Haunt Me (Heartbreaker Duet #2)

Los Angeles

epilogue one

Eden’s name pops on my phone’s screen. I pick it up and read her message :

Sending you a new set of lyrics I wrote. It’s for the Paris song.

I glance over them quickly. We are in my house in L.A., frantically preparing my next album. It’s sunny outside, and Eden’s skin is sun-kissed from surfing all morning. Skye is teaching her. I would like to punch him in his stupid face.

But she loves it. I surf too, most days, but I’m getting too busy with these songs in my head. They won’t give me a moment’s rest until they are recorded.

Man, you’re talented , I text Eden.

Why, thank you, she replies.

Hello? You’re supposed to say I’m talented back.

I hear a snort as Eden reads my text.

Well, I haven’t heard the music you’ve written today, have I? she types.

“Are you two texting while you’re sitting next to each other?” Jude sends a pencil flying at me and I duck before it gets me in the eye.

Eden and I start laughing hysterically, which is more the result of having been cooped up here, writing songs feverishly for days, and less because of Jude’s comment. I haven’t slept or eaten for two days now. Every single surface around me is covered in paper: music sheets or lyrics.

The five of us, Jude, Miki, Eden and me, plus Skye, have been here all week, trying to make sense of this new album that’s eating up my soul until I release it to the wild. The songs have taken a hold of me like a fever or a sickness. I wish they would leave Eden and me alone already, but since the songs won’t leave us alone, neither will the musicians.

“Miki, can you play something on the piano for me?”

I can barely move right now. Miki sits at the piano—Jude can’t play it.

“This one?” Miki shows me a music sheet he’s holding.

“It’s page one of ten,” I play. “I’ll start digging for the rest of it. I have numbered the pages, they’re on the couch. Or under it. ”

Suddenly, everyone is on their knees, helping me search. Jude and Miki bang their heads together as they scramble to collect the scattered music sheets and put them in order. Finally, the melody starts flowing from Miki’s fingers on the piano; it’s one of the six songs I composed this week. Everyone falls quiet, rendered speechless.

Yeah. They like it.

Eden squeezes my hand. She’s heard it already. I recorded the melody in my voice the minute it came to me, and I texted it to her. She told me she cried the first time she heard it, it was that good. It took me five hours to put all the notes down on paper. No wonder I’m so exhausted.

Totally worth it, of course.

“Now I get why you needed six weeks to compose this.” Skye’s voice is thick, full of tears. “God, you’re brilliant, Isaiah.”

“Composed that in a day,” I reply absently, burying my head in Eden’s neck. “Mmm, you smell good, baby.”

“Want us to leave you two alone?” Jude drawls.

“Please do.”

But they don’t. We’re not done yet for the day.

“It’s good, Isaiah,” Skye repeats. He’s been with me for all these years, always my most passionate cheerleader. And yet he has never sounded this impressed. “Really, really good. Got anything else for me?”

“Five more,” I reply.

“Five?!”

Skye never fails to be surprised by how quickly I can whip out these pieces. It’s no big deal to me now, my head is full of music. Melodies just come naturally to me and I don’t really think I should get any credit for it. It’s like I push a button and the music pours out. As simple as breathing.

But Skye is round-eyed and fully sincere in his praise every freaking time, which goes to say how much of a softie he is, tattoos, curls and all.

“What are you going to name it? Do you have any ideas?” Jude asks.

“Oh, I don’t have ideas. I know,” I reply, already half asleep on Eden’s shoulder.

“Already? We’ve barely got four songs completed,” Skye sounds scared now. I usually discuss these things with him alone first .

“It’s pretty obvious,” I say, lifting my shoulders in a silent apology to him. “The name has been staring me in the face since last March. Since six years ago, actually.”

“Oh, you don’t mean…” Jude says, looking between Eden and me.

“Yes, I do mean.”

I close my eyes in gratitude and disbelief at how my life has been turned around. I know there are hard times ahead, but there are also good times ahead. Beyond good. But now… Now is amazing. Now is heaven.

And that is, of course, the name of the album.

Paradise.