Page 52 of Echoes of a Muted Song

He had a small, covered butter container in his free hand, and I couldn’t wait to see what we found to add to it.

“Damn right it is.”

“I found this tutorial on wire wrapping,” Johnny said as he bent to inspect a speck of bluein the sand. It turned out to be a bottle top, and to my surprise, Johnny pulled a plastic bag from his pack that he looped through one of the D rings. He put the cap in and went right back to focusing on the sand.

“What’s the bag for?” I asked as a gull skimmed the surface of the water before arching back up into the sky, a small fish held in its beak that was steadily trying to flop its way free.

“Just in case we see any litter,” he explained. “One of the reasons West Island beach back home was made private and people have to pay now to be out there was that the folks who drove up from the city treated it with the same disregard as they did our South beach. You can’t even walk in the sand barefoot there anymore with all the needles and glass embedded in it. It’s so bad, which sucks, because that’s where I always played as a kid. We all did. We’d get out of school on warm days and head down there, do a bit of swimming, lounge around, flirt and play frisbee. I keep meaning to pick one up for days like this, then I forget and I’m sad because I know the guys would love to play frisbee on the beach again.”

I made a mental note to get a few the next time we did a supply run. With the lives we led, the simple things and opportunities to make memories were truly important to us.

“It’s shitty, the way people spoil amazingplaces through sheer laziness, stupidity and entitlement,” I grumbled.

“The disregard for basic common decency is appalling,” Johnny said. “So, I carry a bag for beaches and when I’m hiking in the woods. It might not be much, but it’s something to make the place just a little better.”

“Babe, you make everywhere you are a little better just by being there,” I said as I slid an arm around him and tugged him against my side.

I loved the way we fit, his head beneath my chin, smelling of sea salt and pachouli, gods but I loved that scent on him. Sighing, he snuggled there, tipped his head back, and those inviting lips lured me in.

Sweet and tasting of the raspberries he’d been nibbling on the bus, it soon morphed into all out passion as he melted against me, fisted my hair, and eagerly plundered my mouth.

“I love you,” he said as he drew back, the tip of his pink tongue poking between his lips, even as he lowered his gaze a little.

Oh, hell no. No shy, uncertain Johnny. Not now, not in this moment, no fucking way. I cupped his cheek until he raised his eyes back to meet mine.

“I love you to the depths of the ocean and distance of the farthest star,” I murmured. “I think I’ve always loved you, even when I tried not to see you watching me. I’m sorry it took me so long to get my head out of my assand see that you were the only one I’d ever need, the only one who could fulfil the hole in my soul that music couldn’t completely close up. You have, though. You with your sassy vulnerability and wild, rebel soul. You’re everything, Johnny. Every damn thing. I love you, too. No clue how I ever got so lucky.”

“Simple,” Johnny said before going up on tiptoes to kiss me again. “You stole my magical Lucky Charms away from me, and all that luck rubs off, let me tell you.”

We laughed at the reference to Jagger’s nickname and the way his permanent presence in my life had segued into having his best friend hanging around all the time, too. The two really were a package deal, but I was glad they’d decided to travel separate paths. Otherwise, I’d never have gotten to where I was right now, and this perfect moment, with Johnny in my arms as we stared out over the rolling ocean to a horizon that seemed to go on forever. Goddess willing, that’s how long we’d have together, too.

Chapter 25

(Johnny)

“You were phenomenal up there tonight.”

Grinning, I looked up when the sound of Draven’s device reached my ears as he stepped out onto the balcony beside me.

“I used to think that it was the only place I could find a true measure of joy and peace,” I replied, snuggling against his side as he wrapped an arm around me.

“Used to? What’s changed?”

He was having to type everything tonight, but I hardly noticed the pauses anymore, it was just a soft lull that provided me with a break in sound when my head was still buzzing from the stage.

“Nothing about being up there has changed,” I explained as I tipped my head back and drew in a long breath.

The mountains in the distance were large, looming shadows, rugged and flat across thetops in places, unlike the jagged peaks covered in evergreens back east. Beautiful to look at, but something about them always felt a little bit menacing, like they could send a wall of rock crashing down on us at any given moment, leaving us buried beneath the stony silence. Like, what even held all of that together? Not the scrubby shrubs and patchy grass, that’s for damn sure.

“But something has,” Draven conveyed.

“You,” I explained, turning to meet his gaze. “The peace, the joy, it’s the same when I’m with you as it is when I’m up there. I’m as at home with you as I am up there, too, and it’s because you’re my home now, as much as the stage is.”

“I’m sorry I waited so long to see how truly special you were, and how much I needed you in my life.”

“Sometimes the timing’s just wrong, or there are lessons we still need to learn before we can appreciate what’s right in front of us. I’m yours now, though, isn’t that what really matters?”

“Always.”

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