An hour later I was turning onto Wyatt’s long tree-lined drive. I’d been lucky that my mom was off tonight. She let me borrow her car as long as I promised to be home by ten. Which was more than enough time to celebrate—not that I could ever have enough time with Wyatt.
Today had proven that.
I’d never realized what truly missing someone felt like until I’d had to go an entire day without Wyatt. I’d lost count of the amount of times I’d turned to tell him something or picked up my phone to send him a message about a new idea for a song.
In just a few days my orbit had shifted, and Wyatt had become my sun.
It should’ve been terrifying, but I couldn’t help feeling anything but joy today. Besides, I was done being scared of everything. Wyatt had convinced me to stop letting fear rule my life and just a short time of doing so had made all the difference. It was enough to make me throw caution to the wind and go for what I wanted—which was Wyatt.
I’d promised myself I’d wait, that I’d put music first or at least talk to Lola before doing anything rash, but something had clicked during my walk home today. I couldn’t stop thinking about Wyatt and how he’d helped me uncover my true self. When I was with him, I was happiest, and it was time I stopped waiting for the right time to hold onto that. The time was here and now, while I had the chance.
Hope filled my chest like a balloon. With my music and my heart on the same page for once, I felt like I might burst. How much good news could one person contain? Hopefully a bit more, because I was optimistic that Wyatt would have good news about his ankle, too.
And no, not just because he mentioned prom. But of course, I hadn’t been able to get that beautiful idea out of my head ever since Wyatt brought it up. I’d even dreamt about how good he’d look in a tux last night. Talk about a dreamy hero! He was practically 007, and he even had the accent to match.
Dancing with him at prom would be a dream come true.
I grinned as the Nash’s wrought iron gate came into view, holding onto the joy that was nearly bursting from my veins. I couldn’t wait to share every detail of it with Wyatt. Today had been truly incredible and he was the only one I wanted to share it with.
I pulled up to the intercom and pressed the button incessantly.
“Yessss,” came Wyatt’s sarcastic voice.
“We did it! We’re number one! Now let me in so I can kiss you!”
“Who is this?”
“Very funny, Wyatt! Let me in!”
“I’m sorry, but you’ll need to identify yourself first.”
I was about to reply with another witty retort when something about the voice on the intercom made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and not in a good way.
The voice sounded like Wyatt’s, but not. It was missing the smile that I knew accompanied his teasing tone. I swallowed, looking up at the camera. If this was a joke, I was going to kill him. I took a deep breath and narrowed my eyes, channeling my inner diva. If Wyatt was trying to get me to own the new me then I’d give him a show.
“This is Penny Layne, diva extraordinaire and NRSDA’s leading vocalist. Now open the gate!”
There was a smile to the voice now, but it wasn’t Wyatt’s. “Wyatt’s not here, but if you’d like you can come inside and wait for him.”
My lip trembled. “M-Mr. Nash?”
But I doubted he heard me since my voice was cut off by the loud mechanical whir of the gate opening.
I kept my footsteps light as I walked the familiar path to Wyatt’s front door, like tiptoeing would somehow make me seem like less of an intruder. Talk about getting off on the wrong foot! I might as well stomp right in after putting my foot in my mouth like I just had.
Really smooth, Layne.
I had no one to blame but myself for my blunder, but would it really have been too much to ask for a heads up from Wyatt that his dad was in town?
No wonder he wasn’t texting me back. From what he told me Wyatt hadn’t seen his dad in months. I wanted to meet the man who’d created the boy