Then, it hit me—what I’d been missing in my new song all along.

I dashed into the house, grabbed my notepad, and scribbled down the lyrics and melody that had been evading me all during the tour. Everything crystallized, and by the time rehearsal came around, I had our new song polished and ready to go.

A couple of hours later, I walked into the garage to find Miller, McAvoy, Vin, and Sydney waiting for me with giant fucking smiles on their faces. “What did I miss?”

“Just got off the phone with Hollis,” Miller said. “We start recording in L.A. in a month.”

My eyes bulged. “What? A month! Shit! That’s…fuck!”

“Yeah, it’s the shit!” Vin cried.

“He wants all our new material, none of the stuff that’s on our EP, except for ‘Life Raft.’”

“All new?” McAvoy asked warily. “Do we have enough new shit for an album?”

“We have to make it work,” Miller said.

I slapped the papers down on the table in front of them, looked around the room at my brothers, and said, “Well then, let’s get to work.”

The coward in me went to talk to my professor before calling my parents. I wanted to have good news for them once I finally got them on the phone. I’d been putting off speaking with them since they had met Grant almost three weeks ago.

The silence between us had been unnerving. I’d never been lovey-dovey with my parents, but we had always been kind of close. I’d check in with them. They’d check in with me. I hadn’t realized how empty it all felt until I walked into Grant’s uncle’s kitchen to see a loving family sitting over coffee in the morning.

I missed my parents.

I missed Aaron.

Maybe they wouldn’t come around right away, but maybe they would one day.

“I can’t wait to start,” I told my professor a short while later.

He was enthusiastic to have free help for the summer. I was excited to get into some real lab work. It would boost my resume and possibly open doors later on down the road. At this point, the possibilities seemed endless.

“Thank you for stopping by, Miss Graham. I’ll see you in the lab Monday at eight a.m.”

“Sounds great. Thank you again!” I said before walking out of the office.

On Monday, I’d start training with the project he was working on and all the procedures and tests I’d be running all summer. I stuffed my copy of the university summer internship paperwork, which guaranteed I’d get class credit for my work, in my bag and exited the chemistry building.

Stopping at a bench on the mostly empty campus, I pulled out my cell phone, pushed down all the fears that had clouded my mind the last two days, and called my father. After five or six rings, I was sure he wasn’t going to answer.

Then, the line picked up, and my father’s deep baritone came through the line, “Hello, Aribel.”

“Hi, Dad,” I whispered.

He gave me no indication as to what he was thinking, so I dived in, “How are you and Mom and Aaron?”

“We’re fine, Aribel. Is there a reason you called?”

Ah. There it was—the reason I was so blunt. Like father, like daughter.

“I’ve had a rough couple of days and wanted to talk to my dad. Is that not acceptable anymore?”

“Did you break up with your boyfriend?”

“No. In fact, we’re better than ever. When are you going to get over that? I was calling because I was with his family and realized how much they loved and cared for each other. It made me miss you guys. I want things to get back to normal, but I can’t tolerate you being so derogatory toward Grant.”

After a short pause, my father responded, “Okay. Tell me about him because the man I met is not fit for my daughter.”

I sighed. “He’s sweet, Daddy. He cares about me. Ever since we’ve been together, he’s wanted to better himself—not just for me, but also for himself. He had a job at a recording studio, but then a big label signed his band, and he’s been on tour. I don’t know what you want me to say. He makes me feel. Do you know what I mean? That I feel alive?”

“It sounds like childish frivolity to me.”

All I wanted to do was bang my head against the bench. How could I get through to him?

“Before Grant, I wasn’t happy, Dad. I dated guys who I didn’t care about because I thought they were the kind of people I was supposed to date. They were the people you’d raised me to find worth in. When Grant pursued me, I couldn’t see past his flaws. Rock band? Bad. No college? Worse. Thought he could get someone like me without even trying? Laughable.”

I smiled at the memories and how much I’d changed.

“Then, I got to know Grant. I got to see how fiercely he loves his family and protects his friends, how eager he is to succeed, and how much he was trying to get to know me—not the me who drives a BMW and has a CEO for a father. You’d raised me to see the good in people, Dad, but you didn’t mean people like Grant. You didn’t mean someone who could corrupt your baby…who couldn’t take care of me. That’s your problem, not mine.”

“What are you trying to say, Aribel?”

“I’m saying that I don’t need to be taken of. I’m a smart, independent woman. You raised me to be that way, and now, you seem frustrated when I’ve chosen my own path. I don’t want the people you’ve been introducing me to. I want Grant, and all I’m asking is for you to give him a chance. I don’t expect things to change overnight, but he’s not who you think he is.”

My father sighed. I could practically see him pressing two fingers to his temple and leaning forward at his desk.

“You know I want you to be happy, Aribel. I want someone who is worthy of the strong woman your mother and I raised you to be.”

“He is. Grant is.” I sounded breathless. “Plus, I’ve been doing good things with my life, so it’s not as if he’s changed who I am. I got straight As in my classes this semester, and my organic chemistry professor offered me an internship position, working in his lab for the summer.”

“Now, that is what I like to hear. When do you start?”

“Monday. It’s unpaid, but it’s a foot in the door.”

“It’s all about who you know and how hard you work.”

“You’re right,” I agreed easily. Then, I immediately switched back to the original subject. “So, about Grant…”