The Hope That Starts

by Heidi Hutchinson

  It was probably the safest place to be with Sway, she had decided.

  Harrison had had zero reaction. Except to make sure she had sunscreen and to set up her chair for her.

  Then she sank into the heat of the sun and forgot about all of that. She simply basked in the warmth, the sound of the nearby ocean bathers a lovely background as she cleared her mind and relaxed. She knew that Sway and Harrison were nearby. They had been in and out of the water, taking turns to come back and check on her. Now they were somewhere behind and to the left of her.

  She sat up on her chair and reached towards her toes to stretch her back a bit. This rock star living was nice.

  “Harrison is about to expire from hunger. How are you feeling?” Sway asked from just behind her.

  Zelda tossed a grin over her shoulder. No one could miss Harrison's love for food. It was one of her favorite things about him. He was unapologetic in his devotion to the exploration of cuisine. And she liked to feed him. He was just so... appreciative.

  Her green eyes connected with Harrison's dark ones and she felt a small thrill slip through her. He was, without a doubt, the most beautiful man she had ever seen. Sometimes she'd forget. Then she'd see him and be reminded instantly.

  He returned her grin.

  She imagined something passing between them. An unspoken conversation. A connection that the rest of the world would never see or know about. She could read his mind, he could read hers. They were in sync, tethered invisibly by the purity of friendship and her impossible dream to love him the way she wanted to love him. With the kind of devotion that he deserved.

  She allowed herself to be blissfully and blindly dedicated to him. Letting her proclivity to be the greatest fan in the world rule her desires, she blew him a kiss.

  It wasn't smart.

  It wasn't safe.

  But it sure was fun.

  ***

  Harrison hadn't stopped smiling all day. He hardly cared.

  Leaving their things under the watchful eye of Kendra's assistant, Zed, they walked down the beach to a small seaside restaurant. Sway was tugging his t-shirt over his head and complaining about having to wear it at all.

  “I'm sure it's the kind of establishment that would appreciate clothed patrons,” Zelda tsked, stepping carefully around sunbathers.

  She'd slipped on a sheer, short black skirt that she had happily declared was on sale at the same place she'd bought that amazing swimsuit, and a large white lace top. Supposedly they were cover-ups. He understood the decorum of it. She was technically clothed. But he could still see her bright pink bikini plain as day.

  And like any other healthy, red-blooded American male, he was having a hard time not staring.

  Not to mention that little move she'd pulled moments before. Blowing him a kiss. Did she have any idea what that had done to his head? What it had done to his hope?

  “An establishment? It's a shack, Zeldy.” Sway had finally gotten his shirt over his head.

  Harrison reached the door first and held it open for his companions.

  “Thanks,” Sway muttered.

  “Thank you.” Zelda's lopsided grin took his hope, gave it a kiss, and stuck it in the crook of her arm to carry around wherever she went.

  Sway got them a round table with high stools. Harrison's focus returned to the empty pit that was his stomach when the waitress brought them over some menus.

  “I like it here,” Zelda declared in an excited whisper. She leaned across the table towards Sway, holding her menu to her chest. “Shack or no shack, it smells amazing. I bet the food is good here.”

  Harrison's stomach was willing to make that bet as well.

  It was rewarded.

  They ordered, they ate, they talked, they had a fantastic lunch. The server kept refilling Harrison's fries, and he continued to eat them.

  A small reggae band began to set up on the smallest stage Harrison had ever seen.

  “Live music. I love this place,” Zelda declared, then she sucked back the rest of her strawberry lemonade, the slurping calling the attention of their server, who refilled her glass right away.

  The band's groove was catchy and Zelda's head began to bob along.

  “Wanna dance, sweetheart?” Sway asked.

  Her eyes widened. So did Harrison's.

  He knew, he knew, Sway wasn't interested in Zelda. Not in any kind of a romantic capacity. He had known his friend long enough to recognize his moves, his lines, his approach. Zelda wasn't his type. He was being friendly, he was being fun, he was just being Sway.

  Didn't mean Harrison liked it.

  Zelda hopped off the stool and Sway joined her. She grabbed his hand, turning to the small section that was considered the dance floor.

  Sway had eye contact with Harrison, lifted his eyebrows, grinned devilishly, and lifted his chin. “Cut in any time, brother.”

  They made it to the floor and Zelda spun on her toes, a bright smile on her face. The band was playing something funky, something with great rhythm, and her hips began to wiggle like they had a mind of their own.

  Sway then proceeded to demonstrate what an idiot Harrison was for swearing off of dancing with girls he liked. She had incredible rhythm, her tiny body drawing the attention of every male eye in the place. Sway guided and directed her, his hands on her hips, her arms, her waist. Her face was happy, relaxed. Beautiful.

  Harrison swallowed and forced his smile when she waved at him as they shimmied past. Her skirt swirled around her thighs, her lips curved into a smile, her green eyes laughed. He wanted to capture that moment. Store it in his memory banks forever.

  She had an innocent exuberance for life like he hadn't experienced since his youth. She seized every opportunity to just... be happy.

  At about the third song, Zelda popped back onto her stool next to Harrison and guzzled down her lemonade. Sweat glistened along her hairline and her eyes tracked Sway as he danced with a group of twenty-somethings, her head still bobbing to the groove.

  “I don't know why Sway gets such a bad rap, he's actually very sweet,” she remarked.

  “Don't let him hear you, he'll become impossible to live with,” Harrison countered dryly. “Well, more impossible, anyway.”

  Her eyes flicked to him and she smiled. He should have looked away. He shouldn't be looking for reasons to keep eye contact. He shouldn't be wishing she could read his mind and know what he was feeling while at the same time hoping she was feeling something similar.

  That's when she leaned across the table and rearranged his hair slightly. He stilled, taking a slow breath as he watched her face, the scent of vanilla going straight to his head.

  “There.” She sat back again. “A curl was misplaced.” She sucked the straw back into her mouth, her focus returning to the life around her. She drained her glass and set it back on the table. “I kinda wanna go back to the beach. I'm all sweaty now and a swim sounds very refreshing.”

  Harrison nodded and stood up. Having already paid their bill, they could leave whenever. And now was as good as time as any. He needed fresh air, or a cigarette, or a hard shot of wake-the-hell-up. Something to get his head back under control.

  Because Zelda was too much.

  She was making him crazy.

  Motioning to Sway, who said his goodbyes to his dance partners, Harrison led the trio out the front door.

  He had no idea how he was going to get distance from Zelda. Especially since he kept looking over his shoulder to make sure she was still there. Because if she hadn't been, he probably would have flipped out.

  Maybe it was too much sun, or just the buzz of being on the road and the thrill of the shows. Maybe she was putting something in those sandwiches.

  Because right now, it was really hard for him not to imagine her as his girlfriend. Just his. All his.

  Shit, his head was a mess.

  Sometimes when she looked at him, he thought he saw the same interest in her eyes. A hint of desire in her smile, a look that lingered. But
he was too nervous to be able to tell for sure.

  They reached their towels and Harrison took a moment to himself. Placing his hands on his hips, he stared at the sand and focused. Let's just have fun. Don't over-complicate things. Just be you and enjoy her being her.

  He let his eyes slide to where she was stripping out of her cover-up, putting that pink bikini in plain view again.

  “I'm going swimming,” Sway announced.

  Zelda picked up her camera and focused on Sway as he stripped out of his shirt and started to wander towards the water. Not to be left out, Harrison did likewise. He thought he saw Zelda stare a little longer at him, but when he chanced a grin at her, she was hiding behind her lens again—aiming towards the ocean waves.

  Taking a step closer to her, he tossed his shirt onto the pile of clothes, his arm brushing against hers. She set her camera back in its bag and tucked it under the pile, one eye to Kendra's assistant who nodded in understanding.

  “Guys!” Sway called, pulling his hair into a man-bun at the back of his head. “This is Lara,” he motioned to the bikini-clad redhead with him. “She has agreed to be my partner in a chicken fight.” The young woman's face was already flushed red and Harrison figured it hadn't taken much persuading to get her to agree.

  Harrison held in the sigh that wanted to escape. His friend's overt attempts to make him take some sort of action with Zelda were becoming more transparent. Yeah, he wanted her attention, but he didn't want it to be forced. He was about to decline the idea when Zelda grabbed hold of his arm in excitement.

  “I've never done that before!” she declared, green eyes wide and bright.

  He realized he was well and truly screwed because there was absolutely no way to deny her when she was looking up at him like that.

  Harrison closed his eyes in acquiescence and Zelda let out a small squeal with a hop. Sway's cheeky grin was all the confirmation he needed to know that this had definitely been arranged on purpose.

  They trekked to the water, Zelda linking arms with the redhead and pulling her into her happy babble. While Sway might not have any intention of maintaining contact with his beach partner, Zelda was probably already promising to send her sandwich recipes.

  “All's fair,” Sway started as they fell into step.

  “But what are you trying to wage here, Sway? War?” Harrison asked in a low voice, not wanting the girls to hear.

  “Only because you're so determined to put up a struggle,” Sway responded in kind.

  ***

  Sway explained the rules. No hitting, only pushing, First person to fall, loses. Zelda's heart was racing as she tread water. She grinned at her opponent, Lara. Lara smiled back. A gorgeous girl with bright red hair and freckles to match.

  “You ready, Zeldy?” Harrison's question brought her head round to face him and her pulse, which she thought was already at max capacity, kicked it up another notch.

  She nodded mutely, her heart lodged somewhere in her throat. It wasn't the game that had her so flustered. It was that she was barely dressed and she'd be very nearly wrapped around Harrison's broad shoulders.

  He dunked down below the water and came up in between her legs, grasping her thighs firmly as he stood. She lightly clutched his soaked hair and automatically pushed it back out of his eyes.

  “Thank you for that,” he said appreciatively.

  Sway had done likewise with his partner and Zelda saw him place a kiss tenderly on Lara's inner thigh. Lara's face flushed red and Zelda could hardly blame her.

  Harrison's strong hands slid back and forth slowly along her thighs, the callouses from his guitar-playing fingers dragging roughly on her soft skin. Zelda lost herself momentarily in the sensation, her eyes losing focus on the water in front of her.

  “Ready?” Sway asked, breaking into her reverie. She looked up and Sway had a half-smile on his face, as if he could read her mind. She only nodded.

  Harrison and Sway moved into position and Zelda thought no more of Harrison's strong hands on her legs. Instead she realized what a ridiculous notion it was for her to think she could win at something that required balance. She pushed and grappled the best she could, but within seconds she had been flung into the water.

  Harrison lifted her up by her armpits as she sputtered the water out of her face. He smoothed the droplets out of her eyes and grinned. “That was fast.”

  She pushed her hands down onto his rounded shoulders. “I wanna try again.”

  He obliged and tucked under her frame and the duo sparred again. And again, and again, and again. Zelda lost each round. Thankfully she found it hilarious instead of wounding, and she laughed until her sides ached.

  The group splashed about in the water a bit more before Sway became preoccupied with Lara's lips and they drifted further away. Harrison tugged on Zelda's hand and led her back to shore.

  He tossed her a towel before getting one for himself. She dried her face and moved to her arms and body.

  “I think you might be part Wookiee,” Harrison remarked as he rotated his shoulder in a stretch. “Your legs are stronger than I thought.”

  Zelda cocked an eyebrow. “At least I didn't get the body hair.”

  Harrison's eyes slowly traveled up her bare legs to her to eyes. “No. You have very nice skin.”

  Zelda chuckled and dropped onto her chair, giving into her exhaustion under the warm sun. Why was swimming always the most taxing physical activity in the world? She could be on a shoot, walking, climbing, falling all day long and not end up as tired as she was after a short afternoon in the water.

  She rubbed her feet over the tops of each other, knocking the sand away. Stretching her arms above her head, she took a deep breath of salty air and let it out in a contented hum.

  Life on the road with a rock band could be done. Though she had no clue if it would be this amazing with a different band. She would like to think so. After this tour she'd be able to apply for similar situations. As long as she didn't screw this up, she could really take this opportunity far.

  She was vaguely aware of a body settling next to her. The hot sun, the exhaustion, the peace combined to lull her into slumber. The last thing she remembered being aware of was the soft touch of a calloused finger tracing the outer skin of her thigh.

  ***

  Harrison laced his fingers behind his head and tried to relax as well. He rubbed his forefinger against his thumb, feeling the water droplet he'd removed from Zelda's leg. He didn't need to do that, it had just... sort of happened. She'd closed her eyes and hummed low in her throat and he was lucky all he did was steal a droplet of water. Because he really wanted to kiss her. Badly.

  Sway and the redhead came out of the water and he nodded to Harrison before going off with the girl. He probably wouldn't see Sway until much later. That guy... it was like he really couldn't help himself.

  Harrison watched the other beach-goers as they played and laughed around him. He decided to let Zelda sleep for a little while before rounding them all up and getting back to the buses. They could shower and change and then go out again, depending on whether Sway came back soon. Looked like Lara was going to be a part of that night's plans as well.

  He was narrowing down their choices in his head when his phone buzzed from his pants pocket in the pile next to him.

  Kiley: I'll be in Omaha when you are. Let's make plans.

  Harrison glanced to his left at the still form of Zelda. He hadn't thought about Kiley all day. He'd thought a lot about Zelda, that was for sure.

  Harrison: Awesome.

  Kiley: Do you miss me?

  Harrison wasn't sure if he did or not. He hadn't thought about Kiley too much at all this week except for feeling guilty every time he ate a sandwich. He decided against telling her that, though.

  Harrison: You know I do.

  Chapter 7

  I'm Yours

  “Where in the actual hell, man?”

  Zelda paused, starring at her eyes in her hand-held mirror. Sway's answering
chuckle to Harrison's question was really all she needed to know. She resumed her application of eyeliner.

  They'd come back from the beach without one of their original companions. Harrison was obviously irritated, so Zelda chose to ignore it. He had suggested she shower and get ready to go out, saying that Sway would be back soon. The whole while he was texting on his phone.

  Zelda was refreshed, if not a little red from her nap in the sun, so she complied easily. Now, she was sitting cross-legged in her bunk applying her make-up. Without the bus' movement, even with the air conditioner running, eavesdropping was unavoidable—for the most part. It's not like Harrison was using a lowered voice. Maybe he'd forgotten that Zelda was just a few feet above him in the bunk area. Maybe he didn't care that she heard. Maybe he'd forgotten about her entirely.

  “What's your game, Sway? You think that if you force me to spend all day with her, we'll magically fall in love?”

  Zelda's chest compressed. That ruled out forgetting about her. Not to mention it hurt a whole freaking lot. She had assumed they were friends. Especially after the day they'd had. It had been fun, she thought he'd enjoyed himself. Guess she had been mistaken.

  “Geez, Harrison, what's gotten into you? Kiley give your balls another twist?” Sway retorted.

  Kiley?

  Zelda switched to her other eye.

  Harrison's reply must have been non-verbal in nature because Sway laughed.

  “Don't look at me like that. I can't imagine hanging out with Zelda could have been that awful.”

  Zelda wasn't close enough to tell if he was teasing or if his statement was sarcastic. Their conversation was making her uncomfortable.

  Picking up her mascara, she swept it over her lashes. She didn't need a lot, her lashes were naturally dark and helped her eyes stand out. When going out at night, she liked to amplify it a bit so as not to blend in with her surroundings. It was probably the photographer's instincts. She hated it when she would be trying to take pictures of women and their eyes were muted from a distance. She had made it part of her presentation to look like she was ready to be the subject as well as the engineer.