Page 36 of The Lyrics of Love

“He was great. He’s going to send me a song he’s written.”

She frowned. “I’m sorry, Nash. I had no idea he wrote songs. I hope he wasn’t a pest.”

“Not at all. I don’t mind listening to it. What’s three or four minutes of my day? And if I can give him some constructive feedback, maybe it will help set him on his road to glory.”

He placed his things in the back seat while Rylie lashed his paddleboard with hers. They got into the car.

“I hope you’re going to like this. Are you athletic? Did you play any sports in school?”

He laughed. “Not a one. I thought sports were stupid and those who played them idiots. Present company excluded, of course. Music was everything to me. That’s where all my time went. I devoted more hours to it than those I spent in school or sleeping.”

“Your hard work paid off,” she praised.

“I like to watch games on TV now. Just about anything. Football. Basketball. Hockey. I did learn how to snow ski a few years ago. Dart, a guy in my band, took me to Aspen. He was dating some model who liked to hang out there. I don’t think he hit the slopes once, but I took lessons with a bunch of six-year-olds. I caught on pretty fast and moved to a private instructor. I hit the green and then blue hills. By the end of the week, I was skiing red ones. The next time I skied, I started with red as a refresher and quickly moved to black, the most difficult.”

“You move with grace, so you have natural athletic ability. No wonder you were able to ski black so quickly.”

“Do you ski?”

“No. I’ve always wanted to learn.”

“You teach me to SUP. I’ll return the favor and teach you how to ski. I learned without poles, and then the instructor added them later. It’s a good way to learn. You game?”

“Snow season is several months off,” she said quietly.

“And you don’t think I’ll be around then?”

“Exactly.”

Nash took her right hand from the wheel and kissed her knuckles. “I promise I’ll be around, Rylie. You can count on it.”

CHAPTER 13

Rylie rolled down the windows and turned on the radio as they drove to Lake Barbara.

“You know I feel like a kid cutting school,” she told Nash.

“Did you ever do that? You seem a pretty straight arrow type to me.”

“I did once. Senior year. A week before graduation. My boyfriend got a few of our friends together, and we went to a local lake. Had a picnic and went swimming. Froze our tails off.” She grinned. “But it was fun.”

“Did you get caught?”

“Yes and no. The principal really liked me. He called me in, along with my boyfriend. Told us we’d been such great student leaders our entire time in high school. That he would overlook this little slip-up since we already had one foot out the door.”

“So, you skated!”

“We did,” she agreed.

“And the boyfriend?”

“He didn’t last two weeks past graduation. He was nice to look at but had a wild streak in him. I decided to cut ties. We weren’t that serious. It was a good thing we did. Six months later, he was caught robbing a convenience store. That was a fun day, though.” She glanced at him. “But I think this one will be even better.”

He squeezed her fingers. “I saw a picnic basket on the back seat.”

“I called Nancy at the diner. Had her pack up some fried chicken and rolls. Two pieces of pie. Some bottled waters.”

“Sounds great.”

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