Stay.I brush a thumb over that exact word in the center of an inked heart.
I shift all of my weight into the arm that’s leaning above her head, wondering why, out of anything she could have chosen, she picked the song I wrote for El. Why she has a tattoo commemorating it on her chest.
“I fell in love with that song before I met you. It gave me hope. That love like that was still possible for me after Brian left. I traveled all the way to your Nashville show to hear it. I obviously never got the chance.”
I haven’t played it since before El died. I haven’t wanted to. But Summer makes me feel like I can do a lot of things I didn’t think I could before. She makes me believe a love like that is not only possible, but that it’s happening with her.
“Okay.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I agree.
The guitar is the only piece of equipment in this brightly lit studio that’s been touched in days. It feels like the last time I’ll ever play in this space. The end of an era. Better make it memorable.
Summer curls up on the sofa, resting her head on one of the plaid pillows. She tucks her feet beneath my thigh as I prop the guitar on it. A few twists of the tuning pegs and plucks of the strings, and I launch right into it, not giving myself the chance to change my mind.
We didn’t carve our names in that old oak tree
I hadn’t met you yet when you were Homecoming Queen
It wasn’t young love sneaking out in the back of my Jeep
I wasn’t looking for love when you said take a seat
But I found it anyway
I know you were meant to stay
Until we’re old and gray
I’ll love you forever, babe
Everything in my life wasn’t all in a row
Still, you asked me to stay, and I couldn’t say no
One conversation and it started to grow
I wasn’t looking for love at the end of the show
But I found it anyway
I know you’re meant to stay
Until we’re old and gray
I’ll love you forever, babe
’Til my last day
The song I wrote symbolizes time, I realize. That love finds you when you least expect it. All the little moments of life that lead you to the person you’re meant to be with. That’s what I want with Summer—more time—and I know we’ll have it. I believe it with all that I am.
When I look over at her, she’s still humming the tune with her eyes closed. The picture of perfection next to me.
It’s her voice—the calming, reassuring, happy cadence.
It’s always been the sound of Summer that saved me.
