Wednesday morning, Exhale was finding it completely impossible to listen to her Pharmacology teacher. Not that she normally found it easy to pay attention, but today the situation was entirely different. Because at that very moment, while she was squirming in her seat, every fiber within her screaming silently with excitement, Taylor was in the backseat of a cab tapping his fingers anxiously on his knee.

The closer the cab got to his house, the faster his fingers tapped. He knew Exhale wouldn’t be home when he got there, but that was the last thing on his mind. Just being in his house again and knowing that he was finally getting to see her after fifteen agonizingly long days without her was enough to make him smile. He stared out of the window as they wound through Tulsa, the voices of his brothers talking to each other a mere droning sound in his ears.

Finally, their house came into view and his stomach did a cartwheel with the knowledge that he was that much closer to her. Of course, he first had to stay at the house and talk with his family and reassure his mother at least four times that, yes, he and Exhale would be back to join them for dinner. But as soon as he could slip away, he made his way quickly across the property to his house, leaving his luggage with his parents to be picked up later. At that moment, all he was concerned with was being there when Exhale returned from class.

Professor Davis had barely finished dismissing them before Exhale threw her textbook and binder into her schoolbag and hurried from the room, tossing a quick smile and wave in Raine’s direction before practically running to her car. The entire drive to the Hanson house, Exhale had to watch her speed, her foot aching to press as hard as she could on the gas pedal and get her to him even quicker. But the last thing she needed was to worry about getting pulled over and being given a ticket. That would only make it that much longer before she got to see them.

When she pulled into the driveway, she suddenly wondered if he was even there yet. Knowing there was only one way to find out, she hurried up to the front door and placed her hand on the knob, hesitating before turning it. It was locked. She sighed, frustration plaguing her as she dug in her purse for her keys. Taylor never left the door locked when he was expecting her. After unlocking the door and pushing it open, unable to stop herself from being a little disappointed, she tossed her keys into the bowl beside the door. When she heard the jangling of her keys crashing into more keys, her eyes fell quickly to the bowl. His keys were there. No sooner had she lifted her eyes when she saw him, rounding the corner from the living room into the foyer and into her view.

“Hey, Haley,” he said softly, his mouth pulled up into a bright smile. Even from her standpoint across the room, Exhale could see the sparkle in his vivid eyes.

Without even being able to form a reply, she cleared the space between them and wrapped her arms around his neck, crushing her lips against his in greeting instead. Taylor immediately took hold of her hips, bringing her body as close as was physically possible as he returned her kiss hungrily. Every time they parted and reconnected, it was as if the piece of her that had left on a plane to France with Taylor two weeks ago returned to her, bit by bit, kiss by kiss, until she felt complete again. He slid his hands down to her rear, lifting her until she wrapped her legs around his waist, their lips never parting as he carried her to the bedroom.

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“Baby…” Exhale whispered, resting her chin on Taylor’s shoulder blade, her fingers dancing over his back which was sprinkled with sweat.

“Hmm?” he mumbled from beside her, stretched out on his stomach. He inched closed beneath her, loving the feel of their warm, bare skin touching.

“I’m so glad you’re home.” She turned her face and laid her cheek on his shoulder, sighing as she slid her arm over his back. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said gently. He turned over slowly so he wouldn’t jar her with quick movements and let her settle against his chest, pulling her closer to him and kissing her hair. “You know, I was supposed to sing you your song the second I got home…” Taylor reminded her, dusting his fingers over her stomach.

Memories of their first phone conversation after he’d left came back to her, seeming as though years had passed since then. “I know,” Exhale sighed, the hand that had been trailing over his back going instead up to his hair, sliding chunks of it between her fingers. “This just seemed more important at the time,” she laughed. “Baby, are you hungry? I bet you didn’t eat enough on the plane, and now…well, now you must be starving.”

“I am,” he said, closing his eyes and focusing on the feel of her fingers playing with his hair. “But I don’t want you to move.”

“I’ll go fix you something and come right back, promise,” she said, kissing his cheek and sliding out of the rumpled bed sheets. She located her underwear in the pile of discarded clothing on the floor and pulled them back on along with the olive green T-shirt Taylor had been wearing and made her way to the kitchen. She put together as much of a sandwich as she could for him, given she didn’t have many options. Taylor would rather eat out or at his parents’ house than cook, so he hardly ever had the makings of a meal in his house. But she did manage to locate enough bread, sliced turkey breast, and mustard to make a sandwich he’d eat to tide him over until dinnertime with the family.

As she made her way back to the bedroom, the sandwich and a glass of iced tea in her hands for Taylor, she wondered if his parents knew what had gone on in the hour and a half since their son had headed home. Suddenly, she wasn’t so eager for dinner with Walker and Diana…

“Baby, I made you a sandwich…” she said softly as she entered the bedroom, but stopped in the doorway when she heard his soft sighs filling the room. Just that quickly, he had fallen completely asleep, a talent that was definitively Taylor. If it ever took more than five minutes for him to be knocked out, something was wrong. Exhale smiled, setting the sandwich and tea down long enough to pull the covers up around him and kiss the top of his head before scurrying from the room to let him sleep, his unwanted makeshift meal in hand. She settled onto the sofa in the living room, curling up and turning on the television as she bit into the sandwich. It was great to have him home.

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It was nearing ten o’clock when Taylor and Exhale finally returned to the house following dinner. After the meal, which consisted of two enormous pans of lasagna that Diana had prepared along with peas and delicious garlic bread, the entire family had spread out around the living room while Isaac, Taylor, and Zac talked about what had gone on in the past two weeks and the rest of the family filled them in on everything that had happened in their absence. Exhale wasn’t sure if she had ever laughed so much in her life. It was always a good time when the Hanson family got together.

“Okay, after all these distractions, I’m dying to hear my song,” she said after he’d locked the door behind them. Exhale took hold of his hands and dragged him to the living room and over to the piano in the corner.

Taylor laughed and shook his head as he fell onto the piano bench. “You’re too much sometimes, Hales.”

Laughing as she sat beside him on the bench, she said, “Yeah, I know. Now play.”

Shifting around until he was comfortable, Taylor rested his fingers on the keys and paused while he got ready to be serious. His heart was thumping a little faster than normal, worried that she wouldn’t like it as much as he wanted her to. Then he began playing, his fingers moving quickly over the keys. It wasn’t until he began singing that he opened his eyes, glancing at her every now and then as the words poured out of his mouth, smooth and silky. “Liquid…melancholy dreams…won’t you tell me what it means…cause you drive me crazy…” At that last line, Exhale’s face broke out into a grin that matched his, remembering the day they had packed and he had said that exact same phrase. His voice sounded so pure, so emotional, that Exhale wasn’t sure how she got through listening to him sing so passionately without tears coming to her eyes. When the last, “…cause you’re crazy beautiful…” had escaped his lips, he tinkered his fingers over the keys for a few seconds before turning to her, straddling the bench just as she was, a look of expectation on his face. “Well…?” he asked cautiously. “What’d you think?”

The grin on her face told him everything he needed to know. She took his face in her hands and kissed him tenderly before saying, “Baby, it was amazing. I love it.”

“You’ll love it even better when I tell you this…” he said with a mischievous smile of his own.

“Really? What is it?”

“I know you like fast songs better than slow ones…” he replied. And it was true. Of all the songs she had been the inspiration for on the This Time Around album, If Only and Runaway Run were more her favorites than others that had been written around that time like Never Let Go. Though she loved and appreciated the beauty in the ballads, there was something about a fast love song that had always been her music of choice. “So we’re going to do another version,” Taylor continued, rubbing his hands up and down her thighs as he spoke. “We came up with all kinds of ideas for it, getting some horns and stuff in it, making it faster…that’s what we’re gonna start working on first over at Ike’s this week. I think you’ll like it even better than this version.”

“Aw, Taylor, you’re doing all that for me?” she asked, the tears that hadn’t appeared earlier prickling her eyes now.

“Well, if it’s gonna be your song, it should be the kind you like,” Taylor said, leaning forward and pecking her lips just barely, just enough to tease her. “And then you can listen to both versions, and I want you to decide which should go on the album. I want this to be all about you, what you want.”

“You are truly amazing,” she said, tucking his hair behind his ear. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said, putting his hands on the small of her back and pulling her closer. She took advantage of their closeness, resting her head on his shoulder and turning her face into his neck. “I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have you to write songs about.”

“You got along just fine before you knew me,” she laughed.

Her warm breath on his neck made goosebumps pop up over his arms. “I know, but it’s so much better now, being able to think about you and just write…” As he continued speaking, he began trailing kisses down her neck and over her shoulder, exposed by the orange wifebeater style shirt she was wearing. “Sometimes I don’t even end up writing anything about you, but just thinking of you makes me feel so much more creative and compelled to get something down on paper. I don’t know if I ever thank you for that…for being such an amazing inspiration.”

“Taylor, I have the feeling you’re just trying to seduce me again,” she said, lifting her head and looking into his sparkling eyes with an amused smile.

“Maybe I am,” he whispered, brushing her hair from her face and kissing her again.

“Too bad I’m so tired then,” she said, rising to her feet and starting off towards the bedroom at the back of the house.

He let her get a little ways down the hall before he hurried after her. He got himself in front of her and lifted her easily into his arms, tossing her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing.

“Put me down!” Exhale squealed, laughing as she pounded her fists into his back. “You look like a caveman, you know.”

“You act like I care,” he laughed, smacking her butt playfully as he carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed, still disheveled from earlier that afternoon. “All I care is what you look like underneath all this,” he said, picking at her shirt before laying himself on top of her.

When her giggles had subsided, Exhale wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips. “Baby, I’m so glad you’re home…” she whispered.

“I know…” he replied, suddenly growing serious. “I missed you like you wouldn’t believe. But I’m home now, and I won’t be going anywhere for a long while, okay?”

“Okay.” Exhale nodded and pulled him down, loving the suffocating closeness she was finally able to share with him after feeling so lonely for so long. This is how it’s supposed to be, she thought to herself. No matter what else happens, this is how it’s supposed to be for the rest of our lives. And as Taylor began kissing her again, sliding his hands under her shirt and over the skin of her stomach, she was comforted by that thought.

INDEX | CHAPTER SEVEN