My skin felt like it was singing. My pupils seemed to be taking in more light than normal, because everything was bright and unusually vivid.

Kaycee loved me.

It was a simple statement, a series of words that I’m sure I had thought before at one point or another, but that now carried gravity enough to mute my breathing and sharpen my senses. Because it was real, not dreamed. Not wished. Not desperately longed for.

And the statement was reinforced by the way Kaycee was smiling down at me from where she was still leaning against the wall, panting to regain her breath from how hard I’d just made her come. Though my position on the floor was hardly graceful, I was thrillingly, passionately alive.

Without thinking, I found myself running my fingertips along the soft curve of Kaycee’s leg, admiring her milky skin while still lost in my mind. My reverence was broken by her squirming giggle.

“Win, stop it! I’m ticklish, remember?”

Shit.

Of course I did. Grinning, I withdrew my hand and stood, shakily at first, rotating my feet to get the feeling back in them. She finished re-dressing and smoothed the wrinkles from her shirt.

When Kaycee reached for my hand to hold it, I felt the gravity again, plunging my stomach lower and shaking my confidence even as it grounded it.

“Wait, what happened with your job?” I said. The whole reason she’d never taken a chance on me had slipped my mind, I’d been so overwhelmed by seeing her. Enchanted and enraged, all at the same time.

And Kaycee smiled, slowly, her eyes warming up as she collected herself to speak. But she didn’t have to. Her victory was apparent in her posture, as well as her eyes.

“Congratulations!” I said, and she laughed. I joined her in laughing, hugging her in the all-encompassing bear hug she deserved. I’d seen how hard she’d worked.

Hell, I’d suffered from it.

“Thanks, Win,” she said, her voice muffled by my shoulder.

“You have to tell me all about it,” I said. I relinquished my tight-armed hug only to allow her room to breathe. The sensation of her body next to mine was still so incredibly thirst quenching.

“Actually,” she said, glancing back at the door to the dressing room, “I wanted to talk to you about your brothers.”

“What about them?”

“Well, you know…what do we say?”

There was a pause, during which our eyes met and we both smiled, though Kaycee was clearly about ten times more nervous than I was.

They were my brothers, after all.

“We’re together,” I said. And the sentence, however short, rang in my ears for minutes after, happily clanging about in my brain setting off shots of serotonin. “That’s all they need to know, right?”

“I guess…”

“It’ll be ok,” I said, squeezing her hand. “Let’s rip the Band-Aid off.”

Before she could protest, I tugged her towards the door and opened it.

“Win,” she said, starting to say something panicked, but by the time my name was out of her mouth it was too late. Outside the door, Jack, Kyle, and Stevie were sitting around a laptop blaring crunchy rock music from a band I’d never heard of but made a mental note to inquire about. Their heads snapped up, spotting us instantly.

“Heyyyy,” said Kyle, his face splitting into an easy grin. He held up a bottle of beer in faux cheers.

“Congrats,” said Stevie.

“Wait, what’s going on?” said Kaycee, looking from them to me and back again, as if I’d told them something telepathically that she disapproved of.

“Walls aren’t as thick as you might think,” Jack said, raising an eyebrow at her. His face was contorted from the effort of not smiling. It was nice to watch him find that much amusement in anything I’d done.

“Oh no,” Kaycee yelped, covering her face with her hands while she groaned. “Please tell me you guys didn’t hear everything we just did.”

Kyle tilted his head to the side devilishly. In the pause that followed, Kaycee’s face ratcheted up in color by several shades. She was thoroughly pink by the time Kyle spoke.

“Only a few key bumps and particularly loud screams,” he said. He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and shrugged faux-innocently. “But that could have been anything, right?”

“Right-o, Kyle,” said Stevie, clapping him on the back with his hand.

“I need a drink,” said Kaycee. She sat down on the couch opposite the guys.

When I reached for a beer in the case on the floor to pass to her, Stevie got up and interrupted me.

“Ah-ah-ah,” he said. “I’ve got another idea.”

Though Kaycee widened her eyes at me in utter dread, she and I stayed quiet while Stevie rounded the corner to fetch some mysterious drink for her. I joined her on the couch while we waited.

“So you guys finally got together?” Kyle asked. He could barely contain the squirming excitement on his face.

“Relax, Kyle,” said Jack wryly. “They could just be fucking.”

“No, I’m thinking it’s more than that,” said Kyle. “They’re glowing.”

Kaycee smiled, her face bright and eager in a way I wanted to bottle for any future moments when I felt down. It was pure joy. “Yes,” she said. She took my hand and grinned at my brothers.

“Long story short, we’re giving it a go,” I said. Though I knew the words downplayed the explosive happiness I was barely containing right then, I didn’t want to scare Kaycee off. Who knew how much scrutiny from my brothers’ firing squad she could withstand?

We hadn’t even been on an official first date yet. Could be a bit early to celebrate our newfound coupledom.

Stevie trotted back into the room, bottle in hand. Champagne; the good stuff.

Then again, celebration has its perks.

Kaycee gasped. “No way, Stevie. Save that stuff for when the record goes platinum!”

“Nuh-uh,” Stevie retorted. “I’ve been waiting for you two to get together again for years. Platinum’s easy compared to that.”

I snorted from laughter. “Have to admit, statistically he has a point.”

Kaycee blinked at me in surprise. “You really think so?”

And without coordinating it, Kyle, Jack, and I all said “yes” in unison. Kyle and I burst into laughter immediately afterward.

“Oh brother,” said Kaycee. “What have I gotten myself into?”

“At least you had a choice,” said Jack. “Rather than inheriting it.” Though he was pretending to be curmudgeonly, I saw him take a glass of the champagne and savor the smell of it.

Stevie held out his glass. “To Kaycee and Winston,” he said. “Thank fuck you’ve finally figured out you belong together.”

Kaycee, though she’d been nervous and a little appalled so far, snorted at the toast. At that point, we were all grinning. The smile on my face actually hurt my cheeks a little from how broad it was. Life felt exceptionally good.

“To K and Win,” said Kyle, Jack, and Stevie. We clinked glasses and settled in to sipping the champagne, which tasted like clouds had somehow been fermented into an alcoholic beverage.

“Wow,” Kaycee whispered. “That’s good.”

“Nothing but the best for my favorite new couple,” Stevie said.

“Aw, that’s sweet,” I said, genuinely touched. Maybe all the teasing had been worth it.

“So you are legally obligated to remain together forever, or I’ll have wasted my good champagne privileges on the wrong people,” added Stevie, his face transforming to a mask of seriousness. Kyle choked on his sip of champagne and cough-laughed his way through the next minute.

Even Jack smiled nonstop. With Kaycee at my side, my brothers celebrating the newest, most shining event in my life, and the tour going well so far, things really couldn’t have been better.

I looked over to watch Kaycee, noticing that she was basking in the attention, her face rosy and her smile as broad and sincere as my own.

My heart would never be the same.

By the end of the night, we were all buzzed, and we caught a group cab to the hotel we were staying in, just a few blocks from the waterfront. Kaycee sat pressed up close to me, and I stole every moment I could to watch her face as we drove towards the end of the night.

Her eyes reflected the watercolor-like lights shining on the wet pavement, reds and greens and yellows from street lights spread wide in the remnants of the rain. She took it in, her expression pensive and serene all at once.

She was beautiful. She was perfect. And now she was mine.

* * *

In the morning, Kaycee was still in my bed when I woke up. I resisted the urge to pinch myself and confirm whether or not this was reality. If it wasn’t, I didn’t want to know.

Instead, I ordered a lavish room service breakfast I’d have never gotten for just myself. But now that Kaycee was here, I wanted to treat her in the way she’d missed out on, all those years of fame. She didn’t know how good we could have it, and she deserved the best.

They wheeled in the tray of French toast, fruit, piping hot sausages, coffee, pastries, and Eggs Benedict just as Kaycee was first stirring from sleep.

“What on Earth did you do?” she said, scowling at the feast in front of her.

“Good morning,” I said, and I kissed her forehead. “Welcome to day one of being a famous rock star’s girlfriend.”

“Excuse me, I have a few hundred of those under my belt already, thanks. From what I remember, it wasn’t that great. Definitely no French toast involved.”

“That’s right, I guess you do. How about day one of being together when we’re not both self-centered teen idiots?”

“Speak for yourself,” she said, smiling. “I may have been a teen idiot but I promise I wasn’t self-absorbed.” And then Kaycee slid off the bed and popped a strawberry in her mouth. “At least not that much.”

“Touché,” I said. “I was projecting.”

We kissed, Kaycee’s mouth still tasting of the fresh strawberry, tangy and sweet and herself all at once. I could have kissed her all morning, but we had to get onto the road to head to Portland; Stevie would be furious if I held up the bus.

“So listen,” I said. I cleared my throat, feeling a sudden burst of nerves at the prospect of discussing the tour with Kaycee. I’d just assumed that when she showed up, it was her temporary grand gesture, her attempt at winning me back. Though it had worked, I wasn’t sure what the future held. Presumably, she had to get back to reality.

“Yeah?”

“We’re due to hit the road by 10:00 so we can get to Portland,” I said.

Kaycee just watched me. I struggled to pay attention to the words I needed to say, and not to the way her nipples almost showed through her thin tank top. A losing battle, truthfully.

“And?”

“Right. I don’t want to be rude, but we’ll have to eat and get checked out of here kinda quickly.”

“Sure,” she said. Kaycee studied my face, narrowing her eyes so that her eyelashes fluttered. “What aren’t you saying?”

As per usual, she knew me far too well to let me stew in anxious trepidation. I laughed at the way I knew I’d never be able to keep a secret ever again. Not that I’d want to, exactly. But it could come in handy for Christmas gifts or something.

“What’s your plan, K? Stevie can hook you up with a ride back to SFO if you want.”

“I don’t want,” she said. “Not in the least.”

I tried to ignore the way my palms suddenly moistened, my breath held ever so slightly.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“So you know how I got the job? Permanent contract, badass lawyer and all that jazz?”

“How could I forget?”

We grinned at each other for a second, the conversation paused to revel in the joy of her new success.

“It doesn’t start for another six weeks, actually. I negotiated a later start date because I knew I needed to come do this. Be with you.”

My heart threatened to beat ten times louder than its normal volume, shuddering in my chest like a metronome.

“I’m really glad you did,” I said. The forethought charmed me completely.

“So I was hoping I could come on tour with you,” she continued.

Surprise froze me.

“What?”

“Like, go on the bus? See your shows and tour the country like the groupie I never got to be?”

“Ha, you’re no groupie and you damn well know it.”

Though my quipping instincts had kicked in, I was still at a loss.

Kaycee had taken a leave to spend time with me.

That was huge. Never in her entire academic career had I seen her take a full day off, let alone a week. Even when she got bronchitis in her master’s program, she’d had me read to her from a textbook on case law when I stopped by with soup.

And now I had her for six whole weeks. Over a month.

Delight bubbled up my chest until all I could do was stand there with a dopey grin on my face, holding Kaycee’s hands in front of me as if I was at a grade school dance.

“Win?” she said, after a pause.

“That’s great,” I said. My voice was hoarse. “Just great.”

And then I needed to kiss her, pushed her up against the hotel room wall, my hands roaming her sleek body as if I’d never be able to touch her again. The way Kaycee responded to my kiss, her lips parting and welcoming my tongue, made me hard almost instantly.

She broke the kiss, panting. “What about breakfast?”

I glanced back at it and shrugged. “Grab some of the pastries and put them in your purse on the way out.”

“I’m guessing I’ll be needing my energy, right?”

I didn’t say anything, just responded by diving to her neck and kissing it, nipping at it, my hands slipping up her tank top to meet her smooth skin. When Kaycee gasped and pulled me closer, I was already at a dizzying high.

Nothing could be better: after years of longing, nights spent wondering where I’d gone wrong in my life, I finally had her.

And perhaps more importantly, I had her on terms where she was independently happy, accomplished and successful in her own right so that my fame wasn’t an overshadowing figure. The two of us, tangled up in each others arms, made up two parts of a whole, two members of a team. And I never wanted to be apart ever again.