“I love him.”
“I see.” She turned the engine off and opened her door. “We’d better get inside. We’ve got another stop to make before I take you back home to make up with that boy.”
I looked out the windshield for the first time since we parked. “Where are we?”
Grandmother jutted her thumb over her shoulder toward the building behind us. “The rescue, of course. It’s time to bring Moose home for good.” She popped out of the car, and I followed, hope jolting to life inside me. “We do need to hurry. I have several calls to make once we’re done here, but I think I can help with at least part of your dilemma.”
Yes! This was exactly the kick in the pants I needed to shake me out of the defeated haze I’d gotten lost in. If I wanted Moose, all I had to do was go and get him.
Winning Cash back might be a little more complicated—okay, maybea lotmore complicated—but I wasn’t going to throw in the towel without a fight.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
Eight hours passed before we pulled back into my parking lot. Grandmother had given me a quick squeeze and told me togo get him,before slipping away to give us some privacy. But despite having 480 minutes today to figure out what I wanted to say to Cash, I stood in my doorway looking at his door with sweaty palms and a jittery stomach. The words had to be just right. I had to hook him right from the beginning—hook him so good that he’dhaveto hear me out.
He was in there. Behind that door. I just had to get him to open it.
Moose stood beside me with his bushy tail wagging. I squatted beside him and scratched behind his ear. “If you and I can make a relationship work, anything is possible, right?” He barked and licked the tip of my nose. “Shh, buddy, you’re supposed to be a surprise. Cash will hear you.”
And just like that, a lightbulb went off inside my head. Cash could hear my music through my walls, so it only stood to reason that he’d be able to hear it through his. I shot up and ran to my guitar stand in the corner of the living room. Things I felt silly saying with words alone somehow felt more natural when sung.
I pulled my notebook from my gig bag and flipped the page open to the song Cash had inspired. My eyes roved over the lyrics one last time. Yes. They were perfect!
With my guitar strap slung over my shoulder, I left the safety of my apartment behind. “You stay here for a couple minutes, boy.” I patted Moose on the head and closed the door most of the way behind me, making sure to leave enough of an opening formynew dog to come running when called.
Who cared that the most romantic serenades from the movies usually involved a Latin lover with a sultry voice, singing at second story candle-lit windows? I was here. I had music in me—music that Cash had put there—and I was going to pour my heart out.
I stepped up to his door and brushed the pad of my thumb over the strings. I closed my eyes as I finger-picked the lead line. Music infused with hope vibrated throughout my being as the sound of my strings flowed from the hollow body of my instrument. It transported me to a place where only love existed as the words to the song danced in my mind, reminding me of our love story.
His door creaked, and I opened my mouth instead of my eyes, knowing I was sure to melt if I met his gaze. I didn’t just sing the words. I felt them. I lived them. They were a part of me, the part that linked me to the man I loved. I hoped he’d recognize that they were a part of him as well.
You wouldn’t give up, you wouldn’t let go, you kept looking ’til my heart was found.
You wouldn’t walk away, you promised that you’d stay.
And now our hearts beat as one, our feet dancing to the rhythms of love.
You are my forever.
Every verse. Every chorus. Every word of the song spoke of the profound feelings I’d developed for Cash in the short time since thisfake boyfriendasked me to get real with him. He was the man I’d known for so long but hadn’t recognized who he could be to me until recently. The man who had taught me so much about myself.
The man I needed in my life.
My eyes fluttered open as the final chord hung in the air. There he was, filling his doorway. His chest rose and fell beneath the close-fitting tee he wore as his gaze blazed trails of fire across my skin. I repeated the last line of the song hardly above a whisper. “You are my forever.”
He closed the gap between us without a word and muffled the faint vibrations of the strings when he clamped one hand around the neck of my guitar. In one swift motion he lifted it, freeing me from its strap and removing the only barrier between us. I gasped when he slipped his free arm around my waist and lifted me off my feet.
Before I knew what was happening, he’d taken two swift steps across the breezeway and my back was pressed to the outside wall of my own apartment. He rested his forehead against mine as a slow smile crept across his face. “Did you write that for me?” His voice was low and rumbled with something that sent a shiver of anticipation down my spine.
I gazed deeper into his eyes than I’d ever dared before. “All I had to do was think of you, and it wrote itself.” I slipped my arms around his neck, my fingers working their way into his silky hair. “I’m so sorry about last night. It was all a misunderstanding. I could never choose money over you.”
Hot puffs of his breath kissed my lips, sending waves of heat coursing through my body.
“Last night?” he muttered against my lips. “Last night never happened.” Then he pressed his lips against mine with a kiss that marked my soul forever.
He belonged to me, and I belonged to him.
I splayed my hands across the taut muscles of his back, secure in his one-armed embrace as he clutched my guitar with his other hand.
