Page 60 of A Love Song for Dreamers

When we pull up in front of the building, I have to force my legs out of the car because I don’t want it toend.

“Walk me to my door?” I say onimpulse.

He shifts out of the car after me, a dark presence at my side. Like a dog who looks menacing or unapproachable to a stranger, he’s the comfort no one will everunderstand.

They don’t haveto.

In the hall outside my apartment, I fish my keys out of my bag. There’s a note on the door fromElle.

If you’re coming home with NT, I’m going to killyou.

Tyler lifts the note off the door, frowning. “Who’sNT?”

“She means Ian. It’s an inside joke.” I take the note, crumpling it into a ball. My stomach tightens as I think about what the nicknamemeans.

“Annie.” Tyler steps between the door and me before I can slide the key into the lock. “Why did you datehim?”

I’ve asked myself the same question so many times these past fewdays.

“I thought he was what I wanted. He didn’t look at me like I was crazy when I told him about my dreams. Though I guess he liked it because he could takeadvantage.”

“I have always believed inyou.”

I nod. “I know. That’s the other reason I was drawn tohim.”

“Why?”

“Because he was safe. Because I didn’t love him the way I lovedyou.”

Tyler’s body relaxes, and I peer up into his face. There’s urgency that wasn’t there at the hotel, but he’s holdingback.

“Say it,” I demand. “Whatever it is that has you looking all broody after I thought we had a goodtime.”

He captures my wrist, and I suck in a startled little breath as he strokes his thumb across my skin. The electricity between us that was content to sit back over dinner and drinks springs to life onceagain.

Tyler turns my hand and skims his thumb across the lines in my palm, so different from the lines on his. “The reason I’m unavailable isn’t because I’m seeing someoneelse.”

When his gaze meets mine, the emotion in his eyes hits me square in the chest. “It’s because my heart has always beenyours.”

13

Ididn’t cometo New York to tell Annie Jamieson I love her. I came because I couldn’t let her go off to see some dickhead who hurt her without having backup. I know I’ve been that dickhead, but I won’t be him thistime.

She’s flushed in the hall lights, a warm, lush shade that makes me want to kiss her everywhere. I want to capture her with my hands, my mind, so I can have her like this whenever Iwant.

“My heart has been yours since you walked into the pool house to steal my towel senior year at Oakwood,” Icontinue.

Annie’s lips part, those amber eyes blinking as she sucks in a slowbreath.

If she tells me to leave, I will. I’ll walk out of here and never come back, never insert myself into her life again when she hasn’t asked forit.

Instead, she holds out a hand. “Give me yourphone.”

I take it out, unlocking it forher.

She opens my contacts and hits a number, telling the driver downstairs he canleave.

Her meaning sinks in, and my body gets heavy—hard.

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