From The First Verse - M. Robinson Page 0,49

her, touching her, craving to be near her. I had no control over my actions when I was with or around her. Always wanting to hold her in any way I could. I went from seeing her as nothing but a child to this woman I couldn’t get enough of.

My crass, blunt, and abrasive personality came out full force with her. Along with this possessiveness that awakened at the mere sight of her. There was no keeping her at arm’s length. The more I was with her, the more I wanted to be with her.

Journey Pierce silenced the demons in the same way liquor and drugs had done for me all these years. I was at a point in my life where I thought I’d seen and experienced everything. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Never did I think our lives would cross paths again.

However, there she was, and I didn’t want to let her go.

“I keep a close watch on this heart that I call mine,” I sang Johnny Cash to her. “I keep my eyes all wide open from time to time. I keep these ends out for this tie that could bind. ’Cuz you're mine, I walk any line.”

Her eyes beamed, slow dancing with me.

“I find it very, very easy to be true to you. I find myself alone at night when each day is through. ’Cuz yes, Journey Pierce, I'll admit to you... that I'm the biggest fool for you.”

She stared deep into my eyes, getting caught in the moment with me. Knowing as soon as one of us opened our mouths to say something, anything, other than what I was singing to her, we would lose this place and time.

Where we were both lost in the past of what always brought us together.

Music.

“’Cuz you're mine, I walk any line.”

“You are such a cheater.”

“Did it work?”

“What do you think?”

“I think you’re gonna look fuckin’ gorgeous in that dress.”

“I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll be right here.”

Shaking her head and giggling in the way that made my cock twitch, she turned and left.

“That was so sweet,” Jude observed. “I think I just threw up in my mouth.”

“Fuck, I forgot you were there.”

“It’s good to see you like this, Cash. She brings out a side to you none of us knew was there.”

“Yeah, I guess she does. She always has.”

“When are you going to fuck her?’

I glared at him.

“What?” He put his hands up in the air. “I’m just asking so I make sure I’m not here. Dude, she looks like a screamer.”

“Jude, what the fuc—”

A phone ringing broke my train of thought, the ringtone “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

“I think it’s your girl’s.”

I followed the sound, finding her cell phone face down on the couch we’d been sitting on.

For the second time in my life, everything that followed proceeded in slow motion, though at the same time it all happened so damn fast.

I turned over her phone and was immediately knocked on my ass. Never expecting the familiar piercing eyes gazing back at me. It was as if I was staring into the mirror.

The baby girl who haunted my dreams when I was awake or asleep was calling her aunt.

I didn’t think about Harley.

I didn’t think about Jackson.

I didn’t think about Journey.

All I thought about...

Was the biggest demon on my shoulders.

And her name started and ended with,

Bailey Pierce.

Chapter 23

“I didn’t change, I just found myself.”

-Bob Marley

<>Cash<>

Then: Almost Twenty-one-years-old

Home sweet fuckin’ home.

At least for the time being. I walked into my piece of shit run down studio apartment which was above the hole in the wall bar I played at. The owner, Margot, and I had an agreement. I could crash for free as long as I played at the bar a few times a week for the after-hours crowd.

I didn’t mind. Sleep wasn’t something I needed very much of. Since I left Oak Island, I’d been living on the road. Jumping from state to state and city to city. Never staying in one place too long. I went where the music led me. Often passing out or living out of my truck ’cuz it steered me down nothing. It beat sleeping at a shelter.

Sometimes I had enough money to rent a motel for a couple of nights. Yet, those times were few and far between. I was the definition of a starving musician, waiting for my big break. Almost three years later and I had no such thing. Mostly performing at bars similar to the one I was