Page 31 of To Bring You Back
“I’m sure their sound’s changed over the years. And that new one is like listening to Gannon read a page from his journal. Add in how raw but strong his voice is … If you’d heard it, you’d know why half the women in the country are in love with him. He writes his own stuff, right?”
“That doesn’t mean it’s actually a page from his journal.” But the song was most likely something similar. He’d never been able to get into work that didn’t hit close to his heart.
She’d listened to everything Awestruck put together until that winter she’d gotten too close to Gannon’s heart herself. After that, she hadn’t wanted to hear what he had to say about her or Fitz.
“‘I meant to be more than what I am,’” Tegan said. “‘But what I am, I surrender.’”
“From the song?” Her skipping heart already knew the answer.
Tegan nodded. “And all the women went weak in the knees.”
“I’d bet you the cost of the paint that’s about his faith, not a woman.” The inside knowledge slipped out on the desire to prove that she knew him, on the high that came with hearing his words after all this time and finding them familiar.
“You’re on.” Tegan pulled out her phone and started typing. A moment later, she turned her screen toward Adeline. She’d found an article that listed “Yours” by Awestruck as one of the top love songs of the year.
“That doesn’t tell you the intention behind it.”
“We’d only know if we asked him.” Tegan lifted an eyebrow.
Adeline had taken this too far. She struggled to keep her voice even. “John will know.”
Tegan shook her head. “The paint is going to cost a lot. I want to know from the source.”
“I wasn’t serious. It’s my house. I’ll pay for it.”
“I won’t let you pay all alone anyway. Find out from Gannon, but don’t you dare tell him which one of us is counting on which answer, because we both know who he’d side with.”
“You’re overestimating my pull.” Adeline dug her phone from her pocket with tense fingers.
Gannon had said he hoped she’d use his number. He hadn’t specified that it needed to be anything important. Was texting this question worth the possibility that he’d start trying to talk to her again once she made contact?
He had said a lot of true and helpful things in their last talk. There was nothing wrong with having a couple of conversations every eight years, was there? Soon, he’d be back in LA, forgetting about her for another decade.
“A carof teenage girls tried to come up the drive.”
Gannon’s phone pinged with a text as Tim made the announcement. He would’ve left the message unread for a couple of hours while he worked on the lighthouse song, but Tim lingered in the studio doorway, an inevitable interruption.
Gannon steadied his guitar with one hand as he leaned to get the phone out. “And?”
“They waited about five minutes at the gate, then turned around. Someone from security saw the same car coming back down someone else’s drive a few minutes later, so they’re taking shots in the dark.”
“Or they were lost.”
“You’re not that naïve.”
Gannon nodded and lit up the phone screen as Tim wandered off.
Adeline had messaged? He held his finger over the button to unlock the device and read the text.
Is the song “Yours” written to a woman or God?
Since she had been inside his creative process, she ought to know he’d only give complete allegiance like that song expressed to God. Had she even listened to it?
Cut by the realization she hadn’t, he put the guitar on a stand.
There could be another explanation. Maybe so much time had passed that she wondered if he’d changed.
He threaded his fingers together and stretched his hands before taking up the phone.It’s to God, and it’s true.
