“You tamed my wild heart,
it belongs to you,
forever and only you.
You ensnared this devil with your angel eyes.
Baby, this is real.
My heart bleeds for you.
Everything I am, everything I will be
belongs to you.
Only you.
Only you, baby.
Believe me when I say,
This is real.”
The last note lingers in the air for a moment, time suspended, before the crowd breaks out into raucous cheers.
“That’s all for tonight,” Hollis says. “Thank you for coming out to see us.”
I watch as all four guys slip from the stage and disappear into a back room.
Joining hands again, Kira, Willow, Dean, and I plow our way through the crowd and outside.
November has bled the last of the heat out of the air and I revel in the chill as it pierces my heated cheeks.
“Are we waiting for them?” Willow asks, her blonde hair blowing around her shoulders from the wind.
“We can,” I say. “They might be a while.”
My dad strolls out of Griffin’s, my uncles too, and strides over to us.
“Let’s get dinner,” he announces. “The guys can meet us there once they can get away.”
“Wood-fired pizza?” Willow asks, lighting up.
“Whatever you want.” My dad reaches over and ruffles her hair affectionately.
I’m pretty sure he thinks all us kids are still in the single digits and play with dolls and toy cars.
It’s not a long walk from Griffin’s to Woody’s—unfortunate name, I know—the local wood-fired pizza restaurant.
We have to wait while they put a table together to accommodate the eight of us and the four more to come.
I want to text Hollis to ask him when they’ll be here, but my dad’s chosen to sit beside me and there’s no way I’m risking him reading my text messages. This is not the time, nor the place, for him to learn about Hollis and me.
It’s hard to sit beside him, knowing the lie I carry.
He’s never approved of anyone I’ve dated and I know those ill feelings he’s harbored before will be tenfold for Hollis.
I’ve seen the headlines, the pictures, everything that exists before my dad met my mom, and I think when he looks at Hollis he sees himself. But he can’t see that Hollis can change like he did.