Not even when the cameras swing toward the wings, trying to find what I’m staring at. Not even when the screens above the stage start to split-shot us—me in the spotlight, her in the shadows, caught like a secret the world finally found.
“Lila…”
My voice drops anyway, intimate on purpose, like I’m standing close enough for only her to hear even though the speakers are blasting it into the night.
“If you’ll have me…”
I swallow, and for the first time all night, fear spikes sharp.
Because she has every right to say no.
I left.
I made her carry the truth by herself.
“I want to be with you forever,” I say.
A collective gasp sweeps through the stadium, like all of Firth city is holding its breath with me.
Chapter thirty-seven
Lila
Idon’t remember deciding to move.
One second I’m backstage, half-hidden by curtains and cables, breath trapped somewhere between my ribs and my throat. My mic is heavy in my hand, a dead weight I don’t know what to do with.
And then—
I’m running.
My boots pound against the stage floor as I burst out of the wings, lights flaring so bright they smear the edges of everything. The stadium erupts, my name crashing over me in a wave, but it all blurs into one soundless rush.
Go.
My heart slams so hard it hurts. Each beat echoes the same command. Louder than fear, louder than doubt.
I don’t look at the crowd. I don’t look at the cameras swinging wildly to follow me. I don’t look at the screens where my face must be enormous and exposed and impossible to hide.
I look at him.
Cam stands at center stage like he’s been waiting his whole life for this exact second. Shoulders squared but relaxed. Hands loose at his sides. Open in a way that steals the breath from my lungs.
Steady.
Mine.
The distance between us disappears too fast and not fast enough. When I reach him, my hands fly up on instinct, grabbing his like they’re the only solid things left in a spinning world.
They feel warm.
Real.
Strong.
“Cam,” I breathe.
The word shakes its way out of me, wrecked with relief and disbelief and a love so sharp it feels like it might split me open.
