CHAPTER 60 (2)

I snap my head up and head for the front door. “There’s somewhere I need to be.” Jacob points back toward the rest of the house. “But you haven’t checked out my future bedroom.” “I asked for avocado,” Zeke tells the waitress on the patio that afternoon. His voice is cordial, but his eyes narrow as he squints against the sun. She disappears through the doors of the restaurant, past the palm trees blowing in the breeze. “Hard to get everything you want, isn’t it?” Zeke leans forward over the table between us. “It doesn’t have to be.” He grins. “The guys said you were at the studio yesterday with some suggestions on the tracks. Glad you’re coming around. You can meet marketing next week.” I stare at the burger in front of me, waiting for his food to return. Fuck it. I take a mouthful of mine. After swallowing the first bite, I say, “I’m meeting them right after this.” Zeke’s brows shoot up in surprise. “I’m pleased to see you’re enthusiastic.” “That’s not the word I’d use. I’m leaving LA and I don’t want any talk that I’m not fulfilling my contract.” He laughs. “You’re not leaving LA. You just got back.” I mentally review the points that came together quickly once I’d decided on my next move. “I know I haven’t been the easiest to work with, but that’s going to change. You’ll still have input on the songs and production for the rest of the album. But I will record it at the studio of my choosing.” Zeke shifts back in his chair, folding his arms, but I’m not done. “I will commit to being a better collaborator. Including paying for someone at the label to coordinate promotion, which, as we’ve established, isn’t my strength. In return, what I do on my own time is my own business. It won’t compromise the label or its brand.” “Timothy. This is impossible.” “The word you’re looking for is ‘unorthodox,’” I supply. “The label’s ownership is in this to make money. You saw that in me. You gave me a chance and it paid off. Now I’m offering you a chance. If you don’t like it, you can sue me for breach of contract, which will be time consuming and expensive and make us both less valuable.” He blinks at me. “Is that all?” His voice makes it clear he thinks I’ve lost my mind. I rise from my chair and toss a fifty on the table for my half-finished burger. “A summary of what I’m proposing is in your email. You can send me any comments over the next forty-eight hours. After my surgery, I’m leaving town.” I start for the door, but Zeke calls after me. “Where are you going?” I heave out a breath. “Where I should’ve been all along.” The door opens to reveal screaming children and a tired-looking thirty-something woman who straightens in recognition when she sees me. I rub a hand over my neck. “I’m looking for Eddie.” “He’s in the yard. Are there any more musicians coming?” she calls after me hopefully as I head through the house, a sprawling, new-looking ranch that’s not as big as Eddie’s but still screams money. It’s been two days since my hand surgery, and though the surgeon said it went well, it’s too soon to know if this will make the difference I’m hoping for by taking away most of the pain and stiffness. But no matter what happens, for the first time, I’m not lying awake at night, willing this to be the thing that fixes me. As I head out the back doors and into a sprawling yard filled with bright colors, children’s entertainment, and clusters of adults, I don’t have to ask where to find Eddie—it’s clear from all the moms staring at him. He’s in one corner, talking to a man who looks like the only other dad here. When Eddie looks up and sees me, it’s his turn to do a double take. I shouldn’t have shown up in Dallas unannounced, but it was a good thing Eddie wasn’t home when I got there. That gave me more time to get ready for what I have to say. “Haley said I’d find you here,” I say when I pull up next to him. “Usually Hales does party duty, but she’s still on bed rest.” The other man takes Eddie’s stare as his cue to leave, and I swallow my amusement as I look across the sprawling yard with a jungle gym, a gated-off pool, a bouncy castle, and tables with snacks and desserts. “How many kids come to these things?” “Too many.” It takes me a moment to spot Sophie at the top of the slide in overalls and a lime-green T-shirt, her hair in pigtails with matching green ribbons. She’s not looking for her dad. She’s focused on the ride she’s on, and her face splits with a smile as she slides down to the bottom, bumping into the last kid—who failed to clear the landing zone in time—with a little shriek. The woman who answered the door approaches, her gaze moving between us. “Would you like a hat?” “Love one. Eddie too.” I take two party hats from her and hold one out for Eddie. He shoves his hands in his pockets. “Please say you came to relieve me,” he states when she’s gone. “I did come to tell you something, but it might not be a relief.” I take a breath. “I’m going to marry your daughter.” Eddie stiffens, his gaze never leaving the throng of kids on the jungle gym. Sophia chases another kid, running under the slide and lunging. “Sophia’s a little young.” “I’m serious. I’m in love with Emily. I have been since before I knew what that meant. She fucking loves me too.” A little boy whose shoe fell off as he tried to dash past us looks up from refastening the Velcro, eyes round with delight. Then he takes off toward his parents, hollering. “She’ll always be yours, and I’m not trying to take her away from you,” I go on. “But she’ll always be mine too.” Eddie rubs a hand over his square jaw. “And if I don’t accept that?” My body stiffens as I turn the paper hat in my hands. “You’re the closest thing I’ve had to a father. You trusted me and let me into your family. But if you’re going to make me choose, Eddie—I choose her.” The truth of those words rings through me. I choose Emily over certainty, over safety, over money, over fame. No life I could lead is as full without her, and if being with her means putting everything I am, everything I’ve been, on the line? I’m ready to do it. For now and for always. “What about your contract?” Eddie asks. “Zeke and I came to an agreement for how I’ll finish the album. I also committed to more public appearances, and paying for a PR rep on the label’s staff since I don’t do enough ‘fan engagement’, in his words.” “I’m impressed. Did you negotiate that collaboratively or drop an ultimatum on his desk?” “Something in between.” Eddie stares me down. “Listen to me, Timothy.” I wait him out, my breathing steady, prepared for whatever he’s about to say. He takes the party hat still in his hands and sets it on my head, snapping the elastic down around my chin. “If you marry my daughter, I’m not taking your kids to any fucking birthday parties.”