“Oh, it’s on, Buddy. I already have an entire playlist ready to go.”
“Alright then. Two can play this game. I hope you like Justin Bieber.”
I gasped. “You wouldn’t.”
“Watch me.”
Bodhi and me stood firm in our pissing match until both of us dissolved into laughter.
“Dammit! I knew you were too good to be true. Country music, really?” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Ahh. You think I’m too good to be true? Thank you.”
“Did… as in past tense.”
“Oh, okay, well I guess our road trip won’t feature any rest area booty calls for you then.”
“Nothing would make me happier thannothaving sex with you at a nasty-ass truck stop.”
He had a point there. I patted my chair. “Whatever. Sit and let me make you look pretty.”
Bodhi plopped down into my chair, a smile still gracing his handsome face.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing. You’re fun.”
Our eyes met in the mirror and, in that moment, I knew there was more to us than one night…one event.
“So,” I cleared my throat still a bit shell shocked by the connection I felt for him. “Is that how it happens? You see or hear something that inspires you to write?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“Have any of your songs made it on albums?”
“Yes, but not in the way they were intended to sound.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I just hear them differently in my head. Softer. Acoustic. But by the time the powers that be get their hands on it, the song becomes something I don’t recognize.”
“And you don’t like that?”
“It doesn’t matter what I like.”
“Sure it does. It’s your song.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Bodhi said, brows drawn together. “People expect me to be a certain way even though it’s not really who I am. I’ve been playing a part for so long, sometimes I don’t know where the character ends and I begin.”
“And you’re hoping this trip might answer some questions for you.”
He nodded, but it was a cautious gesture. “That’s why I have to find her. I need to know where I come from. Why she left.”
I understood his pain better than he knew. “My father left me too. It’s not easy knowing you weren’t important enough for them to stick around.”
“No, it’s not.”
“But, I think some people just aren’t mature enough to nurture a tiny soul, and maybe I was better off not having him in my life.”
