“I missed you,” he murmured into my hair.
“I missed you too.”
“So, did you hear anything?”
I opened my mouth to tell him, but then Lily walked up to me. “Emmy!” she shouted, reaching her arms up, so I would pick her up.
“Hi baby girl,” I said, handing her present to Zack, so I could pick up his daughter. I’d adopted his nickname for her sometime in the past month. “Happy Birthday! I can’t believe you’re two!”
Zack grinned at me, almost mesmerized as he watched me holding Lily. She looked so adorable in her yellow party dress and baby tiara.
“Happy Burfday,” she said, grinning at me, and I laughed.
“No, silly girl, it’s your birthday, so you just say thank you when someone tells you ‘happy birthday’.”
She look at me speculatively for a few seconds before saying, “Fank you, Emmy!”
I felt tears start to prick the backs of my eyes when I thought about leaving her too. How was I going do this?
Involuntarily, I squeezed her tight against me. “I love you, Lily,” I murmured, kissing her hair.
“Wub you too, Emmy,” she said, and I lost it.
“Okay, go play,” I said, setting her down and ducking my head, so Zack wouldn’t see me crying.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, and I just shook my head.
“I’m fine. It’s nothing.”
This was ridiculous. I should be happy. I’d gotten my dream job. I needed to be happy about it.
“Come here,” Zack said, pulling me out the front door and closing it behind him, so we were out of the prying eyes of the party guests. I didn’t want to bum anyone out on Lily’s birthday. “What’s wrong?”
“Lily,” I said, the tears now gushing down my cheeks. “And you.”
“What about us?” he asked, searching my face as if trying to figure out what was wrong with me.
“I can’t leave you guys!” I cried, throwing my hands up in frustration. “I can’t do it!”
“You got the job,” he said, and I could tell he was trying to be happy for me, but I knew it was forced. I nodded. “That’s great, Em!”
“Oh, Zack don’t do that,” I said, throwing my arms around his neck. “I’m upset about this. Just be real with me, please?”
“Okay,” he said, turning off the fake joy.
“This sucks! I don’t want to be one of those girls who doesn’t do something because she doesn’t want to lose her boyfriend as a result. It’s ridiculous. I should be independent, but I can’t do it. I love you too much, and I don’t want to be separated from you.”
“I don’t want to be separated from you either, Em, but I told you I wouldn’t hold you back from this.”
I sniffed. “So you want me to take the job?”
“I want you to be happy,” he said. “What would make you happy?”
“Taking the job and moving to L.A. with you.”
He sighed. “You know I can’t do that.”
“I know.”
“But I do have an idea,” he said, the smirk slowly spreading across his face, and I knew he’d been hiding something from the minute I saw him, and I wondered how long he’d been formulating this idea of his.
I raised my eyebrow at him, not convinced that his idea would be a good one. There were some very key factors that wouldn’t change and because of them, I couldn’t work in L.A. and be in the same city as Zack at the same time.
He grinned, unable to stop smiling. “I’d like to offer you a job,” he said, and I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Zack, quit it. This is serious.”
The smile then fell from his face. “I’m being serious. I’d like to offer you a job to do PR for Liar’s Edge. It is a legitimate job with a salary and benefits and a hell of a lot of responsibility, especially since Molly called this morning, and Live Ammunition wants to release our first album nationally this summer.”
My jaw dropped. “Shut up! You’re joking!”
Zack just grinned.
“Oh my God, Zack! That’s amazing!” I threw my arms around his neck. “Congratulations!”
“So you’ll take the job?”
I pulled back from him. “Wait, you were serious about that?”
He nodded. “Yeah. We need someone to do promotion for us while we’re on tour and when the album comes out. We’ll be doing radio shows and interviews, hopefully, so we’ll need someone to handle the press and promotions. Will you do it?”
“Don’t you want someone who has more experience than me?”
He raised his eyebrow at me. “Em, you have two internships on your resume and an intense love of our music. I think you’re qualified.”
“And this is a real job? It’s not just something you made up?”
“It’s totally real,” a British-accented voice said from behind me. I reeled around to see Molly standing behind me, her hands on her hips. “You want it? Technically you’d be working for Live Ammunition, but you’d be assigned to Liar’s Edge, per the request of their lead singer.”
I looked back and forth between her and Zack. He was grinning, and she was looking at me in anticipation.
“Doesn’t Adam need to interview me or something?” I asked, wondering how the hell I was being offered a job when the head of the label hadn’t met me. “Does he want to see my resume?”
“He trusts me,” Molly said, “And I think you’re perfect for the job. It’s yours if you want it.”
“Please take it,” Zack said, his lips so close to my ear.
I closed my eyes for a few seconds, smiling and savoring this moment. This was the best solution to my problem. Not only would I get to promote a band that I loved, but I’d get to go on tour with them. Zack and I wouldn’t have to be apart.
“I’ll take it,” I said, the grin spreading across my face. I couldn’t help it.
“Yes!” Zack grabbed me and pulling me up against him. I kissed him before he could say anything else. “I knew you’d say yes,” he said against my lips, and I just smiled.
“Okay, okay, enough you too,” Molly said after a few minutes. “I swear I will get a bucket of water and douse you with it. This is a child’s birthday party after all.”
“Yeah, and we’re about to open presents, so get your butts back inside,” Jen said then from the doorway.
Zack turned and grinned at her, and she shrieked. He just laughed.
“You took the job?” she asked me, and I just nodded.
“Yea!” she said, hugging me. “Now Zack won’t have to kill himself.”
“Jen!” I admonished.
“What?” she asked, all innocence in her tone. “He was mopey without you around for three days. I was scared to see how he’d react to you living across the country. My daughter needs her father, you know.”
Zack rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and right now, your daughter also needs to open her presents.”
He moved to walk past Jen into the apartment, his hand pulling me along. I knew he hated when his friends called him out for being emotional. It wasn’t his style, but I secretly loved it.
“What did you get her?” I asked Zack, as we settled down next to Lily and a monster pile of presents. Jen settled down on her other side and handed her a present.
Zack smiled as he pulled me back against him. “I got her like twenty presents. She’s so spoiled, but I can’t even help it.”
I laughed.
“What did you get her?” he asked, kissing my temple as Lily ripped into my present.
I grinned. “A princess dress. I want her to believe that princesses do exist and fairytales do come true, even if it’s not the truth.”
“I think that is the truth,” Zack whispered.
“Nah,” I said, “sometimes it’s better to just bury the castle. Besides, reality is so much better than any fairytale.”
“You’re my fairytale,” he said.
I turned to look at him. “And you’re my reality.”
“Ooh
,” Lily said, as Jen held up the ice blue Cinderella dress for her to see. “Pwetty!”
“Look, Lily,” Jen said. “There’s something else in the box.”
“What else did you get her?” Zack asked, as Lily reached back in for the second half of her present.
I grinned. “The complete works of Taylor Swift,” I said, and Zack just groaned.
Epilogue
Emily
“Hey you guys, thanks for coming out to support us tonight,” Zack said, as Andrew played a random riff in the background.
They’d just played Jump and were going to end with Without You like they had for the past few months. Zack knew it was my new favorite song, so he always closed out the set with it. They’d been traveling around the state a bit for shows, and their fan base was growing, but they always drew the biggest crowds when they played at Devil’s Hangout, which they did a few times a month.
This was their last show before they left to start touring with The Claws. Their first show was in a few days in Maine, so they’d decided to come back to Devil’s Hangout for one last show with their hometown fans.
“As always we’re so grateful for our fans and love when we get to play in Durham where it all started for us more than six years ago,” Zack continued. “These guys up here with me have been through a lot since then, but the one thing we’ve always come back to is music. It’s what we love, and I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re goddam lucky we get to do this for a living.”
In response, Leo nodded, Andrew amped up his riff and Derrick pounded out a rhythm on the drums. Cheers simultaneously went up from the crowd, and beside me Rachel whistled. I was glad she was with me. She’d been spending so much time with Chase, flying to and from New York, and I’d been with Zack most nights, that it felt like we didn’t even live together anymore. I missed her. Taryn had also come along to see the band I’d raved about for months.
“And speaking of living, you guys all know that there are times in your life when you should play it safe, and then there are times when you should jump in with both feet. That last song was about doing just that. This next song is one I wrote a few months ago when I was going through a pretty tough time. You see, I should have jumped, but I didn’t. I ran the other way, and it was a huge mistake. You probably know this song since we’ve played it before, but tonight we’re debuting a new verse I added last night. This song is called Without You, and Emily, I want your answer when our set’s over.”
With that he winked at me, and all I could do was look confused.
“What is he talking about?” Taryn asked, leaning toward me.
“I have no idea,” I said, watching Zack start to strum out the first few bars before he started singing. He was being cryptic, as usual. The guy literally couldn’t be straightforward with his messages.
I just shook my head, smiled and sat back to watch him. I never got tired of watching him play, and now that he was mine, it made it all the more special, because I knew he was going home with me after the show. I wouldn’t be able to see him play for a while, so I wanted soak it in while I could.
Without you, I’m lost, fumbling and falling
Missing so much of who you were
If I could change the past, I’d take it all back
I’d turn back time, I’d take away the pain
I’d make sure I didn’t leave without you
I sang along with the chorus, knowing now exactly how Zack had felt when he’d wrote it so many months ago. Since we’d been back together, he’d written a few more songs for me, and I loved being his muse. However, he hadn’t told me about this added verse to Without You, so I held my breath with the rest of the audience when he ended the last chorus and played for a few minutes without singing. I was practically sitting on the edge of my seat when he stepped back up to the microphone.
There was a time when I knew what it was like
To live without you, to share your pain
But time moved on, and you came back
Loving me like you’d never left
You’re where I want to be, now and forever
And all I can hope is that you might
Just maybe, say yes to me tonight
Okay, seriously! I literally had no idea what that meant. What exactly did he want me to say yes to? Then I thought I knew, and my heart started pounding.
Around me, the crowd went nuts as Zack finished out the song with a few last strums of his guitar, and I sat there in stunned silence. He didn’t look at me. He just mouthed ‘thank you’ and raised his hand to the crowd as Liar’s Edge left the stage.
“Um, did he just propose to you?” Rachel asked, leaning toward me.
“I think she’s in shock,” Taryn said, poking me in the shoulder.
I brushed her off. “I’m not in shock,” I said, shaking my head a few times to focus on what had just happened. I looked up at Rachel. “He did not propose just now, on stage in front of all these people. Tell me he didn’t just propose!”
Rachel looked at me with empathy, but I could tell she was holding back a smile. “I think he might have.”
“Holy shit,” I said, leaning back in my chair.
“Well, he’ll be out here soon, so you’d better have your answer ready,” Taryn said, scanning the crowd for Zack. “Didn’t you say he always hangs out after his shows?”
I nodded slowly. Apparently I was in shock.
After ten minutes, when Zack didn’t appear, I got nervous. Where was he?
“Hey,” Kristin said, sliding into the empty chair across from me. She’d been watching the show from backstage, where I usually watched, but since Rachel and Taryn were with me, we’d gotten a table.
Kristin and I had surprisingly become good friends. I’d spent many a morning sipping coffee in the kitchen with her before I left for class and she left for work, our significant others still sleeping upstairs. And we always traveled together when the guys were playing in another city. It was nice to have her around, and I found out we actually had quite bit in common.
“Good show, right?” she said, reaching across the table to take a sip of my beer. She didn’t say anything about the new verse to Without You, and I wondered why that was. Had she not realized what Zack had said?
“Really good show,” Rachel said when I didn’t respond.
“Is Zack coming out?” I asked her, suddenly on edge.
She shook her head. “He asked me to see if you could meet him backstage. He’s in the lounge.”
The lounge was a backstage room where the band hung out before and after their shows. There were couches and a refrigerator filled with drinks, and it allowed them to not have to mingle with the crowd if they didn’t want to. I knew Derrick sometimes brought girls back there after the shows, but Zack must have kicked him out that night since he was talking to a blond by the bar.
“Okay, I’ll meet him back there,” I said tentatively.
I got up from my barstool, feeling the butterflies in my stomach take flight. I was halfway to the bar when someone called my name. I turned around to see Shelby standing there, tentatively smiling at me.
“Hey Shelby,” I said, trying to be polite, but inside I really just wanted to get backstage.
“How are you?” she asked, as she reached forward and hugged me, taking me by surprise.
After that day in the library, she’d been much friendlier to me, almost as if she’d realized that I really was just as human as she was. We’d finished our presentation in Mass Comm, getting and A, and afterward the four of us had gone out for beers to celebrate. Noah and Taryn had left, but Shelby and I had closed down the bar. I hadn’t seen her much since that night, but when I did, she was always friendly to me.
“I’m good. How are you?”
She smiled. “Great. I’m just here with some friends. We heard this band was really good, so we decided to check them out.”
I grinned. I couldn’t help it. I got all giddy when someone complimented Liar’s Edge. I
was so happy for Zack and the guys, and I knew they were going to make it big.
“What did you think?”
“They totally rocked,” she said, grinning at me. “Hey, you’re not the Emily the lead singer was talking to in that song, are you?”
I grinned sheepishly. “Um, yeah, I was. He’s my boyfriend.”
And he might have possibly just asked me to be more than that.
“He’s really cute.”
“I know,” I said, grinning. “He’s amazing. I was just heading backstage to see him.”
“Well, I won’t keep you,” she said. “I just wanted to come over and say hi.”
“It was good seeing you, Shelby.”
“You too,” she said, turning away before she glanced over her shoulder. “I’ll see you at graduation.”
“See ya,” I said, wishing the next month would fly by. Graduation couldn’t come soon enough. The day after I walked across that stage, I’d be joining Zack and the guys on tour, and I couldn’t have been more excited about my new job.
I suddenly felt like my feet weighed fifty pounds as I started to make my way backstage. The door to the lounge was closed, and part of me imagined Zack on the other side, down on one knee with an open ring box in his hand. I froze a few seconds before knocking, making sure I was ready for this. I was.
“Come in,” he called from the other side, and I was relieved when I walked in and saw him on the couch tuning his acoustic guitar.
“Hi,” I said, suddenly shy. I was pretty sure my cheeks were bright red.
“Hey,” he said, leaning his guitar up against the couch.
I went and sat next to him, angling my body, so I was facing him. “Good show,” I said, leaning over to chastely kiss him.
“Yeah?”
I nodded. “You’re always good.”
“Then why do you look like you’re afraid to touch me? Is there something I should know? Did we screw up or something?”
I knew what he was doing, and I appreciated it. He was attempting to calm me down with humor, which meant he’d been literal when he’d sung those lyrics.
Broken Fairytales Series Box Set (Broken Fairytales, Buried Castles, Shattered Crowns) Page 60
