I bit the inside of my cheek. “This next chapter. Leaving Edge Records. Stepping into the unknown. I’ve been so busy pushing forward that I didn’t let myself think about the what-ifs. But tonight after dinner, after Darryl signed I started wondering if I made the right choice.”
“I’ve known a lot of people who played it safe,” he said. “People who settled. Who stayed in the same place their entire lives because the idea of failure terrified them more than mediocrity.” I turned my head, eyes meeting his. “You’re not one of them, Elise.” Something twisted in my chest. “You’re brave,” he said, the corners of his mouth lifting just slightly. “You don’t wait around for someone to hand you an opportunity, you chase it. You create it.”
My breath caught. He wasn’t looking at me like a boss. Not even like a friend. There was something deeper there. Warmer. More intimate.
“You think I’m brave?” I whispered.
“I know you are.”
I swallowed around the lump forming in my throat. “I don’t feel it. Not right now.”
“That’s the thing about bravery,” he said. “It’s not about never being afraid. It’s about doing the thing anyway.” He paused. “I couldn’t sleep either.” Nathad admitted. He was staring ahead, his jaw tight, and a distant look in his eyes. The glow from the pool lights painted the planes of his face in soft gold and shadow.
“That’s why I came out here,” he said. “Didn’t feel like being in my head tonight.” He let out a slow exhale. “Some nights are easier. Others, not so much.”
“What was on your mind?”
He glanced over at me. “Tonight reminded me of him. My dad.”
I blinked. “Because of the meeting?”
He nodded. “The way I pitched the label to Darryl. It felt like déjà vu. I was ten the first time I saw my dad sit down across from an artist and talk them into signing. I remember thinking he looked invincible. Like no one in the world could say no to him.” A humorless smile touched his lips. “It wasn’t until years later I realized he wasn’t just selling a dream, he was selling himself. His image. His control. Every artist he signed was another brick in the empire he wanted me to take over.”
I didn’t speak. I just listened.
And maybe that was what he needed most.
“My dad was complicated,” he said. “Brilliant. Brutal. I spent years trying to prove I was worthy of what he built. And by the time I got it, by the time it was all mine…” He shook his head, his voice dipping lower. “I wasn’t even sure I wanted it.”
The water between us was still, now.
“You’re nothing like him,” I said softly.
His eyes found mine.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m just better at hiding it.”
A lump formed in my throat, because I saw it then. Beneath the perfection, sharp suits and smarter words, there was a boy inside him still grieving, still trying to earn something he never should’ve had to fight for.
“I think,” I said gently, “you’re more than what he made you to be.”
I was closer now somehow. I wasn't sure if it was the pool’s current, or fate, or maybe just something magnetic between us. But there were only a few inches separating us now.
Nathan’s hand came up out of the water. His fingers brushed my cheek, soft and slow, and just like that, I stopped breathing.
“You make it hard,” he murmured.
“What?”
“To keep pretending this is just business.”
“Then show me what it is.”
He kissed me.
And it wasn’t soft or hesitant.
It was the kind of kiss that stole the air from my lungs and made me forget my own name. The kind of kiss that pressed my body against his and had me clinging to his shoulders like he was the only thing keeping me afloat.
