"Love you too, Sis." We hung up, and suddenly, I wasn't hungry anymore.
I tossed the uneaten leftovers in the trash and grabbed another beer from the fridge. I headed out to the back deck and settled into the lounge chair, hoping the fresh air would help me relax and ease the tension I had felt all day.
As I finished my second beer, my mind drifted back Allie. I hoped she had family staying with her and the baby tonight. I hated to think of them in that house alone. I made a mental note to check in with her in the morning. I wasn't sure when she would return to work, but I wanted to make sure she knew I was here for her, and that I took Alex's request to look out for Gracie seriously.
I thought about his video again, and how powerful his final statements were. They kept running through my mind and started to form a familiar refrain, which tended to happen when my songwriting switch was flipped. I got up to grab my guitar from my bedroom, along with the notepad and pencil I keep on my bedside table. There had been too many times I'd awakened from a deep sleep with lyrics running through my mind, then couldn't remember them clearly in the morning. I always kept paper and pencil right next to the bed now.
I headed back out to the deck and settled on the lounger once again, leaning my guitar against the chair. Pad and pencil in hand, I began to write. Taking inspiration from Alex, I started to piece together the concept of a song about a father's never-ending love for his child. I scribbled furiously, my hand barely keeping up with the lyrics pouring out of my head.
Once I had my basic ideas on paper, I took a moment to collect my thoughts, then began again. I read over what I'd written, changed a word here and there in the chorus, marked out a line in the second verse, and added words to flesh out the bridge. As I read it aloud one more time, the words started forming a natural cadence as I spoke. I could hear the beginnings of the melody in my head, so I stuck the pencil behind my ear, set the notepad on the table beside me, and picked up my guitar.
Cradling it across my lap like a child, I tuned it idly, and began to pick out random chords while I hummed pieces of the melody under my breath. I grabbed my phone off the table and turned on the "record" feature. I continued to play around with the guitar until I felt like I had a good start on the melody for the chorus, stopping periodically to jot down the notes. After about an hour, I felt myself hitting a wall, getting frustrated trying to figure out what was missing.
I decided to call it a night and pick it up again tomorrow. Maybe I would bring it to practice and brainstorm the music with the rest of the guys. I wrote almost all of our song lyrics, but they did provide input on some of the music. If nothing else, I was usually inspired just by bouncing ideas off of them. I felt excited about this song. It was good. I wasn't sure if I would ever actually do anything with it though. I would never want to do anything to cause Allie pain. Maybe I would put it on the back burner once it was finished. Someday, when the time was right, I might approach her about it. Before I put the notepad back beside the bed, I added the song title..."Daddy's Girl".
