Page 115 of Tracing Holland

Their grins are priceless as they exchange a quick kiss, their first as a somewhat engaged couple.One day.Holland finds my hand under the table and laces her fingers with mine.I squeeze, still enjoying the glow of the most unromantic semi-proposal of all time.

“What about you two?”Callie asks, eyeing us next.

Holland and I straighten in unison.

“Engaged?Heck, no,” she laughs.

I grin and shove her with my shoulder.“Well, you don’t have to be quite so passionate about it.”

“Ok, duh,” Callie says, rolling her eyes.“But some day?”

“Callie, please,” I scoff.“I just figured out yesterday and I’m still trying to work out today.It wasn’t so long ago I didn’t even have a future to think about.”

I glance over at Holland and something moves inside me.Something deep, something strong.Something freaking epic.

I smile.“But for today?Yeah.…Today.”

Holland squeezes my hand and gives me that smile that links my soul with hers.That makes me believe my life might actually be more than a maybe.That turns my future into a conversation instead of a punch-line.The smile that refused to believe my lies.

I steal a solid kiss from that perfect, inspiring, hypnotic smile.Return one of my own.

But I’m Luke Craven.

Dandelion.

Train-Wreck.

Liar.

Gravedigger.

Believer.

Beautiful Moment Destroyer.

“Besides, Holland warned me right from the beginning that she doesn’t hook up with other musicians,” I tease, ducking away from my girlfriend’s indignant swipe.

“Oh really?Hey, Luke.”

“Yeah?”

“I said, ‘I don’t hook up with other musicians.’I never said I wouldn’t fall in love with one.”

13

The Encore: Part II

It’s deafening.I pull out my in-ears so I can truly listen, absorb.I know I should be leading into what’s next, but my heart is pounding too fast, the blood searing through my body and blocking all coherent thoughts in my head.I let the screams course through me, spark life in every cell of my being.Stare out over the massive crowd wild with the same excitement bursting in my heart.This moment.I’m living this moment.

I’m living.

So this is it.The comeback I never saw coming.The comeback no one believed.No one except Callie Roland.Casey Barrett.Holland Drake.The comeback I still can’t accept I deserved, but have determined to grasp until my last breath anyway.It’s a gift, a miracle, and right now it’s put me in this place, in this moment.Stolen history for a man who’d given up.

“Let me hear you scream, Toronto!”

I hold my hand to my ear.“I can’t hear you!”

“One more time!”

I grin.“Now, that’s what I’m talking about!”

I shove my in-ears back in and point to Casey.

It’s history time, baby.

1-2-3-4.

Explosion.