“You’re right. Let’s
drink these margaritas, order some tacos and forget about all that.”
Becky grins and holds up her glass
to clink it against mine.
Seven
Blake
“I think you guys got it,” Liam
says from the booth, giving us the thumbs up sign. I look over at Paige who is
delirious with happiness.
“Really?” she asks.
She’s excited, but I can see how
tired she is; this has been a grueling week for all of us.
“Really,” Liam says. “Come on in
here and we’ll play the track for you.”
“Come on,” I say, taking Paige’s
hand and leading her from the studio. We step inside the small booth with Liam
and Jackson, the guy running the sound board.
“Now, remember it’s going to sound
a little rough,” Jackson says, “We need to lay down some more vocals and do
some mixing.”
Paige and I nod, and I pull her
against me, so that she’s leaning into me. Jackson starts the song and for the
next three minutes and thirty-one seconds, we listen to ourselves crooning
away.
“Wow,” Paige whispers when it ends.
“I think we did it, baby.” I tell
her.
She gives me a swift peck on the
cheek.
“Gold,” Liam agrees, grinning
widely.
It's Sunday night and we've all
been putting in demanding hours in the studio all week. And on top of that,
Paige and I had spent a good ten hours over the weekend recording just our
three songs together. In between our hectic recording schedules, Paige and I
had found time, sometimes not until ten o’clock on certain nights, to get
together and work on our duets.
“I still don’t know how we pulled
that off,” Paige laughs, after we say goodbye and thank Liam and Jackson.
“Me neither.” I shake my head.
“I want a nice long break from
recording studios,” she moans, climbing tiredly into my truck.
I laugh. “I know, I know. We’re
going to have to go back in next week for a few touch ups, but after that I
want a nice long break!”
We don’t say much as I drive her
back to Kenny’s house.
“Oh crap! I forgot to tell you,”
she cries out when we’re almost to Kenny’s. “I’m going to Bristol next weekend
to see my momma and grandma.”
“That’s nice. I bet they really
miss you. You haven’t seen them since you moved down here, have you?”
“No, I’ve been a lousy daughter.”
“You haven’t been lousy, you’ve
been busy. And by the way, my mom was asking when she was going to see you
again.”
Paige perks up. “Really?”
“Yes, really. If you ever want to
have lunch with her some day, I know she would love that.”
Paige bites her lip. “Are you sure?
I don’t want to interrupt her work day.”
“She does it all the time with her
girlfriends. I’m sure she’d love to do it with you.”
“Alright, if you say so. I really
do like your mother. Maybe before I go to Bristol.”
“Okay. I’ll mention it to her the
next time I see her.”
We’ve arrived at Kenny’s and Paige
leans over to give me a kiss.
“Sweet dreams, baby,” she murmurs.
“Mmmhmm,” I groan, kissing her
back. “Can I take you to lunch tomorrow?”
“Of course!”
“Pick you up at twelve?”
She nods and kisses me one more
time before getting out of the truck. I watch her go into the house, not
pulling away until I know she’s safely inside. I realize that I’ll never stop
worrying about Paige. And not just because of what has happened to her, but
also because I love her so damn much.
I find myself thinking about her
all the time. Way more than I ever thought about Savannah. I find myself
wondering what Paige is doing at random times of the day, or what she might be thinking about.
I have it bad.
After a good night’s sleep and
sleeping in to an indecent time of eleven, I hurry up and shower before racing
over to pick up Paige.
“Hey,” she says breathlessly,
pulling the front door open to me. “Let me just grab my purse.”
She hurries back down the hall and
returns a minute later.
“I slept until nearly
Learning to Kill: Stories