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He exhales, his fingers absently trailing along my upper arm, sending tiny shivers across my skin. “I always loved the peace ofit,” he admits. “Didn’t have a whole lot of that growin’ up. When I was a kid, I used to sneak up onto the roof of Nico’s place just to stare at the sky. Made me feel small, but in a good way, y’know? Like none of the bullshit mattered up there.”

I nod, understanding more than I can say. There’s something soothing about the vastness of the night sky, about the way it stretches on forever, indifferent to all the chaos down here.

We lapse into a comfortable silence, but then Eddie shifts slightly, propping himself up on his elbow so he can look down at me. His expression turns thoughtful. “Can I ask you somethin’?”

I lift a brow. “Sure.”

“Why didn’t you ever make singing your career?”

The question catches me off guard. I blink up at him, my stomach knotting.

“I—” I hesitate, suddenly wishing I could shrink into the earth. “I get stage fright,” I admit quietly, my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt. “And I never really thought I was good enough anyway.”

Eddie stiffens beneath me. His chest rises and falls in a slow, controlled breath, and then he turns, fully facing me now, his hand lifting to cup my cheek.

“Laney,” he says, his voice rough with something fierce, “you have the best damn voice I’ve ever heard. Better than mine by a long shot.”

I scoff, looking away. “Now I know you’re full of shit.”

His grip tightens, just enough to make me meet his gaze again. His blue eyes are dark and serious, no trace of teasing. “I mean it,” he says. “I’ve been in this business a long time. I’ve heard every kind of voice there is, and none of ’em hold a candle to yours.”

I swallow hard, my throat thick with emotion, but I don’t know what to say. I’ve spent so long believing I wasn’t enough—hearing someone like him say otherwise is almost too much to process.

Silence settles over us again, and I stare up at the stars, wondering if this is all just some dream I’ll wake up from. It feels impossible—being here, in this beautiful place, wrapped up in Eddie’s warmth, listening to him say things that unravel everything I thought I knew about myself.

But then, before I can stop myself, the question slips out. “Why are you so good to me?” My voice is quiet, almost lost in the night air. “Why did you protect me from the start?”

His body tenses just slightly and, for a moment, I think he won’t answer. Then he moves, shifting so he’s leaning over me, his fingers tilting my chin up.

“Because you’re special,” he says simply.

I let out a humorless laugh and shake my head, but his grip tightens just enough to still me.

His eyes burn into mine, intense and unwavering. “You are special, Laney.” His voice is low, deep, full of something that makes my breath catch. “You’re special to me.”

Something in my chest cracks wide open.

I can’t speak. Can’t move.

I just stare up at him, caught in the storm of his gaze, knowing without a doubt that if I wasn’t already falling, I just took the final plunge.

“You okay?” he murmurs a few minutes later.

I like how he checks in with me like he can read me in a way no other person has ever been able to do.

I nod. “Yeah.”

More than okay.

We lie there in silence for a while, the warmth of his body seeping into mine, the scent of him—cologne and cedar and something distinctly Eddie—filling my senses.

Then he speaks, voice low and rough. “This is nice.”

I swallow. “Yeah.”

Another beat.

Then—