She shook her head. “I’ve been pretty busy and so has he, so we haven’t seen each other much, but he has asked a few times if I’m okay. I just told him I was nervous about the song.”
“Well, he knows it was about more than that now,” I said, thinking back on the best speech I’d ever heard before a performance. “Do you think he stuck around? Obviously, I haven’t checked my phone and I don’t know if you looked at yours during the tournament, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to see us.”
“Let’s just take one more minute in our little bubble of us, then we can go face the world,” she said lazily, turning her head to kiss my shoulder.
I nodded my agreement, relaxing back and shifting to slide my arm around her shoulders. As I did, my gaze caught on the check lying on the floor. It must’ve fluttered off the armrest at some point, but it was the one thing we needed to deal with before we left “this little bubble of us.”
Leaning forward, I swiped it up and then tore it in half first before ripping it into little shreds. She gaped at me, her eyes round as she watched me destroy it. “What are you doing?”
“You can keep the money as a gift or if you want to, you can donate it to my charity. I appreciate the gesture, but I’m not taking it back. Whatever you choose to do with it, it’s yours, but I can’t very well let a signed check stay in one piece.”
“Whoa, back up.” She raised her hand and sat up straighter. “Your charity? What are you talking about? When did you start a charity?”
“Oh. Right.” I cleared my throat, grinning as I nudged her shoulder with my own. “I’ve been wanting to tell you about it so damn badly, but I couldn’t talk to you without getting my poor heart broken again.”
“Your poor heart?” She scoffed laughingly. “What about my heart? It’s been even more torn up than that check.”
I sighed, the humor fading out of me. I took her in my arms and held her tight, breathing her in as I rested my chin on top of her head. “I’m sorry that I hurt you. If I’d known you were as torn up as I was…”
“I’m sorry, too,” she whispered. “So, so sorry. Neither of us knew, though. We should’ve both said something earlier, but we didn’t. We can’t change that, but we can promise to be honest with each other in the future and not to put each other through that ever again.”
“Consider it done,” I agreed immediately, pulling back to look at her as I asked her the question I’d been wanting to for weeks and not thinking I’d ever have the chance to.
“Do you want to travel the world with me again next year? After the poverty we saw in Egypt, I couldn’t just sit back and keep doing nothing, so the charity I started involves donating laptops to underprivileged children in poverty-stricken communities. I plan on going out to some of those communities myself to give them some lessons and hopefully equip them with the knowledge and skills they need to start lifting themselves out of their circumstances.”
“Wow,” she breathed. “It sounds like you’ve been pretty busy these last few weeks too, but yes. I’d love to go with you, and I love that you’re doing this.”
A faraway, contemplative look came into her eyes. Then she grinned. “I’m definitely donating the money, but I’d also like to do more, and since I’m useless at computers, I can’t help with the lessons but I can do charity concerts as my part of it.”
“You’d do that?” I asked, grinning right back at her as I held her even tighter. “Actually, you don’t need to answer that. I already know that you would. It’s just one more thing that convinces me that we were made for each other.”
“What, the fact that we both want to do charity work?” she teased, pressing the tip of her nose against mine. “I happen to agree with you on that front, but at the same time, there are plenty of people who do charity work.”
“Smart-ass.” I laughed. “It’s not that. It’s because you knew about the charity I started for less than five minutes before you came up with a great idea to support it, and because you’re so willing to give your time already even though you’re only just really getting started yourself. Most people would’ve said they’d doaconcert when they could, but you just jumped in and said you’d do concerts, which means more than one, without qualifying the commitment at all.”
“I’m all in with you,” she murmured. “Whatever you do, I’m always going to be right there, supporting you in any way I can. That being said, even a hundred concerts of mine might not bring in as much money as one concert by somebody else.”
“Maybe not yet, but they will. It’s not about the money anyway, though. You seriously need to stop underestimating your talent, but to me, this is about your willingness to support the cause even while your career is only just starting to take off.”
“It wouldn’t have without you, but I’ve also realized that I need more than a career to make me happy. Sure, it’s always been a part of my dreams for the future, but the bigger part is having someone to share that future with. Actually, not someone. You. Sharing my failures and my successes withyou. It’s not about the money to me either. It’s aboutyouand getting to be with you no matter what happens. I love you, Bart. I love you and I’m always going to support you regardless of what you do.”
She smiled against my lips, and my heart almost exploded with happiness. I’d never known it was possible to feel like this, and even if I had, I’d never have expected to feel it for myself. Serenity had been the love of my life since before I’d even known what love really was, and hearing her say the things I felt, like she’d plucked the words out of my own head, was like a fucking revelation.
She was my fiery, fun, redheaded songbird, and while I’d happily have stayed in this “bubble of us” for the rest of my life, I also refused to let us getting back together distract her from achieving her dreams.
“I’m always going to support you, too,” I promised. “Wherever your career takes you, I’m going to be right there with you. We’re going to figure it all out, Serenity. First things first, though, we need to get dressed and go find Shawn.”
She sighed but nodded. “We do. After we’ve faced him, we can turn to whatever comes next.”
Pressing a final lingering kiss to her lips, I hummed my agreement and released her to start hunting down my clothes. Shawn was important to both of us, and although I knew he hadn’t found the woman yet who would make him want to change his ways and settle down, he’d understand that I’d found exactly that in Serenity.
He might punch me before we got to the understanding part, but there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her. Including taking a fist to the face from one of my best friends. If that was what it took, I’d happily let him pummel me to a damn pulp. I doubted he’d go quite that far, but even if he did, I’d take it.
I’d take it all—as long as she was by my side when we came out the other end. And something told me she would be. From now on, she would be by my side and I’d be by hers, and we wouldn’t let life drive us apart ever again.
EPILOGUE
SERENITY