Aaron stood in the audience, not far from the front of the stage, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. It was hard to hold back his laughter. He’d never had someone he cared about in the audience, watching his show before, and it was rare that the stage lights weren’t bright enough to blind him. Vance saw every face and every expression. He saw the wonder, the joy, and the excitement. And as the band launched into their second song — a song that Vance himself had written and composed during his time in Prescott, he saw those emotions manifest clearer than ever.

He saw the surprise in Aaron’s eyes, and he hoped it would only grow with time.

The song was new, and Vance had never performed it live before, but the lyrics came to him easily. They were plucked straight from his heart, stolen from the day when he’d poured his heart out on the page, using his emotions to shape his words. His passion made it to his voice, and he heard it fill out his sound and add dimension to his voice that had never been there before.

So this is what it feels like to fall in love… this is what it’s like to revitalize an empty heart.

As the song went on, he headed for the side of the stage. Every set of eyes in the audience was on him, and he knew it. There were cameras filming, and soon enough, footage of this performance would be posted online, if it wasn’t being live-streamed already. Vance didn’t care. He wanted the world to see.

He took the steps down the side of the stage one by one as the audience screamed. Security — poor, underpaid men who Vance would make sure to pay extra for their efforts — swarmed around him to keep the audience members off as Vance joined them. The crowd parted for him, and he made his way to the only place he wanted to be — where Aaron was.

Aaron stood on the spot, stunned. He looked at Vance with soulful eyes, mouth hanging open in disbelief. Vance grinned. At last, he arrived in front of Aaron and looped his arm around his neck. He drew Aaron close — not close enough to interfere with the microphone, but so close that no one would be able to doubt Vance’s intentions. He was sick of being in the closet. He was sick of denying who he really was now he had someone special in his life. If people wanted to focus on him being gay, they could talk about it until their jaws fell off. Vance would move forward. He would continue to write and compose, producing music despite what they had to say about him. He would keep his chin up and do what he did best, because he knew no other way. No matter what they said about him, and no matter what they thought, he would be true to himself.

And that meant being true to Aaron.

The song ended. Tears streamed down Aaron’s cheeks. He looked at Vance with glossy eyes and shook his head slowly in disbelief.

“Love has a crazy way of turning your life around,” Vance said into the microphone so that everyone could hear. “It throws your life into chaos and knocks you off the path you’d planned… but in doing so, it shows you what you’re missing. It slows you down and forces you to look at all the poor choices you’ve made along the way, and what you can do to better yourself as a person. For the last eight months, I’ve been working toward a better me… and it’s all because of you, Aaron. I love you. I’m not going to hide it anymore.”

There was no pregnant pause. The crowd cheered, and Aaron choked back a sob that rattled his chest. He blinked away tears, but they managed to fall down his cheeks anyway. “I wanted to wait until you were done with tonight to tell you how I feel,” Aaron whispered. “I love you, Vance.”

Vance smiled. The words swept through him and untangled the tension that had knotted in his chest. He lowered his microphone and claimed Aaron’s lips in a public-appropriate kiss as everyone around them went wild.

Screw what people thought. Screw what it might do to his career. Love was more important than climbing his way back to the top of the charts. With the money he made on royalties, and the money he’d continue to make on them as the years went by, it wouldn’t matter if he had another commercial success. Even if he never worked in the business again, he could find a job at home and live more than comfortably if it meant that he could spend his days in love rather than alone.

He’d changed since he’d come back to Prescott. He’d found what was most important to him. As long as he lived, he would never take the important people in his life for granted again — they were so precious, few as they were. What Vance needed to be happy and satisfied wasn’t to rebuild his career — it was to rebuild the connection he’d lost to others. The more people he brought into his life, the better.

And he wanted to start with the most important person of all — the man he loved.

“Mr. Chastain, we’re going to have to ask you to get back to the stage,” one of the security personnel said. He sounded familiar. Vance turned his head to discover it was the bouncer from A Stiff One who he’d half-heartedly hit on while heartbroken. He laughed.

“Well, thanks for the warm reception, Prescott,” Vance said. He’d stepped back a little from Aaron so he could speak into the microphone again. “I’d like to be the very first to introduce to you the love of my life, Aaron Masterson. That’s it for me for tonight, but please, give it up for the musicians who played with me tonight. They accommodated me far more than they should have. That’s Ethan Bradbury on guitar, Lloyd Zhang on bass, and Mike Durand on drums. Coming up next is Heartburn, and they’ve got a set like you wouldn’t believe. Don’t go just yet, because this show’s just getting started… and I may or may not be coming back on stage for an encore.”

One of the staff took the mic from him and unstrapped him from his sound pack as he made his way back to the stairs. Aaron tagged along behind him, matching his hurried pace. “You’re going back on for an encore?” he asked.

“No,” Vance said. “Well, maybe. But the idea is to make them stay until the end.” He winked. “My big event went off pretty well, I’d like to say. I want to make sure yours is a success now, too. We’re in this together.”

“Together,” Aaron said with a smile.

It was the last Vance saw of him as he was whisked up the stairs and backstage, and it lingered in his mind even after they were parted. Aaron was in his heart, and Vance couldn’t deny it any longer. They’d figure out a way to make it work. No matter what, Vance would find a way.