Nora presses her hand to her heart.
“I want to open a private practice in Stillwater,” Nash says. “Family medicine. I want to be the kind of doctor who builds relationships with his patients. Who listens and helps them solve health problems that keep them from living their lives. I want to be what the world needs, not what it has.”
“You’d be amazing at that,” Simon says without hesitation.
“You’d be busy,” Violet adds. “People love you.”
“And fear him,” Grayson says. “A powerful combination.”
“Thank you,” Nash says, smiling. “I think.”
Then Nora’s gaze shifts to me. “And you, sweetheart?”
I lace my fingers with Nash’s. “I think I want to go to school for physical therapy.”
Heads bob. Eyebrows lift. Surprise dances around the faces on the screen.
“I love performing,” I say. “I always will. But watching Nash help the dancers on tour these past few months… it calls to me. In my chest. I feel… pulled. Going into physical therapy feels like building something that won’t fall apart the second one job ends. Something where I can be good and helpful and useful to people in need. And I’ve been talking a lot more with my parents and it’d be great to just be home, surrounded by family.”
Nora’s eyes shine. “I’m so proud of you.”
Gideon lifts his thermos—his version of a toast. “To coming home.”
Grayson raises his burrito. “To Stillwater Bay.”
Nash squeezes my hand. I lift my water bottle.
“To family,” I whisper.
Nora’s voice goes soft. “To new beginnings.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Lucy
“It’s the last show of the tour.” I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the wall in some random hallway in some random stadium in some random city. “We haven’t changed the choreography in weeks. Why in the world are we changing it tonight?”
Nash brushes a loose hair off my face, his touch gentle, his eyes nearly twinkling with merriment. Isn’t that a delightful twist? He’s merry while I’m grumpy.
“You never know with Sandro,” he says, a phrase that’s gotten so common among the cast and crew that someone ought to make a commemorative T-shirt out of it. “Maybe he wants to go out with a bang.”
“Or maybe he just likes to make everything difficult so he can enjoy watching us scramble to please him.”
“You know that isn’t fair.” Nash crosses his arms andgives me a reproachful look. “Sure, Sandro can be demanding, but not because he has some big ego that needs stroked. He has a crystal-clear vision of what he wants and knows exactly why he wants it. It’s no accident he’s as successful as he is. The man is smart. Purposeful. If he’s making a change, there’s a good reason.”
“This alliance between you two is unnatural,” I say with a light shake of my head. “A year ago, you said that only people with brain injuries liked Sandro René.”
“I can like the man and the mind—” Nash lowers his voice to a whisper, casting a cautious glance over his shoulder “—while still believing his music sucks.”
“I’ve seen you bobbing your head toBright Lights and Summer Nights.You don’t have to lie.”
“I like the beat.”
I scrunch my nose and place my palms on his chest, hitting him with my best smile. “You’ve turned into a fan. Admit it.”
Nash takes me into his arms, holding me close and swaying gently. “What I will say is that this music will forever remind me of you. Of us. It is, and forever will be the soundtrack, to some of my favorite memories.”
That earns a genuine smile from me. “You always know exactly what to say and when to say it.”
