“God, I’ve missed you. I didn’t expect how much I would. I didn’t expect to fall in love with you either, but I did. I love you, Joy,” he whispers.

Oh, Dylan.

He said the words. She chokes back a sob.

“It isn’t easy loving someone from a distance, which is why I owe you an apology. I tried to stop loving you. That’s why I produced Joyride. I thought if I worked on the project and got my words out into the open, that loving you without being with you wouldn’t hurt so bad. It didn’t work. It just made me love you more and myself less. I didn’t keep what happened between us on the road. I shared it with the world knowing you would hear the tracks. I should have asked you beforehand, or even mentioned something after, but I didn’t. And for that, I’m sorry. Forgive me?” His voice breaks over the last word.

“Yes,” she whispers. The salty moisture of tears itches her face. She roots in her purse for a tissue only to freeze when she hears his guitar. “I should have sung this to you years ago,” he says, launching into “Joyride,” not the fast-paced, upbeat version Trace the Outlines recorded. Dylan’s rendition is silky and haunting, the way he’d hummed the tune as he worked out the notes that night they slept under the stars. He sings the song the way it was meant to be sung. He sings of love unexpected and lives intertwined, of how she found a space in his heart. That she took him on a ride to a brighter place.

The song ends and Dylan whispers, “I love you, Joy.”

“I love you, too,” she whispers back. She’ll treasure the ten days she had with Dylan, but there isn’t anything left for her in Ludlow. Taking a deep, cleansing breath, she buckles her seat belt and reverses from her parking slot. But before she merges onto the highway, she stops. A sad smile curves her lips.

Rooting through her purse, Joy gets out the Joyride CD. She inserts the disc and dials up the volume. Trace’s voice fills the car and her smile broadens. Turning west, Joy merges onto the highway, back to the California coast, and chases the sunset.

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 33

NOW

Joy

JFK

A strange phenomenon occurs when the body is in peril, when the brain continues to function as other parts freeze up or fail. A person’s life flashes before her eyes. The events don’t always play back chronologically, but they are the more emotional moments experienced during a lifetime. These memory markers play in review in full color and explicit detail, and they elicit every emotion that was previously experienced in real time. It feels like an eternity when it happens but, in actuality, is over and done with in a matter of seconds.