Page 100 of Perfect Composition

“B—”

He shakes his head. “That’s not right.”

I shudder. He’s asking for me to lay my soul as bare as my body. And certain all parts of my body are shriveling into prunes, I repeat the words I said twenty years ago for the first time. “I love you, Beau Beckett Miller. I always will.”

“And I love you, Paige Melissa Kensington. Forever, if you’ll let me.”

A sob bubbles up. “That’s the problem. I know exactly how short forever really can be.”

“It won’t be this time,” he reassures me.

“Beckett, our lives don’t mesh.”

“You don’t know that. You can’t.”

“You left me! What happens when you find someone new?” I shout.

“That will never happen.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because you’re still my longest girlfriend to date.”

“God help me, I’m in love with a madman,” I moan. Then I groan louder. “And how do we explain us to people?”

“People?”

“Your associates. How do you explainyoumet someone as normal as a doctor?”

Unperturbed, he blows off my question. “I would think your bigger concern would be how we tell our daughter.”

Horrified, I begin babbling. “No. Nope. Sex is one thing. How do I explain to her I’m dating her father?”

“Just tell her we had the longest breakup ever—that it didn’t change our feelings for one another.”

Water dribbles out of my mouth in a sputter. This man is going to drive me insane with a combination of laughter and insanity, I’m certain of it. “That it didn’t change anything?”

“That’s right.”

“There’s no way Austyn goes for that.”

“Were you Daddy bashing when I wasn’t in your lives?”

“Other than calling you a crazed lunatic, no.”

“Then see? Everything will be fine. Now it’s my turn to make plans for us.”

I arch a brow. “Oh? And what do your plans involve, Mr. Miller?”

“Talking about where you fit in my life.”

“Umm…”

His lips brush against mine once, twice, before he lingers over the next time our lips meet. I’m so lost in his kiss, it takes me a few moments to come out from the haze to hear what he says. “Nothing comes before you, Paige. Not music, not money, not fame. The rest of it—save Austyn—can go to hell. I’ve lived that life and…”

“And?” I can’t keep the note of hope from my voice.

“I wrote that life for myself. I knew it could be better. I should have known the person I was supposed to write my life’s music with was you and come back sooner. But I will never put anything before our love ever again. Nothing.”