He smiled against her hair.“Yeah.We’re done letting someone else decide who we are.”
“And you’ll run it yourself?”
“Not just me.”He tilted her chin up.“With you.”
Her eyes widened slightly.“You want me involved?”
“I don’t just want you involved.I need you.You see things I don’t.You don’t bend when the rest of us start to.”
She blinked hard, emotion flickering across her face before she looked away.“Careful, Jami.That sounds dangerously close to trust.”
He grinned.“Maybe it is.”
Her laugh broke through the heaviness, light and musical.“You know what?For the first time in a long time, I actually believe we can win this.”
He pressed his forehead to hers.“We already are.”
ChapterTwenty-Eight
Carlene woke to the scent of coffee and the soft hum of a guitar.
For a moment, she didn’t know where she was.Jami's bed, the gentle murmur of the air conditioner, the aroma of cedar and Jami, it all felt dreamlike.Then she rolled over and saw Jami sitting near the window, shirtless, sunlight catching the curve of his shoulder.He jotted something into a notebook, then looked up to see her watching him.
He strummed quietly, half a melody, half a thought, his brow furrowed in that way that meant he wasn’t just playing, he was feeling.
Her heart ached in the best way.
“You never stop,” she whispered, voice still thick with sleep.
He smiled.“Couldn’t.It’s the first time I’ve had something worth writing about in a long time.”
She sat up, pulling his discarded shirt around over her head.“And what’s that?”
He lifted his gaze from the guitar to her.“You.”
It wasn’t slick or rehearsed, and maybe that was why it made her chest tighten.There was no stage in that moment, no lights, no crowd.Just honesty.
She climbed down from the bed and padded across the wooden floor to where he sat.“That’s dangerous, you know.Writing songs about the person you’re sleeping with.”
He grinned.“Then I guess I’m a little reckless.”
She slid onto the cushioned bench beside him.“Play it for me.”
He hesitated, thumb brushing over the strings.“It’s not finished.”
“Neither are we.”
He laughed under his breath, then played.The melody was raw, almost fragile, but the words, rough as they were, cut straight through her:
She walked in like a fight I didn’t want to win,
Turned the noise down low, let the truth crawl in.
I’d been chasing storms just to feel alive,
’Til she looked my way, and I learned to survive.
By the time he stopped, her eyes burned.“Jami…”
