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Nick felt an abrupt emotion that he labeled as anticipation as he floated along in his car down the two lane highway. The road had taken him out of Nashville into a comfy suburb, and finally stretched out parallel to sporadic fields dotted with houses along the way. Some were typical of a rural nature, while others stood out to him as homes of good money with a taste for the spacious living instead of a buzzing skyline penthouse. He had been along this highway before, along this same path, only a handful of times. Two years in a row when three summer months proved too long to be without the company of his best friend, and one final sweet Christmas where he had been tempted with the prospect of snow. Nick reflected back on that Christmas; it was had been hard for the both of them. Not only was it Bree’s first Christmas with her parents’ divorce finalized, but it would turn out to be their last holiday together. He found himself sighing at that random memory; it had crept up suddenly on him with just a trigger of familiar black concrete and white lines.

The sun was rapidly depriving him of light and he wondered if he would be able to find the gravel path he needed to turn off of. It’d been thirteen years since he’d been here and the memories wedged tightly between then and now clouded what was left of his life before fame. How would she receive him, just showing up at her mom’s doorstep? How would he explain the absence of his friendship from her life? He found the street sign and turned off, barely making it. He shook his head subconsciously, as if the nonsense would shake out.

“What the hell am I doing?” He whispered to himself. Gravel crunched under the truck’s tires as Nick slowed his speed down and felt as if he was being transported back into time. He was thirteen again and had everything he could possible want in those warm, humid months. But now what exactly did he want from this visit?

He immediately knew that question was going to have an awkward ring to it as he pulled up in front of his destination. He was one of about thirty cars there, and from glancing quickly at the house while trying to find an empty space on the grass, he could tell there was some sort of party taking place. Feeling his cheeks already burn a light crimson shade, he wished that he could literally kick himself. As he turned off the engine and stepped out of the car he borrowed from AJ, he stopped to once over the home that faced him. It didn’t have the same exterior appearance as he had remembered, but he knew it was the same house still. It was placed at the top of a hill with a backdrop of woods, but had no indication of that country cabin feel Nick thought was corny. It was warm and inviting and glowed like the safe haven he knew as a kid.

And it held her inside.

He swallowed hard. He could get back into the car and no one here would be the wiser. The house was swelling with guests, and he was curious at exactly what the occasion was. But he could slip out, unnoticed; just another face. He did know, though, that he was indeed not invited and this could turn out to be everything he feared it might be. Or he could stop the nagging, pulling need to see her. He weighed his choices and took a step forward. What the hell was he so nervous about?

There wasn’t a face inside recognizable to him. He could tell that some people were eyeing him in curiosity from their social stations on the couch, or at the mini-bar, or by the back door, but no one said anything to him. He was ready to see Bree’s mom, fourteen years older and maybe he would be able to express his feelings of happiness at seeing her after all this time. But he couldn’t find her in the room. He had been in the music business long enough to be able to spot the kind of people in that circle and there were a substantial amount of them here. No one he had any kind of business with, though. The only face he was searching for was Bree’s. He acted as if he knew where he was going as he crossed through one of the open French doors onto the patio. If eyes were glancing over him once more, he didn’t realize it. Looking over the pool and out onto the family’s private dock, a lone shadowy figure stood out to him. He quickly walked the large cobblestone porch, weaving in and out of small groups of chattering friends. The hum of conversation fell at his back as his footsteps creaked on the strong wooden dock. As he neared the end, his ears only heard the sound of lake water lapping gently at the pillars below him.

He waited a moment, watching her. It didn’t take someone to know her to pick up on the fact that she was deep in thought. Staring at the surface of the lake, it looked as if she was seriously contemplating the components that made up water. Nick almost felt guilty for taking her away from her thoughts, but he gently touched her arm. As she spun around slowly to meet him, her face lit up. Nick was surprised at how much he had remembered her face and the smile spreading across it. She was exactly how Nick had pictured that she would be now, time and time again.

“Nick?”

She stared at him, hard, and he felt like she was looking right down into the depths of his being. Her green eyes searched his rapidly; each second reassuring herself that it was him.

“Yeah, it’s me.” He found himself interlacing his fingertips with hers and flutters of excitement rose up inside him.

“Oh, my God,” She said breathlessly and threw her arms around him. “Where did you come from?”

Holding her tight, he couldn’t help but take in the scent of her. Unbelievably, it was still the same as he knew but had a different effect on him. Dazed for only a moment, he snapped back to now and leaned back slightly. “I’m in town and I heard it from your mother that you were here, too.”

The corner of her mouth turned up into a laugh; a laugh that originated from surprise
but delight as well. “My mom has a big mouth.” She said.

Nick felt his stomach drop a little, although he tried to ignore it. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have just shown up like that but I wanted to-”

“No, no.” She waved her hand to cut him off. “That’s not what I meant. I’m just…I’m so happy to see you. I’m shocked, that’s all.”

She dropped her grip from his neck and placed her hands on her hips.

“I mean I haven’t seen you in…”

“About ten years.” Nick finished for her.

“Yeah.” She looked at him again, searching for something that Nick couldn’t put his finger on it.

A moment hung between the two of them in the still summer air, awkward until finally Nick cracked a grin. “What are you staring at?” He playfully punched her shoulder.

“I can’t believe that it’s you. You look amazing. You’re so…handsome.” She touched her fingertips to her strawberry colored mouth in a habit that Nick remembered meant she was nervous.

“Well it is me. The same me as it’s always been.” Nick resolved and shoved his hands in his pockets. “How have you been?”

Nick watched as she turned around and walked the couple of paces to the very edge of the dock. She smoothed out the mini dress that matched her eyes and sat down, dangling bare feet above the water. “How have I been lately, or in the past ten years?” She looked up at him expectantly, waiting for him to follow suit.

Nick sat next to her with a shrug. “We could start with lately and work our way back.”

She smirked at him. “I’m just visiting my mom for now. Then I’ll be going on back to New York, where I live.”

“New York?”

“Yes, New York.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Why does that surprise you?”

Nick cleared his throat. “I guess I never pictured you living anywhere but by the ocean. The last time I saw you, you weren’t going anywhere away from Florida.”

“I wasn’t going to.” She said. “I was going to start college and probably end up spending the rest of my life there. But I couldn’t. I wanted something more than that. Corny, right?”

He grinned at her. In the first lines of dialogue that had exchanged, it was like as if they had never been apart. A feeling of utter relief and a hint of giddiness challenged his ability to conceal his emotions. He prompted her with his silence to let her go on. She took his lead and Nick hung on every word as she summed up the years that he hadn’t been there for. He listened as she talked about moving to Nashville after high school and getting appearances in random country music videos through her mom’s connections. He felt a little proud of her when she mentioned holding down that career while going to the prestigious Belmont University. He laughed when she made fun of her seemingly glamorous Nashville life, although it was only for the duration of a Bachelor’s degree in Music Business. He listened with a bit of wonderment when she began to talk about the move to New York to pursue other desires. He pictured her as his charming, sweet, and semi-innocent partner in crime swallowed up in such a huge city.

“I always knew you would make it.” He recalled, referencing to New York.

“I haven’t ‘made it’ yet.” She laughed. Flinching slightly as she looked at him, she warned, “Don’t make fun of me.”

“For what?” He asked.

“I want to be a soap opera actress.”

Nick’s brow burrowed into thought. “Really…” Nick put up his large two hands in front of her as if he was framing a picture. “I think you might be too melo-dramatic, if I recall correctly.”

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes but couldn’t help but smile slightly. “You can laugh all you want.”

“Why don’t you go back to school? You were always the smart one. Get your master’s. Then you can really tell people what to do in this crazy-ass business.” Nick scooted closer to her.

He noticed that the space between them had lessened. He also noticed that she didn’t adjust her body to a more acceptable distance. So he kept his seat here, letting their sides barely touch; their hands positioned in the realm of possibility that they might find one another.

“Can we stop talking about me?” She ventured. “It’s boring.”


That’s the whole reason I’m here, Nick thought to himself, and almost out loud.


Nick knew that she always wanted something more than the run of the mill life surrounding her. She had never needed anyone but her self to make her dreams come true. He knew she had always been a sort of free spirit with her feet still firmly planted on the ground. He admired that quality in her and coveted it as his own. Knowing that only made him ache for the years that they had lost together; maybe she could’ve brought him down in the numerous times that he had needed a reminder of where he came from. Thoughts raced through his head and once again he could hardly believe she was sharing the same space as him.

“I want to hear about you,” She continued. “I got your pictures and your letters the first four years, but then after that last weekend in Tampa, you kind of disappeared off the map. But I guess I did, too.”

A pang of guilt hit Nick. How could he have been so careless with her? He glanced over and brushed a stray piece of her mahogany hair out of her face. He couldn’t help but notice that her eyes were slightly longing; for what, he wanted to venture an indulgent guess but didn’t dare.

“There’s so much to tell you.” He shook his head and laughed. “Although I could sum up most of it up. Recorded an album, yada yada, went on tour, blah blah, screaming girls, yada yada, another album, blah blah…”

Bree lightly jabbed in his arm and clicked her tongue. “Yeah, I’m sure it was all yada yadas and blah blahs and oh, ‘I’m just part of one of the most successful music acts ever’. Whatever, Carter.” She snickered and he grinned at hearing her say his name. “You know what I meant.”

“One day soon, we’re going to get together and I am going to show you pictures from every single tour I’ve been on. Every country, every state – you’ll get so sick of seeing my mug you’ll never want to see me again.”

Bree threw her head back and laughed to the sky. “Sounds…really good to me. A decade is a long time to miss.”

It grew quiet for a minute or two, and right before Nick was about to confess how much he had been thinking about her lately, Bree began to speak.

“Nick…” She began softly.
“Hmm?” He came back from his jumbled thoughts.
“I really missed you.” She picked up his hand and held it in her own.
“I missed you too,” He replied and looked down at their hands intertwined. “Listen, I’m really…”
“Don’t start.” She interrupted gently. “I don’t want to hear you apologize for something when you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Music had been coming out of the house from an unknown source the whole time, but now it seemed be louder somehow as if to fit a pre-determined moment. Nick watched Bree rise up with his hand still clasped in hers. She smiled at him with those perfect, perfect lips. “Dance?”

I’m standing there / On the balcony in summer air / I see the lights / See the parties / The ball gowns / I see you make your way through the crowd & say hello / Little did I know

Nick returned her suggestion and rose up to meet her. They began in the traditional way, with Nick’s hand resting politely on her side. They formally cupped the other’s hand like friends do; friends, from a spectator’s perspective, that appear to be sharing any other dance on any other night. Nick swallowed hard once more; something else was creeping up inside of him and resting in his throat. He brushed it off as fatigue – airplanes and hotels naturally made him exhausted. But he didn’t feel exhausted – he felt rejuvenated, as if he had taken a flying leap into an ice cold lake. He instinctively pulled Bree a little bit closer to him, closing the two inch wide gap between them.

That you were Romeo / You were throwing pebbles / And my daddy said ‘stay away from Juliet’/ And I was crying on the staircase begging you please don’t go

“You’re nervous.” Bree stated mattered of factly. Nick reeled internally at her being able to pick up on that and he tried to play it off.

“Yeah, of course I’m nervous.” Nick replied with forged confidence. “I’m dancing with the prettiest girl here.”

“Oh, nice line.” She laughed and Nick began to melt a little. “Am I the thousandth or ten thousandth girl you’ve used that on?”

“Probably thousandth.” Nick confessed and looked down at his shoes. “But this time I really mean it.”

And I said / Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone / I’ll be waiting / All there’s left to do
Is run / You be the Prince & I’ll be the Princess / It’s a love story, baby just say…

Bree’s teasing, guarded attitude came to an abrupt halt. Nick found the guts to look up from the cedar planked deck beneath their feet and into her eyes. They had grown a little wider; whether out of discomfort or out of something more positive, Nick couldn’t be sure. He pulled her towards his torso and enveloped her waist in his arms. He could feel her curves hiding underneath the smooth material of his dress and suddenly became a little hot under his collar. She returned his gesture by linking her hands around his neck – Nick prayed that she couldn’t tell he had grown extremely self conscious.

“This seems familiar.” Bree observed softly.

So I sneak out to the garden to see you / We keep quiet ‘cause we’d be dead if they knew/ So close your eyes / Escape this town for a little while

Nick didn’t pretend like he was unaware of what she was talking about. “I know. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.”

Bree looked him dead in the eyes. “What have you been thinking?”

“That I regret not being there for you.” Nick replied with complete shame.

“It’s not like I was trying my best, either.” Bree conceded.

“I know but I’m the one who stopped speaking to you. I wanted to tell you that I-” Nick tried to say before Bree cut him off once more.

But you were everything to me / I was begging you please don’t go

“We were just kids.” Bree said and Nick wondered how she meant that.

“It was more than that to me.” He lowered his voice.

He wanted to convey to her more than anything that she was unlike any other girl he had come across in his time apart from her. He tried to find something in his past experience that could convince her of this but he came up with nothing. Bree had always been that way with him – nothing like anything he had ever experienced in his life. Whether it be in a conversation they had sitting on her back porch, a day spent at the beach, or a song they would sing at the top of their lungs. As lame as it seemed as he considered this all in his head, she was unique to him. It had taken over a decade for that to be a solid truth in his hectic life. It was all being clear to him now.

“You were always in the back of my mind, you know.” Nick continued as they swayed along to a soft, unfamiliar tune.

“How so?” Bree inquired.

He looked over them and past the willow trees to the night sky and sought out the prominent North Star. Although a little hard to find this time of year, the rural skyline was stripped of glaring city lights which helped Nick in his search. The Big Dipper was a bit to his right, and he used the astrological metaphor on the tip of his tongue.

“Kind of like…the North star.”

“The North Star?”

“Yeah, you know…whenever you look up into the sky, you could always find your bearings by finding the North Star. No matter where you are, how lost you’ve become – the North Star will always bring you home.”

Looking back at Bree, Nick smiled a little. She rubbed the collar of his button down shirt softly, and Nick took that as a sign of hesitance. He didn’t need to hear a response from her, however, because it was the truth. It was how he felt. All he wanted her to know what that he hadn’t forgotten about her.

“That was really sweet.” Bree finally said. “I thought that – I guess – I never…”

Romeo save me / They’re trying to tell me how to feel / This love is difficult / But it’s real

Nick squeezed her tighter. “It’s okay; you don’t have to say anything back.”
“No, no, I want to.” Nick felt Bree take a breath. “You always had a way of saying exactly what I needed to hear, and meaning it. I could never trust anyone the way I trusted you.”

“You can still trust me.”

“I know.”

Nick was beginning to feel as if he had a couple of drinks; his inhibitions were slipping right out from under him and slinking out to the lakeshore. He didn’t know if he was high on the excitement of a new, unpredictable moment with a gorgeous girl – or if he was intoxicated simply with Bree. His head told him he was naïve; his heart told him the latter. Whatever war was raging on inside him, Nick didn’t feel in control of himself anymore. Holding her as close to him as he possibly could, his hand resting beneath her rib cage could feel her pulse pumping rapidly.

“How do you know I’m not the same girl as I used to be when we were kids?” Bree inquired.

“Aren’t you?” Nick countered.

Don’t be afraid / We’ll make it out of this mess / It’s a love story / baby just say ‘Yes’

Nick was so dangerously close to Bree’s mouth, he could feel her breath on his face. She looked up into his eyes and didn’t blink as she told him, “I feel that I am now. I feel like I did on the very last night that I saw you.”

“That was ten years ago.”

“I know. But a person…” Nick swore Bree was becoming as breathless as he was. “I didn’t realize how much I missed you. Lately…I’ve been thinking about you, dreaming about you – it’s driving be absolutely insane because I cannot figure out why.”

Nick had to hold himself back from devouring her mouth in a kiss right then and there. His hungry compulsion scared him half to death, but they kept swaying to a slow, rhythmic beat. If the music had stopped, he didn’t notice. If the whole world had stopped, he didn’t notice.

“I’ve been going through the same thing.” Nick managed to get out. “Why do you think that is?”

Bree looked around as if the answer was written on their surroundings. When she met his gaze again, she licked her lips and sincerely said, “Maybe because we’re at a point in our life when we need each other. No matter how long it’s been.”

I got tired of waiting / Wondering if you were ever coming around

Nick nodded. “What happened at my house that night – do you regret it?”

Bree didn’t skip a beat, “No.”

Nick’s heart tried to thump out of his chest. “I do.” He watched utter hurt pass over Bree’s face and corrected himself quickly, “I regret that I never saw you again.”

“You were having a fight with Amanda at the time, I understand. I was there, I was familiar, and you needed comfort. You were heartbroken. It’s okay.” Bree smiled but Nick knew better.

“No,” He broke free from her. “That’s not how it was. And I’ll prove it to you.”

“You’ll prove it to me?” Bree asked.

Nick reached into his back pocket and yanked out his wallet. Opening it up and digging into the bill fold, he pulled his crinkled picture. Unfolding it, he held out in front of Bree’s face.

“That’s us, from that night.” Bree whispered and took the picture from his hand.

My faith in you was fading / When I met you on the outskirts of town / And I said Romeo save me

Nick examined her expression as she stared at the photo in disbelief. “You carry this around with you?”

Nick nodded. “You were not the most popular with my girlfriends.”

“You’ve had this with you the whole time? Not just tonight when you knew you were going to see me?” Bree challenged him.

I’ve been feeling so alone / I keep waiting for you But you never come / Is this in my head / I don’t know what to think

“No, I promise.” Nick moved towards her and hooked one of his arms around her waist. “I told you, you were always in the back of my mind. And I think -- I’m done being away from you. I want to be in your life again. All this thinking, dreaming, I don’t know what it means. But I want to find out.”

Marry me Juliet / You’ll never have to be alone / I love you / And that’s all I really know

Bree opened her mouth to answer, but Nick prevented her from doing so. With his left arm holding her against his body, he cradled her neck with his free hand to pull her lips against his. He could feel her sink into his kiss as she cupped his face with both her hands. Suddenly, Bree broke away from him and covered her mouth. “Nick, I can’t.”