“I’m serious. Here’s my card. I hear you’re still looking for an agent. Think it over.”
She is practically levitating. “I absolutely love Jim McConnell. I would do this in a heartbeat.” I eye her, and she takes a deep breath. “Send me the papers. I want to have my lawyer look them over.”
Later that night, the place has started to thin out. I lead her behind the bar, which is currently unoccupied.
“Hey,” I whisper, pulling her hips into me. “I have to tell you something. It’s a little weird.”
“What’s that?”
“I think Andrew leaked a photo from that shoot. One of your—our—photos went viral. We’re technically unidentifiable. At least I am. But you’ve got that damn cursed cute chin.”
Pulling up the photo, I show it to her.
She just giggles.
I scrunch up my face. “Are you serious? You don’t care that he leaked this? I’m going to have words with him. This isn’t cool at all. He’s lucky there’s been a good reaction to it.”
She hops up on the bar counter, and I notice she’s in the exact spot on the bar where I kissed her during that summer photo session that got a little too out of control.
Andrew, Harmony, and I have never spoken about it. It’s been our little secret.
She nibbles at my ear, and then she turns my head so she can whisper, “What if I told you he wasn’t the one who leaked that photo? I was.”
My jaw drops. “I would say you’re a bad, bad girl who didn’t ask for my permission to share that photo.”
Dragging her finger up my chest, she looks me in the eye. “So what are you going to do about it?”
Pulling her hips off of the bar counter, I spin her around so we’re in the exact same position as we were in the photo.
The agent looks over at us, and we both wave at the same time.
“What am I going to do? Well, first, I’m going to tell you well done for creating a viral sex scandal in the vein of Kim Kardashian.”
“And second?”
“Second, as soon as everyone is out of here, I’m going to fuck you so good, you’ll wish you asked my thoughts on you distributing that picture.”
“What would you have said?”
“I would have said hell yeah!”
Epilogue
Harmony
Adrenaline pours through me as I stand on stage in the United Center in Chicago, playing for the first giant crowd of my life, opening for Jim McConnell.
The crowd is loud and raucous, at least twenty thousand strong.
For the first time on stage, I have a backup band and two backup singers.
Zach sits in the front row along with his grandparents, mother, and sister.
One look at Zach, and my tingles increase fourfold. His smile is both relaxed and serious.
It’s damn close to what I remember him looking like when he first saw me at The Hungry Burger.
As I stand in front of the mic, listening to thousands of people cheer and chant my name, I remember how Zach has inspired me from that first night we met.
A smile eases onto my face as I thank the crowd, and then I take a quick glance down at my dad, stepmom, and sister, who are also in the VIP section. Even some of our friends from Blackwell—Cole, Rose, Mason and Clarissa—have made the trip to watch us. And it seems like Cole and Mason have made up with Zach. Thinking back to the night they tried to stop Zach and me from being together, that seems like years ago now. I’m glad they’ve come to their senses.
The ironic part is that among the tens of thousands in the audience tonight, all I’m thinking about is those few people in the crowd. It’s them I’m singing for. And that’s all the fodder I need to play my heart out.
Although my stepmom has her arms crossed and is refusing to enjoy herself,
the smile on my dad’s face all but makes up for it.
After I thank the crowd, I head inside to the greenroom.
Jim McConnell sits there with his guitar. Tall, blond, and dashingly handsome, he turns to me with his soft Irish accent.
“Well, that was one hell of a show, my darling.”
I bite my lower lip. “Sorry for stealing your thunder.”
He chuckles, and even that sounds Irish.
“Oh, come now, dearie. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But you sound like an angel out there, truthfully.”
Getting up off his chair, he starts to head to the exit, but then he turns to me.
“Is it true what that song ‘The Watcher’ is about?”
I tilt my head. “What do people say it’s about?”
“Oh, come now, you haven’t googled yourself lately? It’s supposed to be about watching two people fuck.”
I nearly spit out the water when I hear his explanation.
“So I got it right,” he says.
I pop my hip and wiggle my eyebrows. “Why are you so curious? Do you want to watch me and Zach later?”
“Now that’s what I’m talking about, Harmony! That’s the fucking spirit!”
Just then, Zach, his grandparents, sister, and mom come in, and my family follows.
Jim winks as he disappears out the greenroom door.
“Holy fuck, you rocked,” Zach says, squeezing me so tight I think I might burst. “You killed it, Vanderbilt.”
“Yeah? Looked good from the outside?”
My dad and sister reel me in for a big hug, too, but my stepmom stands with her arms still crossed.
“Great job, hon,” my dad whispers in my ear. “So damn proud of you. I feel awful about all that stuff that happened last summer after seeing you up on stage tonight.”
“It’s in the past,” I whisper to him.
Zach’s grandparents, mom, and sister all join in to give me a congratulations, and I feel my heart warm.
I hold back the tears, because I want to be strong and not taint this moment. But the truth is, I’ve never felt like I had a whole family unit that was one-hundred percent behind me until this night.
The feeling is indescribable.
Glancing at my stepmom, I see the smallest of smiles tugging at her lips. Even she has to try hard not to have a good night.
Mission freaking accomplished.
Zach pops a bottle of champagne and pours some for just about everyone.
“You know,” Zach’s mom speaks up, “I was going to wait until later to say this, but what the hell. It’s off the record, right? The verdict came down today. After you showed me that time-stamped video of you playing ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’ well before Roddy copyrighted it, I forwarded it to my—well, your—lawyer. Roddy owes you half of all of the engagements where he’s used that song over the last several years.”
My jaw drops. “Half?”
Zach’s mom shrugs. “My friend’s a real shark. I wouldn’t want to be on her bad side.”
A commotion erupts outside the room.
Zach waves everyone away from the door and steps toward it.
I blink several times in disbelief when I see Roddy appear.
“I’ll fucking kill you!” he yells as he steps through the doorframe, and my heart drops at the sight of the gun in his hand.
I’ve never seen such fire in Zach’s eyes as he tackles Roddy and slams his hand against the ground so hard that the gun falls away.