Free My Lucky Days: A Novel by S.D. Hendrickson

The anxiety grabbed me. I hated to be late. It physically hurt my insides. “I have to go.”
    “I still want those notes,” Peyton said, but I couldn’t answer. I was already running down the sidewalk.
     

     
    I had been in bed for almost two hours when my phone rang. The grogginess was strong, but I had never fallen asleep. Seeing his name on the screen, I answered with a smile on my face. “Hey.”
    “You miss me yet?” His voice was deep and already familiar.
    “Yes. So much that I haven’t been able to get out of bed since I got your message this morning.”
    He chuckled. “That bad, huh?”
    “Yeah. I’m on a hunger strike until you return. Peyton brought in an IV.”
    He laughed again, which made me smile a little bigger. Lucky had a nice laugh.
    “I really am sorry that I couldn’t see you before I left, but there just wasn’t time before my flight.”
    “It’s okay,” I whispered. “I mean, you said it would be like this.”
    He didn’t answer immediately. “I like it when you’re sleepy. Your voice gets soft with this rough edge. Pretty sexy.”
    I couldn’t help but laugh even though I knew he was serious. I was laughing and feeling the sweet thrill in my chest at the same time. “So my voice does it for you when I sound like I have a five-pack-a-day habit?”
    “Yes. Goes along with my naked image of you.”
    I smiled. “I guess that means you’ve decided that I sleep in nothing while smoking until I fall asleep.”
    “Yes,” he whispered.
    I grinned. It was so easy to fall into this pattern with him. “What about you?”
    “You wanna know if I smoke?”
    “I guess. I assume the answer is no, but we don’t really know each other.”
    I heard him let out a deep breath that ended in a faint laugh. “Well, I don’t smoke. Not even when I drink. But I did try it once in the eighth grade. I heard my mama yelling for me to come in the house. I was trying to be sneaky out by the railroad tracks. I thought I dropped it on the ground. But it accidentally fell down in my backpack. And I carried it inside the house.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Yeah. Well, it caught on fire a few hours later while we were eating dinner. My mama thought something was burning in the oven, but it wasn’t on. By the time we figured it out, my backpack was destroyed along with my textbooks and a big hole in the carpet.”
    “Is that really true?” I smiled in the darkness.
    “It’s true. You can ask Colt. I was grounded from everything she could possibly ground me from. Including my guitar. I’ve never touched a cigarette since that day.”
    “I like that story,” I whispered.
    “I like talking to you,” he whispered back.
    He was so good at sliding in the simple words that felt so large when they touched me on the inside. My eyes closed. “I like talking to you too.”
    My head was spinning slightly from how fast this was progressing between us. I didn’t know him. Not really. And not well enough to be this attracted to him. And then suddenly my eyes shot open. “I have an idea.”
    “Sounds dangerous.” His voice got deep as he joked with me.
    “No, not exactly.” I laughed. “It’s a way for us to get to know each other while you’re on the road. We can ask a question every night that we talk. Switch off. One night you ask me, and then the next night I ask you. But whatever question the person asks, they also have to answer it.”
    “So anything goes? Past or present?”
    “Why not?”
    “Can it be dirty?”
    I shook my head, knowing I had stepped right into that one. “Fine. We can um . . . we can talk about how you don’t shower the entire time you’re gone. And you stink so bad that no one will talk to you after a show. Your sweaty pits are totally ruining your career.”
    “Shit.” He burst out laughing. “Well, it all makes sense now. I thought it would be good luck. Thank you, Katie, for setting me straight. I guess I better let you go so I can go buy boxers. I was planning