Page 141 of One Night

"But we had met, just not in person." She looks in my eyes. "I knew it was you. I didn't understand it at the time but now I do. I felt connected to you. Drawn to you. Because I knew you. I knew you from the note. I waited for you."

"And I found you." I wrap my hands around her face and kiss her.

She's the girl. Amber's the girl I wrote the note to. The girl I said I would marry. I found her.

If I ever doubted fate, I never will again. This is fate in all its wonderful glory. Fate brought Amber and me together. We were meant to go to that party that night. We were meant to meet. Meant to be together.

"You know what this means?" I ask, smiling at her.

"What?"

"Our story didn't start at that party. It started when I sent that balloon. When I was ten and you were nine. That's our story, Amber. That's the story we'll tell our kids, and our grandkids."

Her eyes widen and she smiles even more. "You're right! That's our story. And it's perfect. Better than perfect! It's amazing. Better than anything I could even make up."

"Let's go eat," I say taking her hand. "Then we're going to come back here and I'm going to make love to the girl who found the balloon."

She gives me a kiss. "I love you."

"I love you too."

What are the odds? I mean, seriously, it makes absolutely no sense for a balloon to make it all the way across Lake Michigan and land at the exact spot where Amber was standing on the beach.

It has to mean something. It has to mean we were meant to be together.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Amber

Two weeks have passed since Dylan and I officially ended our break and found out about the balloon. I still can't believe it. I told the story to everyone I know and nobody else can believe it either. It seems too crazy to be true but that's what makes it so special. We're probably the only two people in the world ever brought together that way. It's a story unique to us. And it proves we were meant for each other.

"Are you nervous?" Kira asks as she sits beside me. We're at the bar where Vandyl is playing, seated at a table near the stage.

"A little," I say. "Okay, maybe a lot." I take a big gulp of the drink she brought me.

"Relax. You two are together so it's not like it was really a one-night stand."

She's referring to the fact that tonight Dylan will be singing his new song, One Week, for the first time, and he'll be singing it to me. And since it's a follow-up to One Night, soon everyone will know I'm the girl he wrote the song about.

A few days ago, Dylan sang One Week to me and I loved it. Just like One Night, the lyrics were rich in emotion and I cried when I heard it. Dylan was right when he said the best music is inspired by someone. The inspiration is what creates the emotion.

After Dylan played the song for me, I told him he had to perform it but he said he didn't want to. He said it was just for me, but I told him he had to play it for others because it's too beautiful not to share.

When he finally agreed to perform it, he asked if he could sing it to me from stage and I panicked. I didn't want people knowing I was the girl, but then I thought about it and decided it'd be okay because as Dylan and I have said all along, that night wasn't just a one-night stand. It wasn't just about sex. It was more than that. It's the night that brought us together. The night we realized there was something between us that we'd never felt with anyone else.

"I think I'll be okay," I say to Kira, swigging my whiskey sour.

I hear Dylan behind me. "Better slow down on those drinks." He sits next to me and gives me a kiss.

"Don't you need to be backstage?"

"We've got a couple minutes. You nervous?"

"A little, but I'll be fine."

He leans over and whispers in my ear, "I love you."

"I love you too." I kiss him, then back away and notice girls watching us, jealousy in their eyes. I'm still not used to all the attention he gets from girls. And it happens everywhere we go. Girls are always going up to him, flirting with him.

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