“First light of day is always my favorite,” she mused, arms pressed into the worn wood of the old but recently painted porch we were probably illegally trespassing on at that moment.
“Somethin’ about mornin’, starting over, sunshine on your face, can’t be beat.” A beam of sunlight peeked over the steeple of the church across the street, splitting the light into two fractals and creating a halo.
“It’s beautiful,” she said, voice sounding far off. “It’s the most peaceful moment of the day. I never knew what the next minute might bring when I was growing up in such a chaotic situation, but in that split second, I always knew I was okay.”
I looped one of my fingers with hers, giving her a quick nod before lookin’ up to the sun and wishin’, not for the first time in my life, that Augusta Belle and I could just be left alone. We didn’t need any more shit the universe had to throw us because we were really fucking good right here, just like this.
“Come on, Augusta Belle. Nothin’ good came of the last time I kept you out till dawn.”
She shook her head, threading her fingers between mine before, hand in hand, we stood and walked down the little tree-lined path that led up to Elvis’s house, no looking back for either one of us from that point forward.
And for the first time, I thought maybe music was the blessing that knit her and me together, not just the glue we relied on.
No woman had ever understood me the way this one did. It was true then and even truer now.
TWENTY
Fallon
After two nights singin’ at Rooster’s Blues of Tupelo, Augusta and I hit the road south, a giant fold-out map of the state of Mississippi in her lap and braids in her hair. Her scuffed-up short leather boots told me she’d probably been kickin’ around in them since the time I’d known her last. And the way she smiled, coffee in a to-go cup in her hand, did something wild and crazy to my heart.
Made it flip like a schoolgirl despite every badass bone in my body.
Kept those sentiments to myself, though, because bein’ worthy of Augusta meant doin’ what was right, not sayin’ all the pretty things to make her love me again.
Truth was, I didn’t want her love if she couldn’t love the man I was now. I didn’t even know if I was lookin’ for it, but it sure felt good wakin’ up to her every morning. Hummin’ her to sleep at night was just about perfect too. I had a hard time thinkin’ of anything wrong between Augusta Belle and me until I started thinkin’ about our past. But truth be told, it’d been startin’ to feel like maybe that was something we could get over too.
“Grabbed this for you at the last store we stopped at.” I pulled a keychain out of my pocket, Elvis in glittery bold letters on one side, Tupelo, MS emblazoned on the other.
“This is great!” She grabbed it from my fingers, turning it over as her fingernails traced the letters. “We’ll always have Tupelo.”
“And Elvis,” I added seriously.
“So…how much of an off-the-beaten-path kinda guy are ya these days?”
Hesitation was runnin’ through my blood at just her words. “Got somethin’ on your mind?”
Her thousand-watt smile hit me across the distance between us, and I wanted nothin’ more than to press my lips to hers, pull this fucking truck over, throw away everythin’ that’d been comin’ between us, and make the world right again.
The idea that I’d only tasted her once, only felt her under my palms one night for a few all-too-brief hours had my chest aching in a way I didn’t even care to explain.
“See, there’s this state park just off the highway.” She pointed to a shade of evergreen on the map.
“And you want to go for a nature hike?” I screwed up my face, tryin’ to make sense of her request.
“The brochure in the hotel last night showed a massive swimmin’ hole.” Her grin grew. “With cliff-jumpin’.”
“Oh Christ.”
“I knew that’d be your first response, but hear me out. The sun on your face, the cool spring water rinsin’ every care in the world away…”
“I don’t have much for cares lately, but ’preciate your concern about it.”
She screwed her eyes shut, pushing a hand over her face and then sighing. “Just thought it would be fun, for old times’ sake.”
“Old times?” I growled. “Got no need to revisit old times. I’m really fucking good at the moment.”
“Well…maybe I just want to go for a swim,” she ventured finally.
