The melody flowed and I let my voice flow with it.
A cold June day
A storm outside.
The world brews with life.
Lightning cuts the sky
Thunder echoes inside
As he dies.
Daddy always said
Life isn’t meant to be
A permanent thing
To miss out on
Daddy always said
Don’t forget to fly
Don’t forget to love.
But most of all,
Don’t forget to live.
Dylan matched my gaze as he strummed the final chord. “It’s not perfect, but it’s getting there.”
“The lyrics could use some work.” I sauntered into the room, trying to seem cool and confident. Dylan put his guitar onto the stand as I sat beside him. I took his hand and kissed the palm. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he asked as he pulled his hand from mine.
I swallowed hard at the tiny rejection. “For the music. For helping Dad.” I stared into his ocean green eyes. “For helping me.”
Dylan put his hand around my neck and pulled me toward him. His kiss was hard, passionate and so intense. I fell against him, losing myself to this. Wanting to lose myself more. Dylan’s other arm wrapped around my waist, guiding me onto my back. His body pressed into mine, pushing me down into the cushions. I wanted more. I needed more of this. His fingers dug into my neck. I pushed his shirt up, scrapping my nails against his skin.
Instead of stopping me, he sat up and pulled his shirt off, tossing it who knew where. Then his lips were on mine again, his hips grinding against me and pressing his length to my thigh. I wrapped my leg around his waist, using my strength to bring him closer.
Dylan’s lips skimmed down to my neck. His tongue leaving hot trails on my skin. Jesus, I wanted to throw my clothes off. I wanted to feel him everywhere.
But that wasn’t what he wanted.
“Dylan?” I said on barely a breath.
He pulled back and stared down at me. His eyes dark with need. “Do you want to stop?”
“Do you?” I asked.
He closed his eyes and moved away. As much as I didn’t want to stop him, I knew it was the right thing. Dylan buried his head in his hands. I reached out to comfort him, running my fingers along the bare skin of his bicep.
“Cameron,” he said as his gaze followed where my fingers traced his muscles.
“Sorry.” I dropped my hand into my lap.
“Don’t be.” He turned toward me and put his hands on my shoulders. “When I made that promise, I ...” He bit his lip and glanced at the ceiling before meeting my eyes. “There was more to it.”
I raised my eyebrows.
His hands slid down my arms to my hands. “I promised myself that I’d stay celibate until I ... until I met someone I could fall in love with.” He smiled and brought my hands to his chest. “Until I met you, it was easy. But now... Do you know how many times I have wanted to break that promise?”
My heart sunk. He didn’t love me. If he did, he wouldn’t have stopped. I bit my lip, waiting for an explanation, a reason he didn’t love me.
“When I heard you sing, I knew you were special.” He pressed my hands against his rapidly beating heart. “I didn’t want to just sleep with you. I couldn’t just sleep with you. So I proposed teaching, helping.”
I pulled my upper lip between my teeth. Where was this going?
“And I got to know you.” He leaned in until we shared the same breath. “You became someone so much more to me. Then I heard you sing at church and I knew.” He smiled sadly and shook his head. “I knew.”
I waited for what exactly he knew, but he didn’t elaborate. He stared into my eyes waiting for a response. “You knew what?”
He huffed a laugh. “That I was falling in love with you.”
“Oh.”
He let go of my hands and leaned back. “Oh?”
“I... You...” He’s falling in love with me? Is this real? I wasn’t sure what to think. Or how I felt.
Dylan stood and moved toward the sliding glass doors leading outside He stared toward the lake. “This is why I didn’t say it before. I knew you wouldn’t ... couldn’t...”
“That’s not fair,” I snapped. Anger exploded inside me. I stood and stomped over to him. “You drop a bomb like that on me and assume I don’t feel the same way because I didn’t say it back. What an asinine attitude.” I didn’t know where this was coming from, but I rolled with it. Speaking my mind never did me wrong, and the honesty sometimes surprised me too. Because I did love him. I hadn’t allowed myself to think about feeling that way. Not with everything going on. Not with his promise to himself. Not when I knew we’d be possibly going different directions when Hank’s run ended at the theater. “You didn’t give me a chance.”
“I didn’t give you a chance?” He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “I told you I love you and all you said was ‘oh’.”
I jammed my finger into his chest. “Okay, so that wasn’t the most romantic response, but you surprised me.”
“And you don’t love me back. It’s fine.”
“Bullshit,” I said, and I grabbed his arms to pull him closer. “I do love you. I just didn’t think you’d even consider loving me. So I shut it down and ignored it.”
He dropped his arms and my hands were pressed against his pure form.
“And I’m sorry I
