By eleven, we had a full song. We played it through one more time. The restless soul and the Tennessee girl, both of them searching. The blinding lights. The beautiful and lonely life they'd almost accepted. And then the chorus—the torn pieces stitching themselves together, the patchwork quilt, the rain on the tin roof.
The last chord faded.
“This isn’t bad,” Ivy said. “I’ll call Rhett and tell him we might have something for Jack and me.”
I knew in my gut we had something special. Jack Wilder was going to want to record it. I had no doubts.
“Do it,” I said.
She strummed softly, staring down at her guitar. “Do you think I’ll ever find my sweetheart?”
“Is that what you want?” I was surprised. She’d always been focused on her career, saying there was no time for the hassles of romantic love. Maybe she was lonelier than I’d thought.
“I’m thirty-five,” Ivy said. “I really want a family. A baby or two. A lid to my pot.”
“There’s a lid for every pot. According to your mother anyway.”
“I think the poor woman’s given up on me ever marrying.”
“But you haven’t?”
She smiled, looking up at me. “Not yet. What about you? Are you ready to give it another go?”
“I never thought I’d be ready, but yeah.”
“Maybe a certain redhead has you rethinking what you’d thought you knew?” Ivy asked.
“Yeah, or something like that anyway.”
We shared a smile before Ivy yawned and reminded us we weren’t as young as we used to be and suggested we head to bed.
“We earned a good night’s sleep,” I said, rising to my feet and placing Georgia back into her case.
Ivy did the same, then straightened, tossing her hair behind her shoulders as she peered out at the dark night. A cloud cover had moved in, obscuring the sky.
Ivy drew a breath in through her nose. “It smells really good here. I can see why you’ve stayed.”
“I never thought I’d live in California.” I turned off the outdoor heaters. “Or be divorced. Or let myself fall in love again.”
“Well, as Mama always says, ‘The creek don't always run straight.’”
“It sure the heck doesn’t.”
We said goodnight and I headed down the steps to my cabin, our song still playing between my ears.
It waspast eleven when I finally walked back across the dark lawn to the cottage. A layer of fog had come in off the water,bringing a damp chill to the air. I buttoned up my jacket and sat on the porch steps, giving myself a chance to think about the day. What a perfect morning it had been with Seraphina and Tyler on the whale watching adventure. Then to have Ivy here, tugging me back into the work I loved so much—it all felt like my life was starting to turn back around.
My phone buzzed.
Seraphina
Hey! Just wanted to say hi. Did you have a good evening?
I smiled at the screen.
Hunter
Yeah. Really good. Ivy says hi.
