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Iwas surprised when Keith called and told me to come collect my pet.

“What pet are you talking about, Keith?”

I asked. I had intentionally never gotten a pet so I could travel and mess around.

“Your pet man, he’s here at my house bugging me about the Lewis Dunnage song.”

“Oh, Anton is at your house?”

“Yep, and now he’s smiling like that Cheshire Cat you wrote about. You two are doing it, aren’t you?”

I laughed out loud at Keith’s question but didn’t answer. “I need a shower, then I’ll come your way. Oh, and give him the dammed song already!”

“Yeah, yeah, you do your job. I’ll do mine.”

I laughed through my shower and rushed to get to Keith’s. I was so excited to see Anton I could hardly contain myself.

The moment I walked into Keith’s, I launched myself into Anton’s arms and let him kiss the missing him away. “God, I needed that,” he said.

“Me too,”

I nodded. “But why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“It was a surprise. I meant to go to your house and do something sexy, but Keith has a very loud mouth.”

“Hey,”

he said behind me, causing us both to laugh.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

“Yeah, me too, and while we’re here with Keith, let me just say, the whole thing is a go.

Lewis was at a party where most of the committee members were present.

He sang a few bars of the song he wanted to get from you, and that was all it took. They all signed on unanimously, which was a requirement for a musical to be produced.”

“Wait, what? They took Alec in Wonderlust?”

Anton nodded. “They did, but… we still want Lewis to record the song. That’ll help promote the musical. Hell, maybe we could even get him to be Alec.”

I froze and shook my head. “Um, no offense, but Lewis is too pretty to be…”

I almost said me but stopped. The character stopped being me as we wrote and rewrote the story and music with Jim and Rodrick. “To be Alec.”

Anton smiled.

“That’s a subjective opinion, but I don’t disagree.

He won’t want the part anyway.

He’s enjoying all the fame and fortune he’s getting from Hollywood and singing these days.

Besides, my vision for Alec is bigger and rougher than even you. Like a football player turned drag queen.”

I snorted and ignored the ‘even you’ comment, meaning he’d caught what I almost said earlier. “That’s perfect.”

The next few weeks were a whirlwind.

I had to meet the committee members, then I got to meet Lewis, who was a doll baby, definitely not suitable for the butch guy turned drag queen in the musical, but he did sing the Queen’s Lament, as it’d been called, in a way that caused even me, who wrote most of the music, to cry.

Weeks quickly turned to months, and my love for Anton grew stronger with time.

A year passed before we were ready to rent the theater and begin interviewing crew, choreographers, dancers, cast, and orchestra.

We were walking through Centennial Park since I’d had to return to Nashville to get work done for a few clients.

Musicals made money, but nothing like what I made from the songs I wrote for country artists.

The ones who hit the top ten bankrolled me for a long time.

Luckily, okay, not luck, Keith threw a fit getting Peter involved.

Anton got the message and joined me in Nashville for a few days.

“Um,”

Anton said, drawing my attention. “I… well—”

He paused, and I looked at him. “Anton, what’s wrong?”

He sighed. “I miss you, like all the time. You’re here in Nashville, and I’m in New York, and I never get to see you unless you or I travel. Then it’s only a few days at a time. I-I want that to change, need it to change. I mean, you want this to continue, don’t you?”

he asked, causing me to cock my eyebrow.

“Of course, I want this to continue. What are you suggesting, Anton?”

“Move to New York and live with me. We can bring your music equipment up, set it all up in the upper room, you can work from there, and then once the musical is running, we can come back and live here if you want, but I-I want to be a couple, a real couple.”

Okay, I admit it, I’m a crybaby. The kind that cries at Hallmark commercials. In my defense, though, that was everything I wanted to hear from Anton.

I nodded. “Yeah, I… yeah, I do want the same thing, Anton. I, well, I’m in love with you.”

Now, Nashville isn’t the most open place in the world, and I don’t usually show affection in public, but when Anton threw his arms around me and kissed me square on the lips, I could do nothing else but return his affection.

He touched his forehead to mine and whispered, “I love you too.”