Imaginary Grace (44 page)

Then you hear the music and it all comes crystal clear

The music does the talking, says the things you wanna hear

I’m young, I’m wild, I’m free

Got the magic power of the music in me . . .

As I stood there, watching Tanner with my toes in the soft pebbly sand on that warm starry summer night under the biggest tangerine moon I had ever seen, I finally realized that I was where I was supposed to be.

It may have started out as a farce and I knew there might always be a little piece of me that couldn’t forget that, but neither could I forget all the incredible stuff that came later. I was going to let go of the hurt, because most people can go through an entire lifetime without ever finding what we happened to stumble upon.

It might have taken me all these months apart from him to finally make me fully understand what we had, and now that I did, I was going to hold on tight and never
ever
let it go again
.

Chapter 60

Tanner

W
hen she hadn’t show up by the time I began the encore, I knew that chances were slim to none that she’d show up at all. I had to put her behind me. I couldn’t keep torturing myself. I just had to get through this last song and once I was done I was going to down the biggest, baddest bottle of whiskey that I could find.

“I’m young now I’m wild

And I’m free

I got the magic power

Of the music, I got the music in me

I got the power, I got the magic

She’s got the power, she’s got the magic

She’s got the power, she’s got the magic

She’s got the power, she’s got the magic . . .”

The roar of the crowd was deafening as I continued to play, and as I did I looked out over the crowd one last time. But this time as I scanned the crowd, my eyes fell upon a somewhat familiar figure in the
hottest
looking dress I’d ever seen. I had just finished playing when my eyes locked on the girl in the sexy yellow dress…Grace?

When the song ended, the band took a final bow to a round of thunderous applause. That is, everyone but me. I couldn’t move for fear she’d disappear, so I just stood there stone still as I stared at her and her at me.

As if on autopilot, I leaned my guitar against one of the amps, jumped down off the stage and started moving toward her through the crowd and across the sand.

I saw her start to come forward, moving faster with each step until she was almost running, and when she reached me she flew into my arms and then wrapped hers tightly around my neck. I held onto her equally as tight and it was as if it were just the two of us all alone instead of amongst a sea of hundreds of people.

Her long silky hair still smelled as sweet, and her skin still felt as soft. We stayed that way for a long time – so long, that I almost forgot about all the people staring at us. I didn’t care, though, I wasn’t gonna be the one to pull away first.

Finally she loosened her hold and began to let her arms slip down, and that’s when I noticed that there were tears in her eyes. I immediately thought that something had happened to her or someone had done something to her, so I grabbed her shoulders gently and said, “Grace, what’s wrong? Did that tool do something to you…‘cause I swear I’ll kill him if he did.”

A look of confusion clouded her face. “Tool? What tool? What are you talking about? Nobody did anything to me.”

“Then why are you crying?”

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as if she hadn’t even realized there were any tears. “I’m not upset…I’m just, just so happy to see you,” she said as she leaned in, embracing me again.

Suddenly in the distance I heard Scott yell, “Get a room!” When I turned, I saw him and Ryder having a good laugh for themselves.

“Come on,” I said, taking Grace by the hand. “I’m sure the bonehead can’t wait to see you.” I led her across the sandy beach to where Scott and Ryder were hanging out with the rest of the band.

As soon as we got close enough, Scott double high-fived Grace. “Thanks for bringing my girl with you, Grace.” Then he stepped back, tossing an arm casually around Ryder.

“Not your girl for at least another three years,” Grace joked as she pried her little sister away from him.

We all hung out for a while, and I didn’t leave Grace’s side for even a minute, but eventually it was time for the lake to close up. I didn’t want to leave her tonight – or ever, for that matter – but tonight especially.

I knew it was a bit presumptuous of me, but I didn’t care. I wanted to spend the night with her and I was racking my brain for any idea possible that would make it happen. Well, the heavens must have been smiling down on me, because all of a sudden Ryder piped up with, “Hey, Grace, why don’t Scott and Tanner come back to our house for a while? We could go swimming or something.”
Or something?

Grace looked from me to Scott and said, “Do you guys want to come over for a while?”

Uh, yeah.

Before I could answer, Scott chimed in with, “I’m in, T. You in?”

“Uh, yeah okay, but are you sure it’ll be okay with your parents?” I asked incredulously. Their parents didn’t seem like the type of people who let their daughters bring guys over in the middle of the night to go swimming (
or something
).

Grace didn’t say anything at first, but Ryder jumped right in with “Oh, don’t worry about it. Our parents are away for the weekend.”

Hmm,
could things possibly go any more my way tonight?

“Oh, okay. Sounds good. We’ll follow you guys, then?” I wanted to drive over with Scott, so I could read him the riot act about staying away from Ryder. I didn’t care if he hung out with her, but it couldn’t go any further than that, because if Grace thought it might then she’d never leave their side. Of that I was sure.

“Okay,” Grace said. “We’re parked way in the back, so we’ll meet you at the exit gate. We only live about ten minutes from here.”

As soon as we got into Scott’s truck I started giving him the drill, but he quickly put his hand up and said, “Hold on there, cowboy. You can stop right there. No need to worry, I’m not gonna blow your chances for make-up sex or get-back-together sex or whatever-you-want-to- call-it sex. I’ll be the perfect gentleman with my lovely young hostess. We’ll go swimming, I’ll play a little Xbox with the brother, maybe raid the fridge for some of Mom’s sandwiches. In other words, I’ll keep the kiddies busy so you can hang out with Grace.”

I have to admit that sometimes that guy really did surprise me.
“Oh yeah, okay…’cause you know Grace’ll be watching you like a hawk.”

He interrupted. “T, the sister’s hot, but come on, I’m not stupid, so don’t worry. I’ll have everything under control and, uh, maybe you might even want to slip me a few bills to take them out to breakfast in the morning.”

“Uh, yeah sure. Thanks, man. My wallet’s in the glove compartment. Take whatever you need,” I told him, now feeling relieved that I could trust him around Ryder.

It was a short drive to their house, and when we got their they led us in through the garage and then out into the backyard, where they had a really cool little in-ground pool with every amenity you could possibly think of, including a little pool house with a bar (unstocked, of course). Scott was still wearing the bathing suit that he had had on all day, but I had to change back into my wet bathing suit that I’d had on earlier – not that I was complaining.

The girls went upstairs to change, but were back down quickly and then a few minutes later the brother came out.

“Hey, dude,” Scott said as he high-fived Jagger, “Remember me? The guy who demolished you on Xbox that time.”

“
You
demolished
me
?” Jagger laughed. “I think I remember it being the other way around.” And then he cannon-balled himself into the pool. Scott jumped in after him while Ryder, Grace and I sat on the edge.

Grace was wearing a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a turquoise bikini top, and from what I could tell without totally gawking at her, she looked pretty damn hot. She eventually ditched the jean shorts (
nice!
) when the three of us joined Scott and Jagger in the pool to judge their diving (and I use the term ‘diving’ loosely) contest. It was probably close to three a.m. when we finally got out and dried off.

“Hey, Mick Jagger,” I heard Scott say to Jagger. “You gonna let me kick your ass again on Xbox? I’ll even let you pick the game.”

“You’re on,” Jagger said as the two of them disappeared inside, with Ryder at their heels.

Alone at last!
We sat quietly on the edge of the pool with our legs still dangling in the water for a little while longer until I finally broke the silence. “Grace, you
cannot
imagine how much I’ve missed you.”

Smiling, she scooted closer to me and put her hand on my thigh. “I’ve really missed you, too.” After a minute of silence she said, “Tanner…I need to ask you something.”

I suddenly began to feel a bit uneasy by her tone, but I kept cool and said, “Yeah? Go ahead, ask away.”

“Well,” she began, “I was wondering…is there anything else?”

“Anything else?” I questioned. “What do you mean, anything else?”

“Well,” she continued, “I just mean, you know, do I know all there is to know about…everything…the whole incident. I don’t want to find out any surprises down the road. If there’s anything more, I want to know about it.”

I felt myself squirm, not because I was hiding anything, but because it made me uncomfortable to talk about it. I knew it must have still bothered her, and to be honest I was embarrassed over the whole thing. I cringed whenever I thought back over it all, especially since I no longer even recognized the guy who had done it.

I looked out across the water and softly said, “No…there’s nothing else.”

She didn’t say anything right away. Then, finally, “Tanner…promise you’ll never lie to me about anything…ever.”

“Promise,” I said as I put my arm around her.

We sat there for a little longer and then she asked, “Is there anything
you
want to ask
me
?”

There actually was something that I wanted to ask her – that I
had
to ask her – because if I didn’t, it would eat at me until the day I died. But I was kind of afraid to ask her for fear she might slap me, so I held my tongue. When I didn’t answer she looked over at me and said, “What?”

“Nothing,” I told her, shaking my head, but the sheepish grin appearing on my face was giving me away.

“Tanner! There
is
something you want to ask me. I can tell! Come on, what is it?”

I looked up to the sky and blew out a deep breath before I said, “Okay, don’t get mad, but yeah, there is something I’m curious about, although I’ll be the first to admit that it’s really none of my business, so if you don’t want to tell me, I guess it’s okay.”

She looked at me, her big brown eyes wide with anticipation and said, “Ooh, now you’ve got me nervous. What is it?”

“First, promise you won’t get mad,” I said.

“Tanner, I can’t imagine what you could ask me that I could possibly get mad about, but okay, I promise not to get mad. Now, go ahead,” she pressed. “The suspense is killing me.”

She looked on with anticipation as I tried to gather up the nerve to ask, finally saying, “Okay…I was just wondering, by any chance…did you happen to…I mean did you and the tool…?

“The ‘tool?’ By the ‘tool,’ I’m assuming you mean James, right? Did me and James what?” she interrupted, still oblivious to what I was getting at.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll just refer to him as the ‘tool,’” I continued.

“Fine, the tool it is. What is it you want to know about me and the tool?”

I hesitated before blurting out, “Okay…did you and the tool, you know…did you sleep with him?”

I couldn’t read her expression right away, but then she shook her head and smiled as she slammed her palms against my shoulder, knocking me off balance and into the water. When I came to the surface I laughed and said, “See, I knew you’d get mad.”

“I’m not mad,” she said as she lowered herself off the side and into the water without answering the question, purposely making me sweat it out.

“So…?” I finally said.

“Well,” she began, “you’re right about one thing – it really
is
none of your business, but in the interest of being honest, I’ll answer by saying that no, I didn’t sleep with the tool nor did I sleep with any of the other guys I went out with this summer. Does that answer your question?”

I’ll admit I was somewhat relieved, but then it dawned on me what she had just said. “Other guys? What other guys? How many were there?”

“A few,” she said, “but I answered your question so now I think we should just drop it.”

“Fair enough,” I conceded, realizing I should leave well enough alone, so instead of saying anything else, I just leaned over and kissed her softly. When I finally pulled away, something suddenly occurred to me so I asked, “Hey, I just realized you haven’t brought up the fact that Ryder is alone with Scott in the basement. I’m surprised you’re not all over that.”

“Well,” she said, “first of all she’s not alone with Scott. Jagger is with them. And second of all, even if they were alone, I have nothing to worry about. I told her on the way home from the lake that if she stayed away from Scott and toned down the flirting, I’d convince my mom to let her come visit me for a weekend down at school, which I know she’s been dying to do.”

“And you think it’ll work?” I asked.

“Oh, I know it’ll work, and if not, she knows Jagger’ll squeal on her anyway.”

“Looks like you’ve got it all figured out,” I said as I hoisted myself back up onto the edge of the pool and then grabbed her hand to pull her up next to me.

We sat there for another few minutes before she said, “So, what do you say we go change into some dry clothes?”

“Yeah, sure, that sounds good” I said. “My stuff’s inside.”

We got up and started drying off with the towels she’d brought out earlier, and then she said, “Hey, I’ve got one more question.”

I looked at her curiously and then smiled and said, “Go ahead. I’m listening.”

She hesitated, folding her arms in front of her and squinting her eyes at me, before asking, “Did you really think I was a dork the first time you met me? And before you answer, remember that you just swore you’d never lie to me.”

I put my hands on my hips and my head down so she wouldn’t see the smile on my face. Then I lifted my head, looked her square in the eye and said, “Yes.” But then I added with a smile, “But, if it makes you feel any better, you should know that both Scott and I thought you were definitely a
cute
dork.”

She stared at me for a moment and then she said, “A cute dork? Yeah, okay, I guess I can live with that.”

She turned then, seemingly satisfied, and I followed her inside.