Echoes of Us (12 page)

“Come upstairs,” Mrs. Morgan said. “I’ve got some champagne to celebrate.”

I watched as she and Maggie disappeared out of the small room. I slid off the stool, but Jade stopped me by grabbing me around the waist and pulling me into a kiss. When he released me so we could both breathe, he touched my cheek, dragging his finger down my jaw.

“Thank you,” he sighed.

“For what?”

“Making me believe again,” he said. “And making my life better.”

No one had ever said anything like that to me. I always felt I made life more difficult for everyone who knew me. My family would be the first to agree with my assessment.

“Can I show you what I wrote?” I asked timidly.

“Always,” Jade said.

“You inspire me,” I whispered. A sudden wave of embarrassment flooded my body. Christ, I didn’t really mean to say that out loud.

I watched his eyes dart back and forth as he read the words I’d just written. Jade set the notebook on the table and grabbed his guitar. He messed around for a few minutes until he was satisfied with the melody.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Maggie slide back into the booth. Jade bumped my leg, signaling me to start singing. When the song was over, I couldn’t breathe. Maggie was wiping tears from her face.

“I know it’s early and crazy as all fuck,” Jade said, “but I can’t hold it in anymore. No one has ever made me feel so much. I love you, Rylan.”

The three most dreaded words known to mankind hung in the air, and for the first time in my entire life, I relished them and happily returned the sentiment.

“I love you too,” I whispered.

I
T
TOOK
Maggie a week to work out the kinks with the recording and the video. I thought it looked fine the first time we watched it, but she was a crazy perfectionist, so we let her fuss and fume over everything. It’s not like we did anything in the video except sit and sing.

“Okay,” Maggie said. She paraded around our living room waving a disc in the air. “We are all gathered here on this couch for the debut of Rylan and Jade singing their first song, which is sure to be a number one hit.”

I snorted. “I just hope we get one hit on YouTube so this wasn’t a total waste of everyone’s time.”

“It wasn’t a waste of my time,” Jade stated. His ankle was already hooked around mine. I’d noticed it when we recorded the song. It was fast becoming a thing he always did when he sat next to me. It was comforting and made my stomach twirl.

“Are we ready?” Maggie shouted.

“Let’s get this party started,” Mrs. Morgan said.

“Right,” Maggie said and pushed play.

The song sounded awesome, and Maggie had done a great job editing. The video didn’t look any different from the first time I saw it, but I wasn’t going to say anything to Maggie. I’m sure she’d gone frame by frame and tweaked the lighting or something. I had no desire to sit through a lengthy description of everything she did to the video.

Maggie and Mrs. Morgan swooned and played up the whole fangirl thing. I wondered if there was such a thing as fanboys? I chuckled, because I considered myself a fanboy of the guy sitting next to me.

“You two are absolutely adorable,” Mrs. Morgan said. “And the music is just wonderful.”

“I’ve got everything all set up and ready to go on the computer. Are you guys ready to upload?” Maggie asked. Her finger hovered over the keyboard, and I felt my stomach flip. This was insane.

“Rylan?” Jade looked at me and grabbed my hand. “Are you ready to be famous?”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Right. Famous. Push that button, Maggie Mae.”

She made a grand gesture of wiggling her fingers as she hit the button. And suddenly, there was our song and our faces for the entire world to see. Christ. I felt ill. What if everyone hated the fucking thing and posted all sorts of hateful shit? My fragile ego would fall apart.

“Calm down, Rylan,” Maggie said. “No one is going to send you hate mail.”

Jade glanced at me. “How does she do that?”

“I have no idea. It’s scary, though.”

Maggie started chattering. “When are we doing the next recording? You should do ‘From the Beginning.’”

“What song is that?” I asked.

She shrugged. “The one you wrote the day we recorded this one.”

“You named the song?” I asked.

A blush stained her cheeks. “Yeah, you can change it. It seemed like a good title. I pushed record when Jade started to play. It’s a great song. I listen to it all the time.”

“She played it for me,” Mrs. Morgan said. “She’s right. It should be heard.”

“Can we just see if anyone likes the first one we put up?”

“Okay, fine, but I was thinking about some other stuff too,” Maggie said. She had her glasses on tonight, and her hair was tied back so you couldn’t see the pink tips. This was grown-up Maggie at her finest. “You guys should consider singing live. I think it would be awesome.”

Jade laughed. “We have, like, three songs in our repertoire. Pretty sure a set list needs to be a little longer.”

“I’ve heard you guys singing way more stuff, and it’s not bad to cover songs when you’re first starting out,” Maggie said.

“What do you think, Rylan? Do you think the world is ready for us to sing live?” Jade asked.

He was crazy.

“Just let me try,” Maggie begged.

“Sure, Maggie. Have at it. If you can get us a live gig, we’ll be there,” Jade said. I kicked him in the shin. “Hey!” Jade shouted and rubbed his leg.

“I can’t play in front of people. It freaks me out,” I grumbled.

“Do you really think anyone would hire us without hearing us play? It’s not like we have a demo tape or anything,” Jade said.

“Good point,” I said and high-fived him.

“If they saw you, they’d hire you without even listening to your music,” Mrs. Morgan said. “The girls would go crazy over you two, and they’d be screaming so loud, they wouldn’t even be able to hear the music.”

“Mrs. Morgan, I’m surprised at you.” Jade gasped and clutched at his chest. “Are you telling us the only reason we would make it in the music business is because we’re hot? I thought you liked our music?”

“I love your music, but sex appeal sells, and if you’ve both got it, you should use it. There are a lot of talentless fools out there who are popular only because people find them visually pleasing,” Mrs. Morgan said. “I’ve been around the music business, and trust me when I say you’ve got it all. I know what I’m talking about. I’m sure your PR manager lady will agree with me.”

Maggie pursed her lips and nodded. Mrs. Morgan knuckle bumped her. This was another odd moment in my life. An eighty-year-old woman was talking about my sex appeal. We sure would have a broad fan base.

“Okay,” Jade said.

“What?” I shouted and stood up. “Are you insane?”

“Possibly,” Jade said. “Let Maggie have her fun. We can mess around with some songs and work out a short playlist. She’s right. They don’t all have to be original songs. We can do some covers.”

“You’re all nuts,” I said. I was the only sane person in the room. I leaned back and let them scheme and plan.

As the night wore on, Jade got more and more excited about performing live. I’d always tried to exist in the shadows, and now they were talking about bringing me into the spotlight.

“Oh,” Maggie squealed. “I forgot to tell you. I’ve set up a Facebook page for you guys, and I opened Twitter and Instagram accounts.”

“What for?” I asked.

Maggie snorted. “Your fans are going to want some way to communicate with you.”

“Our fans?” I rolled my eyes. “Who are these mysterious fans you speak of? Do we have a band name, in case we get famous?” I joked about it, tossing out strange mixtures of our names. “How about Rjayd? We could pronounce it Raid.”

“Rylan and Jade will be fine,” Maggie said. “Besides, it’s what I’ve put on all the accounts and stuff.”

“Maybe I want it Jade and Rylan,” Jade said, grinning at me.

“Just Jade would be fine with me,” I muttered.

He frowned. “I’m not a solo act.”

His intense stare made my body temperature increase.

“Okay,” I squeaked. “As long as we’re in this together.”

I had no idea what
this
was going to be, but I’d go along for the ride if Jade wanted to drive.

Listening to Jade and Maggie talk about the perks of being famous was entertaining. They were both crazy, but it was fun to watch them dream out loud. I sucked in a quick breath and asked Mrs. Morgan for a piece of paper and a pen. I needed to start carrying around a notebook or write things on my phone.

I scribbled the words down and smiled, because Jade did make me dream out loud.

“It’s so good to see you smiling,” Mrs. Morgan said. She handed me a cookie and sat down next to me.

“It’s nice to be happy,” I said.

She patted my hand and gestured toward Jade’s ankle, tucked safely behind mine. “He’s good for you, and I like him. You should think about keeping this one.”

I glanced at him. He was waving his arms excitedly, talking about staging a live show. He had us playing Madison Square Garden next month, and Maggie was agreeing with him. His cheeks were flushed and his smile lit up the room. He took my breath away and made my heart bang against my ribs. I was crazy in love with a guy I barely knew. I guess that meant I was as insane as everyone else in the room.

“You are quite taken with him,” Mrs. Morgan said.

“I am,” I whispered.

“What’s the name of the song you started writing?”

“‘Dreamin’ Out Loud.’”

Mrs. Morgan smiled and gave me a quick hug.

“I hate to break up this party,” I said, “but I have a short story that needs to be finished by tomorrow.”

Maggie frowned and looked at the clock on her phone. “I suppose I should do the assigned reading, even if it is boring as all hell. I don’t understand why I need to take this history course when my major is public relations. I have no aspirations of becoming a dictator.”

“I think you’d make a great dictator,” I said.

She stuck her tongue out at me and proceeded to tell me it was my turn to make dinner tomorrow night.

“Dictator,” I said under my breath.

“I heard that,” she shouted. “And quit rolling your eyes.”

Jade smiled at me and let Mrs. Morgan take his arm. “I’ll be right back,” he said.

When Jade left, my phone rang and Kelli’s smiling face showed up on my screen.

“Hey, Kelli. What’s up?”

She immediately asked if it was okay if she came out for a visit. She sounded worn-out and sad. I asked her what was wrong, but all I got out of her was she needed a change of scenery.

She had to tie up some things at home, so it would be about a week before she made it here. I told her she could show up any time and stay for as long as she wanted.

I hung up and stared at the darkened screen, wondering what was going on back home that had her so upset.

“Hi,” Jade said. “Who was on the phone?”

“Hey. That was my sister, Kelli. She’s coming to stay with us.”

He sat down on my bed and ran his fingers through my hair. “Mrs. Morgan is very protective of you,” Jade said. “She wanted to know my intentions. She told me, very sternly, not to hurt you.”

It was nice to have someone so concerned about my well-being. I closed my laptop and stared at him, patting the bed beside me.

“I hope you’re okay with everything I told Maggie tonight,” Jade said as he sat down and snuggled into my side. “I have a tendency to get carried away sometimes.”

“I like it when you get carried away,” I said.

“Wouldn’t it be something if we did hit it big?” Jade said. “Would you come on this crazy ride with me?”

“I would,” I said. Jade started chattering about traveling the world and all the things we would do while we were on the road. He was so excited it was hard not to get swept up in the moment and dream along with him. I usually didn’t allow myself to get so wrapped up in a dream. They always had a way of crashing down around me. I was a cautious dreamer.

Jade rolled over and stared into my eyes. “The best thing would be that I would get to do it with you,” he said and kissed my nose.

“Sap,” I said.

“Dream with me, Rylan,” he said and rolled on his back. “Tell me something, anything. Tell me what’s on your bucket list.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’d like to stand on a balcony in Paris at night with the Eiffel Tower lit up in the distance and shove my tongue down your throat.”

“What else?”

“I want to sit outside at a café in Amsterdam and smoke a joint in front of everyone,” I said, laughing. “Then I want to go back to the hotel and shove my tongue down your throat.”

“You have very achievable dreams.” He gave me a crooked smile. “Tell me a few more.”

“Go to London and ride that Ferris wheel thing while kissing you for the entire circle,” I said.

“I think it’s called the Eye.”

“And I want to go to Disney World.” Jade burst out laughing. “Hey, I’ve never been there,” I said, pretending to pout.

“I haven’t either,” he admitted. “Are you done with your homework?”

“Why?” I asked.

He leered at me, so I tossed my notebooks on the floor and let him strip me.

This was better than dreaming. It was real.

T
HE
NEXT
week passed in a flurry of studying and tons of homework. No one mentioned the YouTube video, and I resisted the urge to check it. There was probably nothing to check anyway. We were getting close to the end of the semester and Maggie was having a fit about her upcoming final. She was also very excited to have Kelli coming to the house.

I think the combined events sent her over the edge, which was why we were on a massive cleaning spree. I tried to tell her that Kelli wasn’t a neat freak, but Maggie refused to listen. I spent several hours walking around the house carrying a bucket and wearing yellow gloves. Jade was busy with our laundry and cleaning the laundry room. Who the hell cleaned a laundry room?

When Maggie started rearranging the kitchen cupboards, Jade and I plotted our escape. I tried to reason with her, telling her I was just figuring out where she kept everything. She snapped at me and dusted a can of soup. We backed out of the kitchen and hightailed it outside.