All In Good Time - A Time Travel Beatles Fanfiction

Track 24 - Who Are You When I'm Not Looking

Lainey awoke to memories of drifting off to sleep with Paul's steady heartbeat beneath her head and the feel of his strong arms around her. She stretched her arms to either side of the bed. No Paul. She jerked upright. What if he'd already vanished back to 1963 with her ring again?

A soft thrum of a beautiful sound reached her ears, and she tiptoed to the hallway and peeked over the railing. She could see the back of Paul's dark head bent over her Gibson acoustic. A dreamy, melancholy melody poured from the guitar.

The next thing she did was grab her phone and check the headlines on Yahoo. Surely if anything had happened to Paul McCartney it would be headline news. The Democratic National Convention opened in Charlotte and teachers were striking in Chicago. Violence reported in Syria. The West Nile virus raged. And somehow the world continued to spin.

She pulled on a soft pair of sweats and a Pink Floyd T-shirt and crept into the bathroom to brush her teeth and splash her face.

When she got downstairs, she saw that Paul was playing her guitar upside down to account for being left-handed. "That's a neat party trick."

He smiled up at her. "Mind if I restring it?"

"I don't mind."

With the guitar across his lap, he started unwinding the first string. "Sleep well?"

"Mmmhmm. You're even better than a boyfriend pillow."

He nodded toward the black flat screen in front of them. "That your telly?"

"Sure is."

"Where is the on button?"

Lainey picked up the remote and sat down beside him. Much closer than necessary. So close that they were touching from shoulder to thigh. She made sure he was watching as she pressed the power button.

Then she watched his face, his huge eyes growing larger as the screen flickered to life.

"It's in color. I knew that was comin'."

"Pretty, huh?"

"It's like being at the bloody cinema."

"What do you want to watch? Music videos?"

She flicked through the channels and landed on CMT.

Paul's hands stopped working on the guitar. He looked completely mesmerized. Lainey sighed. It seemed like every modern man she met was either sports obsessed or video game obsessed. She wondered if she would lose Paul forever now to country music videos.

"You hungry? You like French toast?"

His eyes didn't move from the screen. "Sure."

A short time later she looked up from the stove to see Paul still fixated on the screen, not moving a muscle.

"My sweet English arse...Is this real?" he was saying. "Check out this bird having a bubble bath."

"Every country music video has a girl in a bathtub now."

She went up behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck just as he let out a groan.

She giggled. "This video is really getting to you isn't it?"

"Look at that bloody acoustic/electric, Lainey. Takamine, is it? See how he's got the capo on the second fret? He's picking the verses and when the chorus starts he strums the notes. The bridge pickup is sweet as hell."

"And I thought you were groaning over the hot girl." She placed her lips just behind his ear, smiling as he shivered a response. He took her hands, tugging her closer until they were cheek to cheek.