Stripped Love (Guys Next Door #1) - Baylin Crow Page 0,82

I'd end up working or how Archer going back to college when the semester started would affect our relationship. Would he still live next door? Stay on campus?

Whatever the answers to those questions were would come with time. The one thing I knew for certain was that Archer was mine and I was his.

Epilogue

Phoenix/Two Years Later

My hands shake as I wait next to the small stage of The Coffee Symphony, a shop that caters to musicians on Friday nights. Archer and I have taken to popping in often, so when I asked to fill one of tonight's openings, the owner was surprised but stuck me on the roster. Of the five artists scheduled to perform, I'm up first.

I still haven't played in front of a crowd since Nashville. I'd never intended to either until recently.

I shoot a worried glance to Damon as he stands next to me. "I think I'm going to be sick."

He chuckles. "Please don't. That’s not the kind of memory you want to look back on a decade from now."

"Why the fuck am I so nervous?" I shake out my hands, trying to get rid of the tingles in my fingers. That would be highly inconvenient once I start playing the song I've been obsessing over for a month now.

He shrugs. "Cold feet, maybe?"

That's not it at all. If anything, I've never been so sure of anything in my life. Not even when I'd taken the blind leap to move to Tennessee four years ago. I shake my head. "No, that's the only reason I'm doing this."

His brow furrows as he rocks back on his heels with one hand stuffed in his pockets. "Worried he'll say no then?"

I roll my lips together, tasting the café au lait I'd downed minutes before. Archer is still unpredictable and full of surprises, but… "No, I'm not worried… I don't think."

He knocks his arm into mine, and my grip tightens around the neck of my guitar that hangs from the strap over my shoulder.

"He's going to say yes. A million times yes." His voice rises in octaves and dramatics as if he's starring in a Christmas romance movie.

Blowing out a deep breath, I wipe my clammy palms on my jeans. "I hope so, or this could be the most embarrassing experience of my life."

"And yet, you'd still take that chance." It wasn't a question.

"In a heartbeat," I reply without hesitation. I want my ring on Archer's finger and to be able to call him mine forever.

He grins. "Thought so. Can't believe my boy is taking the plunge."

"Might be," I correct him, but Damon scoffs. We quiet as the clock continues to tick down to my slotted time.

My gaze scans over the packed room that overflows with people I've never seen before. They have no idea what I'm about to do. I look to the table our friends and family sit at, front and center of the stage. When my eyes connect with Isaac's, he must see the nerves rattling around my brain. He tilts his head in encouragement.

I'd asked for his permission a week before, and he'd howled in laughter when I told him how I wanted to pop the question. "Still whipped. Boy, you're already shaking like a newborn calf. You know you don't have to make a grand gesture like that. He loves you, and you could probably propose in a closet and he'd be over the moon."

Isaac's wrong. I do have to. Want to.

Archer had given me back my music years ago. Now, I want to show him how much I love him for that in the only way I know how. Since Courting Echoes agreed to the first song I'd written, I did a second for their newest album, much to Drake's annoyance. The first had topped the charts and put me on many other bands’ radar. I've now written enough ballads to live a comfortable life off the royalties they provide. I still write every day and submit my songs everywhere I can. Sometimes I hit gold, and sometimes I face rejection. It's just part of the industry.

Shaking off the thoughts, I squint at the others that sit with Isaac. Next to him there's an empty high back chair meant for Archer once he shows up. On his other side, Caleb and his girlfriend, who he's completely head over ass for, are snuggled together like always. CJ slouches in the seat beside the couple, sipping something out of a tall glass while scrolling through his phone.