Page 82 of Once Upon a Boyband
“Recording it where?” Jace asks.
“There’s a studio in Silver Creek,” Leo says. “I already looked into it just in case we needed one. It’s nice. Mostly does folk and bluegrass. But I’m sure it’ll have what we need.”
“Then I’m down,” Jace says. “Might be nice to release something new.”
I like the idea of recording. I’ve thought about it a few times, especially with regard to “The Start of Forever” because the version we released ten years ago is so different from how I ever heard it in my mind. It’s a little harder for me to wrap my brain around releasing it. Releasing music feels like going back. And I promised myself that would never happen. How can I even consider it in the face of what happened with Laney tonight?
I nudge Laney’s knee with mine. “Want to talk to Flint again? He might have some questions about your status as ananimaldoctor.”
“You shut up,” she says, a teasing glint in her eye.
The Hawthornes wind up joining us around the fire, and Jack wanders over to ask about Freddie’s guitar. I spend a few minutes teaching him how to hold it and how to strum while Laney moves over and sits next to Jace.
I watch her out of the corner of my eye, wondering if she also noticed how distracted he’s been tonight. When she makes Jace laugh, some of the tension eases out of my shoulders.
I hope he’s okay. Eight years was a long time to not be in touch with these guys, and I don’t want that to happen again.
With a little bit of help, Jack manages to put his fingers in the right places to form a G chord, quite a feat considering his kid-sized hands on a full-size guitar.
He smiles wide. “I did it!”
“Yeah, you did. You’re a natural.”
He shifts out from under the guitar, sliding it back to me, and jumps off the bench where we’ve been sitting side by side, Freddie’s guitar perched between us. “I’m going to go tell my mom!” he says.
I reposition the guitar, then play through the chord progressions in the bridge of “The Start of Forever.” Laney looks up and smiles as the words of the song float through my mind.
But she sees you different and you realize
The forever you want—it starts in her eyes.
I don’t know what’s going to happen after the concert. I don’t know if I’ll keep singing or if I’ll just do the one show then go back to Lawson Cove and run Hope Acres.
But I do know that whatever I’m doing, I want her beside me while I’m doing it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Adam
Laneyand I are standing outside the farmhouse saying goodbye when the press release announcing the concert goes live.
Ivy has been on her phone all morning, making sure everything is set, and I’m confident that once I’m back inside, she’ll fill me in on how everything goes. But for right now, I don’t want to think about it.
I don’t want to get out my phone or talk about it with Laney or wonder what people are saying about us.
I just want to stand here and kiss Laney goodbye without worrying about anything else.
“You know,” she says as she arches her neck, revealing a stretch of smooth skin. I lean close, pressing her into the side of her car as I leave a trail of kisses from her earlobe down to her collarbone. She lets out a tiny gasp of pleasure before she finishes her sentence. “I read once that every goodbye kiss should last at least six seconds.”
“Six? Why six?”
“That’s how long it takes our brains to dump oxytocin into our bloodstreams. Or maybe it was about intention? A six-second kiss means you really mean it.”
I lean back, shifting my hands to her jaw, my thumb sliding over a single freckle on her left cheekbone.
“Should we try it out?” she asks.
I pull her against me, my free hand moving to the small of her back. “We can try. But I can’t promise I’ll be able to stop at six.”
