Just a Positive Pregnancy Test - London Casey Page 0,66
with it,” I said with a grin. “Now listen to me, I showed you how to move between F and C nice and easy, right? That’s good. Now you need to remember what to do to transition to your A minor.”
“From the C chord it’s super easy. That damn F messes me up.”
“Well, if you get the strumming down right and figure out your sound, you can ditch the root F on the chord and just focus… here… watch… make it fluid…”
I strummed through the chords, Buddy watching me, nodding.
Then I put my guitar pick down. “You can do this too…”
I started to pluck the strings.
“Oh, yeah,” Buddy said. “I can do that.”
Buddy proceeded to do what I was doing.
We started to play together.
Buddy smiled.
I nodded to him.
“Sing it, man,” I called out.
“Oh, I’m not singing it to you,” he said. “This voice is for one person only.”
I stopped playing. “Well then what are we doing here?”
“What do you mean?” Buddy asked as he stopped playing too.
“You know what you’re doing,” I said.
“I’m far from good.”
“I didn’t say you were good. You know what you’re doing. You know the chords. You just need to keep practicing. I can teach you how to look songs up to play. I mean, we can talk theory and movement up and down the neck if you want. But you want to sing to the woman you love. You just need a few chords and some heart.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Buddy said.
Buddy looked away.
I put my guitar down and reached for his shoulder. “Hey. Look at me, Buddy.”
Buddy looked at me.
“It’s time to stand up and sing that song,” I said. “She’s waiting for you. Whether she realizes it or not. You’re just wasting time here with me right now. We can still jam out and I can teach you more. But it’s time, Buddy. You have to get out there and sing that song to her.”
“You’re right, Silas,” Buddy said. “Shit.”
“Shit,” I said.
Buddy stood up. “Okay. I’m going to do it. I’m going to pick the right time and place then do it.”
“I’ll be your rhythm guitarist,” I said.
“You will?”
“Of course I will, Buddy.”
He grinned. “She’s going to lose it. Think she’ll fall in love with me?”
“I think she’s going to wonder why you didn’t do it sooner,” I said. “Which means you two will have a lot of lost time to make up for. As long as you can handle it.”
Buddy laughed. “I don’t need any magic pills to get my stuff working. Trust me.”
“Okay, Buddy, lesson is over for today.”
Guitar talk and women talk was one thing.
But when it came to talking about old man erections, I called it a day.
Meet me at OUR house. Love you.
If Mila hadn’t slipped in that love you part of the text, I would have assumed she was mad at me.
I got Buddy out of the room at the inn and went to my truck.
Watching him walk down to the main office to see Charlie made me laugh. This old man in black jeans and a black t-shirt, carrying a guitar case. He looked like an old outlaw rock star. His hair was rich and black, all natural too, which was good for him. There was really no hiding his age, but with the whole all dressed in black routine with a guitar, whoever he was going to sing to… she was going to be impressed.
I shifted my mind to Mila and left the parking lot to go to the house.
At some point I had memorized all the roads throughout Gardner.
I thought back to the first few times I had to drive around. Always feeling lost. Driving slowly. Never knowing when a long road was going to end or when a side road was going to appear.
Now I just drove without thinking.
At least not thinking about the road and driving.
I was lost in thought about Mila. Picturing her and our baby in the house. So many memories to come. And there I was, thinking about it and looking forward to it.
That wasn’t like me at all.
The only reason my thoughts finally broke up was because I saw Crosby’s truck on the side of the road. Parked at a weird angle too.
I pulled up behind him and jumped out of my truck.
I walked to Crosby’s truck and looked into the bed. For a second I thought maybe he had a woman with him. Nothing quite like the romantic charm of pretty-boy Crosby, smelling like a ranch