“Your sister was looking at you with stars in her eyes. Same with your old band. You blew everyone away, Ade,” Cole said with a sigh. “What a fucking show.”
“They loved the new material,” Ezra added, his face melting into a satisfied grin.
Abel pulled up a chair to sit to my left and reached for my hand. His gaze found mine. “Ade?”
I knew what he was asking. I took a moment to absorb the surreal nature of this moment—me wiping tears off my face backstage while being surrounded by Bleeding Moonlight after having just played a show with them. These four incredible men who all wanted me, in more ways than one, who’d captured my heart and mind, and who’d made me remember things I never should have allowed myself to forget. I may have gotten here by chance, by a stroke of luck, but now it was up to me to decide how my life would play out.
“Have you made your decision?” Abel asked.
I squeezed the singer’s hand. “Yes.”
* * *
The next couple of hours were a blur as my friends and family met us backstage and heard the news.
Molly was ecstatic and squealed loud enough to leave my ears ringing. “Oh my God! I have the coolest sister ever. Ade, you’re going to have to take me on tour at least once.”
Cole swung his arm around her shoulders. “Been there, done that, ended up with a pregnant sister. Would not recommend.”
Molly gave him an appalled look while I laughed, despite taking his advice to heart. If Molly wanted to go on tour, I was going to run a background check on every single other band.
Liam, Elly, and Mason all came up to offer their warm congratulations and wish me the best of luck. They seemed genuinely excited for me, and I was happy to learn that Mason had found a guitarist and a bassist to play with at Northeastern.
Frankie and Jimmy stopped to say goodbye and tell me how much they’d enjoyed the show. Bleeding Moonlight had bought out the bar for the night so they could get the evening off work to see me play.
My heart swelled with pure happiness, the kind I hadn’t felt in years. Being surrounded by all these people that cared for me and wanted the best for me was like being enveloped by a soft, warm cloud.
I turned to Ezra, who stood beside me. “Tonight may have been the best night of my life. Thank you.”
His expression softened at the palpable emotion in my voice. “This is only the beginning,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. “What do you say we get the guys and get out of here to celebrate properly?”
I burrowed my face into the side of his neck, smiling against his skin. “Where should we go?”
We drove in the dark for about thirty minutes before parking in a clearing at the foot of a forested area just outside the town. Leo waited in the car, while Ezra led me toward a narrow path between the trees, using his phone as a flashlight. The guys followed behind us, Cole cracking jokes that threw us into fits of laughter.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“You’ll see in a moment,” Ezra said with a smile.
Then the trees parted, and we were on a small beach with a dock leading into the water.
A lake?
I had never been here before. The moon’s reflection glittered on the surface, lighting up the space above the water in a hazy glow while soft waves lapped at the narrow beach. The crickets filled the air with a high-pitched trill.
“This is where we first came up with the name for the band,” Ezra explained. “We were here on a night just like this, and Cole had said the moonlight looked like it was bleeding across the lake. I loved that description, and that’s how we became Bleeding Moonlight.”
I whipped around to look at Cole and caught him flashing me a grin. “I have my moments,” he said with a shrug.
Ezra motioned for me to sit down on the sand beside him, but as soon as I hit the ground, Silas lifted me into his lap. I leaned back into the guitarist’s warmth, comfortable in his powerful arms. Abel plunked down in front of me and dropped his head on my thighs, and Cole lounged on the sand just to my left.
We were a puzzle that fit perfectly together.
Silas brushed my hair off my shoulder and gave it a soft kiss, while I combed Abel’s blond strands with my hands.
“What are we going to do now?” I asked, feeling tiredness creeping into my bones after the emotional day.
“Right now?” Silas murmured into my ear.
