33 Lady Stardust #2
“ Dash ... ” I groan, my stomach twisting with dread. “We both know your dad isn’t gonna wait forever, so please get it over with and tell me when you have to go back.”
“See, that’s the thing.” His crooked grin turns into a full-blown smile. “I don’t.”
“I . . . I don’t understand.”
“Because you aren’t the only badass in your family.” Dash laughs. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you’re related to the Lola Stone. Her piece on the underground punk scene is literally the reason I started listening.”
“That’s great, but what does G-Lo have to do with a promise you made your dad?”
“Do you remember telling me she was running a background check on me?”
A light goes off in my head, and G-Lo’s cryptic comment about Dash’s parents comes back to me. “Yeah.”
“As it turns out, she knows my mom from way back in their early journalist days. And apparently, your grandma has some juicy dirt on my parents. She wouldn’t tell me what, but whatever it is, Dad doesn’t want it out there.”
My jaw drops. “G-Lo blackmailed your dad?”
“Yup. Like I said, your grandma’s badass.”
“She really is.” I laugh. “She must have something really good if she got your dad to let you out of that promise.”
“Without a doubt.” He shudders. “Remind me to never end up on her bad side.”
“You and me both.” I gaze out at the blue Pacific, remembering all the moments that brought me here. “You know, I’ve learned a lot about G-Lo on this trip. And a lot about my mom. But mostly, I’ve learned a lot about myself.”
He pulls our joined hands into his lap. “Oh yeah? What have you learned?”
“I used to think Mom and I were just alike. Before she got sick, I was fully prepared to go to college, get married, find a nice stable job and a minivan.”
“Really?” Dash cringes. “A minivan?”
I smack his shoulder and giggle. “Shut up and let me finish. I might look like my mom, and maybe I am like her in some ways, but there’s way more of my grandma in me than I ever realized.”
Dash strokes his thumb across my knuckles. “Are you saying I need to stay on your good side, too?”
“I’m saying, I jumped off a freaking train trestle! Me! And I outran a New York City cop, and snuck backstage at a concert, and waded through Buckingham Fountain.”
Dash’s eyebrows jump up at the last one. “Seriously?”
As I nod, I’m struck with a sudden WWGLD moment.
What would G-Lo do? She certainly wouldn’t wait for a guy to make the first move.
I inch closer to him on the bench. “I’ve done a lot of thrill seeking on this trip.
I even risked my life a time or two. But the biggest thrill I’ve had since leaving home was meeting you. ”
“Zoey, I—”
Without giving him a chance to finish his thought, or me a chance to chicken out, I grab both sides of his face and kiss him.
The moment our lips touch, electricity crackles between us, and I know.
This is where I’m meant to be. As soon as the shock wears off, Dash pulls my hands from his face, slides them around his neck, and we melt into each other.
God, I’ve missed this.
A chorus of loud whoops interrupt our moment, and we both turn toward the source.
“You go, girl!” Daisy screams from the park entrance.
“Friends of yours?” Dash rests his forehead on my shoulder as he catches his breath.
“Just some girls I know.” I wave at Daisy and the other Golden Girls as they wander down the pier toward their next adventure. Then I turn my focus back to Dash and his swollen lips. “So you know, I’d like to do a lot more of this as soon as I get some sleep.”
Dash’s slow smile sets my skin on fire. “Sleep is highly overrated.”
With my back pressed to Dash’s chest and his arms wrapped tightly around my middle, we sit on the beach waiting for the sun to sink into the ocean.
He rests his chin on the top of my head. “A deep cerulean blue.”
“The sky? The water? My eyes?”
“And sunny yellow.” His lips brush my ear, sending shivers through me. “With swirls of emerald green.”
I crane my neck, trying to catch a glimpse of his face over my shoulder. “What are you talking about?”
“The answer to your crayon question.” Dash leans around and peers into my eyes. “Blue like the sky on a clear summer day, because it represents peace and tranquility in my life. Yellow because it’s happy and fun, like sunny days and baby ducks.”
“Baby ducks, huh?”
He chuckles.
“And green?”
“Green signifies life, and growth, and vitality. And hope for the future.”
“I like that.”
He rests his cheek against mine, letting out a satisfied hum. “So you really waded into Buckingham Fountain to get a picture?”
“Sure did.”
“You do realize there’s a security system around the perimeter?”
“It’s not like I robbed a bank.”
He hugs me tighter. “So badass.”
“I know.” I beam. “I’m so much more like G-Lo than I ever imagined. And you know what? I’m totally fine with that. My grandma is a national treasure. But if I start dyeing my hair red and smoking Camels, you have my permission to kill me and bury me in the desert.”
“Deal.” Dash rests his chin on top of my head again and blows out a breath. “So I was thinking.”
“Dirty thoughts?”
He snorts a laugh. “Maybe later.”
“Too bad.”
“Pay attention.” He nips my ear. “Santa Monica wasn’t the last stop on the Ziggy Stardust tour.”
“It wasn’t?”
“Nope. That was only the halfway point. From here they went to San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Phoenix ...” He kisses a path down my neck as he rattles off the rest of the cities.
“And once they were done in North America, they went back to the UK, ultimately finishing the tour in London in ’73. ”
I spin around in his arms. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“If you think I’m saying we should see this thing all the way through, then yeah. I think we should finish what we started.”
“I don’t have anything else planned for the rest of my life.”
Dash pushes my hair away from my face and kisses me. “You do now.”