Page 113 of Here's to Yesterday

Over these last few months,I’ve learned to let go on stage. I forget where I am, forget the crowd, and forget the band. All I focus on is the music and what it’s making mefeel.

That’s what I did at Mic’s tonight. I let it all slipaway.

IncludingMaura.

When I snap back to reality at the end of my set, I notice her chair is empty and the douchebag she’s with tonight is burning holes in mydirection.

I look to Hudson for help, and he shrugs.Thanks,bud.

Wanting to collect myself after the girl I came home for disappeared on me, I pass by James without a word and head toward the staircase leading to the roof.A little fresh air soundsfantastic.

I burst through the door and stop dead in mytracks.

“Dallas, I told you I was—” She spins around and stops mid-sentence.

Neither one of us moves. It’s like time has frozen, and we can’t seem to get it to thaw. The only thing not frozen is the heat surrounding us. I feel the familiar tug I’ve always felt with her, and I want so desperately to move toward her, but I’m afraid she’ll run offagain.

“Fine,” she finishes. “Tucker.”

I close my eyes when she says my name. It’s as if she’s wrapping it up in love and desire. It’s intimate, familiar,breathtaking.

“Maura,” I say, projecting everything she just did back ather.

We’re ten feet apart, and I can still see the way her chest starts to heave at her name rolling off my lips.Good.

“What are you…what are you doinghere?”

Oddly enough, I relax at her question. Because it’s notwhatshe says, it’s thewayshe says it. Breathless, needy, curious, hopeful.She still wantsme.

A piece of me wants to say that nothing has changed between us, but I can’t.Everythinghas changed. But it’s a good change. I can feel how much we’ve grown. In an unusual way, we’ve grown together rather than apart. We haven’t talked, but we’ve both stayedconnected.

We’re stillus.Just different, better versions ofus.

Now I just need to know if she’s as ready as Iam.

Putting my hands in my back pockets, I shrug. “You know. Had agig.”

Her eyes fall to the ground as she says, “I know. I heardit.”

I cross the distance between us and stop when I’m just a mere foot from her. “Did you, Maura? Did you hear it? Did you really listen to thewords?”

Every song I sang tonight was about her. Sure, a song or two camebeforeMaura, but all along they were about her. She’s always been what I was searching for. And now that I’ve found her, I’m not letting her go. Notagain.

Stepping into her more, I angle her head toward mine. “I’m about to kiss you, Maura,” I tell her, searching her gaze for any hint that she doesn’t want this. I find none. “Before I do, I need to know who Dallasis.”

“Dallas is nothing and everything to me, Tucker. But you, you’re justeverything.”

That’s all Ineed.

I seize her mouth, her body, her heart, and her soul all in onekiss.

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