I Always Will

Official Debut

Author's note: You know how I love to write performance chapters! With all these various rockstars together at Christmas-time, I couldn't resist. Above is the song that Trace, Row, and Matt perform. At the end of the chapter I'll insert a cover that I think comes somewhat close to Row and Riley's performance, but really it's better if you imagine what The Civil Wars would sound like if they performed the song....

Riley, Christmas Afternoon

I take the three steps up onto the small beach stage and knock my cane on the elevated floor to call this motley crew of Skidmarcs, Soundcrush and families to attention. I switch on my MC's microphone.

"Attention! All the satisfied ladies—" a mix of women hoot and holler but I hear Marley and Marianne loudest among them, "...all the single Rockstars..."

"Represent!" a shirtless and perpetually divorced Jax rises, covered in tats with sunburn peaking through. I tip my cane to the toughest, hardest rocking bastard I know and continue,

"...Hippies..."

"Peace!" Leed yells from where he's unashamedly atop an unconcerned Ashlynn despite all their kids running around their beach blanket as if their parents making out in their midst is totally normal. "And love," Ashlynn giggles, thrusting a peace sign up as Leed rolls her over on top of him.

"...Hell-raisers..." Dom, Artie, and Mac leap up, yelling with arms raised. Dom snatches up a pregnant Mac and looks like he's going to toss her a good twelve feet to Artie, so I quickly say, "Best put that one down Dom, she's up the duff—" He grins, kisses her in congratulations while I continue,

"... Saints and Angels!"

Adam puts up a fist in self-proclamation as rises to reclaim his Hell-raiser from Dom's drunken, overly friendly grasp.  Dev hoists Alley onto his shoulders and shouts "This one!" while Bridge rolls her eyes and says "Not.Hardly." Trace holds a Frisbee disk over Kat's head and quickly tosses it away as she catches him at his proclamation of her halo, while Matt drags Marianne to her feet and pretends to bow down to her.

"Brawlers, Current and Reformed-" Dev and Bodie roar and feign a fistfight, with Alley still on Dev's shoulders until Street rises and shoves them apart, claiming the title, and his baby sister, for himself.

"...Bad-asses..." Trace rises and give the crowd his best chin tip. Row rolls her eyes and  leaps on his back. He catches her effortlessly and she taps her chest and  gives the crowd double birds. "We got ya bad-ass, squared!" as Trace yells, "That's right, Dee-Dee!" He used to call her Demon del Marco; over the years he's modified it to the less offensive (to me) Dee-Dee.

"...and Titans!" Matt rises with a solid head nod of acknowledgment and joins me on the stage and paces in board shorts with a Poseidon trident, a Santa hat, and his sharkwatch binoculars hanging from his neck. He claps me on the shoulder and steals my thunder, "Welcome to the First Annual Lanai Christmas Day Dueling Open Mic Challenge, sponsored by the best band in the wuuuuuuurrrrrrrlllllld! SKiiiiiidMaaaaaaarcs!"

Jax, Dom, and Artie all leap to the stage, hoot, holler SkidMarcs, and display their horns signs and their freakishly long tongues while all the Soundcrush guys rise up with down-turned thumbs and boos.

"Settle down, settle down, or we'll be here all night, and I haven't unwrapped my best Christmas present yet," I yell into the mic as I give Row an over-exaggerated leer. She shakes her head with an unusually demure smile, giving me hope that I might actually get some for Christmas, but that remains to be seen, as she's kept things chaste since I've been here.

But she's slowly getting used to the new lightness in my being. Last night, we went for a walk on the beach that ended in shared sleep for the night. This morning when I woke, she was propped up with head on hand, watching me sleep. "What you said, about being unburdened...I see it. There's peace in you, now."