It was a long, long flight from the South Pacific to Alaska; we stopped to refuel in Hawaii, and spent a day there shopping, as incognito as we could be.
Finally, after almost two days of travel, we were on the ferry from the Ketchikan airport. I was wearing my ball cap pulled low and mirrored aviators despite the overcast day, and Lexie was, well, just Lexie. Ultra mini denim skirt with scarlet fishnet stockings and knee-high black leather shitkicker boots, a loose, flowy silk blouse with no sleeves and a wildly plunging neckline showing the entire inner swell of her cleavage, bold smoky eye makeup, and her hair done in stiff spikes every which way, the tips temporarily dyed bright pink.
She was feeling herself, she claimed. Whatever that meant, I wasn’t sure, but I did know that she seemed looser, more relaxed, and more comfortable with herself. I also knew she looked hot as fuck, and despite having spent the whole past month screwing until our privates ached, I still wanted to bend her over the railing and fuck her through the fishnets, under which I knew for a fact she wasn’t wearing anything. Probably to tempt me to do exactly what I was considering.
“Down boy,” Lexie murmured.
I chuckled. “How’d you know what I was thinking?” She glanced pointedly downward, and I realized I’d sprung a half-stiffie, tenting the front of my jeans. “Oh. Well, shit, woman, you can’t blame me, when you’re wearin’ that.”
“Excuse me?” A little girl’s voice. I turned my body away and glanced down at the owner of the voice—a little girl of eight or so, with an eager but shy smile, and a CD copy of my very first album. “Are you Myles and Lexie?”
I grinned, and knelt to be level with her. “Sure are, darlin’.”
Lexie knelt with me, keeping her knees pressed tight together and balancing precariously on her heeled boots. “Hi, sweetheart. Are you a fan of Myles?”
She held up the album. “Uh-huh. Big time. And you, too.” She pointed back at her mom and dad and brother, watching from a distance, smiling. “We’re on vacation, and this was in my backpack by accident, and then I saw you guys and I was hoping you could both sign it for me.”
I pulled the fat black Sharpie I always carried in my back pocket, handed it to Lexie. “You first, babe.”
Lexie signed carefully, hesitantly, as if she wasn’t quite sure she was supposed to be signing an autograph. “Here.” She pulled it back. “Wait, what’s your name?”
The girl’s grin was ecstatic. “Alexandra.”
Lexie laughed, a bright happy sound. “No way! Mine too!”
“Really? I thought your name was just Lexie.”
“Nope, Lexie is short for Alexandra.” Lex added the girl’s name, and an inscription: From one Alexandra to another. Follow your dreams!
“Can I tell everyone to call me Lexie, too?”
Lex laughed. “You sure can. I mean, I think it’s a pretty cool name.”
Alexandra turned to me, her eyes big. “I’ve listened to this CD so many times it has scratches on it and my mom says she’s sick of it which she didn’t think was possible because it’s so good.”
“You know, I think I have something very, very special I’d like to give you.” I grabbed my duffel bag and dug inside, found what I was looking for and showed it to her. “This is something no one on the whole planet has ever seen or heard, because this CD is one of only three ever printed. It’s all the songs Lexie and I have ever sung together, all in one place.” I opened it, wrote her name on the inside of the liner, and then signed it. Closed it, gave it to her. “That, my dear, is going to be worth a lot of money someday, because we’re not making it publicly available, like ever.”
Alexandra’s eyes were wider than ever. “Really?”
I showed her the other two copies. “These three are it. I’m keeping one, Lexie’s keeping the other, and you have that one. That’s it. Forever and ever.”
She frowned. “You’re not making a CD together?”
“Oh, we will, and someday soon, I hope,” I said. “But that’s not a real CD, it’s just recordings of the different times we’ve performed together. It’s kind of like if you recorded yourself singing your favorite song on your mom and dad’s computer, and then made a CD out of it. And that’s why it’s so special.”
She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t seem to know whether to want to jump up and down out of sheer excitement, or to be overwhelmed. So she settled for clutching it to her chest. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” She looked at Lexie and then me. “Are you guys in love?”
Lexie was the first to answer. “We sure are.”
“Are you gonna get married?”
I met Lexie’s eyes. “Yeah, I do believe we will.”
Lexie’s turn to go wide-eyed. “We will?”
I reached into my duffel bag again, pulled out something I’d bought while we’d been on tour. I turned to Alexandra and showed it to her without letting Lexie see. “Wanna help me?”
Her eyes were so wide I thought they’d pop out. “Uh-huh.”
“When I get to one knee, you show it to her. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
“One…two…three.” I turned to face Lexie, fell one to knee, and Alexandra held up the opened ring box. “Marry me, Lex.”
Lexie shook her head, hands on her mouth. I heard awwws and sighs from the rest of the ferry, and knew this was being recorded and photographed. She nodded, eyes wet. “Yes, Myles. Yes. Of course, yes.”
“I know it’s soon and it’s crazy, but I love you and I know this is what I want for my life. You, always and only you, every day for the rest of my life. We can be engaged as long as you want. Just marry me.”
She laughed. “I already said yes, Myles.”
I took the ring and slid it on Lexie’s finger. Turned to
