Her huge brown eyes went wide, then she stumbled back and fled the bathroom.

I clambered out of the tub and after her. “Wait, Fee.”

“Are you insane? We slept together one time. One.” She gripped the back of the couch by the windows.

“I said someday. You have to know that I came home for you, Felicity.”

“Yeah, let’s talk about that. What are you doing here? According to the tour schedule on your website, you should be in Chicago tonight. Why are you here?”

My heart thundered in my ears. I hadn’t exactly explained what was going on, but she’d shared an important piece of information. Something that gave me a little hope. “You know my schedule?”

“That is not the point.” She folded her arms. “You aren’t supposed to be here. Why are you here, Myles?”

“I told you—”

She sliced the air with her hand. “Oh no. You aren’t saying that again.”

“What?” I crossed the room to her. “I’m here for you.”

“To what? Win me over then go back on tour? Isn’t that why you screwed up our friendship in the first place?”

I swallowed and jammed my hands into my pockets. “Not exactly.”

“Then please let me know exactly why you’re doing this?”

I rocked on my heels, then tangled my hands in my hair, dragging the rubber band out to rake my fingers through the curls so I could think. “I’m back. That’s the only important part here.”

“No.” She came around the couch, then stabbed her finger into my chest. “You don’t get to do that.”

I caught her finger and pressed her palm to my chest. “I left something behind the last time I was home.” She tried to pull her hand away and I held her tighter. “I love you, Fee. I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember.”

Tears hovered on her eyelashes. “Myles,” she whispered.

“I left the band. It wasn’t working. Nothing was working. Everything was just too hard, too wrong. The music didn’t speak to me anymore. It hasn’t for a long time. So I’m home. To stay.”

She shook her head. “No. You love music. You worked so hard for this.”

“I’m officially retired. I signed the papers to dissolve my part of the partnership with the band. I still get royalties, of course, but I have enough money for three lifetimes. I can take care of us. We can be together.”

She pulled her hand away.

I took two steps forward to try to pull her in closer, but she ran from the room and down the stairs.

“Dammit.” This was not how I’d hoped this would go. At all.

I chased her down the stairs, but she was already out the front door and on the porch.

“Felicity, stop.”

She halted on the stairs to the driveway, but she didn’t turn back to me. “You can’t expect to waltz back into town and think I’m just going to play house with you.” She finally whirled around. “I had plans. I have plans.”

“Plans to do what?” I swallowed against the panic creeping up my spine, threatening to crush my shoulders and break my damn brain. “You told me you couldn’t leave here. When we talked about our futures over pizzas and endless gallons of ice cream, you said this was your home. I want to be your home.”

“That was two years ago. When you walked out—”

“I didn’t know how to do this.” I ran down the stairs to her. “Now I do. I don’t want to rush you. I’ll wait as long as it takes. I just want to make sure you know this is where I’m at.”

She turned and looked at the house. “What part of this is slow? You have to know this is absolutely nuts. We’re just friends. You made sure of that.”

“You know we aren’t. Not after today. Hell, before today—for years we’ve known it. I was just too stupid to grab for it. Never again.” I reached out and cupped her face. “Us. It’s the best part of me. It’s always been you, Fee. Always.”

“What about me? You came here with a whole plan in your head. But is it really a plan? Or are you just here to hide?”

I dropped my hands. “No.”

“Isn’t that it?” She pointed to the big house behind us. “You bought this huge suburban beast of a house out of nowhere?”

“I bought it to take care of you. To make a home with you.”

She cupped her hand over her mouth, her fingers trembling. Finally, the tears that had been trapped in her lashes overflowed. She dashed them away with the back of her hand. “I couldn’t do that to you. You’d die here. Music is everything to you.”

“You’re everything to me. I only figured that out when I was on the road.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“Of course I do. Do you think we could have made love like that if I didn’t?”

She shook her head. “We were always heading to that. It doesn’t mean we’re two-point-five kids and a minivan.”

“We could be.”

“You’re insane. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but you know that’s not what you really want.”

“You don’t know anything about it. About what it’s been like. All the nights I’ve spent in a coffin-sized bunk with guys snoring around me.” I paced away from her. “Doing the same songs over and over again. The venues were different, but the setlist never wavered.” I stalked back to her. “No matter how I begged to throw in a cover song, or a new song—they wouldn’t even consider it.”

I laughed. It sounded manic to my own ears, but I didn’t stop. “The light show can’t be changed, Myles. The setlist is the perfect length. When we do a cover, we lose the fans and have to build the show back up.”

She grabbed my arm. “Oh, Myles.”

I shook her off. “There are so many reasons why the band didn’t work for me. If I had a wild hair to play a Frank Turner song, a Beatles song, or even one I’d been working on with one of the guys… There was no room to grow. No room to experiment. There was only the setlist, and let’s not even talk about the schedule. Do you know the last time I had a day off?”

“You need a break.”

“I quit, Fee.” I crowded into her and grasped her shoulders. “There was no time off because we were selling out stadiums and arenas. And there won’t be for a damn long time.”

“Didn’t you take time off for your bandmate’s baby not all that long ago? Maybe just a little more time and you’ll feel different.”

“No.”

She put her hands on my chest, her fingers twisting into the chains I wore. I didn’t want her touching me right then. Not with all this in my head. She had no idea how much I’d agonized over this decision. Everything was gone.

There was only her.

I stepped back and one of my chains snapped.

“Myles, wait.”

“I came back here to tell you I love you. You think what happened today is just sex? I’ve fucked dozens of women.” She flinched, but I kept going. “I’ve only made love to one woman. You.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks unchecked. I knew she loved me too. I could see it in her eyes and the way she swayed to come closer to me. Why was she pushing me back?

“You’re ruining everything,” she whispered.

“I’m not. I’m seeing clearly for the first time.”

She shook her head. “You’re saying all the things you think you should say. You’re twenty-eight years old. There’s no way you can retire. You’d wither and die here. I could never be the reason that happened.”

“This isn’t now.” I waved at the house. Spots danced at my periphery. “This is the future. We can get to know each other again. Get to know how we are as this.” I dragged her against me and dropped my mouth to hers. I kissed her through the tears mixing with our taste.

She reached up and stroked my beard before stepping back. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

That didn’t make sense. I frowned down at her. “What do you mean leaving?”

“You saw my bags. You know yesterday was my last day at the bar. I have a train ticket to Louisiana.”

“What the fuck is in Louisiana?”

She shrugged. “New Orleans. The first stop on my trip across the country. I’ve been working my ass off to get out of here. I have my own business. I put my degree to good use and pulled all-nighters to build up a clientele that would allow me to be my own boss, but also travel. To actually see the United States, maybe even the world someday.” She brushed away the last of her tears. “But you didn’t ask me. Didn’t even think that maybe I wasn’t sitting here waiting for you.”

“I didn’t expect you to wait.”

“Didn’t you?” Her eyes were dry now. Resolute in a way I’d never seen.

“I…” Had I? I’d come back last February and saw her here. The same Felicity, the same bar, the same town. She’d had her fucking lips on some asshole, but everything else had been the same.

At least I had thought it was.

She shook her head. “Just take me to my sister’s.” She ran for the truck as I released a breath.

A glint of silver caught my eye. The chain she’d broken. I crouched down to pick it up. It was the one she’d given me all those years ago. I glanced around and found the sixteenth note broken off from the chain. I grabbed both and jammed them into my pocket.

Even her gift didn’t make it through our little war.