Page 32 of To Bring You Back
Adeline could use the message of the lyrics, but if she hadn’t heard the song despite that it was in heavy rotation on the radio, she must’ve purposely avoided it.
But now she’d reached out to him. Maybe she was softening. Maybe he could get the song’s message to her simply by asking.
Do me a favor and listen sometime.
Sure.The one-word response didn’t exude enthusiasm, but if she said she’d listen, she would. And when she did, maybe he’d hear from her again.
On Tuesday after work,Adeline arranged tarps along the side of her house and powered up the pressure washer. Her plan to prep and paint one side of the house at a time from start to finish would break up the task, giving her smaller milestones to reach for and celebrate along the way. If all went smoothly, she’d strip the chipped paint from this side tonight and return the rental in the morning, then move on to the next step.
After only a small section, her aching shoulders threatened the whole schedule. If she couldn’t distract herself from the discomfort, she’d never finish.
What could be more distracting than Gannon’s song?
Similar flimsy reasoning had carried her to that party all those years ago. She’d known then, as she knew now, she had much stronger feelings for Gannon than she ought to. But at least, working alone, she couldn’t act on those feelings in a disastrous way.
She popped in her earbuds and opened her music app. She’d listen while she worked.
No big deal.
Except her stomach jolted when she saw the cover of Awestruck’s latest album, a grayscale close-up of Gannon’s face. His chin was tilted down and to the side, but his eyes locked on the camera as if the photographer had asked him the meaning of life.
She scrolled past the cover art to the list of songs. Icons indicated the popularity of each. All were popular, but some, “Yours” among them, had skyrocketed beyond the rest.
She centered the song in question on her screen.
She had to hit play.
She shouldn’t have agreed to do this.
His music and voice played key roles in how deeply she’d fallen for him. She couldn’t breathe new life into those feelings. It wouldn’t be right to Fitz.
But everyone knew this song. How personal could it be?
It was just a song.
Her heart thumped in her chest. Forget trying to work simultaneously. She wouldn’t be able to continue with the pressure washer until this was over. Staring at chipping blue paint, she hit play, and her earbuds piped the sound directly to her.
The guitar started, Gannon in his element. He didn’t have to be before her for her to know how he held the guitar, how he shifted his heel with the beat.
In high school, Awestruck had used his basement as their rehearsal space, and she might as well have been curled up in a corner of the old couch there, fitting in homework while he obsessed over a few bars he didn’t like. He invited her to join him because she was better at lyrics than Fitz or John.
That was the reason she’d believed, anyway, until a couple of years later when she’d pressed her lips to his. His fingers found their way through her hair to her neck, his breath warm on her cheek, and his mouth—
Gannon’s voice cut in. “The mistakes I’ve made stretch two thousand miles into a past I can’t take back.”
His voice seemed so close, the words so spot-on, her breath caught. What had started as soft picking of the strings grew to rhythmic strumming by the chorus, his voice unleashing pent-up power. “The past I can’t forget, you don’t remember. All you ask is that I surrender. Hands up, weapons down, I let you in and breathe again. You make me better than the man I’ve been. I meant to be more than what I am, but what I am, I surrender.”
Adeline rubbed her eyes. Still, she could see images of the time they’d spent together. The way he’d looked at her during shows to signal a transition or the way he’d swung her around at graduation. The awkward hug he’d given her before getting in the van with Fitz, John, and Matt—awkward, in retrospect, because Fitz had stood right next to them.
Her core had tightened when their eyes met at that party the year he visited home, not long before Awestruck’s big break. Her face tingled when he crossed the room to greet her with a hug that was anything but awkward, though he’d gained a couple more inches on her since he’d left.
One of her earbuds yanked out, and she snapped her eyes open.
“I knew I should’ve asked what you wanted the ladder for.”
Face blazing, she turned toward Drew’s voice. Good thing she hadn’t been using the pressure washer, or he would’ve caught its full force right in the chest of his polo.
Drew grinned. “Working hard or hardly working?”
