Page 140 of Sing For Me

“That will be tops on my priority list,” I mutter drily.

My mom leans in to kiss my cheek. “You look very handsome. She’d be crazy not to take you back, even if you were an ass.”

“Thank you, Mother.”

She laughs. “Youshouldbe thanking me. Paige and Daisy wanted to come over here tonight to see you off and I wouldn’t let them.”

Shit. That would have been much worse. “You’re a goddess among women, you know that?”

Mom laughs and kisses my cheek again, then leaves me alone in the hallway with my dad.

“You got this, kid,” he says. “Just be honest with her.”

I blow out a shaky breath. “Yeah. That’s the hard part.”

He tilts his head, waiting until I meet his gaze. “Is she worth doing something hard?”

I don’t even hesitate. “Absolutely.”

He grins. “Then suck it up and get it done.”

Laughing, I smack his shoulder and turn to go.

“No way,” he says, pulling me back. “You know the rule.”

“Jesus,” I mutter, but I’m grinning when he pulls me into a back slapping hug. “You really are exceptionally short, aren’t you?”

“Fuck off,” he laughs, pushing me away. “Stop by tomorrow and let me know how it goes.”

I grimace. “I might be stopping by tonight asking you to get me drunk if this doesn’t work out.”

He nods, expression suddenly serious. “We can do that if it comes down to it. And then we’ll figure out what you should try next.” He holds my gaze. “Because you never, ever want to give up, kid. Not when it matters.”

I nod, feeling a little less queasy than I had a few minutes ago, and head out to my car. I’m only halfway down the driveway when I hear a familiar voice calling my name.

“Oh, Will,” Paige calls, practically dragging Presley down the block behind her. “We just happened to be out for a walk. What a coincidence. Where are you going dressed so nicely?”

“You’re certifiable,” Presley mutters behind her mother.

“Gonna try to get my girl back, Aunt Paige,” I call. “Wish me luck.”

She stops in her tracks, hands going to her mouth. “That’s sosweet.”

I give her a wave and climb into my truck. She calls something after me but I hold my hand up to my ear, pretending I can’t hear her. You have to be careful with Paige—she’d probably try to sneak in the back of my truck to watch it all unfold if I let her.

The sick feeling in my stomach comes back as I drive to her place. The one image that has haunted me more than any other over the past week is Eva in her kitchen that night. Tears in her eyes while she told me she wished I’d been willing to fight for us. The way she’d been so brave, letting me in the way she did even as I closed myself off.

I never should have left her house. I should have fallen to my knees right there in her kitchen and begged her to forgive me.

But I also know I wasn’t ready to be that honest with her. Not then.

This week was one of the worst of my life, knowing that I hurt her. Knowing that I may very well have ruined the best thing I ever had. But it was also a necessary week. I needed to have those conversations with my family. Needed to let go of some of the guilt that had such a stranglehold on my heart if I ever had a chance of giving it to Eva.

God, I hope she wants it. As broken and mangled up as it is, my heart belongs to that woman, one hundred percent.

I stop outside her gate, wincing when I see a few paparazzi. It’s not as bad as it had been at the beginning of the week, when they swarmed me every time I left the house. Someone tipped them off about the breakup and it killed me to think of her stuck in her house without me, scared to go outside.

The few photographers milling on the sidewalk present a complication. I had been planning on using the buzzer, rather than enter the code she gave me. I felt like she deserved the opportunity to tell me to fuck off if she wanted. But I’ll have to give her that chance by ringing the doorbell, because letting these assholes get shots of me being turned away at the gate isn’t going to do anything to help with the media attention.