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Ellie takes the opportunity to play the song on her phone that she hooked up to a portable speaker, so it plays loud around us.
Everyone starts dancing, so I stand and take Hannah in my arms, swinging her around to the sound of her own voice. Toward the end of the song, I tilt her chin up and kiss her lips softly as she wraps her arms around my neck.
“Whoa!” Leah yells out. “Um, did we miss something?”
Hannah lays her head on my chest and holds me tight. “Maybe,” she says with so much happiness in her voice that it makes me smile even more.
“Good for you guys,” Ellie says before she turns on a country station and Jason Aldean plays around us.
We take our seats back on the tailgate, and I wrap my arm around her. The grin she gives me when she looks up at me is pure heaven. For years, I’ve tried to forget about her, but I knew deep down that I never would.
Now, I know why.
She’ll always be my girl, no matter where the world takes us.
I kiss her forehead when something catches my attention over her head. It’s Nate and Ellie. The way they’re talking screams anything but friends. I nudge Hannah to look over to them.
She makes a gasping noise and covers her mouth, so no one else will hear. “Am I really seeing this?” she whispers, then looks back to the two of them standing face-to-face, Nate placing his hand on her hip and Ellie laughing at whatever he’s saying.
“I’d say, you’re not the only one coming to Mason Creek to find love,” I say.
Hannah grins up at me again, then gives me a sweet kiss.
“Look what my mom still had,” Trent calls out, breaking our moment as well as Ellie and Nate’s. “It’s the guitar I learned to play on.”
He jumps up on the tailgate of the truck he drove and readies himself, getting in position with the guitar. “What do you say we play them our next single?”
Leah and Ellie jump in excitement as I kiss Hannah on the head and whisper, “I’d love to hear it.”
To my surprise, she stands up, grabs my arms to make me stand up, too, and wraps them around her with her back to me, resting the back of her head on my chest. A slow guitar solo begins, and Hannah sways to the beat.
I glance around the area to see if Cole or Nate will do anything, but they don’t. This must be a song that really shows off her vocal range, just her singing with a simple guitar.
Once the words start, chills cover my body. Having her sing while in my arms feels almost angelic.
Everything about this moment is perfect, and when she leans back on me more as she sings a song about a boy and a girl, I can’t help but hold her tighter and kiss the top of her head.
After all these years, it’s the most amazing feeling ever to have her back in my arms again.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
Matthew
As everyone takes off from the bridge, Hannah and I decide to stay and hop back into my truck.
“It’s so good to hang out with everyone again,” she says with a blissful sigh.
I reach over and run my fingers through her hair. “It sure is good to have you home, but tell me, what is Nashville like?”
The grin on her face tells me she likes it there. “It’s not here, but it became home.” She turns to face me more. “Imagine a Pony Up on every single corner in town, only the town is a thousand times bigger than Mason Creek.”
“And how many of those bars have you performed in?” I ask with a laugh.
She laughs too, shaking her head. “I swear, it feels like all of them.”
“I can imagine. Five years is a long time to be chasing a dream. But you did it.”
The expression she gives me is so soft and content that it fills my heart with love.
