Inside was his first guitar, the guitar his mother gave to him on his thirteenth birthday. It was all in one piece. As he picked it up and looked more closely, he noticed a series of fine cracks that had been carefully re-joined and sanded. He had to hold the guitar up to a light to see where the neck had split. “What in the hell?” he said aloud, his eyes dry from not blinking. It was impossible. Someone had taken all the pieces of his smashed guitar and tediously reassembled each piece.
He sat down and tried playing the guitar. It sounded beautiful, crisp, clean, and warm. Each note shimmered bright. He closed his eyes and listened to the guitar resonate. He began to strum various chords and he lost track of time. He hummed along with his playing, and soon, the humming turned into singing. It wasn’t until an hour had passed that he realized he’d written a whole new song.
He ran to his desk to fetch a pen and a pad of paper. Then, he noticed a note sitting inside the guitar case.
I hope it sounds okay. Willy says it’s a beautiful guitar. I had to fight him to get it back. Maybe one day I’ll get to hear you play it.
Love,
Lily
He read the note again, and then he read it again. Each time he read it, he felt more and more like an idiot. Lily didn’t leak his song. Of course she didn’t. Though he couldn’t prove it—and he didn’t know who could have—but he knew she didn’t do it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Lily was loading one of the final boxes into a moving truck when the first All-Star Movers moving truck pulled onto the lot. It was possession day, the day the new company took her family’s trucks, and her family’s property. Lily still didn’t know where she was going to go. Her plan was to spend the night at the Save-a-Penny Motel and then start towards Los Angeles in the morning. She hated the idea of living in Los Angeles, but there was no one hiring in Burns Bog, and the only two houses for sale were about two million dollars more than she could afford.
A thick, bearded man stepped out from the All-Star Movers truck. “Are you Lily Parker?” the burly man asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“I spoke with your father on the phone this morning. He told me you might need another night to pack up all your things. It’s fine if you do. The rest of the guys won’t be here until tomorrow.”
“No, that’s okay. Thank you though. I should be heading out. I just need to pack up my bedroom quickly.”
The man looked around the lot. “This is a big lot. The way the buildings are laid out, it doesn’t look so big, but once those are gone—there’s a lot of space here.”
“You’re tearing it all down?”
“Not all of it. We’ll leave the offices up.” He started to walk around the lot. He pointed at the home Lily grew up in. “That’ll go. We’ll probably put the gas bar there.” He pointed to the barn. “That’ll probably be parking.” Then, he pointed at the swing in the clearing. “That’ll be more parking.”
The last one hit her hard. A lump grew in her throat and she had to fight back the tears. She tried to smile, but couldn’t. “Well, I should be going,” she managed to say without bursting into tears.
“Drive safe, now,” the man said.
As Lily walked around her truck, a taxi pulled onto the lot. With one hand on the door handle, she stopped and watched the cab as it came to a stop. The back door opened and Aaron stepped out. As his eyes found Lily, he froze.
He’d spent the last day rehearsing in his head what he was going to say to her, how he was going to apologize for leaving, how he was going to tell her he didn’t care about the leaked song, or if she had feelings for Danny. But now that he was staring at her, face-to-face, he couldn’t say anything.
Lily had spent the last three weeks doing her own rehearsal in her head, how she was going to apologize for not telling Aaron that Danny showed up in Los Angeles, for not securing her e-mail so hackers could leak Aaron’s song. Staring at Aaron now, she couldn’t think of anything to say either. And she couldn’t hold her tears back. She let go of the truck handle and ran towards him, nearly tackling him to the ground as her body made contact and her arms wrapped around him. “You’re back,” she said.
“Hey,” he said, squeezing her tightly, his body filling with warm elation.
“I didn’t do it,” she said.
“I know.”
“Nothing happened between me and Danny.”
“I know—I mean, I don’t care. I mean, I do care, but as long as it’s in the past and there isn’t anything between you anymore, not that there ever was because you just said—”
“—I love you,” she interrupted. She squeezed tighter.
“I know.” He looked down into her eyes. “I love you, too.” They kissed.
“Where have you been for the past three weeks?”
“Some hick town in North Dakota. Seriously though, I thought Burns Bog was full of hicks. You should see this place. They have an annual corn cob eating contest for Christsakes.”
“We have that here, too.”
Aaron laughed. “Jesus, of course you do.” They kissed again. Lily’s lips were soft, her body was warm. “Come live with me.”
“In North Dakota?”
“Here. In Burns Bog.”
Lily’s heart swelled. She couldn’t fight the smile from her face. She bit her lip to try and supress the big goofy smile from slipping. “Really?”
“Yeah. Even though it’s kind of hickish, I like it here.”
Lily laughed and snuggled her head against Aaron’s chest. “Good,” she said. “Because I don’t want to leave.”
Aaron looked over at the burly bearded man who was pacing around the lot. “Who’s that guy?”
“He bought the lot off of my dad.” Lily’s eyes became teary again. “He’s tearing everything down and putting up a gas bar.”
“Hey, you!” Aaron called out to the man.
“Yeah?”
“I want to buy this lot off of you.”
“It’s not for sale,” the man said.
Aaron turned to Lily. “What’d he buy it for?”
“Two hundred thousand,” Lily said.
Aaron turned back to the man. “I’ll give you half a mil for it.”
“Deal,” the man said.
“Aaron!” said Lily.
Aaron took Lily by the hand. “C’mon. I hear there’s a bedroom upstairs with my name on it.” Laughing, they ran inside, up towards the bedroom. She had everything she’d ever wanted. She got to stay in Burns Bog, she got to keep the family company, and she had Aaron. And finally, she was able to relax, remembering what her father told her before she left Los Angeles. “Only you know what’s right for you. You have to make your own decisions in life.” For once, she realized that she couldn’t spend her life trying to make everyone happy—her father, Ming, Danny… They would make their own decisions and eventually find their own happiness, happiness only they would be able to understand. Lily found hers, in Burns Bog, with Aaron. Some people might say that isn’t what the modern woman should do, that women should strive towards great things, towards independence. But screw ‘em. Living in Burns Bog and taking care of Aaron was all she ever wanted.
THE END
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR CORDELIA BLANC
Cordelia Blanc is a writer from the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Canada. Her schooling years were spent absorbed in fantasy, writing everything from screenplays and comic books to short stories and overly ambitious novels.
Cordelia moved west to British Columbia where she worked for years in film, using the little free time she had on her writing. Her stories aim to capture the spirit of the prairies, the Pacific North West, and the Rockies. Cordelia doesn’t believe in good guys and bad guys, because every real human being is both.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
NAVIGATOR
*
PART ONE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTINUED
NAVIGATOR
*
PART TWO
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
LIMELIGHT LOVE: A Small Town Rock Star Romance Page 16
