Page 50 of One Last Song

“I love you so damn much,” he says, pulling away from me to press his forehead against mine. “I’m so sorry for everything. I never should have let you walk away. I should have fought for you every step of the way. I love you, Cassie.”

“I love you too.” Tears stream down my cheeks. I tilt my head up to kiss him again. “I’m so sorry that I ran away without trying to fix this. I’m sorry that I was going to let us go without fighting. You’re the most important person in the world to me.”

His smile has my heart skipping a beat. “I have a show to finish right now, but we have a lot to talk about once I’m done.”

“We do.” I stand on my toes, my mouth beside his ear. “I came out here to tell you that I’m pregnant.”

He pulls back, his smile stretching from one side of his face to the other. He lets go of me to put a hand over his microphone, blocking out the rest of the arena from the conversation. They’ve already heard enough for one night.

“Excuse me?” he says, his voice raspy. His eyes fill with tears as he takes my chin with his free hand and tilts my face up to his. “Did you say you’re pregnant?”

“I found out a couple days ago. I have the test with me if you want to see it. I didn’t think it was the kind of thing that I should tell you over the phone.”

Tyler drops a quick kiss to my lips again. “I’m going to finish this show and then you and I are going out to celebrate.”

I nod, smiling as I run my hand along his jaw. “Have a good show. I love you.”

“I love you and our baby too.” He takes his hand off his microphone and looks out at the crowd. His hands raise high above his head, silencing the cheering. “All right, everybody, what do you say we get this show going again? Maybe if you all cheer really loud, we can convince Cassie to grab a guitar after this next song and play with us.”

The cheer from the crowd is deafening. Excitement rushes through me as I hurry off the stage only to be met with a stagehand carrying my favorite guitar. Kennedy smiles as she appears with Annika on her hip.

This is it. This is the chance for all my dreams to come true.

I run my fingers over the sleek body of the guitar, bouncing on the balls of my feet. I need my energy up if I’m going to spend the rest of the night performing with the love of my life and our band.

“Tyler has been dragging that guitar along with us everywhere,” Kennedy says. “He’s been hoping that you would show up at one of the shows. Although, if you weren’t here tonight, I was pretty sure that he was going to get on a plane and go after you.”

“I’m a little late.” My cheeks turn red as I sling the guitar across my body and stretch my wrists and fingers. “I love him. We never should have let each other go.”

“Late is better than never.” Kennedy gives me a gentle push toward the stage as the song Tyler dedicated to me comes to an end. “Now, get out there and claim your dream.”

As I step out onto the stage, I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face. I thought the crowd going wild was always my dream, but I was wrong.

The rush of the crowd is nothing compared to the way it feels when Tyler smiles at me.

He’s everything I’ve ever wanted, and I’m never going to let him go again.

EPILOGUE

EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATER: TYLER

Kennedy and Cassie rush around the kitchen, laughing and shoving Matt away from the cake. Cassie tosses her head back and laughs, her hair cascading down her back. Her eyes sparkle with happiness as Matt smears icing across her nose before taking off running.

“You’re going to pay for that!” She’s still laughing as she wipes the icing from her nose and makes her way over to me and our daughter. “And how is the little miss this evening? Did you have a good nap?”

Cassie cradles Raya in her arms, bouncing her gently as she hums to her. Raya laughs and waves her little fists, making my heart melt with each flash of that little smile. I wrap my arms around Cassie’s shoulders and pull her close.

“How have you been doing?” I kiss her shoulder. “I know that practice has been intense lately and with another baby on the way, it’s got to be a lot.”

She tilts her head back against my shoulder and laughs. “Everything is fine. Stop worrying about me. We can keepworking on the new album until I get so pregnant that I can’t hold a guitar anymore.”

Ben laughs and eyes the swell of her stomach. “So we’ve got a couple weeks, then. It’s a good thing that we’re able to take our time with the album. White Hot would have been up our asses if we were still with them.”

It’s been a busy eighteen months. Between the birth of our first daughter and finding out we were pregnant with another, it feels like we’ve barely had time to breathe. After the tour wrapped, we broke our contract with White Hot and quickly decided to start our own label instead of signing with another.

Since then, life has been good. I can look to the future without the weight of the past continuously dragging me down.

I don’t know where I would be right now if Cassie hadn’t come back into my life.

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