Page 156 of Need You Now

Beside her, the Brothers Kincaid’s producer, Devlon Block, taps a toe, his eyes closed, swaying like a shaman.

Lacey does the same. Listening. Letting the words stun her like a spell.

I always ran too fast

Down that lost highway

But I found my way back

When I found someone worth makin’ me stay

You’re every piece of me

The good, the easy, the wild and free

Yeah, this ol’ world may go ’round

But doin’ it with you makes me feel a little less lost

And a little more found

What’s the point of this ol’ life

If we don’t do it together?

Because, girl, I’m needin’ you, needin’ you, needin’ you now

Needin’ you now and forever ...

When Seth’s finished, he looks to her, his smile hitting her like a blazing sunbeam. Tears in her eyes, she stares at him, her hands clasped to her chest. She’s so proud of him, so in love, and she takes a step to enter the studio to tell him exactly that. To kiss him senseless. But there’s commotion all around her. Luke and Jace and Bobby and Devon Block are crowding in to whoop wild with congratulations.

Lacey freezes on the sidelines.

An ache of sadness wells up in her. A desolate realization. A fact she can’t ignore anymore. She’s in their world. Not hers. Everyone has their own lives. Even Sal’s at the hospital right now, filling in for a friend. And her? She’s a planner with nothing to plan. No Pavlovian ping to let her deal with someone else’s life instead of hers.

Lacey’s hand goes to her throat, twisting her locket. She’s an anxiety ball, bouncing from nerve to nerve, from problem to problem. Her worries from last night now tenfold. Her eyes drift to the window. Here in Nashville, all she has is doubt. Seth won’t always be around to be the bright, sunny voice talking her down from the ledge of panic.

Needing a breather, she slips out of the room, walking fast down the hallway to exit the front of the old stone church that is Ocean Way Studios. Light flurries dot the air. Lacey holds her elbows, hugging herself tight, trying to wrangle her emotions back into the icy box of her heart.

Seth’s song echoes in her head.

The most beautiful thing she’s ever heard. It also scares the shit out of her.

She doesn’t have it together. Seth doesn’t need her stupid neuroses in his life. Because Seth loves her too hard, because she needs him too bad. And sooner or later ...

Seth’s the guy she’ll love too much. Go through pain and hurt for. And for what? Eventually, she’ll mess it up, and he’ll leave her when he realizes she’s a disaster. She’ll lose him. Just like she lost her mother and Sal. That means she loses herself. That means she never gets over him. And then she’ll be stuck in this new, unfamiliar life.

They rushed it too fast. It was fun to pretend in LA, at the cabin, but now she’s back in the real world. And she’s scared. It’s selfish of her to expect Seth to deal with all her bullshit. He’s famous. He’s touring. He’s recording an album. She can’t ask him to put his life on hold for her.

Suddenly, going back to LA seems so easy. In control and safe. That world is hers. The glitz, the drama, the hustle and the stress. Colin’s offer is too good to refuse. She’d be a fool to pass it up.

Her eyes drift to the recording studio, her heart like a ticking time bomb in her chest. Seth has his life. Sal too. Why shouldn’t she have hers?

Lacey slips out her cell phone and stares at it for a long minute.

And then she dials and lifts it to her ear.

Seth sets his fiddle case in a corner of the living room and straightens up. Automatically, his eyes find Lacey. She’s in front of the window, arms crossed over her chest, watching the glow of the sunset disappear into the horizon. The snow’s coming down outside Wild Antler Farm, casting the world in a gray hue of gloom.

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