A tremulous smile graced her lips. “I’ll be waiting.” Her gaze was earnest. “Long distance isn’t the end. We can’t give up on each other.”
“I know.” I’d never give up on her. But I would give her up. I wrapped my arms around her. She buried her face in my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
She squeezed her hands in my shirt. “You scared me.”
“I am scared. About everything.”
“I know.” She rose on her toes and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Come on. Let’s go inside. Can you stay over?” She looked over her shoulder, her big eyes almost pleading.
Goddammit. “Yeah.” I pulled her back to me and cupped her cheek in one hand. “Then you’re gonna go. Just like Mama Starr would’ve wanted—you on that stage for everyone to hear.”
June’s birth mom had nurtured her gift, encouraged her, especially during the hardest of times.
“I wish she could see me. Both of them,” she said.
“They’ll be with you everywhere you go. When you take the Grand Ole Opry stage, they’ll be right here.” I tapped a finger over her heart. “And Mae and Darin will absolutely be filling the Opry seats for them.” June’s adoptive parents had nurtured her talent too.
“I want you there. I want you in the audience.”
I lifted her chin and captured her mouth. My dick, half-awake since June had been jumping up and down, paid even more attention. When I’d arrived, I had thought I’d never get to touch her again. This would be my last night. Our last night.
I released her and touched my forehead to hers. “Let’s go inside.”
“Promise me you won’t give up on us.”
“Promise me you’ll go and be a star,” I countered.
“What if no one likes me?”
“Everyone’s going to love you. Just like me.”
A wide smile graced her face. “You’re biased. What if they only let me on the county fair stage because of Daddy and the distillery?”
It was a legitimate concern. Her parents had a ranch much larger than ours, but more impressively, they owned Copper Summit Bourbon Distillery. The distillery invited a lot of tourism and employed many locals. Without Copper Summit, a town as small as Bourbon Canyon might’ve faded into nothingness, businesses slowly shutting as people moved to larger towns like Bozeman and Lewiston for work and play. Instead, the town thrived, thanks in no small part to the distillery.
But none of that had gotten June up on that stage. It was all her.
“You earned your way onto those stages, just like you’ll earn each and every show you perform in Nashville.” I tugged her inside the cabin. I was giving myself one last night with her, and suddenly, I was a greedy man. I pushed any thoughts of the future out of my head and concentrated on now. “Now, let’s quit wastingtime. We don’t know when we’re going to be together again.”
We spent the night in each other’s arms. June fell asleep, her soft breathing wafting across my chest, but I stared at the ceiling. I didn’t get a damn bit of rest, my mind tumbling until dawn.
When it came time to say goodbye, I didn’t fess up and tell her it would be for forever. I hugged her instead, long and hard, trying to communicate how much she meant to me. How much she’dalwaysmean to me.
We stood on the porch, her head buried in my chest. The car was loaded with the last of her luggage. Birds chirped like they didn’t know or care that it was one of the worst days of my life.
“I can’t wait to see you again,” she murmured. “I’ll make sure to get back as soon as I can.”
I’d do my best to make sure she didn’t have a reason to, outside of her family.
She rose to her tiptoes and placed a kiss on my lips. “I’ll wait for you.”
“Be safe, and be yourself. Everyone will love you. But never as much as me.”
I finally got her loaded. Her eyes glistened when she drove away.
My gaze wavered and I sniffed. Her car disappeared, and just like that, June Kerrigan was out of my life.
June
