Work Text:
“Why don’t you come back to bed? You can play guitar later.” Her husband doesn’t have anything important to do anyway - he got out of bed to grab his guitar, with which he’s sat on the edge of the bed, mucking up the instrument in his sweaty lap. Didn’t even bother to put his pants on. It’s fine.
He sighs, disappointed. “Really? You really want to interrupt me playing, love?” But he puts his guitar away and crawls back under the covers next to her. He takes her face in his hands, and wow. She breathes in his scent. His beard, stiff with sweat, prickles her chin.
They come up for air. “Can I just hold you?” she asks, gesturing at his waist. She knows he won’t let her touch his chest, not when he’s going to sing again soon. He grunts, acknowledging her in his very Yorkshire way. Julie wishes he’d joke about it, like he used to. It doesn’t even have to be how they do it back in Birmingham, with the self-deprecating humor she knows, as a Brummie. (As Jeff’s West Midlands girl.) All it has to be is him.
He pulls away again after a few minutes and gets his guitar again. Somehow she feels second to his music, though he avoids giving her a bump on the head with its neck. She wraps an arm around his waist, under the guitar - not around his chest like she hoped. Eh, whatever. His body’s still hot at its core. She lowers her hand further still, combing gently through his hair. She twiddles him in her fingers, like wrinkly elbow skin.
He doesn’t react like she hoped, with snorting laughter and more kisses. Instead, he sings loudly about how much he loves her, winking at her and giving her a smile. It’s fine, but-
“You make me swell with love!” he shouts, striking a loud chord to resolve the ending. Julie rolls her eyes, giving him a playful huff. She can almost hear the harmonies that would go with the line, wrapping themselves around the main melody, if it were someone else singing this song by Jeff’s band. Someone who’d hold her tight by a roaring fire in her dreams.
It’s fine. Still, she wonders if she should’ve left him many years before.