But was love supposed to?
As the song ended, Charlie and I both erupted with thunderous applause—at least, as much as we could, given we were only two people. Grady stood from the piano and bowed at the waist. “Thank you, thank you. What’s next?”
Charlie tapped her finger against her chin. “What about the guitar, Daddy? Can you play that too?”
He glanced my way before clearing his throat and disappearing into his room with a mumbled, “Yeah, of course. One second.”
When he came back, he was holding an old case that looked eerily like the one he had as a kid. It was covered in stickers, some from the places I guessed he had traveled to and bandshe’d opened for. Surely it wasn’t the same, though. He had all the money in the world to buy any guitar he wanted. It was crazy to assume he still had the old pawn shop one his mom had bought him.
As he pulled it free, I realized just how wrong I was. There, on the underside of the instrument, were our initials carved into the body. He’d done it shortly after we got together. I told him he was crazy, we didn’t know what the future held for us, but he told me he was sure that no matter what, I was meant to be his girl. And then I saw the bluebird engraved at the bottom of the soundboard.
Be still, my fucking heart.
“I got it done shortly after, well, you know,” he said sheepishly. “I’ve used it on every tour, at every show.”
“Oh, Grady,” I whispered. It took everything I had to stay in my seat and not walk over, crawl into his lap, and kiss him the way I wanted to. The way he and I both deserved.
It was disarming coming face-to-face with the fact that the man you thought had moved on and forgotten you had done everything but. He had held onto my memory so tightly, I wondered how he hadn’t suffocated himself with it.
But then again, I had too, hadn’t I? Even if I hadn’t meant to, I’d held onto the idea I was too messed up to love again, that the men in my life—apart from my dad—would leave me or that I wasn’t enough. The loss of Grady had followed me around, even through my relationship with Thomas. It had consumed me whether I’d been honest with myself or not.
Now we had a real chance to put the past behind us and right our wrongs, and that started with the way I looked back at our history.
If we hadn’t broken up, who knows what our future would’ve looked like? We wouldn’t have been the people we were today. He wouldn’t have had Charlie or maybe even his career, and I don’t know I would’ve been as close with mysisters. While we’d bonded over the years as my sisters reached adulthood, I hadn’t ever felt the actual depth of our camaraderie until after Thomas and I divorced. Moving home had turned out to be one of the best things I’d ever done for our relationship.
“Now you know,” Grady said gently, “that you’ve always been with me through all the years and shows and tours. I bring it out for every acoustic set.”
I was up and out of my seat before I could stop myself, walking toward him with a sense of purpose. Grady tilted his head, staring up at me with parted lips, waiting to see what I would do. He didn’t ask me what I was doing. He didn’t tell me to stop, so I kissed him. Consequences be damned.
His arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer as he met each fevered stroke of my tongue with his own. We were lost in the other person for only a moment before Charlie’s loud claps took us by surprise.
Turning around, we saw her smile as she jumped off the couch, did a little dance, and ran toward us. I knew she must have questions, but there was such a sense of relief I felt when her little body slammed into ours. Grady and I both opened our arms to welcome her into our embrace, the three of us laughing at the craziness of it all.
Charlie was the first to pull back. “Wait, does this mean you’re gonna be my mom, too?”
I blinked, looking to Grady for some guidance because I had no idea what it meant. I didn’t know what the future held for us, but I did know I wanted to be with them and I didn’t care what it took or what I had to do.
“Well, I’m not sure what it means,” I said honestly.
Her little brows furrowed together in confusion. “But Daddy says I’m not allowed to kiss anyone unless we’re getting married…”
I glanced at him and narrowed my eyes. There was no way in hell she should grow up believing that, but we could cross thatbridge later when the balance and fate of my complicated relationship with her father wasn’t hanging in the balance.
Grady, to his credit, looked away sheepishly before focusing his attention on his daughter. “There’s a lot Miss Cleo and I need to talk about, but.” He paused to take a breath. “Would it be okay with you if she were, eventually, in that kind of role for you? No one, and I mean this, Charlie, no one will ever or could ever replace your mom. She loves you more than anything else in the world. But?—”
“But you also love Miss Cleo?” she asked.
Grady didn’t hesitate. He nodded, blue eyes shining as he said, “I do, very much. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes, because I love Miss Cleo, too! And so will Mommy. She’ll be so happy.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I would have time to analyze it later. Meeting Olivia was going to be one of the most nerve-wracking things I’d ever done. It would be worth it, but that didn’t mean I was necessarily looking forward to it. She was gorgeous, talented, and had a multi-million-dollar business under her control. Though I knew there was nothing to worry about, I couldn’t help but think about how she’d spent the last seventeen years by his side while I was trying my hardest to move on.
When our relationship became public, there would be criticisms, of course, both from the public and from my own mind. To be honest, it was strange to think about the reach of the announcement of his divorce and its impact on our relationship. I’m sure there would be rumors of infidelity on his side. It wouldn’t matter what we said, people would draw their own conclusions about what happened and run with it.
The thought of it was terrifying, honestly. I’d never allowed myself to be in a position where I would be so openly hated and judged. Was I ready for that? Was I strong enough to handle the whispers of people around town?
Two weeks ago, I would’ve said not a chance. I would’ve counted myself out before ever testing my limits, but now that I had Grady back in my life, I knew the answer was a very loud, resounding yes. I would let myself be flayed apart and destroyed if it meant we could be together.
