CHAPTER 28
The weeks passed them by and summer was approaching its end. Brian knew before long his vacation would be over and he was enjoying every minute he could before he had to go back to his life as an entertainer. His time with Skye had brought him back from the stress he was living to return to the carefree days he loved so much. He didn’t want to think about going back as much as he did truly enjoy it, and he certainly didn’t want to think about leaving Skye. One way or another they would remain together, but he was yet to think of a way, or even discuss it with her. In his mind, she would just join him, be with him, but he knew that wasn't going to happen.
He sat out on the deck perched on the edge of the table, his guitar tucked under his arm strumming softly as he hummed along. The breeze ruffled his hair but he took no notice. His hair was getting a bit long and unruly now and in bad need of a cut, but Skye told him she liked it this length, loving the way she could run her fingers through it and even better, the way she could spear her fingers into it when they made love. That was enough for him to keep it longer for as long as it didn’t annoy him.
He looked over at her house where she was doing some chores. Normally he would go with her but she had insisted he stay here and make the calls he had to make. Business calls, they were intruding already. They hadn’t taken as long as he had expected and he had the sudden urge to pick up his guitar and write something. A tune had been nagging him for some time now and he had to get it down before he forgot it. He had written other songs during his vacation, but this song seemed special.
So now he sat, his guitar resting on his knee as he scribbled a few words on the paper beside him. He strummed a few more notes and scribbled some more before looking up and noticing Skye walking along the sand towards him. His stomach tightened and he smiled to himself, his fingers freezing on the strings of the guitar. Would she always have this effect on him? She strolled along slowly, unaware that he was watching her as her golden hair blew about in the breeze, her face seeming to be concentrating on something. From this distance, it looked like she was talking to herself, maybe singing something. Or maybe… Could one of the ghosts have reappeared? No he didn’t think that was possible. She looked up and he raised his hand to wave at her, a huge smile breaking out making his heart tighten in his chest. That feeling was so familiar lately.
He watched her approaching, his eyes never leaving her as she walked. His fingers absently strummed the tune he had been working on as he watched her, the words he had written going around in his head. It was his special song for her but it needed a lot of work before he could sing it to her. His mind wandered and he stopped singing the words, simply humming along. He was thinking of wrapping his arms around Skye when she reached him. All other thought fled his mind.
As she climbed the stairs to the deck he lay the guitar in it’s case and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her. His lips found hers tenderly and he gave her a soft kiss to say hello before pulling back only slightly and gazing into her eyes. He couldn’t think of a word to say. He was content to simply look at her beauty.
“You been writing?” Skye asked him, her eyes transfixed on his. His eyes always mesmerised her and from the very first dream she had ever had of him they had captured her. In real life it was no difference, and when he looked at her like this, it was almost her complete undoing.
“Yeah, something that has been floating around my head for a while.” Brian was equally as transfixed on Skye’s eyes. “I’ve just been waiting for you. I missed you.”
She giggled. “It’s only been a little over an hour.”
“That’s an hour too long,” he said to her and watched her face sadden. What had he said wrong? “Skye?”
She didn’t say anything for a while and moved out of his arms and absently reached for the strings of his guitar, plucking her fingers over them without thought. Her eyes watched out over the water as the breeze blew the tips of the waves causing sea spray to fly back out to the ocean. She was oblivious to what she was watching though.
“It’s going to be longer than an hour soon Brian,” she murmured. “It’s going to be a whole lot longer.”
Brian stepped back to her side and pulled her into his arms. “It doesn’t have to be Skye.” His lips rested on the side of her forehead waiting for her to answer him.
“It does Brian. I have a life here, you have a life out there.” She waved her arm wide, indicating the world of difference between their lives.
“But we have to be able to share our two different lives.” He was becoming agitated at the hopelessness he felt listening to her talk like this. Hadn’t their summer meant more than goodbye at the end of it? He refused to believe she felt that way. This was not going as he had expected their afternoon to go.
“How Brian? Tell me how? I’ve thought about it and thought about it. I can’t think of anything that will help us, and this afternoon I have a meeting at work. The kind of meeting I have had every year for the past few years, where the head of the school assigns us our classes. I will be given my young class who I will love dearly and I will treasure the opportunity to mould into little individuals that will go on to one day take their place in our world. Brian what I do is important.”
How could Brian argue with that? He held her in his arms, defeat cascading through him. So this was what their future held? The occasional free day here, their summers spent together when it fit in with his schedule. This was not the way he had seen their life together. He had promised Trevor he would look after Skye, How could he do that when they were in different parts of the country, even different parts of the world? “I just thought… What about us? Doesn’t what we have shared, what we do share matter?”
He saw the look of hurt on her face. “No,” he continued on holding his hand up to still her impending words and moving away to look out over the ocean as she had done earlier, before looking back. Regret tinged his features as he spoke. “Forget I said that. It was really insensitive of me.” He sighed. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” Again he pulled Skye into his arms and they both held each other closely. He kissed her forehead softly. “We’ll work something out. We have to. We belong together.”
They held each other for a long time before Brian leaned down and kissed her lips tenderly. Skye felt her heart melting as he kissed her with such gentleness and love that tears began to threaten. His kisses, light and easy across her lips, on her chin, over her cheeks and eyes and back down to her lips before deepening the kiss, would usually leave her head spinning, but now her mind was full of thoughts, full of confusion. Brian was right. They had to find a solution to their predicament but how she just didn’t know.
She looked up at Brian and two fat tears fell down her cheeks. “Oh Angel, please don’t cry.” He wiped her cheeks with the backs of his fingers letting them linger on her soft skin. “We’ll work something out. I promise you.” He pulled back and she gave him a watery smile. He didn’t know how they would work it out, but he would just about die trying. “Come on, let’s walk. What time do you have to leave?”
“In about an hour.”
“Well, we’ll be back in less than an hour.” He turned and took her hand in his, leading her down the steps until they got to the sand when he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close, sighing when her arm went as tightly around his waist. With the impending separation, neither one of them wanted to be apart any more than necessary.
And so they went, walking along the quiet beach, the silence only punctuated by a lonely gull or the breaking of the waves. It was a desolate sound, one that Brian thought fit the situation they were in. They didn’t speak as they walked, only stopping to share stolen kisses every now and then, before turning to walk further. At some point Brian turned them around and they walked back again, sharing more moments of kissing before he realised they were back at Skye’s house.
“Well, here we are.” Brian said quietly. He hadn’t come up with any answers and neither had Skye.
“Yep, here we are.” She looked around as if she just didn’t know what to say to him. “I guess I should go. It isn’t proper to leave Mr Phillips waiting.”
She was hesitating. “Skye. Go. We’ll think of something.”
“I can’t Brian.” She frowned. “The thought of not being with you, not having you by my side tears me up. I was thinking as we walked of what Trevor said about taking a chance on things and this is the time I have to take the biggest chance.”
Brian stood shaking his head. He couldn’t ask her to give everything away for him. There would be something else. He just had to think of what that something was. “No Skye, go to that meeting and take your class. Nothing will be set in concrete today. But don’t burn your bridges. If something comes up between now and school start, we can deal with it then.” He took both of her hands in his and kissed them. “Promise me that Skye?”
She nodded slowly, a small smile on her face, before kissing him quickly and rushing off, as if to stop herself from changing her mind. Brian watched her car drive away before turning back to his house and walking towards it with a heavy heart. He knew this day was going to come, he just never expected it to hurt so much. He also knew the day he left would hurt even more.
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Skye drove to Brian’s place when her meeting was over with mixed feelings. On the one hand she had a class full of excited kindergarten children to teach, a prospect that always set her nerve endings tingling with anticipation. But on the other hand there was Brian, or more importantly, the thought of him leaving without her. It weighed heavily on her mind as she climbed out of the car and up the steps, making it hard to be as excited as she normally would be at the beginning of the school year. Jay had been there too but she hadn’t picked up on her mood, being excited about a dinner date she had with Daniel that night. Skye was happy for her, but it also deepened the sadness she felt. Before she could knock on the door Brian had flung it open and pulled her into his arms, lowering his lips for one of his mind shattering kisses. When he looked down at her, he was smiling.
“Brian, why are you so happy?” she asked him curiously.
“Because you are back in my arms,” he said kissing her again, “and because I may have thought of a solution to our problem, for a while at least.”
“You have?”
He nodded his head enthusiastically. “Come inside and I will explain.”
Skye walked in with Brian and immediately smelled the aroma of a roast in the oven. Her mouth watered and she looked over at Brian who was smiling like a kid on Christmas morning. “Brian, what have you been doing?”
“Just making dinner for us both. Maybe we can watch a movie or something afterwards, then,” he wiggled his eyebrows, “who knows where we will go after that,” he winked. She couldn’t help herself she had to smile. “Come on. Dinner is about ready, come sit down.”
“Can’t I help you?” she asked sitting down slowly, watching him.
“No, it’s all ready. I’ll just go and dish it up. Then…” he stopped bouncing for a little while. “Then we can discuss the plan I came up with.”
He turned back to the kitchen leaving Skye in the dining room to contemplate what he could have come up with. A glimmer of hope flickered through Skye as she waited.
Chapter 29
Index
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