Lasting Lyric (27 page)

Authors: T.J. West

Tags: #Downtown Series Book 4

During the week of the exposed incident,
JINKS
filmed two music videos, did another show with
Ellen Degeneres,
and continued recording our new album. To top it all off, our third single,
Black Silk
, made it to #1 on the billboards. What started out as a crappy week, ended on a good note. Soon after, things stayed good, steady and moved right along. We even did a few daytime and nighttime shows in New York such as:
The View, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
,
Kelly and Michael
, and
Good Morning America
. We had the best time. Our life as a rock band couldn’t be more fulfilling. It’s everything we had ever dreamed about. The bad publicity was still publicity and boosted our exposure.

Instead of going to Wayne’s parents’ place for dinner on Sunday evenings, everyone started coming to mine and Wayne’s place - just until the media died down with me and Lyric. It was difficult to go anywhere without the paps following us. We wanted our families to stay out of it. Seeing Lyric surrounded by my family was awesome. They immediately opened their arms and hearts to her, which made me so proud. Even little Raquel loved her. Who wouldn’t? My woman rocks; she loves to play games, play barbies, read books. She’s a natural nurturer, and kid at heart - like me. One of these days I’d love to make her a mother. I’m not sure I am on the whole getting married part, but having a kid is definitely in the cards. I’ve hinted about having a kid with her, but as of right now she’s not ready. Neither am I, but that doesn’t mean I can’t think or wish about it. No doubt we’d make amazing, beautiful kids.

Once our time in New York was done, the California
JINKS
Tour began. Of course we started the tour in San Diego and moved up along the coast. One of the nights we stayed at a hotel in Huntington Beach. It was close enough to the beach that we could walk to it. Even though we had a late night, I wanted to see the sun rise with Lyric. So after she had fallen fast asleep, I quickly called room service, and asked them if they could help me out by getting some coffee, bagels and a few blankets to spread out on the beach in the morning. I wanted to surprise Lyric by doing something special, and to have it only between us. Bagels and coffee is our thing. It made perfect sense.

I don’t get to see the sunrise as often as I used to, so being able to witness the beauty with the woman I love is a perfect fix.

It’s still dark and foggy out when I open the bedroom curtains. Lyric is snuggled close to my side of the bed, naked in all her glory, and bed-head to follow.
So fucking gorgeous
.

Climbing back on the bed, I wipe the hair away from her face, then kiss the side of her temple to wake her up. “Up and at em, babe,” I whisper. She slightly stirs, but my kiss doesn’t do the trick. So I begin trailing my fingers and my lips along her tits, down to her pussy until she can no longer stay asleep. At first, this was about me wanting to wake her, now it’s about me wanting to get a taste of my favorite flavor. Damn, it’s like a new flavor each time I go in for the kill. She is sweet and salty - like a bite sized sea salt caramel morsel; smooth, creamy and satisfying.
Fucking yummy.
Sucking, licking and plunging my fingers inside her slick pussy, Lyric finally screams out my name, and wakes the hell up.
Good morning to me.

We make our way outside the hotel. It’s pretty cold out, so a good thing I brought another blanket with me. “Where are we going,” Lyric asks.

“You’ll see,” I smirk.

Leading her down toward the beach, we walk hand in hand to the street light. “The beach? Slim, we can’t be out here. The paparazzi.”

I lay an arm across her shoulders, and snuggle her closer to my side. “Fuck the paps. They already got us naked, what else do they want? I don’t think they’re up this early anyways.” It’s true. The paps tried everything to get us in that position again. To me, it doesn’t matter where we are, I’m not going to hide anymore. If I want to be out and about with my woman, I’m going to take her out. I want the world to see how much Lyric means to me. She’s my one and only happily ever after. No one can take that away from us. One day this whole crazy story will be a thing of the past and they won’t care about us anymore. I’m gonna give the paps a run for their money and not give a damn if we’re in the media or not. Life is too short for shit like that.

The closer we get to our spot, the blankets and food are more noticeable. No one is around yet, except a few surfers, waiting for the sun to rise so they can ride the waves. We both take off our shoes, and step onto the cool sand. Love how it feels between my toes. If I could, I’d be here every single day.

I retake her hand, then continue guiding her to our spot. Once we reach my surprise, Lyric gasps, “What is all this?”

“It’s called, having breakfast while we watch the sun rise. Nothin’ better.”

“Wow,” she whispers. I love the look on her face. It’s exactly what I wanted. She’s happy, and beautiful - even with bed-head, and without a stitch of makeup.

I guide her down onto the spread out blanket, then open the other one to keep her warm. “Here, let me wrap this around you.”

The wind is calm, yet the waves are beginning to pick up. Hearing them crash onto the shore is pretty soothing. After Lyric gets comfortable, I settle myself behind her; my legs rest on the outside of hers. She leans back against my chest and looks to her left. “Coffee, bagels…it’s our thing.” The joy and surprise in her voice is a beautiful thing.

“Sure is.” I reach over, and grab two big tumblers. “Big tumbler of hot coffee just for you.”

“This is so sweet, thank you.”

I give her a kiss on the side of her head. “The pleasure is all mine, Sunshine.”

We sit and enjoy our coffee, the waves, and the small start of the sunrise. It’s so relaxing. “I love when you call me Sunshine. It’s better than Charlie,” Lyric mentions.

She can’t fool me, I know she loves it, but I’ll play along anyways. Lightly tickling her belly, I chuckle, “We’re back to that, now are we? Just so you know, Charlie Brown is my favorite cartoon character. As a kid I thought he was the funniest shit when he said, “Good Grief” all the time. When I met you, and you said those two words I produced the biggest hard-on, you wouldn’t believe it.”

She laughs and turns her head around so she can see me. “You did not.”

“Hell yeah, I did. You and I…we were meant to be. To top it off, you’re
my favorite woman who deserves a man like me who loves his favorites. Sunshine, sunrises, music and you. Just the beginning of all the many things that are my favorites.” After my comment, she takes her hand, brings it up behind my head and forces me down to kiss her lips. I’ll fucking take those lips any time she wants. With a little tongue, I can taste the coffee that still lingers in her mouth. She tastes so damn good, I moan inside her mouth. I wouldn’t mind doing her right here, right now on this beach, but…yeah…ain’t gonna happen.

We sit in silence with our coffee, and begin to focus on the horizon. “So beautiful,” Lyric breathes out.

I couldn’t agree more. “It’s like the earth is reborn every day. Never gets old.” Taking another sip of my coffee, a memory about my brother pops inside my head. No one but me and Max knows about this. Lyric will be the first. “A month before Max died, he dragged my ass out of bed super early. At that time I hated mornings, but Max changed that for me the second I laid eyes on the sunrise. We went to the beach, and sat there in the dark until the sky was fully lit. We didn’t talk the entire time. I don’t know, but…I have to believe that Max knew he was going to pass away, and he wanted me to see this amazing beauty; like he was telling me that every day is a brand new day. Don’t miss out on the beauty. Ever since then, I have watched a different sunrise every day.”

Lyric laces our fingers together, kissing the top of my hand. “I want to see it with you every day, from now on. It’s turned into one of my favorite things too.”
Fuck.
If that didn’t just make my cock twitch.

Putting my tumbler down, I quickly adjust myself as I switch her from sitting on the blanket, to sitting on my lap. I bring my hands to her face, then wipe the wisps of hair flying around, and tell her, “Fucking love you so much, Charlie. You’re my best friend.”

She smiles that ever gorgeous smile. “And you’re mine.” And once again, I kiss the hell out of my woman. God, she makes me so fucking happy. “I love you, too,” she whispers against my lips. “Thank you for opening up my eyes to a brand new day. I never want to miss another one.” After one more, sexy kiss, the sunrise behind us assaults the entire ocean and sky with it’s array of morning light. It may not be a colored sky like a sunset, but nothing in this world can compare to this moment, this amazing picture.

Speaking of a picture, I grab hold of my phone, and take a selfie of us. A few actually. One of us kissing, one of us gazing in each other’s eyes, and one of us just smiling. And yep…you guessed it. I blasted those pictures on every damn social media site, because you know what? I want the world to see how much we love one another. She’s mine. I’m hers. We are it for each other.

As we continue watching the rest of the sky light up, we dig into our bagels, spread them with cream cheese and watch the surfers begin their morning wave riding. I always wished I could have learned to surf. Maybe someday I still can. Might be pretty awesome to try, just as long as I don’t look like a total dufus. You only live once, right?

We finish up with our breakfast and decide to head back to the hotel before anyone discovers we’ve disappeared. We have to drive up to Long Beach, and do a small meet and greet thing before we rehearse for tonight’s concert.

While packing everything up, my phone goes off. June texted the band in one group message stating…wait. Wait, the fuck off! “Holy fuck. No way!” I exclaim.

Lyric stands in front of me. “What’s wrong?”

“The Grammy’s! We - holy fuck!” I run a hand through my messed up hair, and excitedly shout out, “We got nominated for a fucking Grammy!”

Lyric takes my phone from me, and gets a look for herself. “Holy cow!” She covers her mouth and begins to laugh with elation.

Yanking her up into my arms, I spin us around, overjoyed and shocked. “We did it, babe. We actually fucking did it!”

Our time on the beach started out as a painted picture, and ended with a dream coming true.
JINKS
has worked so damn hard to be noticed for a Grammy. This epic dream has finally happened.

The song that I wrote will now be added to our new album. The guys loved it, which made me damn proud and honored. Took me years to write an entire song, and it was all because of Lyric.

Lasting Lyric

Written by Slim McQuaid Jr.

Sung and played by Lucky Jones and JINKS

Looking back, my eyes weren’t wide open, you were always there.

Shadowing me, guiding me, I still had no clue we would breathe the same air.

Tragic struck, the world around me was spinning, kneeling and saying a prayer

My life had no meaning, you were suddenly gone, the unfinished chapter was a scare.

Lasting notes, this is my life

Lasting memories, haunting my life

Lyric’s in my head, lasting day and night

Troubling, troubling, troubling me.

Troubling, troubling, self doubt in me.