Page 105 of Behind the Net

“Thank you,” I say, leaning forward to hug him, and his arms loop around me. I lean into his shoulder, inhaling his warm, spicy scent. One of his hands threads into my hair, the other holding me tight against him.

“You are so welcome, songbird.” I feel his low voice against my chest, and I wish we could stay like this forever. “Alright, time to take it for a spin.”

I pull back and study the guitar. “It’s too nice to play.”

“No way. Don’t you have to break guitars in?” His mouth quirks.

I burst out laughing. “That takes years.”

He gestures at the guitar. “Better get started, then.”

Nerves shimmer through me. I’m hesitating, but it’s now or never. “I’d like to give you your present first.” From the side table, I grab my phone and open a folder, sharing it with him.

His hand brushes my lower back. “You didn’t have to get me anything, Pippa.”

“I knew you’d say that.” His phone pings in his pocket, and I nod at him with a smile. “That’s from me. Open it.”

When he opens the email, his laugh is surprised and pleased. The sound melts into my heart. His face lights up while he scrolls through the professional photos I had taken of Daisy at the dog beach, and his eyes are bright.

“I’m having them printed,” I explain. “I was going to frame one and put it in the apartment.”

He grins big at the one of Daisy mid-jump, tongue hanging out with wild eyes. “These are amazing. I love them.”

He lands on one of me and Daisy.

A flash of embarrassment hits me, and my face warms. “I wasn’t going to print the ones with me in them. That’s the entire folder, so there are going to be some extras in there.”

He’s still smiling at the one of me and Daisy. “I love it.”

I bite my lip, nervous about the next gift.

“There’s something else,” I tell him, pulling out my phone again. My hands are shaking. I’ve never done something like this.

Jamie’s hand covers my knee, and the warmth of his big hand bleeds through the fabric, pulling me back to the present. He’s smiling at me, that soft, handsome smile that makes me want to kiss him.

“I wrote an album,” I blurt out, and his eyebrows shoot up.

“What?”

I nod. “Yeah. I wrote an album for you. I mean—” I tilt my head back and forth. “I wrote it for me too, so I hope it doesn’t suck that we have to share this gift, but you encouraged me and made me feel like I could do it, so I kept writing because I wanted to have a full collection of songs to show you.”

His eyes glint with pride. “Show me.”

I huff a laugh at his tone.

“Now, Pippa.”

I laugh again, opening another folder on my phone. “Hold on a second. So impatient.”

His hand hasn’t moved from my knee, and his thumb strokes back and forth as I share the videos with him. I would normally record them as audio only, but I liked the way the light looked in the living room during golden hour, and then I just left the video running. After I was done, I cut the full songs into their own clips.

Jamie’s phone lights up, and a moment later, my voice rings out in the living room. His mouth curls into a pleased smile again, and he tilts a glance at me.

“You wrote an album,” he says softly.

My chest is bursting with pressure and giddiness and disbelief. “I wrote an album.”

He shakes his head in wonder, still watching me while my song plays. “Fucking incredible. I’m so proud of you.”

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