“I’ve loved you my entire life, Ivy Baron. Every song I’ve ever written has been written for you. My heart is yours, always has been, always will be.”

Everyone loved my girl.

But no one loved her as much as I did.

“So it’s obvious you’re in love, Ty. When are you going to put a ring on it?” the man right in front of me shouted and the crowd laughed and cheered.

“Working on it, buddy. Trust me, I’m there. It’s time.”

“It’s always been you and me though, right? I can’t do life without you, Ive. I tried once and I failed. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the past few days, and I want all those things we used to talk about when we were young.” His words broke on a sob. “If you wake up, Ivy. I’m going to marry you and put as many babies as you want in that belly of yours. Please, baby. Please come back to me.”

Ivy was the love of my life, and I couldn’t exist in a world that she wasn’t in.

I loved my business and my home and the town I grew up in.

But I loved Ty more. He made me happy. And none of that other stuff really mattered if my heart wasn’t okay.

“You don’t have to have it all figured out.”

“It’s okay to change what you want for the future. It’s part of growing up.”

“Sometimes when we make peace with the things that are haunting us, we realize that it wasn’t just about patching up all the hurt. We actually missed that part of our lives.”

We’d all been so close for so long and being back home had shown me that time and distance didn’t mean a damn thing.

That had become his standard response to me whenever I started to get sad about him leaving. Would we try the long-distance thing? How would it work? But I didn’t want to think about it either, so I pushed those thoughts away for another time.

You can’t always choose your path. Sometimes it chooses you.

Ty glared at Jo and his hand moved behind my neck and tangled in my hair and he kissed me hard.

That was Ty’s love language.

Kiss away all the sadness and then keep on trucking.

Music was supposed to move people. Speak to them. Heal them.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Well… first it makes the heart angry. Like, really angry. But then it definitely grows fonder.”

He nibbled on my ear, and I tried not to laugh because I was still mad that he’d left me in my dream.

I wondered how she could go into marriage so blindly after what happened to our own family. I knew she wanted kids, and she’d be a hell of a mom. But did she not fear how badly she could fuck them up if things went sideways with Jake? She was so trusting. So open to love that I just didn’t understand it. My mom seemed to be feeling the same way. Like she was ready to jump back in. Did they not remember the hell we went through?

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

I’d never allow the rug to be pulled out from under my feet again.

But no sense preparing for a storm on a sunny day, right?

“Are you really going to start getting jealous over every guy who talks to me?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely. I told you I claimed you a long time ago. Just because I can’t stay here forever doesn’t mean you aren’t mine,” he said, running a hand down the back of his neck.

Well, that kind of pissed me off because that took a lot of nerve.

“You can’t claim me if you don’t want to keep me, Ty.”

“But remember this, Ty. Life is short. Love is sweet. Don’t run from all the goodness.”

We’d met one another when we were young, and I swear that girl won my heart in kindergarten. I’d spent my middle school years trying to claim her as my own. She’d finally agreed to date me in high school, and we’d been inseparable from that day on.

I couldn’t help but hold on to the smallest hope that he would change his mind. That I would be enough. I was once. Maybe it could happen again.

But the damage had already been done. Ty and I had taken different paths. And even though our paths were going to cross for a couple days, it still didn’t feel like enough.

Because only forever would be enough for me.

And he didn’t have that to offer.