Page 53 of Before We’re More Than Friends (When We Faced the Music #1)

Raina

D allas and I made plans to go to the dog park Sunday evening to song-write and play with our dogs. This time, Dallas packed dog toys into his backpack for Houston and Penrose.

“I think she likes him more,” I said as Penrose sniffed Houston’s butt. “She isn’t barking as much today.”

“He’s a really great dog, Penrose.” Dallas rubbed Houston’s head. “He just slobbers a lot.”

I giggled. “At least he doesn’t crush your chest.” I pressed my hand to his firm chest, feeling his heartbeat through his green sweater. “Maybe because it’s so strong.”

“Thank you.” Even in the dark, I could see his cheeks flush in their usual fashion. My heart skipped a beat. Who allowed him to be so adorable when flustered? “I used to work out in Dallas. I need to get back to it.” He grinned, his mouth close to my ear. “Especially if you like it.”

I grinned back and gave him a quick peck on the lips. He kissed me back before we took our dogs off their leashes and got them ready to play.

“You know, when we first started writing to each other, I used to think about how fun it would be to go to this park with you,” I said as I tossed a ball at the dogs. Penrose caught it and brought it back to me. “I always imagined what it’d be like if you were here with Houston.”

“Really?” Dallas threw another ball at the dogs, and Penrose caught it again.

Houston let out a whimper. “Sometimes I wondered what it’d be like to play at my dog park with you, too.

” He took the ball from Penrose before throwing it farther away.

Both of the dogs chased after it, and Houston caught it this time.

“What else did you imagine me being a part of?”

“Other than going to school with me and having an extra friend to sit with at lunch, nothing else.” I waited for Houston to bring the ball to Dallas before I threw the next ball. Houston and Penrose collided heads as they tried to catch it, and we both laughed. “They’re just like us.”

“They are,” Dallas said, his dimples appearing. “Honestly, when I thought about meeting you in person, I couldn’t form an image in my mind. I just knew the idea of meeting terrified me because of my feelings.”

“So you really weren’t worried about meeting me in real life because you knew all my darkest thoughts?

” My heart ached for the girl from two weeks ago, who had thought that was why Dallas had lied.

“You just weren’t sure about your feelings for someone you’ve loved on paper for years but never met. ”

“That’s it,” he said. “That and . . . I was worried I wasn’t good enough for you.”

I blinked. “What do you mean? I was the one worried I wasn’t good enough for you .”

“I don’t know.” He scratched the back of his neck.

“I’ve had feelings for you since eighth grade, and you were perfect to me, even with all your flaws.

I thought there was no chance of being liked back when we were strictly platonic.

And when we met in real life, I only fell harder for you.

” He looked me in the eyes, the moonlight shining in his. “And you chose me.”

“I wouldn’t want anyone else.” With my free hand, I brushed my fingers along his shoulder. “No one knows me like you do. And that makes you able to love me like no one else does.”

A grin spread across his lips before they met mine. The four seconds of his warm touch were enough to make butterflies go crazy in my stomach. “It does,” he said before throwing the ball to the dogs again.

After a few more minutes of playing with the dogs, we let them play on the dog equipment. We sat on the bench where we’d placed our bags and started our songwriting session.

“How has your song been coming along?” I asked Dallas as he took his notebook out of his backpack. “Has being in a band given you any inspiration?”

“I’ve been writing a lot, actually.” Dallas flipped through his notebook, the pages etched in black and green ink. “But I’m not sure which of these lyrics I want to pursue.”

“I can take a look at some of them if you want me to.”

He swallowed. “Sure.”

He didn’t sound too confident, but I didn’t question him. I flipped through a few of the pages before finding lyrics that stood out to me. While the rest of the pages were disorganized thoughts, this one had a structured verse.

Because I’m such a disaster

Why would you ever fall for me?

Why would you ever fall for me?

We’re only meant for disaster

Why can’t I stop falling for you?

Why can’t I stop falling for you?

It’s a road to disaster.

“I-Is this about me?” I asked, the journal shaking in my hands. He wrote it back in February, before the bonfire. My heart locked up in my chest. “Dallas.”

“I-It’s old now,” Dallas stammered, shutting his notebook on my hand. I winced, and he touched my hand. “I’m sorry! I?—”

“I’m not upset,” I told him, squeezing his hand. “I’m just sad that you ever felt that way.”

“I still feel guilty.”

“Don’t.” I brushed my finger against the spirals on his notebook. “We can always change it. If you want to. Or we can write something new completely.”

“I want to rewrite it.” He flipped his notebook open to a new page. “Do you have any ideas on how we can flip it around?”

“Let me think.” After a few moments of pondering, I took out my pen and notebook before scribbling down a new chorus.

I thought I was a disaster

But you still fell for me

But you still fell for me

I felt like such a

“Um,” I said. “What’s an appropriate word that rhymes with disaster?”

Dallas looked at my lyrics before doing a quick search on his phone. “We have master, faster, pastor, plaster?—”

I leaned over and studied the list. “Let’s try faster.” I quickly wrote down the first lyrics that came to mind.

My mind spins faster

As you sit by me

As you sit by me

What a happily ever after.

“This sucks,” I said, my confidence dipping. “Maybe I’m the last person you should be doing this with.”

“I’m sure we can figure it out,” Dallas said, rubbing the bracelets on my wrist. “Let’s keep trying. ”

I nodded before crossing out what I wrote and trying something new.

Time passes by faster

As you wrap your arms around me

As you wrap your arms around me

Is this my happily ever after?

I groaned. “This still isn’t right. I can’t rack my brain for what else would work.” I scratched my forehead. My thoughts usually raced all the time. Why couldn’t I come up with song material?

“I know the feeling.” Dallas sighed before scribbling something in his notebook. I looked over to see that he was writing notes and not another verse. When he was done, he looked at me and said, “What was something between us that happened fast? That wasn’t expected?”

“Well, we became friends fast. Both on paper and in real life.” I looked up at the night sky, hoping for inspiration to strike. A near-full moon shined above. You’re my freaking moonlight. “You didn’t expect me to fall for you, but I fell even faster.”

He smiled and wrote something down in his notebook. When he was done, he showed it to me. “How does this sound?”

And you fell even faster

Than I’d fallen for you

Than I’d fallen for you

Is this my happily ever after?

“I love it,” I said. “You captured how I feel about you better than I could.”

He shrugged. “It just popped into my mind. If we keep working together, we’ll come up with something for Battle of the Bands. Unless Hayden or Caleb write a song they want to use.” He wrapped his arm around me, the warmth of his jacket comforting me. “Or unless we want to keep it to ourselves. ”

“We’ll see,” I said with a grin, resting my head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat.

It was faster than it was earlier, thrumming a fast-paced melody in my ears.

“Is it wrong that I love that your heart races whenever you’re near me?

” I asked as I looked into the deep pools of brown in his eyes. “Because you do the same to mine.”

“It’s not wrong at all.” The softness in his husky voice sent a tingle down my spine. “You’ve done this to me ever since we met.” His lips pursed. “When did you start falling for me? Before you realized you loved me back?”

“I’m not sure.” I listened to his heartbeat for a few moments, trying to remember when I first started feeling flutters.

There was the time at his birthday party, but they were very faint.

It didn’t compare to how he started making me feel once our band kicked into gear.

The way he sang with passion, looking at me like I was the only person in the room.

The way he beat me for the lead singer role but still wanted me to lead with him.

“That afternoon at the shelter, after we competed to be the lead singer,” I finally said, “you wanted me to be the lead singer with you. I just felt that for a moment, we were more than friends.”

“I-I felt that way too,” Dallas said, his mouth inching closer to mine.

“And I’m glad we were both right.” The warmth of his mouth greeted me as he pressed his lips against mine, causing that fluttering sensation in my stomach to return.

The butterflies used to terrify me, but they now made me want to giggle.

He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him, and for a moment, I wondered if he was going to put me on his lap.

His lips steadily moved with mine, sending my pulse out of control.

It blew my mind that he was new to this because he kissed me so well.

When his mouth was against mine, I couldn’t think of anything else but how much I craved his embrace.

Every other worry I had dissolved like sugar in a glass of water.

As our lips synced, my body pushed his against the bench’s armrest. He released a deep moan from his chest and put a hand on the armrest like he could fall off the bench any minute. He sat up straighter, and I rose to still keep my mouth on his. He nearly stumbled off the bench.

“Sorry,” I whispered against his lips. “I’m just excited.”

“As you should be,” he said before standing up, pulling me upward with him. We only stood for a few moments before he pulled me down to the grass, wrapping his arms around my waist again.

“What are you do—” I couldn’t finish my sentence as my chest and stomach pressed against his, my side hitting the ground.

I gasped, my breathing out of control. But I wasn’t panicked at the sudden movement.

Well, there could’ve been dog poop on the ground for all we knew, but the worried part of my brain finally shut off.

I adjusted myself in the grass, ignoring how it prickled my skin.

Dallas laughed against my lips. “Maybe that was a bad idea. But I wanted to try this.” He pulled away from me before resting on his back. “Sometimes in Dallas, I’d lie in the grass with Toby and look at the stars.” He pointed to the night sky, the stars and the moon shining down on us.

I cuddled against him as I grinned at the sky. “No offense to Toby, but I hope you enjoy doing this with me more.”

Dallas laughed again. “Toby could never make me feel like this.” He wrapped an arm around me. “Nobody compares to my moonlight.”

“Not even the moon itself?”

“The moon isn’t a person.”

I snorted. “Then I don’t have any competition. ”

“You never did.” His mouth moved closer to mine again, his minty breath filling my senses. “It’ll always be you in the night sky.” He closed the distance between our lips again, his kiss warmer than before.

Electricity surged through me, and I found myself rolling on top of him. He moaned again, but I didn’t know if it was because he was enjoying this or because I was crushing him the way Penrose crushed me in my sleep.

“You’re crushing my ribs,” Dallas said breathlessly. “My chest isn’t that strong.”

“Sorry!” I rolled off him, my head hitting the ground. Ouch . “I won’t do that anymore.” I brushed my side against him again before curling my fingers through his soft curls.

“It’s okay.” His hand brushed my warm cheek. “I’m still having the time of my life.” He grinned, those deep eyes hypnotizing me as his hand traveled to my hair. “Is it wrong that I love running my hands through your hair and messing up your makeup when we do this?”

“You like it when I look like a troll?” I snickered.

“A princess like you could never be a troll,” he breathed. “I love every way you look, as long as you’re smiling like that. And especially when it’s because of me.”

He just always had to say things that made me melt, did he? “You do make me very happy,” I said as our hips brushed together again. I tried to come up with something equally romantic to say, but I wasn’t good at it like he was.

But maybe I didn’t have to say the most perfect things. All I needed to say was how I felt.

My head spun as our mouths waltzed together.

My hand searched underneath his jacket and shirt until I felt his warm skin.

I always thought that kissing was over-hyped, but he was delicious.

Full of passion, his hand trailed down my back, nearly touching the waistband of my jeans.

He was his authentic self around me, and I loved him for it.

I didn’t understand how I’d gotten so lucky to have him here with me.

But some of the best things couldn’t be understood, and, for once, that was okay with me.