CHAPTER 10

Alex

We got Lily from the cafe later, and we all said goodbye to Elyse.Lily's girlfriend surprised Jake and me with hugs and kisses, and I had a feeling, which Jake probably shared, that something important had happened during Lily's visit with her.Elyse was glad to meet us before, but there was a different feeling from her now.I'm not as good with words as Jake, but if I had to describe it, I would say it felt like Elyse didn't just like us.She approved of us.

I was more sure of it when Elyse took Alex and me both by the hand and said, "You guys…thank you.Lily means the world to me, and it means the world to me that you've both taken such good care of her.You've made her feel safe and you've made her feel like she has a future, and I love you for that.Thank you, really.Just thank you."

The funniest fluttery feeling went through my heart when Elyse said that.Jake looked at her like something was melting inside him.These two girls had definitely had a really good talk while Alex and I walked around and got a bite to eat at the mall a few blocks away.Elyse stood outside the cafe, watching us leave, and it was like we had a new member of the family.

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On the train ride back to Haventon, Lily took off her glasses and scarf and talked, even more animated than she was on the ride to Dewsbury, about how good it was to see Elyse again and how she really felt like she was taking back her life — thanks to us.Listening to her, I had a feeling that I'd never had before, a feeling like I was a hero and I'd done the best thing in the world by being good to Lily and caring about her.

"You guys have done everything for me," she said."Put a roof over my head, helped me feel safe, helped me feel like I didn't have to dread every new day.You've made me feel like my life matters."She settled back in her seat, looking like she was glowing inside."And, of course, there's the sex."Her face lit up with a kind of playfulness that turned me on and must have had the same effect on Jake."All the sex," she said.

I looked over at Jake, who looked back at me, and I could tell we were both thinking the same thing.

"Well, yeah, there is that," I said.

"There's definitely that," Jake agreed.

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Later, we were all in bed together, and "all the sex" took our breath away.Afterward, Jake and I lay there with Lily between us.Jake had gone first on top of her and I'd just finished and pulled out.The three of us stared up at the ceiling as if we'd just come down from floating up there, which was pretty much the way it felt.Soon enough we would be ready to "hit the ceiling" again.

The silence was filled only by the sounds of our breathing, which Lily eventually broke by saying, "Guys, I have something else to tell you."

At the same time, we rolled our heads to look at her.

"What?" I asked.

Lily said, "When I was talking to Elyse, I decided something else about my life.Something important."

"Okay," said Jake."Tell us."

"Being with Mark was a mistake; we all know that.But it was twice as much of a mistake because to be with him, I let my music career go.When Mark and I started things, I didn't have much of a career anyway.It looked like things were going nowhere and they never would go anywhere.But being with Mark was part of my giving up.I felt hopeless and I gave in to it.I surrendered.And it was a mistake.I should have found it in me and kept going somehow."

"It's okay," Jake said, touching her on one arm."You'd hit a low point, Lily.It must have felt like you'd hit bottom."

"Well, I didn't know how far I could fall until I let Mark take over my life.Giving up and letting him take over was a mistake.It cost me two years that I could have spent trying to get my career going again.It ended up with me being with the two of you, and I'm grateful for that.But guys, that's two years of my life that I'll never get back.I can't lose any more time.I can't have any more years like I've had."

"And you won't," I said, giving her other arm a little squeeze.

"But see, there's still a problem," Lily said, sounding grim."I can go out there and start performing again.But if I do, Mark will be out there too.My name will be out there, and I'll be out there — and he'll take notice.I know he will.He must have been looking for any sign of me since I left.And I've been laying low up until now.If I come back up to the surface again, I know sooner or later I'll have to deal with him again and his anger, which will be worse now because I ran away.He'll see that as defiance and betrayal.And he'll be angrier than ever.And that's what I'll have to face if he finds me."

"And you know what that son of a bitch will have to face?" I said."Us."

"Both of us," said Jake.

I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.Jake kissed the other cheek.It was our reminder to her that whatever she wanted to do, we'd be there for her.

Lily said, "I can go to another city, or I can even leave the country, but the fact is that being a musician I have to face the public and the public has to know where to come and see me.Mark will always have a way to find me — unless I go into recording music for commercials, where it's anonymous.I've thought about that.I've taken it as an option.It's something I could do."

"Yeah, but is it something you want to do?" I asked."Is that where you really belong?"

"It would pay better than nightclubs and bars and weddings and all that," Lily said."Commercial work pays big.But it's not the most satisfying work for me.It's not where I'd make the best use of my talents or be the most creative and the work would always come second to whatever the product or the thing was.I'd be as much of a tool as a performer.But I'd make good money and be out of the public eye.It'd be a compromise."She sighed."Artists always seem to end up having to compromise on something."

Neither one of us was really sure what to tell her.I gave her a squeeze on the shoulder and Jake squeezed her arm, and we all just lay there with Lily considering her next move.

"And the other thing," she went on, "is that the three of us can't go on here forever."She said to Jake, "Your Uncle Robert will come home eventually, and he'll want his place to himself, without his nephew and his friend and the musician you're sleeping with taking up space.We're all going to have to make some decisions about what we'll do."

Jake said, "Whatever I decide to do, it's going to include you, Lily.What we've got here in this bed, it'll leave here with us.I don't want it to stop."He kissed the arm he was rubbing."The one thing I'm most sure about is whenever I'm inside you, I feel something I've never felt with anyone else in my life.I'll be damned if I'll give that up."

I kissed the shoulder that I squeezed, and said, "That goes for me too.Lily, this is the only time in my life that it's ever felt like more than just fucking.Nobody ever made me feel like this.Just you."

Jake said, "Wherever your work takes you, that's where I'm going.Where you go, I go and Alex too."

"Damn right," I agreed."And whatever it takes to help keep you safe, that's what I'm doing."I raised my hand."We're a team now.Am I right?"

"We're a team," said Jake.And he took my hand and held on.

Lily reached up and took our two clasped hands in hers."A team," she said, squeezing our hands.She looked back and forth between us."No one else in my whole life has ever done for me what you guys have done.I feel like no one else has ever cared about me the same way.You're the most special thing that I've ever had in my life.Yes, we are a team."

"Together for keeps," I said.

Jake smiled and said, "Two dragon guys and a pianist."

I chuckled at the way the word pianist sounded like something else.Pianist — it sounded sexy, especially between the three of us.I said, "A pianist, two dragon guys — and their penises."

Lily broke out laughing, a silly, crazy laugh that made Jake and me crack up along with her.The three of us lay there cracking up, and Lily gave us playful smacks on the thighs.And by that time, the things I'd been talking about that sounded like a pianist were getting as hard as the wood of Uncle Robert's piano.

She kissed us both.The next thing we knew, Jake had his face down between her thighs giving her an encore, while I played a tune on her breasts.The performance for tonight was only getting started.