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“This is kind of insane, heartthrob.”
“Just wait,” he said as Aria came to his side with an envelope in her hands.
“Here, Aunt Harper, I fixed Uncle Landy’s contract.”
“You fixed it?”
Aria beamed. “Open it.”
She removed a wrinkled set of pages. It was the contract Landon almost signed in Italy.
“I crossed out Uncle Landy’s name and wrote your name over it with my colored markers. I made every letter the right way.”
“What does this mean?”
“The music belongs to you.”
“No, we collaborated. It’s your new sound. It’s your dream. It’s how you’ll fulfill your promise to your sister and Trey.”
“Dreams change. Leighton and Trey’s dream was to start a music school for neurodivergent children. Making that happen is how I honor them. Plus, I’ll be busy mentoring musicians at New Beats.”
“This is what you want?”
The man’s half-smile took on a cocky twist. “I’ve been told I’m quite the teacher. Just look how many views my Landy Candy lesson has gotten. Plus, you’ll need the new songs for today and for Red Rocks Unplugged next week.”
“What are you talking about, heartthrob?”
“Uncle Landy, it’s time,” Aria said and handed him the microphone as a few stagehands rolled a grand piano onto center stage. “Hold this,” the little girl said and gave Landon the piano eraser. “And use your brave heart muscles.”
Landon nodded to his niece, and the child skipped off the stage and took a seat in the front row with Bess and Tomás.
He took her hand, then turned to the audience. “Hello, Denver!” he called, and the crowd responded with a wave of applause. “It gives me great pleasure to be here among musicians, artists, educators, and volunteers. But I wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for my wife.”
“And a double-dog dare,” Jude cried, then beat his chest.
“And a double-dog dare,” Landon repeated and gazed into her eyes.
“Reading and writing have never come easily to me. I struggled through school and relied on my sister’s help to get by. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was…I am…a divergent learner. My brain works a little differently. It does amazing things like allowing me to write songs like ‘Heartthrob Warfare’ and ‘No Fear,’ but I still struggle with reading and writing music. I’ve lived in fear that my secret would get out. I felt shame about who I was. I believed I had a problem. I thought asking for help made me weak. My friends, there is no greater strength than embracing who you are, and there is no shame in asking for help. Look around. We’re here today celebrating music and neurodiversity because people came together to help me prove to my wife that, despite being a musician, I believe in her. I believe in myself. I believe in all of you,” he said, and the amphitheater shook with the crowd’s boisterous response.
“You don’t mess around when it comes to a double-dog dare, do you, heartthrob?” she sassed as tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I owe everything I am to you. You and Aria are my future and my forever. You are the lyrics whispering in the back of my mind. You’re the melody I can’t stop humming. You are the song in my heart. You are the crazy person wearing my shirts and yelling at old ladies in line at convenience stores.”
She wiped her cheeks and chuckled as Aria ran back onto the stage.
The little girl waved her down. “Let me see, Aunt Harper.”
“What are you looking for, honey?”
Aria grinned. “You did it, Uncle Landy. Those are Aunt Harper’s happy tears.”
Landon took her hands into his. “Music has been a part of my life since I was fourteen years old. But it became a part of my soul the minute I heard you sing.”
This heartthrob.
“I love you,” she whispered.
A sneaky smirk curled his lips, and he leaned in. “You might want to throttle me in a second, but just go with it. You have all the songs we wrote memorized, right?”
“I do,” she answered.
“Ladies and gentlemen, in her debut performance, I give you the woman who is the love of my life, Harper Presley.” He lowered the mic. “Break a leg, rock star.”
She studied the grand piano, then gazed at the audience. “That was some fancy talking, heartthrob, but there’s one little change I need to make.”
“And what’s that?”
“My name. It’s Harper Presley-Paige.”
