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“I think that’s the point,” Dad responded gently.
“It is.” I stopped in the doorway of the kitchen to find Mom slumped at the breakfast bar, Dad standing behind her and rubbing her shoulders. “The complete point.”
Mom hurried to wipe her tears away. “Three days,” she echoed, straightening her spine. “I can handle three days.”
“I’ll call, I’ll text, and you can even watch the livestream on Untapped Potential’s social media page, like I showed you, remember? I’ll be streaming it the whole time.”
“Stella!” Nellie called from the front of the house. “His car pulled up!”
A shot of happiness and excitement rippled through me, and without giving any of them a second thought, I turned to hurry out of the kitchen.
Dad’s voice trailed after me. “Come on, let’s see her off, yeah?”
Margot and the twins were already outside when I got to the front door, the latter two flagging down Harry. The sight of his car had my heart skipping a beat, the future I’d been dreaming of just moments away from becoming a reality.
Harry parked in the driveway, a red beacon of freedom, and when he emerged, he had a gigantic grin on his gorgeous face. “You ready to do this thing?”
“Beyond ready,” I told him, stepping close enough to wrap my arms around his neck. He smelled like sunshine and happiness and independence. “Are the others on the road?”
“Yep.” He trailed his fingertip along my cheekbone. Despite the heat of the day, his touch was cool, a refreshing touch. “Natasha texted me that she left an hour ago.”
“Your first gig outside of Fenton County,” Dad called, stepping out of the house with Mom trailing him. They stopped beside Margot. “Moving on up in the world.”
“And the first recording session after being signed to Preston Records,” Harry returned happily, an easy smile on his lips. “I swear, I’ll be like a kid in a candy store. It’ll probably be embarrassing.”
It turned out that Margot’s intimidation technique—orpersuasive conversation, as she called it—on Mr. Preston had worked wonders. The Saturday after their gig at Downtown, Mr. Preston had come into Crushed Beanz with an offer they’d been dreaming of: a chance of recording their first single at his studio in Grisham Falls.
And once they wholeheartedly accepted, Mr. Preston pulled some strings to get them a slot to perform at a club up there. Expanding their horizons.
“I’ll livestream every second of it for the social media page,” I said, wrapping an arm around his waist. Natasha showed me how to stream to the page a few weeks ago, and I got to upload one of their gigs. The idea of seeing Harry’s reaction alone made me excited, anxious, and I wished we were in Grisham Falls already. “Just think—this time tomorrow, you’ll have begun the process of recording your first single.”
After Mr. Preston offered them a contract to record their first song, Untapped Potential had an easy time picking which one to debut with. Ever since they released it, it’d been their most requested at gigs. Their fans loved the beat and loved the lyrics.
And, ever so fitting, it was the song Harry wrote for me. “Dance Floor.”
“Text me when you get there,” Dad said, and his hand landed hard on Harry’s shoulder. He looked directly into Harry’s blue eyes. “And stay in your own hotel room, son. I booked two for a reason.”
Harry’s cheeks turned pink then, his hand dropping from around my waist. “Of course, sir.”
“Harry. It’s been months.” Dad gave Harry’s shoulder one last, more affectionate, squeeze before letting go. “Call me David.”
Ithadbeen months. Months since Harry and I accepted each other for who we were, months since we’d found each other again. And in those months, so much had happened. Endless Dial and Dine trips, coffee dates galore, and even the occasional movie night over at the Brighton household. Nellie loved forcing Harry to quiz her with her flash cards—to which he happily complied—and Jamie loved talking about the movies with Harry, especially when they were action flicks.
We’d all fallen into a steady rhythm, and it was just…perfect.
I tipped my head toward Mom, standing near the house, squinting against the sun. “I’ll see you in three days,” I told her with a smile.
Nellie hugged us goodbye after we loaded my luggage into the trunk—hugged Harry longer than her own sister—before she let us get into the car. Dad patted me on the back, much like he had with Mom, and Mom…she didn’t move from where she stood beside Margot. Her eyes, though, were very shiny. “Love you,” she said to me, the words faint but there.
So much had changed in the past few months. The transition into her giving me more space was hard—especially when it came to turning down volunteer opportunities—but we started to find our new normal. I was allowed to keep my cell phone at night as long as I turned it off by eleven, which felt like a monumental step. She’d let me go out as much as I wanted with Harry, as long as I kept my grades up to her standards and was home by curfew.
And “love you” had been a part of that, on rare occasions.
“So,” Harry said as he backed down the driveway, and I waved at everyone, watching the five of them wave back. “How’s your first adventure as a high school graduate feel?”
Right. I’d officially graduated from Eastview Academy two weeks ago. Online classes didn’t start until the fall, which gave me the entire summer of freedom. As per our agreement, my parents were to be hands-off for the first semester. Or, well, as hands-off as they could force themselves to be.
When Untapped Potential began touring, they’d have to fully let me go. And though I was excited, I couldn’t deny that I was happy they still cared.
