I sucked in a breath and stared at the gorgeous antique ring, the oval-shaped pink diamond glimmered in the overhead light. I knelt down to his level, cupped his face and said, “Yes.Yes.Yes,” between kisses. I had never been so sure of anything in my life.
We stayed there kissing for a long time until he finally broke the embrace and slipped the ring on my finger.
“Thank you, it’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.”
I kissed him until we were breathless. “Take me to bed.”
He held my face and then leaned back to look into my eyes. “You’re in luck, it’s right upstairs. I bought the loft above this place.” And then he wiggled his eyebrows.
“I guess we’re Brooklynites now?”
His look went from surprise to pure elation. “So you’ll live with me… here?”
“Of course, I want to be wherever you are. I want to do this with you. It is my dream, all of it.”
“Baby, that means more to me than you will ever know,” he said and then proceeded to trail kisses up my neck.
“So, are you gonna show me your place or what?”
“Our place.”
“Show me our place.”
He led me through the sound studio to the lobby where I met Maryse and Bret. Maryse was the spunky office manager and blogger extraordinaire. Will said she was responsible for getting quite a few of the bookings. Bret was the percussion virtuoso who had been playing with Will at the bars and would certainly become a key player at the studio. Will said that Tyler and Jenny were going to run the website and Sheil and Martha would both be part of the artistic team from time to time when they weren’t busy at Kell’s.
We practically jogged up the stairs to the loft. “There’s one more girl you need to meet. She’s actually a partner, or more like a silent partner.” He opened the door and there sat the sweetest, tiniest yellow lab puppy. Her head cocked to one side as I knelt down in front of her.
Will crouched beside me. “Mia, meet June.” My eyes darted to his, both of us smiled serenely and simultaneously said, “After June Carter Cash.”
I picked her up. “Ahh, I love her.”
“I love you.”
I put June down and cupped Will’s face. “I love you, too,” I said between laying kisses on his lips, nose, and cheeks. “Wilbur, I want to have like a million of your babies.”
He looked happier than I had ever seen him. “Really? Should we start now?”
“Definitely.”
And then he led me to our room where we stayed for hours, maybe days, just tangled in each other.
Something So Sweet
By Mia Kelly
Been looking for a way to get home,
it seems there’s no directions left for me.
I’ll follow the trail on my own,
and hope that something sets me free.
The darkness falls fast without warning,
just left with my soul to captain me.
But there’s someone waiting for me in the morning,
pulling me into the light so I can see.
He knows my face in the darkness,
he knows my hopes, my reverie.
But he’s waiting for me to find him,
so that I can set him free.
So I let go and let him in.
Everything dissipates into feeling,
we allow our souls to meet.
We’re the static in the chaos,
the one thing… the something so sweet.
Epilogue
It was a perfect day in the city. I went to breakfast with my husband and two beautiful boys and then I spent the afternoon browsing the streets of SoHo. I was sitting on a little wooden bench outside the Earth Room when I saw them. He was animatedly telling her a story, his hands flailing about as she gazed at him with a boundless love in her eyes. They walked hand in hand up the opposite side of the street. He was wearing a black hoody and jeans, his wallet chain jingling. She wore a gray baby-doll dress and a purple scarf. As they got closer, I noticed one of her hands was resting on top of a very swollen belly. The vision of the two of them together like that filled me with an unreasonable amount of joy.
They stopped to look into a store window. He stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her plump belly as he nestled his face in her neck. She was a far cry from the feeble, frail girl in the park last spring. She looked healthy, blissful, almost seraphic. He appeared to have the neurotic charm of a person whose feelings get the same clout as their thoughts, which is exactly how I knew it was him.
As they crossed the street toward me, I spotted the look of recognition on her face. She turned and asked him to wait before running up to me, arms open with a huge smile on her face.
“Hey, Lauren, how are you?”
“Great, it’s good to see you. Congratulations,” I said, pulling out of the hug and running my hand across her belly.
“Thank you. We’re so excited. We’re having a boy.”
“That’s wonderful, Mia.”
“Oh, hey, I read your new book. I loved it… absolutely beautiful story.”
“Thank you so much. So you two figured everything out, I see?” I said, glancing at her belly and then in Will’s direction.
She nodded and smiled serenely. “But what about you? Did you figure everything out?”
I paused for a long second. “Yes.”
“Good.” She leaned in, kissed me on the cheek and then whispered, “So what’s next?”
I glanced over at Will, who was looking at me like he knew my face but couldn’t place it.
“Well, I can tell you that things may get all muddled up again, especially after that little guy comes along,” I said, pointing to her belly. “Just remember, you can always hear the answers in the music, just the same way I hear them in the writing. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves to listen.”
“Right,” she said, nodding, “The sound of our souls.”
“Yep.”
We hugged and then she walked over to Will, who was holding a cab door open for her. She whispered something in his ear; he glanced back and studied me as he got into the car. When he closed the door he smiled really big, blew me a kiss, and mouthed the words, “Goodbye, Lauren.” I thought I caught “sweet thing” as he left my view.
-The End-
For Jackson: The best damn dog in the world. RIP, Buddy.
Acknowledgments
I owe a supreme thanks and credit to the following people for their hard work and professionalism with Sweet Thing.
Developmental editing by Jennifer Pooley.
Copyediting by Anne Victory at Victory Editing.
Digital Formatting by Guido Henkel.
Cover Image and design by Carla Toson Photography.
Final Proofing by Angela Fones
To all of the musical muses: there are no words to express the appreciation I feel for your art and the art born from it.
Seth Fischer and the WWLA gang, Aisling, Aja, Christina, Geoff and Rose: I’m thankful for your passion and assistance.
Gushing gratitude for the friends and relatives who have supported me through this process and extra love to my parents, mother-in-law, brother and sister and their families for embracing my weirdness as uncomfortable as it may be at times, and Dad, thank you especially for your mad internet researching skills.
Tracey Garvis Graves, I was inspired by you and your writing and I’m so grateful for the time you took to answer my emails just to help a fellow writer and relative stranger. I could not have ventured into the self-publishing world without your help.
Tanner J. Jupin—not just because I said I would, but also because I’m grateful for your kind words and encouragement.
Rachel, thanks for listening to the meandering, late night rants and for helping me put Mia and Will through the wringer.
There were so many great lessons I learned on this journey. None more than the importance of taking it seriously while laughing to the point of tear
s and being brave and embracing vulnerability, taught to me by Terry Littlefield, a great beta reader, friend, and Yogi.
To Heather, who was able to find even the most elusive of errors—you have hawk eyes, lady. I will never forget our conversation the night you finished the book. Thank you for your words and friendship all these years.
My dear friend, Carla, I could not have finished it without your time and energy. Thank you for treating this with a seriousness that gave me the courage to continue.
I know Sweet Thing would have been a nameless, twenty-five-page purge of silliness forever entombed on my computer had it not been for Angie, the ultimate first reader, cheerleader, BFF, and hopeless romantic—thank you, every step of the way for basically saying, “Write more, send more, and I still love you.”
To Sam and Tony: my beautiful, brilliant and patient boys, thank you for inspiring me to do better. I love you above and beyond the world around and the spirit within.
And finally, to Anthony, who for the record pointed out Will should not say, “Please, woman” to Mia because he thought is sounded misogynistic. You are the coolest, most hardworking, and honest guy I know. Thank you for encouraging me, believing in me, and loving me wholeheartedly… and thank you for all the raw material… wink.
About the Author
Renee’s first friends were the imaginary kind and even though her characters haven’t gone away, thankfully the delusions have. She admits she’s a wildly hopeless romantic and she blames 80’s movies staring Molly Ringwald for that. She lives in Southern California with her husband, two sons, and their sweet dog June. When she’s not at the beach with her boys or working on the next book, she likes to spend her time reading, going to concerts, and eating dark chocolate. This is her first novel. You can visit her website and drop her a message at www.reneecarlino.com.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Track 1: Fledglings
Track 2: Hello, I Like You
Track 3: Ask Me
Track 4: Cheers, Baby
Track 5: Religion
Track 6: You Get That, Right?
Track 7: What Would J.C. Do?
Track 8: Hopes and Dreams
Track 9: Mystical Alchemy
Track 10: TGIF
Track 11: Benediction
Track 12: Prayer for Each Other
Track 13: The Sound of His Soul
Track 14: Wait, What?
Track 15: Hallelujah
Track 16: Lies, Lies, Lies
Track 17: Angels’ Wings
Track 18: A Violin
Track 19: A Cautionary Tale
Track 20: The Sound of Her Soul
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Sweet Thing Page 26
