“I don’t know.” She twisted her lips to the corner of her mouth. “I think it needs to be someone you don’t know. Someone who can’t be accused of tossing you softball questions.”
I sucked in a shaky breath. “Well, I guess if I’m already dipping my toe outside my comfort zone, I might as well dive into the deep end.”
“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. It’s just an idea.”
“No, I think you’re right,” I said, picking at a thread on my jeans. “There’s a lot of me I’ve kept hidden over the years, and if I want people to trust me, I need to give them a reason to.”
“You don’t owe anyone anything.”
“I do,” I said. “I owe it to myself. If people hear what I have to say and they still don’t like me, fine. But I have to like me.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll put out some feelers for an interview. Maybe Jo will have some ideas.”
Grace’s phone chimed from her purse, and she reached for it. Her eyes scanned across the screen before she grinned and placed it back inside her bag.
“We can talk more about this later,” she said, rising to her feet. “But right now we have to go.”
I furrowed my brow. “What? I thought we were having a meeting.”
“We are. Were. Meeting’s adjourned. We gotta leave.”
“And where exactly are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“I don’t know if I’m up for surprises at the moment, Grace.”
“This is a surprise you’re gonna love.” She stepped closer and extended her hand to help me up. “I just need you to trust me.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, and she shoved her hand closer. “Who was it that texted you?”
“Trust me,” she insisted. “And you’ll find out soon enough.”
Finally, I took her hand but not before giving her a suspicious side-eye.
“All right. Let’s go.”
“I still can’t believeyou guys are here.” I’d been at Jax and Liv’s dining table for the last hour, surrounded by all of my friends for the first time in over a year. Ella, Cash, Antoni, and his husband Nate had all come into town so we could get the whole gang back together. Derek, Jo, Katie, and Dallas were there too, along with all the kids, who had since retreated to the playroom with Jax and Liv’s sitter to give the adults some time together.
It was almost perfect. The only thing I was missing was having McKenzie by my side.
“I told you this was a surprise you’d love,” Grace said, poking me in the arm from where she sat beside me.
I held up my hands like two white flags. “As usual, you were right.”
“She gets that from me, you know,” Ella quipped. “I have a one hundred percent success rate.”
Cash tapped a finger to his chin. “Is that so?”
Antoni snorted, pinning Ella with a playful stare. “Math’s never been your strong suit, has it?”
“Who needs math when you have an iPhone calculator and a dazzling personality like mine?” Ella teased before turning her attention to me. “Okay, listen, I’ve been dying to talk to you about your new music. ‘Death Row’ is masterful. I mean…wow. I just…I had no idea you could write like that.”
My cheeks burned. “Honestly? Neither did I.”
“There’s a reason for all the early Grammy buzz,” Derek said. “It’s an amazing record, Luca. You should be proud.”
“God knows we are,” Dallas added with a smile.
