“Promise me you’ll do that if things ever start to get bad again. Talk to me, I mean,” she says, tears lining her blue eyes. “You were right before. I do worry about you.” She touches my face, and I lean into her touch before turning my head and kissing her palm.
“I promise, Sunshine.” I lean in and kiss her again, slower this time. Taking my time to savor her.
“Fuckingfinally,” Josh says from somewhere beside us. We pull away from each other and laugh as we turn toward the doorway. Josh is leaning against it, arms folded across his chest, Max and Kevin peeking into the room around him. “Took you long enough, you coward.”
We stand, and I put my arm around Tyler, pulling her close to me and smiling when her arms wrap around my middle, and she moves even closer. I kiss the top of her head and shrug.
Maybe I was a coward. Maybe I should have been open and honest about what I wanted with her the day I finally sawher again. Or maybe this is how it was always meant to happen.
I’ve spent the last ten years drifting from one place to the next. Always itching to get back out on the road. Never feeling quite like I belonged anywhere. Never knowing where I was supposed to be.
But as Tyler looks up at me with those gorgeous blue eyes, I know I’m finally,exactly,where I’m meant to be.
Epilogue
Ty
Eighteen Months Later
? Love Song - 311?
“Our first guest is the drummer for the multi-platinum rock band, Velvet Shadows, and his biography Long Live The King just became an instant New York Times best-seller. Please welcome, Mr. Eric Ambrose!”
I stare at the screen hanging on the wall backstage, grinning like an idiot as Eric walks out onto the studio stage. He’s dressed in tight, black jeans that are torn and distressed in all the right places, and a faded heather gray t-shirt, flashing his stunning smile and waving at the screaming crowd before shaking hands with the host and taking a seat.
“Welcome, Eric, it’s great to have you back,” the host says.
“It’s great to be back,” Eric says, as the crowd cheers again and he laughs nervously. Almost twelve years in the spotlight, and he’s still uncomfortable with the attention.
“You are quite a busy man,” the host says, reading down through Velvet Shadows’ recent accomplishments. “A sold-out stadium tour, back-to-back number one singles, two Grammy awards, your most recent record,Without You, went three times platinum,” the host pauses as the crowd cheers. “And that’s all with Velvet Shadows, who will perform here a bit later in the show, but then there are all your recent personal accomplishments. I heard you recently bought a new house with your girlfriend, and, as I mentioned before you came out here, your biography was an instant best-seller. Oh! And you became a father!”
I smile and kiss the top of our baby’s head, who is sleeping peacefully in my arms, as the crowd cheers louder.
“Yeah,” Eric says, letting out a dramatic exhale. “It’s been a wild few years.”
“You guys had a daughter?”
“Yes,” Eric says, grinning wide. “Evelyn. Thankfully, she takes after her mother and is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” The crowd collectivelyaww’sat Eric’s sweet words, and I blush.
“So how is fatherhood treating you?” The host asks, and Eric beams, sending my heart aflutter.
“It’s the greatest thing ever,” Eric says, a smile still plastered on his lips. “Don’t get me wrong, it’sterrifying, but in the best way. And I’m so lucky because I get to do all of it with my best friend. I might have all the Grammys, and the platinum albums, and the sold-out stadium shows, but Tyler’s the real rockstar of the family.”
“Speaking of your girlfriend,” the host says. “Is it true you guys met when you hired her to write your biography?”
“No,” Eric says, shaking his head. He huffs a laugh and grins, and I recognize that grin. I knowexactlywhere his mindis right now. “No, we actually met a few months before that. It’s how I knew she was a writer, and in a desperate attempt to spend more time with her, I, uh, yeah, I hired her on for the project.”
“She’s here tonight, right?” the host asks.
“Yeah, she’s right backstage there,” Eric confirms, looking over to where we’re standing behind the curtains just off the stage.
“Can we bring her out? I feel like if we’re going to talk about the book she should be out here. Do you think she’ll…will she do that?”
Eric shrugs, and when the host calls my name from the stage, I panic. I turn to Dani (who had enthusiastically accepted our offer to become our nanny), my eyes wide.
“Go,” she says, scooping Evie from my arms to hers. “You wrote the damn thing. You deserve the spotlight, too!” I laugh and follow one of the stagehands through the curtain and out to the stage, my body shaking with nerves the entire way as the crowd cheers.
I wave awkwardly as Eric stands from his chair and wraps me in his arms.
