He came to the end of the song, and stopped, moving the guitar off his lap.

“Okay, now really, don’t laugh.” He had the sweetest, most adorable, sheepish grin on his face as he took her hands in his, looking deep in her eyes as he sang the chorus again.

That’s when Elli started to cry.

The tears came quickly, rolling down her cheeks, onto their hands. He stopped singing, laughing nervously as he moved his hand up to her cheek, catching some of her tears.

“Elli, don’t cry!”

“I’m sorry,” she said, sniffing as she tried to stop crying, “You’re like a dream, Shea, no one does that anymore.”

“Sure they do, come here.”

She went into his arms willingly, rubbing her nose against his shirt, taking in his heavenly scent.

“I meant every word, Elli. You’re amazing.”

How in the world did she get so lucky?

And why couldn’t she believe him?

Elli was getting stronger, and Shea hoped embarrassing himself for her was helping with her recovery. When he had first heard “Just the way you are,” he was convinced it was for guys who needed to get laid, but then he met Elli and every single word in the song described what he was feeling for her, what he thought. So he had to learn the cords, then he started singing as he played. Shea knew he wasn’t the best singer, but it seemed Elli loved it, hell she even started crying good tears, making his embarrassment worth it.

Since he hadn’t left in four days, he hadn’t been working out, which was the longest he had ever gone without working out. He tried to get Adler to run with him the other day, but the damn dog made it to the mailbox, then just laid down. It was as if he was saying “I’ll be here when you get back.” Damn lazy dog. So while Elli slept after lunch, Shea went into the living room, looking for the P90x DVD set she had mentioned having.

He looked through the racks, but it wasn’t there, so he opened the drawers of the TV stand, seeing if they were in there. They weren’t, but there was a drawer full of DVDs. One was marked ‘Elli in: Funny Girl’ and then a lot of other musicals. He pulled them all out, forgetting about his workout and fumbling with the DVD case to get the DVD out. He put the disc in, then slowly backed up, sitting on the couch as the DVD started. It started with a title screen and then went into the movie. It must have been one of her high school plays because the stage was big, but not Broadway big. The curtains opened but the lights didn’t come on the four girls that sat at a table. The spotlight came down on a girl sitting in the front row in a leopard outfit. When the camera zoomed in and Shea saw that it was Elli, he smiled.

She was a baby.

A girl came out on the stage and the show started. It was amazing. Elli was captivating, and it wasn’t because he knew her and loved her so much, it was because she was absolutely amazing. Her voice was angelic, just as her dad had said. When she would open her mouth, everyone looked at her, even the people on stage. It was breathtaking.

So breathtaking that when Elli came shuffling into the room, Shea didn’t even look up at her. He kept watching the show as she came over and cuddled up on the couch with him. Neither of them said anything as the DVD went black, then the spotlight came back on Elli in the middle of the stage in a black dress.

“This is my favorite part,” she said beside him.

On the DVD, Elli started singing again. The song was about the man she had lost, Shea guessed, but he didn’t care. Elli was compelling. She killed the performance; you believed she had just lost the love of her life, you believed she was hurting, but you didn’t care, all you wanted was more of her voice, more of her.

The show ended with her standing there, no music playing. Just big, shiny tears falling down her cheeks. Shea wanted to get up and clap and scream like the people were doing in the video, but instead he wrapped his arms around Elli, holding her close to him as the credits ran.

“I trained for a months to do that song, it was so hard.”

“It was amazing. You’re fascinating Elli, truly.”

Elli shook her head against his, turning her head up to look at him, “I was, not anymore. I couldn’t sing that song if my life depended on it.”

“Sure you could. And you still are, Elli. You fascinate me every day.”

A dazzling smile came across her face, causing his heart to pound and his skin to tingle. This was the moment, the moment for her to say it. It was all over her face. She loved him, she had to, he saw it in her eyes.

“I never loved myself until I met you,” she said before snuggling closer to him, rubbing her nose against his neck.

She didn’t love him, but she loved herself.

Great.

Now when the hell was she going to love him!?

Chapter 25

Elli opened her eyes slowly. She felt like someone was staring at her. Not to her surprise, someone was.

Shea.

He gave her a cheeky grin, kissing her lips loudly. “Happy birthday, baby.”

“Mmm…thanks,” she said as she stretched her arms above her head, “What time is it?”

“7:00. We need to get back to Nashville.”

“Ugh, why?” she asked, rolling to her side to cuddle against his naked chest, “Why on earth would we leave this warm bed?”

Shea chuckled, “Baby, it’s your birthday. Things are planned for today, you know.”

“Like?”

He smacked her butt playfully, pushing her out of bed.

“Not telling! Now get up, Harper will be at the condo by 9:00 to pick you up.”