Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 88262 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88262 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
It was “I’m Only Me When I’m With You,” and I noticed a couple of other people at the bar who must have recognized the song, too, bobbing their heads along with it.
“You’re going to regret asking me to sing along to this,” I told him.
I took a long swig of whiskey.
As the song went on, I sang more and more of it, louder and prouder.
“Sometimes we don't say a thing, just listen to the crickets sing,” I belted out, watching Max’s smile grow wider. “Everything I need is right here by my side. And I know everything about you.”
When the next part came, I got even louder, not caring that half the bar was looking at me now, smiling.
“I don't wanna live without you,” I sang right at Max, as if I was at a karaoke night.
People caught on quick, clapping along as I sang at the bar. Even Kane emerged from the back, watching me with a grin on his face.
When the song came to an end, somebody had turned up the jukebox and the whole crowd was cheering me along.
“And I'm only me, who I wanna be… I'm only me when I'm with you,” I sang, pointing right at Max.
When the song ended and I leaned in to put a hand on each side of his face and lean in to kiss him, the whole bar went wild.
I pressed my lips to his, and I heard comments from the crowd:
“Got to get me a man like that!”
“Ride that cowboy, Max!”
“Encore! Encore!”
We’d gotten the place riled up, and more people put on other songs now, singing along with their friends.
“You’re a sap, and I never knew you were a sap, and I love it,” Dominic told me.
I was nice and buzzed now, with my arm draped around Max’s shoulders.
“I bring it out in him,” Max said.
“That’s so true,” I agreed.
“I don’t deserve to be serenaded like that, but I’m never going to stop loving it.”
I let out a long breath, shaking my head. Dominic went off to go play pool with Andrew, and we were left alone for a moment at the bar.
“You’re so wrong, Baby Blue,” I murmured at him. “You deserve it, and you always will.”
“Too nice to me. You just trying to sweet talk me, so I’ll let you fuck me later, huh?”
“Don’t have to butter you up to get that, and you know it.”
“True.”
“I say it because I love you,” I told him, suddenly feeling a wave of emotion well up inside me. “I fucking love you. Every part of you. Every part of life with you. I didn’t think I could ever love my life.”
“Well, believe it, cowboy,” he told me.
I wanted to ask him to marry me, right then and there.
It was too soon, and I was too drunk on his love.
But I knew I was going to do it.
Maybe not tonight, maybe not even in six months.
But I was going to ask this man to marry me, no matter when it might occur. It already felt like we were bonded for life, and maybe it had felt like that since the moment we met.
How could I live without him?
What kind of life would that even be?
Until then, I’d keep doing what I always did with Max.
Loving him. Singing silly songs to him. Touching him, being with him, and reminding him that no matter how simple his world might be, it was closer to paradise than anything I’d ever known.
The person who’d slotted in with me like we were puzzle pieces, fitting together before we even realized why we fit.
Max stoked every possessive, obsessive fire inside me, but he also made me feel safe. Loved. For the first time in my life. And all of the pain that had led to this moment had made it worth it, for one reason only: he was mine.
And I belonged to him.
Every scar on my skin, and every inch of me. Every heartbeat, and every kiss.
I was in it for the ride, and so was he.
My Tennessee rose without a single thorn.