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Gemma threw her head back and dramatically groaned in appreciation, channeling Lila. “That wasamazing. Seriously the coolest thing ever. You’ve set an incredibly high bar for sentimental gestures, you know.”
He shrugged and laced his fingers back between hers. “I look forward to topping it someday.”
They still stood centerstage, alone in the pale moonlight. Gemma marveled at how quiet their voices sounded in the exact space that had been raging with noise not three hours before.
“I don’t know if that’s possible.”
His lips pulled into a mischievous grin. “We’ll see.”
Gemma gripped his hands and leaned back, swaying against the sturdy weight of him holding on to her. “Okay, here’s another one: If I hadn’t met you, I never would have had the guts to interview Nigel.”
He reeled her in by the arms and released a hand to tuck her hair back. “I don’t think you needed me for that; you only needed a little push. I just happened to be the person in the position to give it to you.”
She softly smiled at him. “Well, thanks for giving it to me. It’s my dream to do something like that someday, and I’ve always been afraid to... I don’t know.” She felt a swell of honesty rise in her chest, and before she knew it, she was confessing one of her biggest secrets. “I’m afraid I’ll be bad at it, at anything in music, and with everyone in the industryknowing my dad, it’s like the stakes are higher. They have expectations. And at the same time, I don’t want anything handed to me because of him, so I’ve been holding myself back in multiple ways.”
He smoothed her hair again and lifted her chin with a hooked finger. “You’re not bad at it, trust me. I think you will be an amazing host, so you should go for it. And anyone who judges you because of your family, for any reason, can fuck right off.”
She laughed. “Have you been holding back swearing in front of me all day? I’ve seenMac Drake; I know you’ve got the vocabulary. But I’ve hardly heard it other than when you told Nigel you aren’t going to fuck up—and when you called himsir!” A cackle burst from her throat, bouncing her chest. “Oh, I’d forgotten about that until right now!”
Jack’s face turned an adorable shade of rose. He buried it in his hands. “Please don’t remind me of that. It just came out!”
Gemma kept laughing and grabbed his wrists to pull away his hands. “Well, heisknighted, so technically, you weren’t wrong. Sir Nigel William Orville Black.”
Jack shook his head with an embarrassed smile. “A, why do you know that? And B, there’s a difference between addressing someone with their honorific and unknowingly slipping it in because you’re terrified. I’m officially more afraid of him than your father.”
“Good. You should be.”
Their laughter died down and they held each other, his hands on her hips and her arms around his neck, slowly swaying to a song only they could hear. Gemma thought of all the songs that had been played on this stage over thedecades of live performances. Some of the most famous musicians in the whole world had stood right where they were standing. She knew their private, quiet moment was all the more special for that reason.
“Here’s another one,” Jack said. “If I hadn’t met you, I never would have become a viral internet sensation.”
Gemma’s laughter returned in giggly bubbles. She wondered how far the video of them had spread, and how many people had tuned in to the grand finale of Lila’s livestream. “Is that something you wanted?”
“No!” He joined her in laughing. “That’s thelastthing I want.”
“Good. And same. I’ll leave that life to Lila. Fame of any sort is not on my bucket list.Oh!” she blurted. “I’ve got another one: If I hadn’t met you, I never would have known that Duncan Miles—who is ridiculously hot in person, by the way—is a diva.” She flipped her hair and jerked her neck back and forth for emphasis.
“Ah, yes. I’m sure that is vital information you are happy to have in your keep now.”
“Completely vital. And on that note, I never would have met Angelica Reyes either, which, take it or leave it, honestly.”
Jack grimaced. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
Knowing that Angelica was out of the picture and given the fact that Jack’s arms were looped around her and they were slow dancing to silent music on a grand stage, Gemma felt securer about probing. “How did you guys even end up together?”
He released a mighty sigh. “We met at a party last year and kind of hit it off. We started hanging out, and I thoughtI was into her, but I think I was just lonely. And she was”—he paused for another breath—“she was a lot. Jealous, demanding. Obviously unfaithful.” Pain flitted across his face and put an ache in Gemma’s heart.
“I’m sorry, Jack. Catching her with someone must have been awful.”
A dark laugh puffed from his lips. He stopped swaying and dropped his arms. The absence of his touch shot a pang of regret through Gemma for bringing up his ex. “In truth, I didn’t remember it until she told me, and none of it matters now,” he said. “But you know, I think all the wild things that happened today really were meant to fix that part of my life. I mean, you running into her at a restaurant? What are the chances?” He wandered over to the couch still set up in front of the drum platform and sat like the thoughts were too heavy to carry. He looked up at her with shiny pools for eyes. “The way it was all connected today—in waysIdidn’t even see untilyoustarted remembering—it has to all mean something, right?”
His certainty appeared to pull back like a curtain, exposing a look of raw wonder on his handsome face. His eyes searched Gemma’s for an answer. She didn’t have one for him because she found it all inexplicable too, but she did have pieces of the story he didn’t yet know.
She sat beside him and slipped her hand into his. “In a weird way, yes. If I hadn’t run into her, I wouldn’t have thought you were leaving and realized I couldn’t let you go.” She pulled his hand to her lips to kiss it and softly smiled. “I mean, I didn’t really need the theatrics and public encounter, but it all served a purpose, I guess.”
“I can only imagine what that looked like, and sorry again.”
Gemma shrugged. “Speaking of difficult relationships, did you know that you are my dad’s neighbor?”
