Page 123 of Gabriel's Album

About half an hour later, I walk over to Elena and her group of friends. “Hi, I’m Gabriel. How are you ladies this evening?”

“We’re good,” one of her friends says. “I’m Debra.”

“Missy,” her other friend tells me.

“Elena,” the black-haired woman says, and smiles at me.

She’s stunning up close. She has these beautiful brown eyes that stare deeply into mine. I smile at her, feeling a stirring that I haven’t felt for a long time.

“Do you want to dance, Elena?”

“Sure,” she agrees, and grins at her friends as I lead her away to the dance floor.

* * *

I take a deep breath,but I don’t know why I’m so nervous. It’s the final night of theHeart Wide Opentour tonight. It’s been a long tour, and we won our second Grammy for Best Album a couple of months ago.

I’m feeling a strange combination of relief and melancholy right now because tonight is the last night that I’ll have to relive my relationship with Ariana. After this concert, our story really will be complete. My phone buzzes, and I look down to see a text from Elena.

Good luck for the concert tonight. I wish I was there. I can’t wait to see you next week.

I smile at the message. It’s been three months since I met Elena, and the entire world knows about us. We were actually photographed at a restaurant in Los Angeles the first night we went out together. I send her a text back.

Thanks. I wish you were here too. Definitely excited to see you again.

I’m so fucking tired, and this tour has felt like it’s gone on forever. I wasn’t truly prepared for the emotional toll this would all take on me, but I’ve continued weekly Skype sessions with Brendan while I’ve been touring.

Elena has been coming to see me frequently since we started dating, and I’ve flown back to Los Angeles twice to spend a couple of nights with her when there was a gap in the tour schedule. I’m looking forward to having her spend some time with me here in Chicago, though. There are so many sights that I want to show her.

I’m distracted from my thoughts when I get the call to go get ready for the concert, and I head out to the backstage area.

“Great set, Declan,” I tell our friend as he passes me when our support act, Evening Star, leaves the stage.

“Thanks. Final night! Have a great show,” he grins at me.

I high-five him and join the band circle where Cooper gives the speech for our final concert of the tour. We don’t have crazy elaborate entrances on this tour because it didn’t feel right for what the album was, so after the band circle, we head onto the stage.

I’m standing on a podium at the front of the stage. Sebastian is to my left, Harrison is on my right, and Hayden is behind us. They’re all on their own podiums, with the backup musicians out of sight behind us.

I stand in front of my mic in the darkness of the stage and say, “Hello, Chicago! Are you ready for a good time?”

The crowd goes off as pyrotechnics explode, and the entire stage is covered in smoke. When it clears and the crowd can see us, they practically raise the roof with their screams.

We start the show with “Midnight Rebellion,” and the crowd loves it. As usual, we spend the first hour singing songs fromCards Have Been Dealt, along with covers of songs from bands like Guns N’ Roses, Queen, and AC/DC.

Finally, the lights dim, and a spotlight is trained on me where I’m standing in the middle of the stage.

“I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight.” The crowd becomes a screaming mess, and I wait for it to quiet down again before I continue speaking. “Now we’re at the part of the show that I’ve enjoyed most on this tour, and I know the fans have too. We’re going to performHeart Wide Openfrom start to finish.”

That sense of melancholy hits me stronger than the relief does this time. I don’t know if I’m truly prepared to close this chapter. I feel like I should’ve been more prepared to be over this by now. It’s been more than two years since she left me, and I have a new girlfriend. Ariana is long gone, so this should not come with a sharp stabbing pain in my chest.

I continue my speech to the audience. “This album is very close to my heart. As most of you will know, I wrote these songs myself with help from the guys. It means a lot to me that so many people enjoy them as much as they do. All right, let’s go!”

The lights come up on the rest of my friends, and we begin to play the first song. Sebastian plays a short riff on his guitar, and Hayden taps on the hi-hat of his drums, then I begin to sing, and Harrison’s bass is added to the music along with piano from one of the backup musicians.

As I have been each night on this tour, I’m taken back to the night I met Ariana and the way she captured my interest from the start. I also think about writing this song with Hayden, grateful that he got on board so quickly with my idea for the album.

I finish the first song, and the arena slowly becomes silent. The lights are turned off so that the whole crowd and stage are in darkness. I can feel the anticipation building in the audience in the quiet darkness before the sound effect machine starts playing the sound of falling rain, which works up in volume to become a full thunderstorm.

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