We drive to the airport in comfortable silence. When we pull up at departures, Nick helps me with my bags. I hug him tight.
"Thank you. For everything."
"Nora, wait."
He turns to grab something out of his truck. He’s holding a small package, wrapped in brown paper.
"Alfie left this for you."
My throat tightens as I take it.
"Thank you."
He nods, then says quietly, "I'll see you when you get back."
"How do you know I'm coming back?"
"Because I saw your face when you looked at that building." He smiles slightly. "That's not the face of someone walking away. That's the face of someone figuring out how to come home."
CHAPTER 39
THE MUSE
NATE
The studio lightshum softly when I step inside, their familiar glow wrapping around me and it feels like home. This place has always been my refuge—the one space where I don't have to perform, explain, or pretend.
I move to the piano, not because I have something to say, but because the keys have always known how to speak for me when I can't. My fingers hover above them. There's a strange hesitation there—like my hands are asking permission from my heart to break open.
Then I press down and the first chord comes out low and heavy, vibrating through the room. The second softens, unsure of itself. By the third, my chest feels tight in that familiar, dangerous way.
Because every note carries her.
How she looks at things when she thinks no one's paying attention. How her smile breaks before it fully lands. How she touches her collarbone when she's anxious.
I don't plan the song. I never have, it just comes as it needs to. The final note lingers, vibrating through the air like something unfinished.
"Damn." Tommy's voice is quiet. Not joking. Not careless. Just honest. "That one sounds like it hurt."
My gaze stays fixed on the piano keys. "Just needed to get it out."
He walks closer, leaning against the soundboard.
"Who's it about?"
I exhale slowly.
“A girl.”
Tommy doesn't laugh. Doesn't even try to make a joke.
“Always is.”
We stand there in a silence that feels full rather than empty.
Then he says, “Hey, listen, I know I've been a fucking nightmare to deal with lately."
I glance at him now.
