Page 110 of Anything But Lonely

The crowd disappears.

The lights disappear.

For a moment, everything disappears except this.

The feel of Emerson shaking with quiet tears against my shoulder. The soft weight of Crew nestled between us. The overwhelming certainty that this is where we're supposed to be.

I bury my face against her hair and close my eyes.

“Did you like our song?” Crew asks, his voice muffled from how tightly he holds us against himself.

“I loved it, champ,” Emerson says, loosening her grip so she can lean back enough to see us.

Her gaze goes to mine as I set Crew down on his feet. “I didn’t know how else to show you how much I—” I look down at Crew, “we need you. And not just as our nanny—well, his, n-nanny,” I manage to say, the words tumbling out of me. “It’s been a really long time since I’ve had feelings for someone like this, and I don’t even know if you have the same feelings, and I know this might seem like it’s coming out of nowhere, or maybe it doesn’t, but I’m all in, baby.” My hand goes to the side of her neck, the admission coming out more confident than I actually feel, but I don’t let myself look away from her gaze, no matter how fucking scared I am. “I’m yours if you want me, and even if you don’t. But I really hope you do because⁠—”

She claps a hand over my mouth. “Shut up and kiss me, rockstar.”

And I do.

I kiss her with every part of myself. With every fear I've carried. Every hope I was afraid to name. Every piece of my heart that somehow found its way into her hands long before I realized I'd given it away.

Everything else disappears.

All that’s left is the feeling of her fingers against my skin and her breath mingling with mine. Only the certainty that no matter where life takes me from here, I will never be the same man I was before her.

Because Emerson isn't just someone I’m falling in love with.

She's become a part of me.

Like the tattoos etched across my skin, she's written into every version of who I am. Except ink only marks the surface. Emerson's mark runs deeper. She's woven herself into my bones, settled beneath my ribs, carved her place into the very fabric of my soul.

There's no separating myself from her.

No undoing her.

No erasing the way she became everything I’ve waited my entire life for.

And the truth is, I wouldn't want to.

Because when I look at her, I don't see someone who entered my life.

I see someone who became my life.

Someone who took all the fractured, lonely pieces of me and somehow made them feel whole.

So I kiss her like she's the beginning of everything.

Like she's the answer to every prayer I stopped believing would be heard.

Like I’ll spend the rest of my life being the man she deserves, whether she wants me or not.

She’s it for me.

And I plan on showing her I can be it for her too.

“Okay, lovebirds,” Silas says into his microphone, and I feel Emerson smirk against my lips. “If you two don’t mind, we have a show to finish.”

Laughter sounds among the crowd as Emerson’s head falls to my shoulder, and I open my eyes, finding smiles on the faces of my family and closest friends just beyond the stage.