Someone yelled, “Hell, yeah, sing it, Leo!” It sounded a lot like Mila.

Sebastian chuckled. “Now, he can be a little shy sometimes, so we may have to give him some encouragement to get him to sing.” Several whistles and catcalls drifted up from the crowd.

Leo strode over to Sebastian, his face tight. I didn’t know if he was going to tell him to shut the hell up or sing. They whispered heatedly for a moment until Sebastian stepped aside to let Leo have the center mike.

“I’ll be paying you back later, bro,” he said jokingly with a smile for the crowd, but I could tell he was flustered as he straightened his guitar and searched the audience. I pushed my way to the front of the crowd until I was right in front of him.

He gazed at me and cleared his throat. “The truth is I never intended for this song to be sung in public, because I wrote it for this girl . . . and, she . . . well, she’s moved on. She was the one for me, but I screwed it up because I waited too long, and she found someone else. It hurts like hell to think about her, about never having her as mine.”

He ran a fast hand through his hair. “She makes me all crazy inside. She makes me hear songs in my head. She makes me feel like the first time I ever picked up a guitar. She makes me feel like I can have something good in my life like my parents did.”

He smiled, like he was remembering something sweet. “I don’t know the first time I fell for her. Maybe it was the time she stood on a stage a lot like this one. Maybe it was the night she held my hand and listened to me talk. Maybe it was the moment she walked toward me at the movies, in these red heels, looking like the hottest thing I’d ever fucking seen. Maybe it was the time she told me we could be soulmates. Whenever it was, my heart is hers. Always has been. So yeah, this song is for Buttercup. It’s called ‘Fly Away.’”

His fingers strummed the notes as he sang in a low and sexy voice,

Girl, you show up at my place uninvited,

You’re crazy good, beautiful.

Baby, I tried, but I can’t fight it.

Girl, you got some bad secrets to keep,

You’re a chaos I want; it’s so deep.

I want to see you fly, fly, fly.

Could you love me, love me, love me,

Do it, please, fall for me.

Baby, give me one more moment,

Just one more moment with you.

Girl, you love words for fun,

You’re crazy good, beautiful.

Your green eyes brought out the sun.

I want to see you fly, fly, fly.

First time I saw you I knew,

You took my heart; you stole it, true,

Now, it’s just déjà vue.

Give me one more moment,

To love you, love you.

I want to see you fly, fly, fly.

Buttercup, I’ll always love you.

After the last note ebbed away, I wiped my tears with my hands while the crowd went nuts, applauding a shaken Leo. He whipped his guitar off, stepped off the stage and strode over to me. I couldn’t move. His words had transported me, had wiped everything else out of my head. All I could think about was him, always him. Leo.

He touched one of my tears and spoke, his voice husky with emotion. “Nora, I fought you and me together, and it decimates me knowing I messed up, that I didn’t even give us a chance. It was all right there in front of me, plain as day, but I kept pushing and pushing until you gave up. The hardest thing I’ve ever done is pretend I didn’t care for you.”

He closed his eyes briefly as if in pain. “I wanted to forget you so bad that I fucked someone else. I used her to hurt you, and I’m sorry. The night you saw us was the last time I ever touched her. She catered the party tonight, nothing else. She was never what I wanted. Only you.”

I bit my lip and nodded.

He swallowed. “I shut you down and tried to forget about you. I’ve never loved a girl before, Nora. I was scared and made up excuses for why we couldn’t be together. But from the moment I saw you, I knew you were special, but I didn’t know what to think about all these feelings I had. But now I know the truth. I know age is nothing and that being scared of hurting you or losing you is taking the coward’s way out. You are everything.” He sighed. “I had to lose you before I figured it out.”

He picked up my hands and held them tight. “It’s going to fucking kill me slowly, but if Drew is what you want . . .”

“There is no Drew. I can’t live without you, Leo. I die a little every day because we’re not together,” I whispered, my eyes roaming over his face, letting him see how much I loved him.

I kissed his hands. “You’re my other half, and I thought I could give up on us and move on, but life is too short and too precious to throw away what we have.”

His eyes burned hot, thrilling me. I knew that look. “Come on, let’s get out of here,” he said, guiding me inside the gym.

“What about the party?” I asked, knowing the grand opening was important to him.

He didn’t stop walking. “The band will play, and the party will go on without us.”

He stopped at the base of the stairs, his face suddenly filled with worry. “I don’t . . . I don’t want to hold you back from anything. I want you to go to college wherever you want, no matter if it’s in another state, and I’ll be right here waiting for you. Always.”

“What about Finn?” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his waist and laying my head on his chest, so he couldn’t see my face.

He tilted my chin up. “He’s gone, and I’ll always be here to keep you safe. Someday if you want, you can tell me everything, and I’ll listen, but nothing will ever change how much I care about you. If anything, the way you carry your pain, the way you’ve turned into this beautiful girl despite everything that happened to you has made me love you more.”

He rested his forehead against mine. He took my hand and placed it over his heart. “I love you, Nora. Forever.”

“I love you, too,” I said, not caring one bit that people were drifting in and out of the room, some of them staring. He was finally mine.

He tightened his arms around me and kissed me deep, his lips angling over mine possessively, his tongue hot and wet. He kissed my jaw and down my neck, sucking and nipping at me as I clutched him tight.

We eased back, breathless. I said, “I’m not perfect. At some point, I’ll probably go to therapy,” I warned him gently.