CHAPTER 10
I wanna kiss you under the moonlight.
And love you ’til the sun comes up.
The final lyric rippled across Travis as it left his mouth and burned into his soul, as it had the night he’d written the song about Rae. A night that had been one of his worst, where he felt each second that he missed her. After that night, he’d forced himself to forget her, only to survive. His fingers slowly lowered from his guitar, his head bowed, the warmth in his soul gone. He’d been told about men who died empty, and right now, he believed he would be among them.
His chance to claim the woman who filled him up had faded into the shadows as it had ten years ago. Only this time, he hurt more. Dammit, he bled more. Sure, logic told him to stay away, as it had before. But his heart didn’t want to hear it this time. He was having a harder time accepting that their time had come and gone and that they simply would never be an us. Just as the crippling darkness sank her claws into him, a roar of thunderous applause broke him out of his cold longing.
Numb and aching, he lifted his head, suddenly reminded that he wasn’t alone. No, he was back in New York City, miles away from Rae. Defeated and depleted, he stared out into the crowd of nameless faces. They were on their feet, screaming their praise. None of them knew the true him. None of them knew the meaning behind that song, or how damn hard it was for him to sing it tonight. None of them saw his pain and the wounds in his heart. Years back when he’d written that song for Rae, he had hoped that once she heard it, she’d come to him. That she’d remember that night when they danced in the park and how special it had been.
She never came then.
Nor did she come now.
And even at the reunion, she didn’t mention anything about the song when she’d heard him sing it there.
“Travis, man, are you all right?”
He turned his head, finding his bass player and backup vocalist, Zander, staring at him with concerned, soft brown eyes. Tall and lanky, Zander and Travis had been friends since Travis moved to New York City after his agent had introduced them. Travis couldn’t lie and nod like he usually did. He didn’t know what he was feeling; he only knew that the days he’d been back in New York had seemed like his darkest days yet.
Aware that everyone was waiting on him now, he inhaled deeply and slid off the stool, stepping away from his mic. With the crowd still going wild around him, he glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the guys in the band behind him, his longtime friends. It felt right being here with them, sharing this dream, but without Rae here, too, only half of him felt settled. Perhaps because of all the years he’d endured the tortuous hell of not having her because he knew she was making her dreams come true. But now, he knew she’d nearly fulfilled those dreams, and without her here, he felt as if everything he had, all that he was crumbled around him.
But he couldn’t fall…not yet. “Let’s finish this,” he said to Zander, who regarded him now with blatant concern, reinforcing how bad Travis actually looked.
He couldn’t fake it anymore. He wasn’t okay.
Determined to finish the show and get home, he glanced at the crowd again, and something drew his gaze to the right of the stage. He squinted his eyes, as nothing should have been there. When he finally caught sight of who stood there, he froze. Sure he couldn’t be seeing things right, he blinked, again and again, but the figure remained.
Rae.
With shaky hands, he unhooked his guitar from the speaker and slid the strap over his head and the instrument across his back. Not caring about anything but the beauty watching him, he crossed the stage to her.
“Travis,” Zander yelled out to him.
There would be no stopping him. Part of him wondered if, in his pain, he imagined her standing there. But the closer he got, the more he saw her eyes widen in surprise. That’s how he knew he wasn’t dreaming. Because if he were, she’d be in his arms kissing him by now.
When he reached her, she cracked a smile, and said, “Um, you weren’t supposed to come off the stage like that. Shouldn’t you go back out there?”
He stood so close to her, yet was still so far away, his muscles quivering. “Why are you here?” He had to know.
She paused, and it was then that he noticed that his drummer had begun putting on a show for the crowd. He couldn’t care about anything going on around him, but focused solely on her mouth when she finally said, “Before I answer that, I want you to know that I know what you did for me.”
“What did I do?” he asked softly.
“You loved me.” She took one step forward. “You left days ago because you loved me like I once loved you.” Tears welled in her eyes, and that’s when he grabbed her, holding onto her arms. “And you loved me enough to never ask me to leave my friends and family to be with you,” she finished.
He held her tightly, never wanting to let go. “How could I take you away from all the things you love?”
A tear slid down her cheek, and he watched it move slowly down her face as she added, “I’m here because I realized I asked you the wrong question all along. And that’s not something I can live with. Not anymore.”
“What question?” he wondered aloud.
She took one more step, nearly pressing against him now. “Why didn’t you tell me you wanted me to move to New York with you?”
Seemed simple enough, but it was anything but simple. “Because I know what it means to have a dream and see it through. What that dream can give to a person…the happiness it brings.” He waved back out to the stage, where his band was keeping the crowd entertained. “How could I ask anyone to walk away from their life and give up everything for me, all because I need them desperately? I couldn’t live with myself if I did that to you.”
“You needed to give me the opportunity to decide for myself,” she retorted. “You never asked me, just like I never really asked you ten years ago if you wanted to go to New York. I just pushed you to chase your dreams and ran after mine. We have to stop doing that to each other.”
He cupped her face, sliding his hands across her damp cheeks. “It was right at the time. We needed to go after our dreams, but you’re right, we should have talked about it.”
“Yeah, then and now,” she said. “It seems like in our efforts to keep things easy, we forgot that we can do hard things if we talk about them and figure out how to do them together.” Some heady emotion crossed her face as she added, “And I think it’s time for us to make that happen.” She stepped out of his arms and went behind a wall, returning a second later with a cat carrier in her hands. “I really hope you and Harry can get along because we’re moving in.”
When his mind finally accepted the truth that this was happening, he rushed to Rae, grabbed her, and awkwardly hugged her with the damn cat carrier between them and his guitar on his back. He cursed, gently taking Harry from her and placing him down on the floor as the cat meowed, clearly protesting his imprisonment. Travis cupped Rae’s face again, emotion clawing at his chest. “Jesus, Rae, tell me you’re serious.”
“Yes, I’m serious.” She laughed. “I brought my cat, and we’re moving in, so I’m not sure how that can get any more serious.”
He sealed his mouth over hers, his emotion burning in his kiss. “Tell me you’re not leaving.”
“I’m not leaving.”
He stared at her deeply and promised, “I’ll do everything I can to help you set up your next clinic here. And we’ll buy the perfect home for us, and you can travel back to Catfish Creek whenever you want, or fly your friends and family in.”
She laughed, tears in her eyes. “Are you promising me the world?”
“Yes, you can have it all.” He leaned in, sealing his mouth to hers, passionately, seductively taking control of the kiss. But as he backed away, he knew he wasn’t done claiming her.
“Watch the cat,” he called to one of the stagehands.
The brunette frowned but started to make her way over.
Before Rae could object, Travis took her hand and tugged hard, leaving her no choice but to follow him onto the stage. He felt her dragging her feet, but there was no stopping him, not now. And when the crowd caught sight of them and began roaring in excitement, he smiled.
Once he reached the microphone, he turned back to her and chuckled at finding her hand over her eyes, obviously embarrassed at being the focus of thousands of people. He squeezed her hand, and she lowered her other one, giving him quite the cute glare and smile combo. He turned to the mic and said, “New York, I’d like you to meet Rae Evans.”
Thunderous applause echoed throughout the stadium.
“Oh, God,” Rae mouthed, placing her hand over her lips.
Before she could stop him, Travis dropped her hand, leaving her there for a moment, and moved toward his guitar case near his drummer. As he passed, the guys in his band all grinned at him, obviously knowing by the times he’d talked about her that she was the muse behind all his song lyrics.
When he reached his guitar case, he took out what he’d placed in there after he made his first big paycheck. Rae had her goals that kept her focused on her dreams. He’d carried something with him for years to guide him. When he moved to her again, she looked half ready to kick his ass for leaving her alone and partly ready to curl in on herself.
He moved to her, wrapped an arm around her, and said into the mic, “You see, New York, this is my girl right here.”
The crowd roared again.
“But I don’t want her to be my girl,” he said, watching Rae’s eyes widen as he took a step back. Her mouthed formed a perfect O, as he added, “I want her to be my wife.”
He paused as the crowd went wild, and he grabbed the mic and waited for them to quiet again before facing her completely and adding, “I’ve waited ten years to have you with me. I won’t wait any longer. I want it to be us. I want you to be mine, and I want the world to know it.” He got down on one knee, took the ring off his pinky finger, and held it up to her. “Let’s not waste another day. I’ve carried this ring with me for long enough. But it belongs to you, meant to be on your finger. Marry me, Rae.”
She finally looked away from the ring to him and smiled warmly. Her mouth moved, but he couldn’t hear her over the roar of the crowd—though he didn’t need to. He saw everything he needed to see in her eyes. The happiness. The love. He saw forever.
Overwhelmed, he rose, grabbed her, and kissed her for all to see, meshing the two parts of his soul into one. His kiss was hot, probably not appropriate for a crowd, and would be all over social media tomorrow. Good. He wanted the world to see what she did to him.
When he leaned away, he returned the mic to the stand and moved away, keeping what he said next private. He brushed the tears from her face, and he knew one thing for certain. Life had never been better than at this moment. “Saying I love you really doesn’t seem to encapsulate what I feel,” he said to her. “But I do, Rae. God, I love you so much.”
“And I love you.” She smiled, and surprising him, she asked, “But I need you to make me a promise, okay?”
“Anything,” he declared.
She got right close to him and gave a sweet smile. “Promise to always kiss me under the moonlight and love me ’til the sun comes up.”
“You remembered?” he said, brushing his thumbs across her damp cheeks.
“I could never forget.” She smiled. “But there’s something else we really need to do right now that’s of the utmost importance.”
“What’s that?”
She glanced behind her, and when he followed her gaze, he saw Harry swatting at the stagehand attempting to pet him. Rae turned back and laughed. “We need to get Harry out of his crate, or he’s going to hate you forever. And believe me, you’ll live to regret ever making him angry.”
And that’s when Travis knew, life would never be the same again.
It’d be better.