Chapter 40
40
KATRINA
Two Years Later
M y fingers dance across Freddie’s keys. I’ve played these scales so many times, I don’t even need to look. Eyes closed, I just breathe, letting the vibrations travel up through my fingertips and into my bones as I try not to think about the days— months —ahead.
It’s never easy being away from home so long, but it’s always worth it in the end.
One final note fades, and I open my eyes. Through the wide windows, the desert sky glows a dusty orange, slowly giving way to night’s deepening blue. I glide my fingers once more across the piano, touching each key like a farewell.
“Well,” I sigh, “it’s time to go, Freddie.”
Freddie doesn’t answer. He’s a piano.
But the silence carries a weight, a quiet ache of goodbye.
“Don’t give me that look,” I say. “It’s my job. If I could take you with me, I would. In a heartbeat! But you’d hate the road. Too many trucks. Too much bouncing. You’d just get hurt, so...” I swallow. “You’re staying here, and I’m going on tour again.”
Freddie hums silently.
“I knew you’d understand, buddy.” I run my hand along his polished top, the surface cool beneath my palm. “You won’t be alone the whole time. Derrick’s gonna swing by now and then. Dust you off. Keep you company. You remember Derrick?”
Freddie stares.
“Logan?” I shake my head. “No, he won’t be here because we’re, uh…” My smile sneaks in. “We’re going on tour together for the first time. Criminal Records and The Electrics on the same stage in nearly forty cities all over the world. The Love Conquers All Tour. That name was my idea, but everyone agreed it was appropriate for our first major world tour under our label, Breakout Music. What do you think?”
I tap middle C.
Freddie hums back.
“Yeah. I think so, too.”
My throat tightens. I bite my cheek and look through the windows. The sun’s almost gone, painting the sky in a brilliant fire before night swallows it whole.
“It starts tonight at The Sin and Sand, like always,” I whisper. “Then we drive to LA. Then San Francisco. Mexico City. Bogotá.” A laugh bubbles up. “Madrid, Rome, Paris. Casa-freakin’-blanca, Freddie! Shanghai, Tokyo. Sydney.”
I breathe it all in, the wonder of it, the sheer ridiculous joy.
“There was a time I didn’t think I’d ever see past my front yard.” Tears prick the corners of my eyes. “Now I’m gonna see the world with the man I love. With my friends. My family.” My fingers sweep gently over Freddie’s keys. “When I see you again, I’ll be a year older. Might be a whole new person by then, with dozens of new stories. I can’t wait to tell you all of them.”
Freddie remains quiet.
“I said don’t look at me like that,” I tease gently. I lean forward and kiss him, the wood cool against my lips. “I’ll miss you, buddy,” I whisper as I lower the lid. “I’ll bring you back something pretty!”
I rise slowly and leave the room, closing the doors behind me with care.
“Are you ready to go?” Logan asks from the couch. Our suitcases are lined up by the door, packed tight with road essentials and not much else.
I exhale hard. “No,” I squeak, the sound embarrassingly small.
Logan laughs and opens his arms. I shuffle over and sink into his lap, letting his warmth pull me back together. “He’ll be all right,” he murmurs. “Freddie’s been alone before.”
“Not for an entire year! What if he forgets me?”
“He won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because, kitty, you leave quite the impression.”
I lift my head and smile at him. He smiles back, his eyes drinking me in.
“I do, huh?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“What kind of impression are we talking about here?”
His hands slide down my sides and come to rest on my hips. “The kind that makes me consider stripping you naked and taking you right here on this couch—and risking the wrath of your brother for being tardy.”
I roll my eyes. “He’s such a tool now that he wears suits.”
Logan chuckles and pulls me close, his lips brushing my cheek. “We should go.”
I kiss the edge of his mouth. “I don’t know,” I whisper. “I kinda like the idea of you stripping me naked and?—”
“Don’t finish that sentence.”
I giggle. “—and making sweet love to me on this couch,” I say, pressing a kiss to his neck.
He inhales sharply; the heat rushing off him. “Goddamn, kitty,” he growls. “You make me a very weak man.”
“I don’t know.” I slide my hand down his chest, resting it on his groin. “Feels pretty strong to me.”
With a grunt, Logan moves fast, flipping me onto my back across the couch. He kisses me hard, swallowing my laughter as I cling to him.
“Whatever happened to my innocent little kitty?” he asks.
“Completely and utterly corrupted,” I reply.
He chuckles. “We have to go.”
I sigh, giving in. “Fine. But we’re picking this up later.”
“Guaranteed,” he whispers, his nose grazing mine.
One more kiss, and he’s off the couch before I can stop him.
He grabs two suitcases. “I’ll load these into the car,” he says.
“My weekender?” I ask, not seeing it in the pile.
“Oh—upstairs, on the bed. Meant to grab it.”
“I’ll get it,” I say, standing.
He heads toward the front door as I take the stairs two at a time. The loft is lit by the last light of day, golden and fading fast.
I cross to the bed—but my weekender bag isn’t there.
Instead, I spot a yellow sticky note.
FIND ME
“Logan?” I call, my brow furrowing even as a smile tugs at the corners of my mouth.
No answer.
I drop to my knees, flipping up the bedspread to peek underneath. My eyes land on another yellow sticky note lying on the floor.
COLD
Grinning, I snatch it up and scan the room.
The bathroom, maybe?
I spring up and rush over, flinging the door open. My gaze darts around, searching every surface for that familiar weekender bag.
All I find is another sticky note on the mirror.
EVEN COLDER
I whirl back to the bedroom, pulse racing now with delight.
My eyes dart toward the closet.
I take a running leap over the bed and yank the door open. Reaching inside, my fingers brush against another note stuck to the light switch.
WARM
I launch inside, locking onto the storage trunk tucked along the far wall.
GETTING HOT
I fling it open. Inside, there’s a neatly folded blanket with a sticky note stuck to it.
SMOLDERING
I laugh and toss the blanket aside—revealing my weekender bag sitting beneath it.
OPEN ME
With breathless anticipation, I haul it out and unzip the main compartment. Nestled inside, beneath a note I definitely didn’t pack, is something small and velvet.
TAKE ME
My heart skips a beat.
Carefully, I peel away the note and lift the velvet box, its weight heavy in my palm. I hold it for a moment, letting my breath settle, my pulse slow.
Then, with trembling fingers, I open it.
A ring rests inside. A yellow diamond set in a silver band, catching the light like fire.
Turning around slowly, I step back into the bedroom to find Logan kneeling in the doorway, waiting for me.
A final yellow sticky note is stuck to his chest.
MARRY ME
“Logan,” I whisper, the rumble in my stomach turning into a full-blown storm.
He extends a hand, drawing me toward him. “Katrina, I love you,” he says, his voice soft but steady, those stark blue eyes locking on mine. “That’s no surprise. I’ve spent the last two years proving that to you, every single day. And as we’ve gotten ready for this wild world tour, I realized I don’t want to do this with my girlfriend. Not even my fiancée.” He smiles. “I want to travel the world with my wife.”
I blink, my brain scrambling. “You mean...?”
“Yes,” he says. “Marry me, Katrina. Tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“After the concert,” he says. “We’ll kick off the tour, put on a hell of a show together... and end the night at a chapel.”
“Logan...” My chest aches with the weight of the surprise. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” His thumb brushes along my hand. “I want to marry you tonight, Katrina Benton. And then I want to spend the next year of our lives on the best damn honeymoon ever imagined.”
Laughter bursts out of me. I can see it. Every vivid, ridiculous, beautiful moment. Hand-in-hand across the globe, playing our hearts out, making love in cities I never thought I’d ever see. Every night, a new adventure. Every morning, waking up next to him.
It makes sense.
All of it makes sense.
I drop to my knees and kiss him, my heart thudding like a drum. “Yes,” I whisper. “Yes, Logan. I’ll marry you.”
“Tonight?”
“Tonight.”
He kisses me, our lips smiling into each other. His hands slip from my cheeks to reach for the velvet box, and I feel the strong band slide down my finger, fitting perfectly.
“I love you, Katrina,” he murmurs, kissing the ring. “I want forever with you.”
I tumble into his arms, overwhelmed. “I love you, too, Logan,” I say, then laugh again. “I also kinda hate you, though.”
“You don’t have to take my last name,” he teases.
“No!” I laugh harder. “Not that. Though... yeah, I’ll probably keep mine if that’s cool.”
“It’s very cool,” he says, grinning.
“I meant...” I pull back, and he wipes away the tear sliding down my cheek. “You’re the one who doesn’t want to be late, but right now, all I want is for you to tear my clothes off.”
Logan laughs and pulls me up with him. “I think,” he says, wrapping his arms around me and steering us both toward the bed, “we can break the rules just this once.”
He kisses me again, and my whole body sings.
“Yeah,” I say, grinning up at him. “Just this once.”
My enemy. My lover.
Now, the rest of my days.
Yes. It makes perfect sense.