“Want me to sing it for you?”

At that point, I didn’t care if my parents caught me and grounded me for the rest of my natural born life. I needed desperately to be serenaded. “Oh yes, please.”

Brayden grinned. His talented fingers began working over the strings of the guitar. A melancholy melody floated up to me, one I knew came straight from Brayden’s previous suffering.

Disappointments twisted and crippled me with rage.

Darkness held me bound like a prisoner in a cage.

Sadness wrecked me and brought me to my knees.

Suffering had me begging “Oh lord, help me please."

There was no reason to go on

Until there was you

Winking up at me, Brayden switched chords, and the sound of the sound changed to one more hopeful.

You drove away all the dark clouds with your smile.

You made life once again seem worthwhile.

You gave me a reason to go on.

A purpose to escape the twilight for the dawn.

Your love has the power to transcend and transform.

You’re my Lily of the Valley, my savior from the storm.

Nothing really mattered in my life until there was you

When he finished strumming the last chords, I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I raced over to the deck gate. I flung it open and pounded down the stairs. The moment my bare feet hit the grass, I began to run. I couldn’t wait to get to him. I had to touch him to know that he was really real. Tears blinded my eyes as I threw myself into his arms.

His guitar screeched between us. He chuckled against my ear. “I guess that means you like it.

“Oh my God, I love it!” I cried, before leaning back so I could smother his face with kisses.

“I’m glad to hear it,” he murmured, in between me kissing him.

“This is the most romantic thing a guy has ever done for me,” I gushed.

He grinned. “Now you’re going to make it hard for me to ever top this.”

I laughed. “I don’t know how you could.” Tilting my head at him, I asked, “Did I really do all those things like you wrote in the song?”

“You sure as hell did, babe. Every. Single. Word.”

When I reached to pinch his arm, he gave me a funny look. “What was that for?”

“I wanted to make sure you were real.”

“Why don’t you kiss me again and see just how real I am?”

“Okay,” I murmured. Just as I leaned in to bring my lips to his, the flood-lights came on all around the house. With a squeal, I jumped away from Brayden and glanced up at the deck. My dad stared down at us with his arms crossed over his chest. My mother stood behind him. While she wanted to look stern, I could see she was trying hard not to smile.

Brayden threw up one of his hands to my parents. “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Gregson.”

My dad grunted. “All right, the shows over. Lily, get your ass up here and get in bed. Brayden, get your ass to your own home and go to bed.”

“I’m sorry for waking you up, Mr. Gregson. I didn’t mean to cause any problems by coming over here. Lily didn’t know I was coming, so please don’t punish her for my mistake,” Brayden pleaded.

My dad huffed out a breath. “I’ll take that into consideration.”

“Thank you, sir.” He started backing away from me, and then he stopped. In a flash, he was back at my side to plant a chaste kiss on my lips. “Goodnight, Lily.”

“Goodnight,” I called, as he started running around the side of the house. Ducking my head, I walked over to the stairs. I went up them a lot slower than I had come down them. When I got to the top, I dared to peek at my parents.

With his arms still crossed firmly over his chest, my dad’s jaw clenched and unclenched. “I’m sorry, Daddy. He just wanted to sing me a song he wrote. I promise we weren’t doing anything wrong.”

“Excuse me that I might misinterpret the situation after seeing you two with your hands all over each other.”

“Paul,” my mother cautioned.

“What?” he demanded.

“They didn’t have their hands all over each other. They were just hugging.”

His brows shot up. “Whose side are you on, Marie?”

She smiled. “I’m not taking sides. I’m just stating facts.”

He muttered something under his breath before he eyed me contemptuously. “I should ground you for this. Not only were you out past your curfew, but your boyfriend woke me up out of a dead sleep.”

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” I said again.

“Fine then. Get in the house.”

“Yes, sir.”

When I started past him, he reached out for my arm. “You could smooth things over by giving me a goodnight kiss,” he said, with a wink.

I grinned and reached up to kiss the salt and pepper stubble on his cheek. “Goodnight, Daddy. Goodnight, Mama.”

My mother reached in to kiss my cheek. “Goodnight, sweetheart. Your Brayden sure does have a romantic side, doesn’t he?”

Before I could reply, my father groaned. “You’re killing me here, Marie. Don’t encourage her.”

She waved her hand dismissively at him. “I seem to remember someone else being awfully romantic when he was Brayden’s age.”

“Hey, I’m still romantic,” he argued.

“Of course you are.”

As my parents bantered flirtatiously at each other, I headed back into the house. I didn’t know how I was going to go to sleep. I was still so wound up. Brayden had written a song just for me. He’d come to my house in the middle of the night because he had to sing it to me. It still was unbelievable.

Until There Was You—the song that started it all for the two of us.

LILY

PRESENT DAY

“How impressive that you wrote your first song when you were just sixteen,” Giovanni remarked.

Brayden nodded. “Looking back, it’s not the strongest one I’ve written musically or lyrically, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it. The song represents such a time of rebirth in my life.”

With a smile, I said, “I like it just the way it is.”

Brayden chuckled. “I’m sure you do since it’s singing your praises.”

“You got that right.”

Giovanni grinned at the two of us. “So that was the most romantic thing Brayden did. I’m curious to find out what was the most romantic thing Lily ever did.”

Tilting my head, I replied, “Hmm, I’m interested to hear his answer for this one, too.”