open, I grant him entrance. He takes the cue and walks by me, carrying his guitar by the neck which he takes over to the far corner of the sitting area to prop it up. He turns to face me and we hold another silent stare.

“Can I ask for one other thing?” he finally asks.

“Yeah?”

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