“And you make me—”
“No, I don’t think you understand,” I interrupted. I arched my brows. “I’ve got chills.”
She bit her lip to contain a laugh and I loved it. I loved her. “Are they…multiplying?”
I nodded with a rueful shrug. “I might just be losing all control over here.”
She tipped her head back with a laugh. “Join the club. I’m totally out of control over here, Jax. And it’s…” She gave her head a little shake, at a loss for words.
“Terrifying?” I guessed, the laughter fading because…heck yeah. This was the scariest thing that had ever happened to me.
“Yeah. Terrifying,” she said. “And amazing. And beautiful. And confusing and…”
“Perfect,” I finished.
“Yeah,” she said, leaning in to kiss me. “It’s pretty darn perfect.”
Epilogue
Six Months Later…
Rose
“Okay, I’m ready,” I said as I stared out the passenger side window of Jax’s car at the Emerson Performing Arts center.
“Baby, you were born ready,” Jax joked.
I let out a sharp exhale as I tried to get my nerves under control. I might have said ‘okay, I’m ready’ three times already but I had yet to reach my hand for the door handle.
City traffic poured past us where we were illegally parked and I knew I couldn’t procrastinate any longer. It was do or die time.
This was it, the moment I’d been waiting for.
“Sweetheart?” Jax asked gently beside me.
“Yes?” My voice was a touch too high.
“Are you psyching yourself out again?”
I turned to look at him with wide eyes. “How did you know?”
He waved a hand in front of his face. “You’ve got that look…” He looked down to where my hand was clenching his thigh so hard that my knuckles had turned white. “Also, I can’t feel my leg.”
I let go quickly. “Sorry.”
He smiled as he took the hand I’d just removed and brought it to his lips. “You know I would never lie to you, right?”
I nodded quickly. He’d proven himself to be trustworthy and honest time and time again these past six months. He’d been amazing.
His earnest gaze met mine. “Then trust me when I say that you’ve got this.”
He’d watched me rehearse so many times he probably had both monologues memorized as well as me.
I nodded. “Thanks.”
But also…of course he’d say that.
He tilted his head to the side with his brows arched. “You don’t believe me?”
I leaned forward to drop a kiss on his lips. “You’re a little biased.”
“Simone thinks you’re going to nail it, too,” he insisted, his tone sweetly offended that I might doubt either one of them.
“Again,” I said. “She’s my acting coach. Of course she thinks I’m great.”
He leaned back to study me. “Okay, then. Let’s take a beat and ask the most important question there is.”
I blinked. “What’s that?”
He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Do you think you’ll do great?”
My lips twitched, the anxious energy starting to shift to something more…exhilarating and less terrifying as I thought about it. “Yes,” I said honestly. “I’ve come a long way this year and I think I stand a really good shot of winning.”
He grinned like I’d just made him proud.
“I might not win…” I ignored his sudden frown, his adorable righteous anger at the mere thought. I smiled. “But even if I don’t…” I leaned forward until my forehead touched his. “I’ll figure it out.”
His eyes darkened, his voice softened. “We’ll figure it out.”
I nodded. That’s the way we did things these days. Together. Building trust had taken a while and we were still a work in progress, but we were a long way from where we’d started, thanks to each other and our friends.
He tugged on a strand of my brown hair—my very visible reminder that I was done putting on a performance every minute of every day. These days I kept my real life real and my acting had become an outlet. Some people, like Hannah, for example, might even refer to it as my therapy.
She probably wasn’t wrong.
Jax had his music and I had my acting, and we both used those outlets to sort out our issues.
“Win or lose,” I said, pausing to take a deep breath. “I’m going to go in there and knock their socks off.”
His grin was sudden and brilliant, and it still made my heart leap with excitement every time I saw it.
“They won’t know what hit ’em,” he added. “And, win or lose, you and I are going to enjoy a weekend in the city and celebrate the fact that you worked your butt off, on and off the stage.”
A surge of emotion left me speechless and I blinked quickly. “Don’t you dare make me ruin my makeup,” I said. But we were both smiling like lunatics. We were awfully proud of ourselves for growing up so much this year and for taking big steps to not repeat our parents’ mistakes.
He pulled me in close and gave me a kiss. “I love you, my little diva, you know that right?”
I nodded. “I love you, too, player.”
He gave a huff of laughter at the now-old joke. “You good?”
I thought about it as I studied him, this guy who’d become such a huge part of my life and who’d helped me learn so much. “I’m better than good.”
He grinned and I took a mental picture of that smile, those eyes. He’d be with me on stage, even if it was just in my thoughts, and he’d be cheering me on every minute of the competition.
For a guy who started off the year hating my guts? He’d become my number one fan.
I turned to look out the window again and this time I spotted a familiar face. “Ooh, there’s Layne,” I said. A tall blonde was a few paces behind her in the crowd of scholarship hopefuls and their parents. “And there’s Lillian.” I finally started to move toward the door handle as my nerves were replaced with a flicker of excitement to see my girls. “I should catch
