Page 112 of Not Another Love Song

Alex’s eyes were bright as they traveled over her face. “What happened?”

“He wanted to bring you back for our duo concert regardless of how we felt about it. And he…Well, I played a solo last night—”

“I know. I saw it online.”

She looked up at him. He was staring down at her like she was the sun. It was familiar. The same fascination she’d seen in him at the wedding, at the Plaza. Like she was an answer to a question he’d been asking his whole life.

“It was remarkable, Gwen.”

She looked down at her bare feet and nodded, embarrassed that she’d chosen a song that wasn’t entirely hers.

“It’s not…I didn’t mean to claim ownership over it.”

“You wrote it,” he said.

“No, you wrote it. I just riffed—”

“It’s ours. We created it together.” His fingertips traced her jaw, tilting her face up to him. “And watching you play it was life-changing.”

She felt herself sinking down, down into his praise, so before she could bury herself there she stepped back. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in San Francisco?”

“Dom told me last night that you’d DM’d him about coming to LA, but then you never came. Then I saw you playing our song, and I had to talk to you. So I asked Sophia if you ever made it, and she said Lorenz took care of it. I told Lorenz last night after the show that I needed to see you. I said I’d be back by call time for our show tonight. But he said if I got on a plane, I shouldn’t come back.”

Gwen stared at him, her mind spinning. “What?”

“I left the tour. I quit.” His deep brown eyes bored into hers. “I couldn’t think of anything except getting here. I don’t know what I’m doing.” He laughed, running a hand over his face. “I barely had a second to tell Dom. He told me to go, and I did.”

She moved into him, winding her arms around his shoulders and tucking her head under his chin. He curled over her, wrapping her close, like it was second nature to him.

They’d both quit last night. She squeezed him.

“What about the Roses?” she whispered into his shoulder. “Are they performing tonight?”

She felt him nod. “He said—he said that Xander Thorne was a brand that he owned. It wasn’t mine. He could get another Xander Thorne. You were right.”

Her chest constricted. She turned up to his face, and his eyes were wet and his lips trembling.

“Does he really think he can replace you in twenty-four hours?” she asked.

“He always said he could. He— It wasn’t the first time he’d told me that Forrest was ready to go. That he had all the cello parts down.”

Forrest. The guy who had been let go from the band in the beginning. Gwen shook her head. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want it anymore, Gwen. I just…” He reached up and pushed her hair over her ear. “I just want to be near you.”

Tears filled her eyes, and she kissed him. His arms crushed her to him, lifting her to her toes. She whimpered against his lips as the tears fell, and her fingers curled into his hair.

“I miss you.” She pressed herself into him, and he kissed her again.

A hand cradled her jaw. “I’m not going anywhere ever again. Not without you.”

He pulled her up around his waist, and she locked her legs behind his back. He kissed her the entire way into her bedroom, but when he laid them down on her small bed, he said, “You’re moving in. I can’t stand this.”

She laughed and tugged off his jacket. “Can you even afford that apartment anymore?”

“We’ll figure it out. We’ll both play in the subway for tips.”

Smiling, she wrapped herself around him and flipped them over. She sat on his hips and pulled her shirt off, shimmying out of her pajama pants. He groaned her name against her mouth as she started unbuckling him.

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