Worlds Apart

Chapter Thirteen

I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about what Cam had said to me weeks ago, about how Logan had been born with singing in his bones. It was the same way that Cam was with the guitar. It was like they’d been born into those roles.

As I continued to patiently teach Logan everything that I knew about the guitar, I couldn’t help but think that he was becoming the same way with the instrument that Cam was with singing. Those were the things that they hadn’t been born naturally with, yet they were putting all their focus on it, teaching themselves and getting better with every day that had passed. To say they had a tenacious gene in their DNA wouldn’t be outrageous.

Taking a sip from the coffee, I shifted slightly and leaned my head back against the pool side chair. “Do you remember that pattern I taught you?” I questioned, interrupting Logan in his playing.

He placed a hand on the chords as if to silence them, and I had to hide a grin because it was an action he must have learnt from Cam but at the moment it was pointless, there was no amplification, just my plain acoustic in his hands. Logan nodded attentively at my words, lines growing over and between his eyebrows as he focused on what I was telling him. He was listening to them so carefully it was like I was giving him the secrets to the universe.

“It’s a simple way to practice strumming, just use a G for it, alright?” I told him. “Four down strum and four up. So one down, one up and so on, until you reach eight, okay? You want to keep it as even as possible.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re treating me like a daft kid?” wondered Logan aloud. However a grin was tipping the corners of his mouth upwards. I heard the sarcasm in his voice, so I only gave a short laugh before taking a sip of my coffee, watching as he rearranged his hands to get a G. That was one thing that would have to change when we started playing songs, it had to be almost instinctive to keep on time when a chord change came up, not a pause as one searched for the place to hold their fingers.

That would come with time.

I quickly stopped him as I sat forwards; shaking my head before he’d got to strum three chords. “You need to strum more firmly, not harder but firm,” I informed him. His hands were all in the right positions, but the sound that came from my guitar was almost wimpy and although it wasn’t the best of guitars, it still sounded better than that.

“Okay,” said Logan, the lines of concentration deepening as he began to play again.

And I once again stopped him, but this time I placed my coffee down as I pushed up to take a step towards Logan’s own chair. Plopping down on the edge of the chair and near his feet, I pushed my hair behind my ears and out of the way as I leaned forwards.

“You’re all stiff, right from your shoulder down to your arm, you need to loosen up,” I told him, letting my finger tips brush gently along the skin on his elbow before running them up to his wrist. “You’re trying to strum from your elbow instead of your wrist, and that’s why your timing is going to be off. Think of the elbow like your anchor; keep it steady as you keep your wrist and forearm loose because you strum from your wrist not the elbow.”

As the words left my mouth, I frowned, my hand dropping away from his wrist as I glanced up at him. I found he was watching me intently, but his mouth was in a tight line and his body had stiffened slightly. Did that make no sense at all?

“Here,” I said decisively, holding out my hands for the guitar, “I’ll show you.”

For a moment I wondered if Logan had heard me at all, but before I could repeat myself, he handed me the guitar.

I was settling it in my lap easily like a missing piece when I felt him shift closer to me at the bottom of the chair. Trying to keep my mind off the fact that his legs were now boxing me with my back against his chest, I played the chords mindlessly. “Just like that,” I said, glancing behind me to meet his eyes. “One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four,” I counted out as I repeated the bar.