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I take the marker and scribble my signature on the back of her phone case.

“Oh my God. I love you. I mean, your music. I love your music and you,” she squeals.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” I drawl.

“Can I get a selfie with you?” she asks.

“Me too,” they all bellow.

I spend the next twenty minutes snapping photos with them while Ansley gets lost in the crowd.

Traitor.

I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn to find Corbin grinning at me.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I’m the town’s fire chief. I’m here to support the library. Plus, Valley Fire and Rescue donated an eighty-inch smart TV for the silent auction. What are you doing here?” he asks.

“I’m on a date,” I deadpan.

He raises a skeptical eyebrow. “A date? With who?”

“Ansley Humphries.”

“That sounds about right. Ansley would consider this shindig romantic. She loves books, but I’m surprised she’d want to be here with you,” he muses.

“I can be very persuasive when I want to be,” I tell him.

Mom finds us, and she is followed by a tall, slender brunette with enhanced features, including a very full, pouty mouth.

“Garrett,” the girl howls and throws her arms around me.

I don’t return the embrace.

“Susanna, it’s good to see you,” I greet as she releases me and wraps her arm with Corbin’s.

“I heard you were home. I hope you’ll come by and see us while you’re here. We remodeled the entire house. You have to see it,” she coos.

“I’ll try,” I tell her, not intending to try at all.

I love my brother, but Susanna rubs me all kinds of wrong.

“Come on, honey. There are a few items I want to bid on,” she purrs into Corbin’s ear.

I gag a little.

The two of them walk off, and I’m left with Mom.

She watches as they retreat and shakes her head. “I swear, I barely recognize her every time I see her.” Then, she turns back to me. “Spin your mother around the dance floor?” she requests.

I take her into my arms and lead her to the dance floor and do just that.

We spend three songs trying to ignore the flash of phones taking photos in our direction every five seconds. When the music slows, we spot Ansley in Pop’s arms, and Mom guides us over to them.

“Mind if I cut in?” she asks Ansley.

Ansley politely thanks my father for the dance and steps back. Pop takes Mom into his arms and pulls her close, and they sway off.

I extend my hand to Ansley, and she takes it. I give her a twirl before pulling her in and tucking her tight against my body.

We move to the music, and I sing the sweet lyrics against her hair.

I can feel the tension leave her body as we glide in circles.

God, she feels good in my arms.

“This reminds me of the last time we got dressed up to attend a dance,” I muse.

“Prom,” she whispers.


“You look beautiful. Every guy here is jealous of me right now,” I whispered into her ear as we swayed to the music.

“It’s the girls who are jealous,” she disagreed.

I press a kiss just below her ear and a shiver runs through her body.

“I felt that,” I said against her skin.

She leaned back and grinned at me.

“Don’t look at me that way or I’m going to whisk you out of here before they even announce the king and queen,” I warned.

“Let’s go,” she suggested.

I shook my head.

“Oh no, we are going to enjoy every last second of this,” I insisted.

I’ve been taking care to make sure we do all the things this year: football games, pep rallies, homecoming, spirit week and I even coordinated our senior prank which consisted of me and about a dozen other senior boys stealing chickens from our family farms. We snuck into the school on Saturday night and let thirty chickens loose in different parts of the campus. We all arrived Monday morning to the sight of teachers and Principal Evans chasing chickens up and down the halls. It was hysterical, and messy.

She stuck out her bottom lip. I smiled and leaned in to nip it with my teeth.

“No pouting. We won’t be here next year for your prom and I don’t want you to miss out,” I explained.

“I still can’t believe by this time next month we’ll be in Nashville,” she mused.

I placed my forehead against hers.

“Are you sure you want to come with me?”

I asked her at least once a day.

“I’m positive. Wherever you go, I go. Always,” she assured me.

Who knew always would be so short-lived.


When the song ends, the band announces that there is an hour left to get bids in on the auction items.

When the lead singer spots me in the audience, he calls me out. “Our native son and Nashville’s hottest artist, Garrett Tuttle, is in the house tonight. Maybe if we are really loud, we can convince him to come up and play us a song,” he announces to the crowd.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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