Read Online That Girl's the One I Love by Alana Lorens - Free Book Online Page A

years, they’d lived in pain and loneliness but dreamed about each other. Could it be he was going to ask her to be with him?
    The thought both frightened and thrilled her at the same time.
    “My publicist insisted that I start using social media, and that’s where I got the idea to look for you, a couple months ago. For a long time, I didn’t find anything at all, and I almost gave up.”
    “But… Bonsai Boy?”
    That brought a chuckle. “Yeah, I wanted some privacy, so I created my own persona, not like my fan page and all that flashy stuff.”
    “That makes sense.”
    “And then once I found the one I thought was you, you wouldn’t even respond to me. I figured I’d blown my chance.” This time he waited for her to answer, apparently wanting to know why she’d dragged her feet. She wished she had an answer that wouldn’t sound cruel.
    “Arran, I—I’m sorry about that. I just… I don’t know. I didn’t know who’d be trying to contact me, and my life has been so quiet, so peaceful since the divorce. I’m writing now, and I just…”
    Her voice trailed off as she realized how lame she sounded. What the hell was she doing? This man had practically ripped his heart from his chest and handed it to her. Had she grown as frozen as her Pittsburgh neighbors? Struggling, she fell silent, the rumble of the tires on the road sounding loud as the car rolled on.
    “I almost hired a private investigator,” Arran confessed, “once I knew you were in Pittsburgh. I had the phone in my hand. I wanted to know everything about you: if you were married, if you had a house full of kids, if your life was everything you wanted. But I couldn’t do it. It would have been rude and intrusive, all those things I hate about my public life. Your writing, though—I found that on the Internet.”
    Surprised, she shifted in her seat, trying to find a position more comfortable, less like she was on the spot. “That’s how you knew to send the tickets to the City Paper.”
    He grinned. “Yep. Once I got hold of Mike, the rest went like clockwork.”
    “And here we are.”
    “And here we are.” He leaned forward again, extending his legs so their knees touched this time. “I didn’t want to disturb your life, if you had found what you were looking for. If you were happy. So that’s the question I need to ask you. Are you happy?”
    There it was, in black and white. Was she happy? She wasn’t sure there was a black-and-white answer. Definitely something in a thick shade of gray.
    “I’m okay.” She hoped she sat far enough into the shadow of the corner of the seat that he couldn’t see her face. Shame washed over her as she had to admit her life wasn’t the success it should have been. She was just lucky she had no family to embarrass with her lack of accomplishment.
    “Just okay?” Hope infused his voice. It was contagious. Her instinct may have been right. He’d come looking for her to begin again.
    “Yeah, just okay.” She firmed up her courage and said what she really wanted to say. “I lost my heart all those years ago, too, Arran. Nothing’s ever been as good for me as you.”
    Holding her breath, she prayed she’d read him right. This could be the time he said, “Oh, I just wanted you to come be my love child’s nanny,” or “Yeah, I was looking for a road tour assistant who sounded like home,” or—
    In the blink of an eye, he was across the distance between them, holding her in his arms. She felt dampness on his cheeks. Or was that her own? She didn’t care. She clung to him like he was the last life preserver on the Titanic .
    “I can’t believe it,” he whispered, close to her ear. “After all these years, and all these miles, and all those songs…I finally found the one thing I wanted most.”
    In the midst of a Cinderella-style bubble, all Leyla could do was agree. “I know.”
    “I want you to come home with me.”
    Just like that? Really? Drop everything, pack her few belongings,