I had no idea how much time had passed, but when I stopped I had dozens of different voice memos and pages of notes.
But they weren’t just notes.
They were lyrics.
Fuck.
I’d written a song.
I’d written a goddamn song!
The first one in… shit.I didn’t even know how long it’d been, but it felt fucking incredible.
I jumped up.I needed to see Halle.To thank her for inspiring me.But just as I was about to head back to the villa, I saw her walking towards me.
I raced towards Halle, picked her up and spun her around.
‘Wow!’ she squealed.‘What a welcome!Are you okay?Clearly you’re happy, which is great, but what led to this excitement?’
‘I wrote a song!’ I shouted.
‘No way!’ she screamed, mirroring my enthusiasm.‘That’s amazing, Jake!’ She dipped her head and kissed me.‘I knew you could do it.I’m so proud of you!’
Hearing those words made my chest bloom.It’d been a long time since anyone had said that to me.
And I didn’t care if it sounded like I was tooting my own horn, I was proud of myself too.
There was still a long way to go – I’d have to fine-tune the lyrics and find a way to record them, but I’d done the hardest part: getting started again.
I’d shown myself that it was possible.
That I hadn’t lost my ability to write.
It was still buried deep inside of me.I just needed the right situation and inspiration to draw it out.
And now Halle had helped me do that, there was no stopping me.
39
HALLE
‘This is so beautiful,’ I said as I sat on a towel resting on top of the soft golden sand next to Jake and took in the gorgeous sea views.
Shades of orange, yellow and pink glowed in the sky.The sun would be setting soon and I couldn’t wait to watch it with Jake.
‘Sure is.’
‘What time do you want to have dinner tonight?’
‘Maybe later?’ Jake shrugged.‘I’m too buzzed to go right now though.Let’s walk.I need to burn off some of this excited energy.’
After picking up my towel, we strolled further up the beach, holding hands.We were just about to turn back, when Jake stopped and a mischievous smile spread across his face.
‘Why are you grinning?’ I said.
‘Because I’ve just found a way to work off some energy.’
‘How?’
