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“That doesn’t mean we’ll stop giving each other a hard time.” I bite the strawberry, leaving the stem in her fingers. Oh, it’s so good. “Stop talking about work. It’s our time, remember?”
“Okay.” She offers me another strawberry, her attention returning to her phone. “Last question, though. Are you ready for the absolute madness that’ll begin once you release your new album?”
She worked on more than half of the songs with my band. The release is set for the beginning of August, and it’s been generating promising buzz.
“Of course. What about you? I’ll be gone all of September and October for our domestic leg of the tour. Have you decided how you’re going to distract yourself?”
“I’ll come with, of course. You got Krymson & Klover as the opening act already, but I don’t mind being second. I’ll do four songs or something.” Laurel eats a berry, scrolling through her screen some more. She’s acting like she’s ribbing me, but then she steals an evaluating sideways glance at me, and my mind stutters.
I swing my legs over the side of the settee and sit there, shellshocked. “You’d come with me?” Wait. She’d play for us? “Laurel!” I whip around toward her. “You can’t open for us. We opened for your dad! We’re the junior band.”
She opens the blanket and pats the space beside her. I crawl back in.
“No,” she says. “I’m the Little Fox. You have years of magnificent music and a loyal fan base. I have years of hiding and my dad’s reputation. There was this one time…” She drops her gaze to her hands worrying the blanket. “Mom said I could push Dad off his throne. I brushed her off then. I mean, come on. It’s Dad. But seeing my work in your music, how excited you guys are about it, I kind of want to try. I’m not sure if I can, but… Am I crazy?” Laurel looks up at me, eyes full of doubt.
“You are crazy.” I drag her into my arms. “You’re crazy to think for one second that you can’t. You can. But I must tell you, you’ve got to keep in mind that it’s not about overthrowing. It’s about finding your own path. Trust me. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way.”
“Fortunately for me, you’ll be there to save me from similar mistakes.”
“Nope. I’ll be there to steal all your genius songs. If I can’t keep the Vipers on their toes with my guitar alone—”
She pinches my side. “What happened to the whole it’s-not-about-overthrowing?”
“A little rivalry can never hurt.”
“Ah. Right. Okay. But just in case you don’t know yet, you can’t keep thinking ACD is a junior band.” She shows me her phone screen where the Billboard’s Hot 100 page displays the latest and the greatest. ACD has been in and out on many occasions, but we have never landed number one. Laurel taps her finger at the top line of the list, whereWishesclaims the top rank.
“That’s impossible!” I shout. Why? BecauseWisheshas been climbing up the chart for weeks, then it dropped, and I was certain it’d continue dropping, but what the heck? “How did it land number one?”
“We got married. People are loving the fact that I wrote it with you. Everyone’s listening to it…”
Laurel goes on, but my mind tunes her out.
Number one. It’s possible to make a lot of money in this business but never land at the top. You can occupy a spot somewhere in the top ten, be comfortably loved, but not quite everyone’s favorite. That’s what ACD has been. Second, third, fourth, tenth.
But now we’re number one. On top of Project Viper’s latest release.
Because of Laurel.
“Jace.” She squeezes my shoulder. “I know what you’re thinking—”
“No, you don’t.” I grab her and kiss her hard. My heart burns in my chest. “Laurel, you and I…” Yes, I got,wegot first place thanks to her, and yes, I didn’t do it on my own. I’m still a competitive son of an amp, and I don’t know if I’ll ever stop being one, but one thing has changed for me. I now have an accomplice. A girl— No, awifewho, despite all her eye-rolling, loves guitars as much as I do. Laurel often reminds me to be myself, through her sheer presence, but she also dives into whatever madness I decide to fill my life with. Venom Guitars, ACD’s business, even sidetracking Briar who hasn’t given up on trying to entice me into a solo career. That’s why I don’t buck against her help. She’s in on it with me. “What have I done to earn you?”
Laurel shrugs. “I don’t know. I suppose you’re just that lucky.”
“I am.” I press a kiss to her forehead and thank everything for the last year.
I’m grateful that my life deteriorated, that I’ve been a mess, that I threw those tacos out and went to Bjornson’s shop on that one day Laurel was there. That she said I was wrong and kept telling me so about everything I was doing. That she took interest in me even though I was everything she hated. That she never once backed away from a fight. I’m even grateful that she didn’t ask me to stay because losing her made me see that I couldn’t go on the way I was. And I will do everything in my power and more to never lose her again.
“Let’s make it happen,” I say. “Come on tour with us.”
“Are you sure?” Laurel beams, equal parts of excitement and terror splashed across her face.
“Of course. You’ll slay them. The world is yours.” She’s always had it in her to be a fighter, in her own, different way.
“I don’t need the world. I just need you.” She kisses me on the cheek, and for the first time in my entire life I consider the possibility that maybe I don’t need the world either. At least not the kind I’ve been pursuing. Laurel has become my entire world, and even the victory of snagging that Hot 100 top spot can’t compare with how she makes me feel—that things besides music matter, that life outside the spotlight means something, and that—
Laurel grazes my neck with a playful kiss. “We’re done talking about work now, right?”
“M-hm.” I close my eyes and relax in her embrace. Laurel runs her fingers through my hair. We’ve changed. I’m different. She’s different too. We’re both better, and we can only go up from here.
The End
