Over her shoulder I saw Harper, sitting back in her chair with her Converse-encased feet up on the table, grinning. She winked and gave me a thumbs up. I couldn’t help but smile at her.
When I turned back to look at Heath he smiled broadly, all white teeth and dimples and my stomach flipped with love for this man. This beautiful, gorgeous, crazy man. He was my end and my beginning and I didn’t ever plan on being without him again. It was easy walking out of the ballroom and leaving it all behind me.
“That was some exit.” Heath chuckled as we descended the steps to the parking lot.
“Could make things awkward at the next family Christmas.”
He stopped at the base of the steps so he could kiss me again. “I’m sorry but I won’t be able to stop kissing you. Being without you has driven me crazy these past few weeks. I’m done living without you, H-bomb. I want you to be the last girl I ever kiss.”
I grinned. “Yeah. I think I get that now.” I leaned in and pressed my lips to his.
The rest of the band and Piper were waiting for us by a parked Hummer. Piper pulled me into a big bear hug. She squealed and squeezed me tight. “I’m so excited, I could just pee my pants!”
When she finally let me go, I turned to Jesse, Zack and Tommy and hugged each one of them, tightly.
“Thank you.” I couldn’t keep the tears from my eyes. “Thank you for bringing him back to me.”
Jesse opened the Hummer door. “Or maybe we’re bringing you back to us.”
“Where you belong,” Piper added.
“After all, you are a part of our crazy family,” Tommy said grinning.
I felt Heath’s hand wrap around mine. “No more running away from me, okay?”
“No more running. I promise.”
He smiled down at me, all dimples and sparkling eyes. “Are you ready to head home to California?”
I nodded. “Yep. Let’s go home.”
EPILOGUE
We lay beneath a sky of brilliant star shine, our faces tilted towards the night sky. Moonlight cast a channel of white light across the smooth ocean. The breeze that blew up from the beach was cool with a sharp edge to it.
We lay on a patch of grass on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, which Heath had claimed as our spot months earlier. It seemed like a lifetime ago and so much had happened since then.
During that time we had loved one another and lost one another, and then somehow we’d found our way back to each other through the tangle of heartache and grief.
Now we were stronger than ever and nothing could tear us apart again. A bright and unknown future lay ahead of us.
In another week or two my first winter in California would begin. Soon after, Christmas would arrive and I would celebrate with the man who had become the love of my life. I would defer my college studies until I could work out exactly how my life could entwine with Heath’s on the West Coast instead of back home in the South.
I had no idea how we would make it work. But I knew we would. And I knew I was in for one hell of a ride.
“Any regrets?” Heath asked. He turned away from the glitter of stars above us to face me and his expression was gentle.
“Are you kidding me? I’m so excited about my life with you, I won’t ever regret any of this.”
He smiled the smile I had come to need to see every day. Two dimples that set off tiny explosions in my belly.
“Promise me you’ll never run away from me again,” he said softly.
“I promise.” I smiled. “Wherever you are, is where I am.”
“Do you mean that?”
“Cross my heart.”
I nodded and watched him reach behind him and pull something out of his jeans pocket.
A setting sun glinted on diamonds.
“Then be mine forever,” he said, holding a ring in his fingers. “Say you’ll marry me.”
I gasped.
Oh hell.
* * * * *
Crazy Wonderful – Book Two of the Crazy Series – Coming Soon
PROLOGUE HEATH
Four months later I sat with the rest of the band, our new manager Leery Lou and a couple of record executives around a boardroom table at the Aria Entertainment headquarters in Hollywood. Our second album, Pagan Angel, was doing better than anyone had expected. So far there were two stand-out songs, ‘Carpi Nocturn’ and ‘Ache Over’. We had created the music videos for both on a budget, but by all standards, they were pretty good and Vengeance’s following was growing.
Now Aria were about to release a third single, ‘Skin’ which was a raw and sexually charged song I’d actually written about Harlow and our first encounter in the bathroom at my house. We were expecting the meeting to be about the production for the music video for ‘Skin’.
“I’ve got good news. Pagan Angel has just gone gold,” Tim, one of the label’s representatives said, clapping his hands and looking rather pleased with himself. He nodded to the other suit next to him. “So Jimmy here is keen to offer you a national tour.”
For a moment the room was silent. Tim let his words sink in and looked almost smug. A gold album. A tour. Hell, we didn’t know what to deal with first.
“A tour?” Zack finally asked, maybe a little bewildered. “Us? Our own tour?”
“Not supporting. Not touring with. But Vengeance headlining?” Tommy said excitedly.
We all looked at each other.
Fuck me. Our own tour.
Tim and the label reps all grinned.
“I represent B double A. We like your albums. You guys are getting yourself quite the following.”
Again we all looked at one another. BAA or otherwise known as B double A, was a leading tour promoter responsible for some pretty outstanding tours. They had been behind the Masters of Mayhem music festival and tour that Vengeance had been part of earlier in the year.
“There is some pretty significant interest in you boys out there. Both your label and B double A think a national tour is going to take Vengeance from here,” he used his hand to indicate rising levels, “to here. It’d be in everyone’s benefit.”
His eyes twinkled. He looked like a young pup playing in the adult pool. But I admired his enthusiasm. His keenness for our music seemed genuine, which in this profession, was often a rarity.
“It’s time to get excited guys because you’re about to become famous.”
Hell, if that wasn’t something to get excited about, I didn’t know what was!
“So, we’re all in agreement then? We’re going ahead with this?” Jimmy asked.
We all nodded and Leery Lou replied, “As long as it all checks out in the fine print, I’d say you gentlemen have got yourself a deal.”
Leery Lou was a hundred years old and looked like the KFC Colonel. He’d been in the industry since the Rat Pack days of Sammy, Frank, Dean and Jerry. He’d managed massive performing artists over fifty years and had brokered some pretty incredible careers. We couldn’t believe our luck that he wanted to represent us. Apparently we had his granddaughter to thank. She was a fan. Of Zack in particular.
If Leery Lou cast his wise eyes over the fine print and it was good, then I trusted him.
Jimmy looked relieved. “Excellent. We’ll get the logistics sorted out and the contracts to you by tomorrow. In the meantime, I’d like to introduce you to some of our team who will be working with you on the tour.”
He buzzed an intercom on the table. A moment later the door opened and two people walked in; an older guy in a Hawaiian shirt and straw hat, and … oh fuck me…!
A pair of bright blue eyes twinkled across at me.
“Gentlemen, this is Derek your tour manager and Mia, his assistant.”
I looked from Mia to the rest of my bandmates and then back to Mia.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
* * * * *