He got up to get a towel and wiped between my legs before tossing it aside and pulling me into his arms.
All at once, the shock from the photographer, the excitement of Ash joining us, and just the comfort of Parker’s arms, hit me, pulling my lids down like weights.
Happiness engulfed us both because we finally made it. We finally broke out of our loop, and we were making this work. We’d finally got what we’d wanted all along. I fell asleep feeling invincible—confident in our future.
Nothing could shake us.
I was wrong.
Twenty-Seven
Parker
P A S T
The crowd chanted our name, and we each looked to each other with massive, goofy-ass grins, all thinking the same thing: This is it.
This was happening for us.
It was by far our biggest show yet with the rowdiest crowd. When Nova joined us on stage halfway through, we really hit our stride—I hit my stride. I’d locked eyes with her, and everything faded away—even the hundreds of fans singing our song—our song.
And it couldn’t have happened on a better night. We’d walked in, and the bartender let us know some music execs were stopping by to check out the performers tonight.
I tossed my pick to the crowd like I was some actual rock star, and Oren joined me by lobbing his broken sticks up, and girls reached for them like they were the bride’s bouquet at a wedding.
Fucking surreal.
We practically floated off the stage, and I only had one thing on my mind—Nova. After our night talking to our parents, things had been…harder.
We’d worked harder once school was out, constantly fighting for our next spot on a stage.
Nova worked harder on hiding her growing anxiety over the comments directed at her and the letters that still came. At the end of each show, a letter waited. Every video to YouTube included twenty comments from the same person. But nothing ever happened, so we pushed it aside, focusing on the next performance.
And Nova and I had to work ten times harder than ever before to keep our bodies in check. Every day my muscles clenched with the need to pull her into my arms and have her, but somehow, we held back.
But there was no holding back tonight when the surge of adrenaline hit.
The guys all chest bumped and manly hugged our excitement while Nova stood back laughing, but as soon as they parted, there she stood, and I couldn’t stop my body from gravitating toward her if I tried.
I walked over, my eyes locked on hers, getting the same look in return. Without any warning, I bent down and picked her up, her legs wrapping around my waist, and kissed her. Every kiss hit just as intensely as the first time, and I wasn’t sure we could pull back from it anymore. I didn’t want to.
“You’re amazing—everything,” I whispered against her smiling lips.
“I don’t want to stop kissing you,” she admitted.
“Then don’t. Ever. Fuck everything. We’ll figure it out.”
She nodded, and I went back in for more. In that moment, I could have said we’d make it to the moon, and I’d believe it. We were on a high.
Sliding her down, I groaned when she made a point to press her hips to mine. “Tease.”
She winked and backed away, going to help the guys pack up their equipment. They’d been so engrossed in their own post-show high that they hadn’t even noticed Nova in my arms. Not that I cared.
By the time we got packed up, we were ready to join the crowd and enjoy the concert.
“I’m going to run to the restroom first,” Nova let me know, her eyes taking on that wary edge again.
“Meet us out there,” Ash said.
“Wait,” she shouted, her hand reaching out to stop them. “Can you wait for me?”
“Uhhh…why?” he asked.
I hit his shoulder and gave him a hard stare, silently reminding him of the letters she got that put her more on edge each time. Each show, she looked around more and more like the guy writing the notes would pop out and announce it was him to make it easy on us. Each note grew a little more detailed, never failing to be handed to us before the end of the night.
“Nova,” he began with a confident smile. “You need to stop letting this admirer get in your head. We told you, he’s probably harmless.”
Her jaw ticked when he said admirer when she firmly planted this person in the category of stalker. “It’s just that, a letter came to the house last week.”
Alarm jolted through my veins. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“I didn’t have time. You were at practice, or Mom was around, and I wanted to ignore it…later.”
Later, as in at night when we went to each other to relax.
“It’s not like it’s hard to get an address. I mean, hello internet,” Oren added with a laugh. “Seriously, Nova. It’s probably a prank. Don’t worry about it.”