Page 64 of Me and Mr. Just Right

After he submitted his finished book, things moved quickly. He sold his car. His boat. Said goodbye to his friends. And counted down the seconds until he could be with Lia.

They talked on the phone almost every day. And if they weren’t talking, they were texting or video chatting or sending video messages. His every waking moment revolved around someone who lived over three thousand miles away from him.

And now, he’d be able to see her in person. More than just once a month when they managed to travel back and forth from Nashville to Alaska. Lia’s album had exploded in sales, earning her a number one spot on the charts, and had become a crossover hit on the pop station.

He found a parking space and walked into the studio. Lia was waiting for him in the doorway. Her hair was in braids, the same way she’d worn it in Alaska. Her cheeks were bright pink, something he’d learned happened when she’d been recording. The heat in the studio, combined with her full concentration on her music, made her cheeks heat up.

“Haydn!” She ran to him, and he hauled her into his arms and spun her around.

“I missed you,” he said.

“Me too. But I’m here for good now.” She grabbed his cheeks and pulled him in for a kiss that he fell into completely.

Lia was everything. She was nature hikes and sunny afternoons. She was gorgeous melodies and poetic lyrics. She was laughter and joy and thought and fate.

Wherever Lia was, she was his home.

He couldn’t wait to spend an entire lifetime with her. To ask her if she wanted to spend an entire lifetime with him.

He was going to pick up the ring this afternoon.

And he could hardly wait.

Chapter 29

LiahadarrangedforHaydn and his siblings to be in the front row of her concert on opening night. Her dad and his family were there too. They were all coming back to her place for a late dinner after the concert—her stomach was too excited to eat anything too substantial before she got on stage.

The opening act, a young girl who reminded her a lot of herself at that age, was singing a few cover songs and getting ready to launch into her brand-new single. Crew ran around backstage in a frenzy, while Lia practiced some deep-breathing exercises she liked to do before she performed.

She was having a hard time getting into a zen headspace, though. Because she’d seen the ring box in Haydn’s jacket. He didn’t know she’d seen it, but when she’d hugged him earlier, his pocket had fallen open and the small, square velvet box had been unmistakable. She’d wanted to snatch it open right at that moment and slip the ring on her finger. Wear it for everyone to see at her concert, and announce to the world that she was marrying Haydn Forrester.

The crowd cheered as the young artist sang her single.

“Ready, Aurelia?” Her pianist stood beside her, a wide, excited smile on her face.

“Absolutely. Did you have a chance to play through that song I sent you?” Haydn thought he was surprising her, but Lia had something up her sleeve too.

“I did.” She laughed and shook her head. “This is epic.”

The lights went down, and Lia’s intro music began. She ran to get into place and headed on stage. The crowd went wild, and she waved and smiled and searched for the one person she most wanted to see: Haydn, in the front row, with that familiar smile just for her.

She curled her fingers into a heart, and he returned the symbol to her. She’d thought it was adorable when he’d done that at her last concert. If she’d thought everyone went wild earlier, she’d had no idea.

The concert passed in a blur, starting with her old songs and then moving on to her new ones. Before she got to the songs she’d written while on the island, she paused to speak to everyone.

“There’s one song I haven’t shared with anyone yet. It’s a very special song to me. The first one I wrote when I got to Alaska. I was in a really bad place—reeling from betrayals and heartbreak and feeling like I might never be able to write again.”

She’d won her intellectual property lawsuit against Gwen and Bo, and the world knew about it. Their careers had faded into oblivion over the last year, and last she’d heard, they’d moved to California. She didn’t wish them any ill will, but she also wasn’t sad that she wouldn’t be running into them unexpectedly anywhere.

“And in the middle of all that, I was on the worst airplane trip I’d ever been on. This tiny plane was all over the place. People were screaming and crying, cups were flying, and I was sincerely regretting that I’d packed my guitar under the plane. I needed something to hug.”

She pulled her guitar close and hugged it, which caused a mixed reaction of laughing and aww-ing.

“I was desperately trying to think of a new song to distract myself, when the handsomest man I’d ever met decided to lean close and talk to me.” She looked down at Haydn, whose eyes looked suspiciously shiny. “And my life has never been the same since.”

She ran her fingers over her guitar, and a piano behind her started playing an introduction.

“Tonight, I want to play for you a song that’s never been heard before now, in honor of that person I met, and how my life has changed. It’s easy to think that when things are bad, they’re never going to get good again, but that’s not true. There are always good things waiting for us around the corner, even in our most turbulent times.”

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