“I see you, the real you, and I know exactly who you are.
But do you see me and the love I hold inside for you?”
Tate’s voice rang with conviction, with heart, with emotion.She’s not ready yet.The words he’d recently shared with me came rushing back with clarity. I’d thought it funny he’d referred to the song as a female, but he hadn’t been talking about the song at all. He’d been talking about me.Iwas the one not quite ready.Iwas the one he saw. My heart squeezed as passion flooded from my center.Iwas the one he loved.
I wiped a tear away and smiled, my voice shaky with emotion. I was no great singer, but as Tate moved to the chorus, I sang the words with him. A harmony not of words but of lives.
“Baby, I want the best for you, wanna give the world to you.
Baby, I love the whole of you and would give my all to you.
But do you see me and the love I hold for you?”
The last strains of the music drifted away in the wind, leaving Tate and me standing there, staring into each other’s eyes. I took a step forward and placed the palm of my hand on his cheek. I didn’t look away, didn’t waver, didn’t hesitate. My tongue didn’t thicken, and my chest didn’t constrict. These would be the easiest words I’d ever said. “I see you. I love you.”
The guitar pressed into my belly as his hand came up to cup the back of my head, pulling me closer until his lips covered mine. I’d read a lot of romance novels and therefore read about a lot of kisses. Let me go on the record as saying…there was nothing like the toe-curling, knee-knocking, breath-stealing real thing.
Tate leaned back, our faces a mere inch apart as he gazed into my eyes and said the words I never thought I’d hear from my best friend. “I love you, Emory.”
Epilogue
Turned out Tator Tot had been keeping more secrets from me than the fact he’d been in love with me for years. He’d also not shared that a major recording studio had been courting him for a record deal for over six months. So, our little bet? The one where I thought I had a leg up and was forcing him to follow his dream and get over whatever fear he had of making it big in the music industry? Turned out he didn’t need my swift kick in the pants after all. But I sure needed his.
I stopped packing long enough to glance at the diamond on my left hand. We’d done the long-distance thing as I wrapped up the big gala here in Seattle and he settled into the Nashville scene. But I was done with distance, and as soon as I finished up this last box, I’d be on my way to Music City and a man who surpassed any of my bookish dreams. Who would have thought I’d end up with my own happily ever after? Or, as we liked to call it, our bookishly ever after, because, after all, it all started with a bet and a book.
