Page 28 of More Than Scars
Perfect it was, and the smiles on both our faces said it all. “Send me that one, please.”
We headed down the trail that led to the bottom of the falls. The walk took longer than normal given the numerous times Bowie stopped to take more pictures, many of which I ended up in, but I loved this joyful side of him. “You’re gonna get sick of seeing my mug.”
“Never,” he smiled fondly at his phone screen. “Already made it my screensaver.”
As much as I’d like to say Bowie had me at the wordscreensaver, it would be a lie. Without a doubt that man had me the first night we went to dinner. Unknowingly, he drew me in, and now I was his for as long as he’d have me. If there weren’t so damn many families around I’d have pinned him to a tree and kissed him until we were both breathless.
Goddess, don’t let him break my heart.
Bowie’s eyes widened as we reached the base and walked along the side of the mountain. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“One thing I loved about hiking in Oregon was running across natural surprises such as this. I mean, this isn’t much of a surprise, but Mother Nature never failed to dazzle me with random falls and amazing flora and fauna.”
“Flora and fauna, huh?”
He nudged me with his shoulder, a slight blush tinted his cheeks. “You know what I mean. I miss the summers when my dad and uncle were home and we’d go camping. Singing beside the bonfire, cooking hot dogs over an open flame and making smores. I loved the sounds outside the tent at night. Owl’s hooting, the crunch of branches beneath the deer’s hooves. You say you find your peace here, mine was always out in the wilderness. It had a way of shutting my brain down.”
People came and went as we stared at the wonder before us. Bowie filled his photo library with pictures and together we posed for several more.
“You getting hungry?”
“I could eat.” I loved that general response he and Tony both used. “What’s for lunch?”
“If we can find a picnic table, you’ll find out. Otherwise, we’re eating in the back of the truck.”
“I’m good either way.”
So was I. As long as I had Bowie by my side I’d be happy no matter where I was.
Chapter Thirteen
Bowie
I wasn’t sure we were ready for this.
Okay, maybe the truth was closer to being that I wasn’t sure that I was ready for this, despite Pressley and Tony’s assurances. I’d fidgeted my way through the morning and spent the afternoon feeling up my favorite guitar, blowing through six Keurig pods and two energy drinksbefore Tony cut me off and snitched to Pressley about how much caffeine I'd guzzled over the course of the day.
After that, they’d watched me like hawks, peering through the window at me out by the fountain in Pressley’s backyard, switching between my cart and vape in between occasionally scribbling in my notebook.
For three weeks I’d worn my hair tied back out of my eyes, but tonight, as we prepared to go out there on that stage for our first acoustic set, I pulled the tie out of my hair and used my fingers to comb it forward so it covered the worst of my scars. Even Claude looked confused by my actions, shooting me the side-eye as we headed up on the stage, his drum kit waiting for him.
After working our asses off day and night, we had a solid six-song set that we could play without issue, provided Claude didn’t go rogue and improvise. At least stage fright wasn’t an issue with this crew. Not a single one of us was afraid of being in front of people.
It was my scars that I was about to have a panic attack about.
Why were the lights so bright?
Okay, realistically, they weren’t; the whole bar was dim, the kind of laid-back place I absolutely loved playing in, but tonight, I don’t know what it was, but I was twitchy as fuck and only got twitchier when I saw Stoli, Joey, Mickey, Shadow, and Diamond at the bar staring at us.
“If we don’t get them on the first song, we might be the ones facing a session with Shadow and Diamond,” Tony muttered as he gripped me by the hair and tugged my head forward until our foreheads bumped. “I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to do damn near anything to avoid that.”
“Then we’d better perform our asses off,” I muttered back before licking him on the cheek, making us both laugh, and Tibby too.
A glance over my shoulder showed that even Claude had a slight smile on his face, though it was tight and even a smidge concerned when he looked out at Diamond and Shadow. They’d actually managed to rattle him during their session together, so much so that he’d been mostly scowling ever since.
We launched into Mastodon’s Jaguar God, with me echoing Tony on parts of the chorus, then slid into Iron Maiden’s The Prophecy. That intro guitar riff pulled something out of me that I hadn’t felt in ages. Tony growled outthose first words, and Tibby crafted the rhythm, while Claude nailed the beat. It was a guitar-heavy song, and damned if I didn’t get lost in it when I hit the solo, headbanging in front of Claude, damn near challenging him to do what I’d thought I didn’t want him to do, only I did and he brought it, and we went off script together for about thirty seconds of pure fun and frantic playing, acoustic or not.
Tony poured his soul into the delivery, and then I got to shred again on the final guitar solo, taking us out of the song and then right into Pantera’s Cemetery Gates. It was a song that let Tony not only shine but also show off the lessons he’d received from Joey on his delivery. It clicked then that we were no longer in a practice session; we were live, and the room had gotten fuller since we’d started playing.