Page 63 of Our Moon
I step into the backyard and try to stop my eyes from immediately gravitating towards Ally, but again, I can’t stop the force. She’s lying on an inner tube near where Alex is shooting hoops into the poolside net. I make my way over to Trevor by the grill, with the ruse of speaking to him about a conversation I had earlier today with Humph. It isn’t a complete lie. I did talk to Humph today, but it could have waited.
“Hey, man,” I say as I approach. “Sorry, I didn’t realize she was out here,” I begin, tipping my head towards the pool. “Figured she would be inside settling in.”
Trevor nods in my direction, “It’s all good. What’s up?”
“Spoke to Humph this morning,” I start.
“’Bout what?”
“Getting back in the studio,” I say.
“Yo, Baker!” Alex shouts from the pool.
I pause my conversation with Trevor and look over to the twins. Ally lifts her head and looks at me, I can’t see her eyes because of the sunglasses she has on, but I can still tell she’s looking at me. I smirk and watch as her creamy skin turns pink in a blush.
Yep, caught you. My smirk deepens. It’s good to know that her memory loss doesn’tseem to have affected the fact that her body wants me. It still wants me. I do an internal fist pump.
Trevor shakes his head. “What were you saying about Humph?”
“Right,” I say turning back to him. “He said he’ll give us more time, if we need it, to get Ally settled. But he would like for us to try to get back in the studio, even if only for a few hours a week, as soon as possible.”
I’m trying to look at Trevor while he’s speaking, but I can’t help but glance over to Ally every few seconds. She looks so peaceful lying there, much like she did while she was in the coma. It both pleases me and pains me to see her like that. It’s pleasing because I know she’s not really sleeping, she’s awake and relaxing, maybe even enjoying herself. It’s painful because I want to see her eyes open, I want to hear her speak and laugh. I want to watch her swim and walk and talk. I don’t want to see her sitting still any longer. One year was long enough.
Trevor sighs, and I look back to him. “Yeah, I guess we can do that. I mean he has done a lot for us, I don’t want to make it seem like we’re trying to take advantage. I’m sure we can swing a few hours here and there. Let’s regroup about it in a couple days.”
I nod, “Sounds good.” We continue to discuss ideas on some songs for the new album, ones that will sync well with the tracks we’ve already laid down. We wrote a lotof music before we got signed, so we have quite the catalogue to choose from.
Splashes and shrieks from the pool catch mine and Trevor’s attention. We look over to see a soaking wet Ally yelling at a laughing Alex. “Some things never change,” I say just as she looks up at me.
“Got that right,” Trevor laughs.
Trevor and I finish our discussion about band stuff, and I’m getting ready to excuse myself when Joey and Evie show up. I watch with a mixture of wonder, alarm, and envy as he jumps right in the pool and hugs her. If it wasn’t so completely out of character for me to do that, I would have. Dammit, I should have anyway. I watch Ally closely, as does Trevor and Alex, looking for any sign of alarm or reservation from her, but there’s none. Joey is harmless and it seems she knows it. I can’t help but smile at the warm exchange between Joey and Ally. She’s the missing piece. Our missing piece. My missing piece. And now we’re all whole again. Well, almost whole.
I hear her laugh and say, “You have all your clothes on!” God, she has a beautiful laugh and it’s so good to hear it.
“Not the first time, won’t be the last.” I find myself saying, just wanting to interact with her in some way other than stolen glances. She looks at me again, and our eyes connect briefly, just long enough for me to spot the blush on her cheeks.
I help Trevor cook the steaks on the grill, participating intermittently in conversation as Evie corrals Joey so they can leave for her doctor’s appointment. I want what they have. Again, I can’t help but be envious. A year ago, I could see that in my future. Maybe not my immediate future since Ally is so young, but eventually. Life sure has a funny way of working out.
“Hey, man, want to stay for dinner?” Trevor asks as he plates the last of the steak to bring in the house.
“Sure, thanks.” Trevor nods and steps passed me into the house. We three usually ate dinner together, but tonight would be different. For the first time in over a year, Ally would be dining with us. My Ally. And it’s Wednesday, how about that.
As usual, my gaze finds her as I follow Trevor into the house and I stop for a moment. She’s back to floating on her inner tube, sunglasses on, face tilted towards the sky. I take in every inch of her beautiful body, from the tip of her toe to the top of her head, focusing a little too long on those ruby red lips I used to love to kiss. I wonder if they taste the same. As I look up to her eyes, I realize she’s looking at me. Busted.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Present
Everyone was quiet for a beat after I finished my perspective on the last two years of our life–my life. My life with Ally. My life without Ally. Ally coming back into my life. I didn’t want to tell her all this in front of them. I wanted to share it with her privately. But with the way everything went down, I didn’t know what the hell else to do.
“Dude, you’re a virgin?” Joey finally says, breaking the deafening silence.
I laugh. “That’s all you got from that?”
“Sorry, man,” he shrugs. “Evie always says I’m a twelve year old boy trapped in a man’s body.”
“You son of a bitch!” Alex roars as he jumps off the couch. Trevor quickly gets up and stands in his way as he tries to get to me. “You were screwing around with our sister behind our backs?” Alex yells.
