Once Upon a Sure Thing (Heartbreakers #2)

“Don’t you love me like crazy?”

This wasn’t how I planned it. I was going to tell her onstage how I felt. I wasn’t going to do it through this song. But plans change, and I can’t wait.

I switch it up. I change a word as I gaze into her eyes. “I love you like crazy.”

“I love you like crazy,” she mouths to me, a wild grin stretching across her face. That grin makes my heart jet to the stratosphere.

When we finish, I’m made of nothing but adrenaline and the wish to have this woman for the rest of my days. I grab her hand and pull her up. The crowd is chanting and cheering, but I have blinders on, and eyes only for her. “Ally Zimmerman, I love you like crazy.”





Chapter 36





Ally



“I love you too. So much,” I say as tears streak down my face. A dam bursts. I’ve been holding so much in, and I can finally say it all.

He cups my cheeks. “I love you, and I love Chloe, and I love the package deal, and I want it all. I want all in with you. Will you have me?”

I gasp, and I try to speak, but my throat is clogged with emotions. They’re overflowing in me. I didn’t expect he’d tell me he loved me tonight. I wasn’t sure he felt the same at all.

“Say yes!” someone from the audience shouts.

“What do you say?” he asks again, a smile on his face, his hands on my cheeks, his forehead touching mine.

I’d say I’m floating. I’d say I’m falling. I’d say this feels so unreal.

“I want to be your man. Do you want me?” he asks.

“I do,” I blurt out through tears of joy. “I want that so much.”

My skin is buzzing, my heart is galloping, and the entire world is singing love songs tonight. “I love you, and that’s why I wanted to give you this gift for Christmas.”

“What gift?”

Campbell plays another note, the start of another song. “Coming Together.” It’s the one Miller wrote for us, but it sounds so much better when he sings it with his brother.

I grab his mic and turn to the audience, collecting myself. “Ladies and gentlemen, what would you think of the Heartbreakers getting back together?”

A momentary hush falls over the crowd, and seconds later, the silence spins into a roar.

Jackson captures every second on video, and I couldn’t be happier that he’s nabbed an even better story than before.

As Campbell plucks out the chords, I whisper to Miller, “I knew this was what you wanted more than anything. I want you to be happy. I want you to play with your brother. So I asked him, and he said yes.”

He stares at me with mad love in his eyes. “I love you so fucking much.”





Chapter 37





Campbell



For the record, I’ve been thinking about getting the band back together for a while.

How could I not? Miller’s been asking me for a long time. He’s been wanting to reunite since we broke up. I didn’t want to then. I didn’t even want to a few months ago.

But it took a certain woman. Or really, two women. Wait, make that three women.

Mackenzie, my daughter, and Ally.

They didn’t convince me, per se. Instead, they showed me the way. Yesterday, when Ally, Mackenzie, and Sam sat me down, they played me the video from the coffee shop, and Ally asked, “How did you feel then?”

As I watched, I remembered having an absolute blast with our impromptu song. It felt right and good to sing with Miller. I couldn’t contain my smile when I answered her question. “Happy. I felt happy.”

Mackenzie squeezed my hand. “And how about when you sang with your brothers in front of the Christmas tree?”

I’d pictured the three of us around the tree, rocking out to holiday tunes, and my heart somersaulted. “I loved it.”

“And you guys both have notes from the same song tattooed on your body,” Ally added. “From your first hit song.”

“Are you saying that’s a sign?”

Mackenzie laughed as she shrugged. “You told me you had the tattoo done ten years ago. That was after the band broke up. Miller had his done afterward too. Maybe you’ve both been missing it. Maybe it was meant to happen again.”

The more she’d shared, the more spot-on her observations felt. They’d resonated inside me.

Then my daughter had played the clip of us singing “Coming Together” in the studio.

That was the final lightbulb moment. In that clip, I looked like I was having the time of my life. Fact is, I’ve always loved playing with Miller, and with Miles too.

Even years after we’d split, I’d savored the little moments when we had a chance to sing together again.

But it wasn’t till I saw those moments reflected back that I realized there was an ache inside me too. A longing to have that once more, but to have it be different this time around.

“What if you could have that again?” Mackenzie suggested.

I looked to Sam, swallowing hard. “I don’t want that crazy life.”

“Dad,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be crazy. You guys can do it on your terms, like Ally and Miller were doing it on their terms. Be local and do online videos. The internet is where the action is, anyway.”

I keyed in on one word. “Were? You and Miller were doing it on your terms? Does that mean you’re done, Ally?”

She shrugged, but it was a mostly happy one, with only a hint of sadness. A lone tear rolled down her cheek. “You guys were meant to play together.”

I scrubbed my jaw, considering her suggestion. Could I still play with the guys in the Righteous Surfboards? Sure. Why not do both? Could I still teach? Of course. It’s my life, and my schedule. And could I play with my brother again, making videos for the Web and playing shows in New York City?

“Can I do this?” I asked Mackenzie.

A huge smile spread across her gorgeous face. “Campbell, it makes you happy. And Sam is fourteen. You don’t have to worry about her. Plus, you have me to help. We’re a family.”

My heart soared like a hot-air balloon. Could there be a more awesome woman by my side? I curled a hand around her head and kissed her.

“Dad!” Samantha squealed.

I moved away from her and shrugged. “What can I say? I love her, and she’s right.”

As I’ve been learning, the women in my life are usually right.

Then I gave them my answer.

Hell to the yes.

Now, I turn to my brother. “Want to get back together?”

He laughs. He smiles. He can barely speak. All he manages is a raspy, “Yes,” followed by, “Am I dreaming?”

“It’s real,” someone shouts from the audience. “Play ‘Hit the Road.’”

My brother and I finish out the set to thunderous applause.



*

Miller



I didn’t see this coming. I had no idea she’d do something like this. When the show ends, I find her in the wings, back her against the wall, and kiss her senseless.

“This is the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me,” I say once we come up for air.

She beams, her fingers playing with the hem of my T-shirt. “I wanted you to have what you wanted most.”

“I do want this.” I reach for the belt loops on her jeans, then her ribbon, bringing her close again. “But you’re wrong, baby. You’re what I want most.”

She wriggles against me. “Then have both. You can have me, and you can have this. Package deal.”

“Like you and Chloe?”

She nods and smiles, the kind that can’t be contained.

I press another kiss to her lips, then another, and one more. “You’re my best friend, my lover, and my girlfriend, and I will look out for you and for Chloe because I’m going to be there for both of you. You know that, right?”

“I do,” she whispers.

I arch a brow, wondering what this means for Hot Stuff. “What about you? You don’t want to perform with me still?”

She shakes her head. “Why don’t you and I focus on being together and being in love?”

I can’t argue with that, so I don’t even try.



*

Later that night, I show Ally all the ways I love her. I tell her all the things I didn’t say the other evening. I slide inside her, whispering words of love.