Down to My Soul (Soul Series Book 2)(36)

“Except.” She bites her lip and looks out at the ocean instead of at me. “That kind of defeats the purpose of us keeping our relationship on the low.”

My lips clench over the words that want out so badly. That I don’t give a damn who knows. That Dub and everyone else should know she’s mine. That I hate her being out on the road unclaimed. I adjust my Dodgers cap and smooth two fingers over my fake stache.

“Stay with me tonight.” I put on my “hear me out” face. “I’ll take you to San’s as early as you need me to. Unless you don’t want to stay?”

Her eyes jerk back to me, a small frown on her face.

“You know I want to stay. I want as much time with you before I leave as possible.”

“Then it’s settled.” I stand, reaching down to pull her up to her feet. “We have tonight.”

“And the rest of the day.” She leans up, resting her forearms on my chest. “What do you want to do now?”

“Let’s walk for a while. It feels good to walk around and not be recognized, bothered for an autograph, have some camera shoved in my face.” I bend to grab one end of the blanket, meeting her eyes across it as she takes the other corners and we fold it up. “But you’ve gotten a taste of that now, too.”

“Some.” She shakes her head, taking my side to finish the blanket in a neat square she stuffs it into our backpack. “Not anything close to what you deal with.”

“It’s only a matter of time.” I wed our fingers, looking down at not just my girlfriend, but soon-to-be one of the hottest stars out there. I’m struck again by how proud I am of her, despite the fact it isn’t the route I would have chosen. Despite the fact I wouldn’t trust John Malcolm as far as I could toss his lard ass. She’s doing it. Her way, not my way, but she’s doing it. And, as hard as I fought it, it kind of makes me love her that much more.

We explore every corner of the festival, abusing our anonymity any way we can. We ride the Ferris wheel bordering the water. At the top, I take her mouth in a kiss as light as meringue and as rich as cream. Kai gets her face painted, sunrays on one side and rainbows on the other. We devour our combined weight in funnel cakes. To the world, just two guys in love. To us, it’s everything. It’s every date we never got to go on. Every moment we’ve ever had to steal all squeezed into one sunlit day.

The sun is going down when we come across a guy busking on the boardwalk, guitar slung across his shoulder, hat on the ground. Attention isn’t the only thing people aren’t paying him. His hat sits empty, which gives me an idea.

I look down at Kai, who’s now starting to fray around the edges some. She’s held off the exhaustion revealed by the faint lines bracketing her mouth and the shadows under her eyes as long as she could. Now it’s starting to show. I want to get her home so she can rest before the tour restarts tomorrow. One last thing will seal this day, and then we’ll leave.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I ask, knowing damn well she can’t be.

“I doubt it.” She laughs, reaching into her pocket to pull out a dollar and drop it into the busker’s hat.

“Hey, dude.” I gesture to his guitar. “Lemme hold that for you while you take ten.”

“My guitar?” By the look on his face, you’d think I just asked for his kidney. He may not be a great musician, but he definitely loves his guitar like one.

“Ten minutes.” I shrug. “I’ll be right here. You can even stay and watch to make sure I don’t leave. Just give your fingers a rest.”

“Man, I gotta make rent.” He shakes his head and flexes his fingers. “I’m nowhere close.”

“What’ll get you there?” I reach for my wallet. I know he’ll probably bloat the price, but I don’t really care right now. I’m past smart and am pretty much just determined.

“You serious, man?” His wide eyes go from my face to my wallet a couple of times. “My share is two hundred.”

“And how much have you made today?”

“Around thirty.”

“Like I said, take a break.” I offer him two hundred dollar bills. “Ten minutes.”

That guitar is off before I’ve put my wallet away. He hands it to me, a huge smile on his face. I slip the strap over my shoulder, plucking a few strings to see how badly out of tune it is. For my purposes, it’ll do. Kai’s standing off to the side watching and grinning, arms folded across her chest. I dig around in my mind for the lyrics I want to sing, hoping I don’t screw this up since Kai is an expert on this song and this artist.

“They say we’re young and we don’t know,” I sing, strumming the familiar chords. “We won't find out until we grow.”

I sing the rest of the first verse and then nod my head, encouraging her to sing what comes next. To my surprise, she darts over and tips up on her toes until she can whisper in my ear.

“That’s actually Cher’s part. Cher goes first. Then Sonny.”

When she pulls back, I expect at least a smile, but no. If there is one thing Kai’s serious about, it’s her Cher.

“Sooooo . . .” I keep playing and roll my eyes. “Let me guess. You want to sing Cher’s part?”

She nods, an infectious grin stretching between her cheeks. So we start over, her singing Cher’s part, me singing Sonny’s. Our voices tangling up at the chorus, declaring I got you, babe. A small crowd gathers around, and a few dollar bills land in the hat. Some even start to sway with the music we’re making.