Page 44 of See Her

“I know. Like you said, the rest will come later.”

“And I’m afraid to get too excited about it. Not until we find out more.”

“I get that. It’s hard to get excited when you don’t have it hot in your hand yet. But you know, even if this doesn’t lead to anything, if one label noticed you, I’m sure that means that others can and will,” she points out encouragingly. “In the meantime, I’ll just have to be excited for you.”

That makes me turn my head and look at her; seriously taking her all the way in. This is my life. A spirited beauty I get to call mine is sitting here with me, both of us half-dressed as she talks me down from one of the most nerve-racking moments of my life. We’re comfortable, in love, and completely solid. I take a mental snapshot of this moment, my eyes panning up and down her body.

“What?” she asks, her smile shy all of a sudden. She damn well better get used to me looking at her, though. I will never be able to help myself.

“You’re just pretty incredible.”

“Aww, baby.”

“I mean it. You listened to me and helped me make sense of all this. I was a nervous wreck, and look what ten minutes with you did for me.” I lean down to drop a kiss to her knee.

She draws in a deep breath, lifting a shoulder. “I love you. I think I care about this as much as you do.”

I feel my heart stall in my chest and a lump form in my throat at what she just said.

I drop my head back on the cushions, a feeling of contented relief washing over me as I turn my face towards her.

“That’s the first time you’ve said it first.” My voice comes out on a rasp.

“Well… I do, Jack. I have since the beginning. Every time I’ve said it back to you, I’ve meant it. It’s just the few times I’ve thought about saying it without any kind of prompting made me realize it’s scarier than I thought; putting myself out there.”

“And now?” I smooth my hand up her thigh like I’m trying to imprint on her skin as I search her eyes.

She shakes her head and looks towards the ceiling briefly. “I don’t know. All this talk about being afraid of things being too good to be real… I’m sitting here telling you not to be afraid, and I’d love to say it made me realize the same, but really, it...” she shrugs, seemingly at a loss for the words she wants. “It just came out. I guess I’m just not afraid of this anymore.”

“About fucking time,” I scoff and roll my eyes mischievously as I shift us so I can stand.

Pulling Mayzie up, I lift her in my arms and her limbs wrap satisfyingly around me.

“What are you doing?” she snickers down at me.

“I think you should take me to bed and calm me down some more,” I suggest, looking up at her from under relaxed lids.

“Looks like you're the one taking me to bed,” she observes.

“You’re damn right.” I turn and start towards the bedroom but stop halfway there, holding us there in the dim light of the hallway.

“Say it again,” I request.

“I love you,” she whispers down at me.

22

JACK

After checking in at the front desk of the Westin, we were directed up to one of the presidential suites on the top floor. Matt knocks, and only a few seconds pass before we hear footsteps on the other side, followed by the door being swung open by Ron.

"Fellas, glad you could make it. Come in,” he says, turning and leading us into his expansive suite. It has all the upscale amenities, including one hell of a view, and from what I can see, the bedroom is separated by another door. In the middle is a large sitting area. "Come, have a seat, gentleman." Ron gestures to the couches on his way to one of the chairs, sitting with the floor to ceiling windows behind him.Matt and I have a seat on one couch, putting us on Ron's left, while Chris and Josh take the other. After making sure none of us want anything, he gets right into it, sitting straight back in his chair, seemingly relaxed. The rest of us can't seem to bring ourselves to get that comfortable. In fact, we are all literally at the edge of our seats, chomping at the bit to hear what he has to say.

"So, I'm going to start by telling you about the division I'm from. At ECHO, we do things a little differently than most labels. Normally when a label sees potential in a musical act, they dive rightin and throw all the necessary funds into helping that act succeed. Three times out of four, this will turn out to be a bust, putting the label in debt instead of turning a profit. And then the one act out of the four that does succeed is the cash cow that gets them out of the red, and back into lucrative territory.”

“Right, I’ve heard of this,” Matt nods, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together. “So your label doesn’t do that?”

“What we do is we allocate a small percentage of the income brought in by our contracted bands and use it as a slush fund of sorts to invest in new acts, but on a smaller scale. One way to look at it is like we have two different divisions of artists – the ones we’ve contracted that already have a few albums under their belt and are bringing in a steady income, and the new acts we’re not sure about yet. You with me so far?"

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