Chapter Forty-Seven
Ashland
I saw them on the beach. Linc and Simone. Karen and Ramon. Diesel. But I ignored them. Got back on my board and went out for another wave. I didn’t want to come in. Not yet. I wasn’t ready.
I exited a tube just before it collapsed, pumped the remnants part way in and dropped back into the water. Dipping my head into an incoming wave to get my hair out of the way, I was just about to go back out when I heard him calling.
“Yo, asshole.”
Diesel.
Fuck.
“Yeah?” Throwing my arms around my board, I lifted my gaze to him.
“She’ll be here soon.” His dark eyes sparkled with unexpected excitement. “If you don’t come in now you’ll miss her again.”
“Yeah, I know,” I admitted. “I just needed a little time out here to get my head right.”
Fanny had been on her way to the coffeehouse. She’d missed us because she had gotten stuck in traffic and because we’d had to leave shortly after performing the song due to city ordinances and the growing crowd of fans. We’d been in the Woodie Wagon halfway into a two-and-a-half-hour return trip to OB when Karen had called to relay the information.
I swung my board around turning the nose to the shore.
“Alright.” My thoughts continued to churn. She was coming. And I wasn’t planning on letting her leave ever again.
I turned to regard Diesel. He was kicking in beside me. The waves weren’t propelling us fast enough. “She’ll go to the penthouse first.” I was thinking out loud.
“Yeah, so.”
“So she’s everything, Diesel. I know you don’t believe in love. But she’s it for me. The real deal.”
“I believe in it. Theoretically. For other people.”
“Love is the most powerful compelling wave you’ve ever seen.” I needed to explain this to him in terms he could understand. “It’s knowing even as you take that wave that you’ll never completely master it. It’s using all the skill and life experience you have, but it’s also letting go because you know there’s no other choice for you and no better ride to bring you home to the perfect shore.”
He gave me a wide eyed blank look in response to my explanation.
I sighed, maybe there wasn’t ever going to be any hope for him. “Well, the coffeehouse thing got flubbed. I want this time to be right.” My feet hit the sand. I tucked my board under my arm and jogged to join the others to tell them what I had in mind. Karen got on the phone again to see how far away Fanny was, and how much time we had so I’d know if my new idea was feasible.
“She’s on the Five,” Karen informed us. “Turning off at the Seaworld exit. Thirty minutes tops before she’s here.”
“Ok, everyone. To the Deck Bar. We need to get all the battery-operated blinking candle things Doug has. Karen,” I pointed at my eyes then spun my two fingers around to direct them at hers. “You gotta stall for time while we set things up. Call her again. Tell her to go to the penthouse. Make sure she does. Make sure she gets up on the roof.”
She nodded her agreement, then we all sprang into motion.
~ ~ ~
Fanny
“Can’t you go any faster?” I asked the driver.
“I could, Miss, if there weren’t a bunch of cars in front of me.”
“Alright,” I puffed out an impatient breath and drummed on my legs.
Settle down, I told myself. Stop the drumming. I’d be there shortly. He knew I was coming. After that song, I knew how he felt. We would be together soon.
Shortly felt too long. And soon did not take into account how long I had been in the backseat of this car. From before noon to now with the sun on its way down.
I popped my door open the moment the driver parked. I thanked him and jumped over the curb onto the sidewalk. My yoga pants stretching well with my rapid strides, my Chloés were a purple blur of motion over the concrete. Luckily, there was plenty of light around the building, and I knew my way to the door.
With my Lakers cap, my knight’s favor, crowning my head, I punched in the code for the elevator Karen had provided. No security guard now to check in with, I was going straight up. When I reached the floor and got to the door, I stopped. I didn’t have a key. I knocked, tapping my foot impatiently.
“C’mon, Ash.” I couldn’t wait to see his face, to throw my arms around him. The door popped open just as I was about to draw my cell out of my pocket.
“Karen,” I said my disappointment evident. She looked windblown, stray strands of blonde snarled around her head. “You ok? Where’s Ash?”
“I’m fine. Just a little out of breath. I was outside. A little errand.”
I touched her arm. “Where is he? Wherever that is, that’s where I want to be.” She cast her gaze upward. “Is he up on the roof?”
“Well,” she hesitated. “Let me show you.”
“No, that’s ok. I know the way. Why don’t you get a drink of water? Sit down. Take it easy.”
“Sure.” She smiled. “I’ll do that.”
“Good.” I turned for the stairs.
“Good to have you back, Fanny.”
“Good to be back!” I yelled over my shoulder before taking the stairs two at a time. Up at the top, I shoved open the door and burst through the opening. A quick glance around left me confused. No one was there.
What’s going on? I wondered as my cell rang. I drew it from my pocket. It was a number I didn’t recognize.
Him?
I answered. “Hello.”
“Fanny.” His deep voice made my heart flutter.
“Ash,” I returned, suddenly breathless as if I’d sprinted the stairs all over again.
“You on the roof?” he queried.
“Yeah. Where are you? What’s going on?”
“Go to the half-wall, baby and look out.”
I did, and I saw. Lights floating on the water, surfers bobbing and holding them up in the air. The little flickering ones that had been all over his bedroom the night he had made love to me. On the shore they were arranged in a line, an arrow on the end. It pointed to a circle where he stood. “You called it, gypsy rose. You knew. The penthouse might be a sanctuary, but it’s a lonely place to be without someone to share it with. Come on down, let’s start living our life right now together.”
I did. I practically flew. The living room was empty on my return trip through it. The public parking lot was full. I skirted through the cars. I rushed down the steps to the beach. Karen and Ramon. Simone and Linc. They were all there. A little puff ball, too. Simone’s dog Chulo bounded around everyone on the sand. A blinking light was attached to his collar. They were my reception line at the shore. I received pats on the back as I slowed to walk to Ash. Inside the circle of light, the breeze tossed his platinum hair around his handsome face. His smile as I stepped into the circle with him nearly blinded me. He opened his arms, and I launched myself into them, knocking him back some with my momentum. His strong arms banding around me, he swung me around in a circle.
“Namaste,” he told me as I slid down his body, my curves conforming to his compelling strength. “Honor, light, love, truth, beauty and peace are within you, Fanny. I see them because they are also within me, and I share them with you. In sharing them I complete the circle the way you complete me. We are united. We are one.”
“Namaste,” I returned. “I missed you.” I brought my hands up to his face and framed it.
“You decided?” His eyes searched mine while his friends, our friends, watched us.
“It wasn’t a decision. You plus nothing else was all I ever needed.”
“I feel the same. You turned my regrets into peace, my missteps into certainties. You gave me a second chance, a new start when you filled my lonely tower with your light. And now that spark has spread to our friends. Look around. You’ve set the beach and the whole ocean on fire.”
“Where thou art, there is the world itself.” My gaze traveled over his beloved face. I smiled feeling like my mom was there giving us her blessing as I quoted Shakespeare. “You sure you won’t get bored with just me?”
“Impossible, gypsy rose. I have at least a million fantasies involving you to fulfill.”
“I have some with you, too,” I admitted.
“Right, so we’ll take turns fulfilling them to be fair. After we work our way through the back catalog we’ll start working on some new ones. I calculate that we’ll be through…right about ‘never’.” His expression reverent, his eyes were no longer dark anymore. They glittered with hope like the beach all around us. “It’s just you, Fanny.” He lowered his head. “I only want you.” Oceanside eyes of blue filled my vision. “I only love you.” I closed my eyes as his warm lips touched mine, and I received his perfect kiss again.
The first one he gave me made me his.
This one made him mine.