Page 80 of Second to None

I reached for him, then didn’t dare and took the guitar instead. Our fingers brushed like an electric shock. “You came all this way just to return it?”

“Not exactly.” His chin firmed, clear gaze tangling with mine. “First time I told you I loved you—this is the guitar you had then, too. Isn’t it?”

Just another hotel room, one of many, could be anywhere. Sydney, though. Marked on my globe with an inconspicuous‘You know’because he’d walked in from a shower and told me, no fanfare, just easy confidence,‘I love you, you know?’Back then, we’d felt invincible.

Now? Small and bruised, I barely managed a simple nod. “Yeah.”

“Right.” His eyes were the gentle green of a spring garden. “And your second album, and the third... Some of those songs are about us.”

It wasn’t quite a question, and God, was he about to crush me again? Gently this time, tell me he was sorry, but he didn’t feel that way about me anymore, that he’d well and truly fallen out of love with me? Still, there was no point in denying something so painfully obvious. “A lot of them are, yeah.”

“And your tattoo?” He flicked an unnecessary glance at my hip before he met my eyes again—as if I had other tattoos that meant anywhere near as much. The rest was small stuff, doodles, mostly fun with the exception of a tiny, stylized circuit on my ankle, the same design we’d all gotten after our first single had climbed to the top of the US charts. But I knew he wasn’t asking about that.

“I told you—it’s a reminder. Because I never stopped loving you.”

Silence sank with the resonance of a sunset, hesitation in the curve of his mouth and the way he studied me. I stood still, one hand wrapped around the guitar. This was me—I’d said my piece.

He tipped his chin up, back straightening, a subtle, stubborn spark in the steady way he held my gaze. “I love you, Cass.”

A rolling wave swept me up. “Lee?—”

“Let me finish, please?” His interruption wasn’t harsh, more pleading. I nodded and swallowed the words already perched on my tongue. He took a deep breath before he continued. “A week ago, I said some awful shit I didn’t mean. I’m sorry. None of it was true—I was just scared. Still am, if I’m honest.”

I pressed my lips together. Waiting,hoping.

“I already told you how, uh…” He trailed off and scrubbed a hand over his hair. After a beat, he continued. “I told you how before Jess died, she made me promise that I’d take care of Emily. That I’d do anything in my power to make her happy. I think I’m... doing okay on that front. Trying my best.”

“God, youare.” I leaned forward, needed to say this even though I’d agreed to keep quiet. “That little girl—you’re an amazing dad, Levi. It’s so obvious that you’d do just about anything for her.”

“Yeah.” He was quiet for a second. “But, see, that’s not the only promise I made. Jess also asked me to take care of myself. To live, dance, grab happiness with both hands because life can be short.” His gaze slid away, eyes just a little wet. “I’m not sure I’ve done quite as well on that front.”

My lungs squeezed into a sad clump. I blinked, words gone translucent, and reached for him, fingers sliding along his wrist. He allowed it for a fractured second before he shifted away.

“I want to try, though. Really, I do.” He pressed his lips together, then kept going, voice firm but for the faintest, nearly imperceptible blur around his consonants. “But ‘I love you’ just isn’t going to cut it this time. I’m gonna need a little more than that.”

My throat went tight. “I know.”

“Do you?” He lightly shook his head, tone serious. “Because I need you to really understand this, okay? I want—it’s always been you. Always. I tried to fall out of love with you, but I’m not sure I ever did.”

Oh. My heart turned over and burst open.

“So,” he said softly, “yeah. I love you. And I know it goes both ways—I believe that now.”

“It does,” I said. “God, Lee, you’ve noidea—” Then I remembered I was supposed to let him talk. “Sorry. I’m listening, okay?”

“Good.” A warm, fleeting smile ghosted across his lips. “My point is, though—look at our lives. I don’t travel the world with a personal stylist. I bake muffins for my kid’s birthday and live in a house with my parents because it makes things just a ton easier. I have a day job, I need to plan around school holidays.”

“I know.” My hold on the guitar felt like a thin replacement for how I wanted to reach for him. “Levi, Iknow.”

“Okay.” He nodded, just slightly. “But I need you to think about what that means. I don’t need… I’m not saying you have to be a second dad to Emmy. That’s not fair, not yet. But I need you to think about what itmeans, dating me when I have a kid. Whether you’re in this for the long haul. Whether maybe, at some point in the future, you could see us being a family—not now, but someday. And how that fits with who you are now.”

Are you prepared to change your life?

I leaned toward him and inhaled, ready to make my case—and he cut me off again with a gentle shake of his head. “I don’t want an answer now, love.”Love. “I want you to really think about this.Reallythink. Take a week, please. No texts, no calls, nothing. Because—look, I know there’s no predicting the future. But I need to know you’re not gonna pack up and leave three months from now because I can’t fly out to see you in Dubai or whatever.”

I nodded, heart the size of an ocean because this,thiswas Levi putting all his cards on the table. His hopes and needs, his pride. I knew how much that mattered to him. He was here, must have caught a flight out as soon as Emily finished her first week back at school, maybe asked his parents for support. This would have taken effort and planning.

So. One week? If that’s what he needed, I could do it. I’d have given a whole fuckingyearfor another chance.

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