“Everything okay, Mara?” the security guard asked.
“Yeah, I just forgot something,” I laughed. “Silly me.”
I hurried down the hall and into the dressing room, spotting my phone right where I’d left it before the show.
I crossed the small space and scooped it up, laughing at myself for being too excited to leave.
“Mara?”
I turned around to see who was speaking and felt the same surprised shock I had just over a week earlier.
“Evan? What are you doing here?”
“Oh, thank goodness,” he said, crossing the room and letting the door fall shut behind him.
He gathered me into his arms and crushed his lips to mine, relief apparent in the action.
“What—” I said, breaking away in confusion.
“I thought I’d missed you,” he chuckled, pulling me against him and stroking my hair with one hand.
My heart sputtered as he leaned in and kissed me again, his mouth moving softly against mine. With weak knees and a protesting body, I pulled away, looking into his beautiful eyes.
“Hang on now. You don’t get to come in here and kiss me, not after what you did. Why are you here?” I demanded, pushing out of his arms.
“I know,” he said sadly. “I’m so sorry, Mara.”
“What’s going on?”
“I love you,” he said simply, reaching out, his thumb brushing over my cheek. “I’ve always loved you. I didn’t know you felt the same way, though.”
“Lizzy called you,” I sighed, finally connecting at least one thing. “I don’t understand why you’re here.”
I pushed further away, backing up and leaning against the counter. Thankfully, he stayed put.
“I know,” he said frowning. “I owe you an explanation.”
“I’d say so,” I said, telling my body to calm down for just a few more minutes.
“The night you came and watched the show with me, when you sang on stage, I knew that our deal was more than just a deal for me. I mean, I liked you before that, but when I saw you perform it was like I was seeing a special part of you. Something you’d never shown to anyone else before. So I decided to go with it, even though I knew you didn’t want anything serious. When you told me you were settling with Chris, I was so angry. I thought if I kissed you the way I wanted to—the way you should always be kissed—you would change your mind. But you didn’t.”
“And then you were a pill about everything, I remember.”
“I was. I was angry and wanted to get back at you somehow.”
“So you kissed me again, stopped talking to me, slept with me, and then bailed before I woke up to get back at me?”
“No!” He took a step forward, and then decided against it, moving back to his original place. “I mean, yes. To all of the stuff except the sleeping with you and leaving in the morning. When you defended Chris at that dinner, trying to make him sound like less of a judgmental jerk, I realized that being mean wasn’t going to get you to listen to me. I knew I was in love with you, because it hurt to see you do that. I didn’t know what to do. All I could think about was how you were with him and I had lost you. When I kissed you during that class, I really hadn’t intended to. Staying around you wasn’t an option for me anymore, not if I was going to keep my promise to you and myself. So, when the offer for the contract came, I decided to take it and get away from you. I thought that if I was standoffish that I could get over whatever I was feeling. You were with Chris then, there was nothing I could do.”
“You could have done something other than treat me like dirt,” I argued. “And leaving before I woke up? Why would even think that was okay to do, under any circumstance?”
“Just let me explain,” he sighed, a frustrated look on his face.
“You remember Steph. Well, when we were dating she cheated on me. The first time my feelings were really hurt. I thought I was in love with her, and she just threw me away like nothing. When she came back, begging for forgiveness, I let her back in. And then she did it, again.”
“Ouch,” I said softly.
“When I called it off again, she got violent. She’s not strong enough to actually hurt me, but I knew I couldn’t stay with someone who’d abused me, both emotionally and physically. It was so hard to stay away from her, though! I’d really loved her, to the point of being ready to spend the rest of my life with her. After a few weeks, I started to feel like I’d over reacted. So, I agreed to come back and help with the play. She was different then. I don’t know how to explain it. All of the good things I’d seen in her before seemed to have vanished. That was when I knew I needed to force myself away and focus on something else. After we ran into her at Coney Island, she finally backed off. I don’t know if was us kissing or her friends talking her down.
“Then you chose Chris. I made that promise not to touch you because I swore I would never make someone feel the way that Steph had made me,” he said in a gravely tone. “Including being the person that made someone cheat. But the longer I was around you—”
“The harder it got,” I said, nodding. I knew exactly what he was talking about. The more I’d seen him, the more I wanted to be with him.
“Yeah. So, when I had the opportunity to leave on the tour, I took it. I didn’t know how much longer I could go without telling you how I felt again and begging you to leave your boyfriend.”
“Why did you leave after we were together then?” I asked, all the hurt I’d been feeling laced through my voice.
“I didn’t want to,” he said, moving forward to comfort me. “I didn’t know you’d broken up with him. I thought I’d done the one thing I’d sworn to never do. I hated myself for it, and I knew that I’d do it again if I didn’t leave right then.”
“You made me feel unwanted,” I said softly. “You made me feel like I’d done something wrong, or that I was just a booty call.”
“You are none of those things,” he said, taking my hand and softly pulling me towards him. “Leaving was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I wanted to stay there with you forever, you have to believe me.”
“You really love me?” I asked, biting my lip as I looked into his eyes, waiting for the answer.
“I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone my entire life,” he laughed. “When Liz called and told me what you’d said tonight, I got in my mom’s car, and practically sped the whole way here. I thought you’d already left when I got here, and I was going to have to come find you.”
“I’m surprised I didn’t punch you in the nose when I saw you,” I laughed, finally allowing myself to relax into his embrace.
“I would have kissed you, anyway,” he laughed, his hand winding into my hair again. “Can you ever forgive me for what I did?”
I looked at him again, relishing in the feel of his arms around me once more.
“You have a lot to make up for,” I answered honestly, wrapping my own arms around him.
“And I will work at it every day for the rest of my life,” he said leaning in.
“I love you, Evan.”
“I love you, Mara.”
Our lips met again and a swarm of butterflies erupted in my stomach.
He loves me! Evan really loves me!
All of my pains and doubts melted away as we stood there together, sharing the parts of ourselves that we wanted only the other to see. Our mouths wove together, hands clinging to each other, clothes in danger of being removed right then and there. Several breathless minutes passed before I suddenly broke away, giggling.
“What?” he asked in confusion.
“Everyone is waiting for me at the restaurant, I just remembered! They’re probably worried, since I haven’t made it back, yet.”
“That’s right. Your parents came for the show.”
“Would you like to meet them?”
“Of course,” he said with a grin. “They’re going to have to wait a few minutes though.”
“Why is that?”
<
br /> “I’m not done kissing you, yet.”
I squealed as he grabbed me even tighter, laying his wonderful mouth on me once more.
His hands wove into my hair, holding my head in place as he did what he wanted with my mouth, reminding me over and over again of the fire I felt whenever he touched me. It was a burn I welcomed with haste.
Epilogue
“I’m glad we finally got everything moved in,” Evan said, brushing some bubbles off my shoulder.
“I’m glad we decided to take a bubble bath and relax,” I laughed.
“So is the life of a big-time, Broadway actress,” he chuckled. “Makes her boyfriend move all the heavy boxes in, while she’s off running around the stage having fun.”
“It’s not my fault you were off tonight,” I countered. “You could have waited for me to be off.”
“You never have a night off,” he snorted. “If you’re not rocking it in the ensemble, then you’re knocking everyone’s socks off in a leading role.”
“You love it,” I said, snuggling deeper into his embrace.
“I do,” he said before kissing the top of my head. “I love seeing your dreams come true. I also love that I get to watch you do it every night. My job is awesome!”
“You better be there when I’m accepting my award,” I joked.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world! What award is this now?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t won it, yet,” I giggled.
“Give it time,” he murmured, playing with the ends of my hair. “It’s only been a few months. You’ll get there, eventually.”
“I know,” I said, resting my hand on his leg and squeezing gently. “I have bigger dreams to chase now.”
“Dreams are important. You should always do your best to follow them.”
He leaned forward, making me sit up and kissed my shoulder, his hands sliding onto my stomach.
“Have you heard from Lizzy?” I asked, enjoying the impatient growl that came from him.
“I did. I guess her new roommate is tolerable. She seemed relieved that she got to keep the apartment as well.”
“I wasn’t using it,” I said with a shrug. “I was always over at your place.”
“But now we have our own place,” he said, his lips brushing over my neck as he spoke.
“Our place. I like that.”
“I love you, Mara.”
“I love you, too.”
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Acknowledgements
Every time I write a book, I’m still struck by how much work and outside help goes into it!
Of course, thank you to my family for all of your help. The babysitting and listening to my blabbering truly was a lifesaver for this story!
Jake, my sweet husband, I have to give you a whole paragraph to yourself. I would never be able to figure out the stories in my head if you weren’t there to help talk me through them. I love you!
Thank you to one of my favorite groups to hang out in, Phantom Phans. We got together because we all love The Phantom of the Opera. Thank you for letting me pick your brains a little while I was working on this story!
Thank you to everyone who’s ever been involved in the musical Wicked! I didn’t mean for it to become such a huge part of this story, but it fits perfectly.
Perhaps the biggest thank you should go to a man I’ve never met (but still dream I will someday!). When Mara was in the fifth grade, she listened to her first Broadway musical and it changed her life. That was a part of me in this story. At ten years old, I listened to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera and it changed my life forever. Thank you for giving me dreams to chase.
Kamery
About The Author
Kamery is not the person who grew up dreaming of the day that she would clutch her very own novel to her chest, tears brimming over the rims of her eyes as she thought about how she'd written it herself, finally! In fact, anything remotely like that didn't even happen until she was actually holding her first book in her hand, amazed that she'd written it and wondering how on Earth she'd managed to do it when it hadn't ever occurred to her to write one until months before. Surprisingly, though, it was just what she never realized she loved doing.
When starting out in life, Kamery had (and still has) big dreams to perform on Broadway. She loves music and acting very much, while she and dance have a love/hate relationship; she would love to do it and every form of dance decides it hates that about her, haha! The one constant she always had between the performing world and the book world were the stories, tales that transported her to other worlds and made her feel like she really could do anything. Finally, she decided she wanted to do that for someone else and sat down to write.
It's been a few years since she held that first book, realizing that she really liked writing and wanted to do more, but the love that blossomed in that moment has only grown. Currently, Kamery works from home in the White Mountains of Arizona, while taking care of her two adorable kids, a girl and a boy, and talking her sweet husband Jake's ear off about the insane amount of characters in her head who are ready to fight to the death for a chance at their own novels. She also gets together with other authors in the family and they all gab together, making up The Royal Court of the Queens of Romance. It truly is a wonderful life!
www.kamerysolomonbooks.com
Taking Chances: A Sweet Contemporary Romance (Dreams) Page 23