Tyler would do the same. That he wanted it as much as I did.”
My chest tightens in a way that has nothing to do with the dress.
Haley comes up behind me and squeezes my shoulders. “He does want it, Annie. I can see it in the way he looks at you. But fame is a strange thing. It doesn’t wait until you’re ready. God knows your dad wasn’t ready for it when he was swept up as a teenager. We’re rarely prepared for the things life throws our way. Tyler’s opportunities are suddenly on a huge scale. He’s one man, and he’s growing into something bigger than humans were made to be.”
I sigh. “I love everything success has brought him. And it’s not that I envy him what he’s achieved—I’m so proud of him. But I wish he would’ve included me so we could figure it out together.”
“There’s one thing I know with Tyler—he’s not careless with anything, least of all with you. If he’s kept you out of something, he’s considered it. Agonized over it. For better or for worse.”
Haley doesn’t talk much about her relationship with my dad or insert herself in mine with Tyler, but I respect her. She knows what it’s like to be caught in the middle of this surreal life.
“You know,” she goes on, “when your dad was starting his label, I was pregnant with Mason. He was supposed to do a promotional thing in LA. It was important and had been scheduled ages ahead of time. I called him and told him to come back.”
I blink in surprise. “I can’t picture you doing that.”
“I thought I was okay without him, but I wasn’t. So, I told him,” she says. “He dropped everything and came back for us.”
I turn that over. Even though he’s working on other things, I know he’d drop them if I truly asked him to.
But Haley’s right that Tyler’s growing and he has to deal with new opportunities. I’ve seen that growth in him even in the past year, when he’s matured as an artist, a friend, a partner.
And I don’t want the first act of our marriage to be me holding him back from becoming the man he’s meant to be.
8
“What do you mean he’s not coming?” I ask in the car on the way back from running errands after my dress appointment. “We’ve been confirmed for a month!”
“Mr. King is sincerely apologetic,” comes the crisp British voice over the line. “I assure you he’s made multiple attempts to reconcile his schedule, but running a conglomerate of companies leaves little time for personal commitments.”
Disappointment overwhelms me as I scroll through the email correspondence, most signed by an executive assistant at Echo Entertainment on behalf of the CEO. I’ve been trying to get Harrison King, one of Tyler’s friends from touring, to the wedding without him knowing.
I know how hard it is to get on the schedule of a man running a multinational conglomerate, but I figured we’d navigated all the hurdles already.
Now it might be over before it’s begun.
When I arrive at the house, the garage door’s open. The motorcycle sits out front, and my body twitches the second I see it.
We still haven’t been on it. I want to get on the back with Tyler and disappear. But we can’t. At least not yet.
Dad and Haley are talking in the kitchen, getting Mason to eat some kind of solids by the sounds of it.
I follow the sound of music upstairs. I peer in the first of the guest bedrooms.
The first thing I notice are the organized piles of merch.
Next, I see my fiancé, patiently holding the strings on his guitar while Sophie picks with an awkward enthusiasm that melts my heart.
The piles dwarf him.
Haley’s words come back to me, and compassion and love for the boy who changed my world, the man who owns my heart.
I pick up a Sharpie. “Can I get an autograph?”
Tyler looks up, his eyes brightening when he spots me. “Play your cards right.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I meant her,” I say, gesturing toward Sophie.
My little sister giggles in delight, abandoning the instrument to fill the Post-it I hold out with a careful scrawl.
“Do you want a selfie?” she asks solemnly.
“Um. Sure. But I left my phone downstairs.”
“I’ll get it!” Sophie bounds toward the door and down the hall, and I turn back to Tyler with a grin.
“You have to sign all this?”
“Was supposed to be before we leave for the wedding. My hand cramped