"I've had a pretty good run of it-almost thirteen years since I last saw him. And I have no interest in breaking that streak."

"So no sightings? Not even from a distance?"

Matt shook his head. "And I haven't been looking."

"Okay, let's just say, hypothetically, that you run in to him. What would you do?"

"Honestly? Nothing," Matt replied seriously. "There isn't one thing I have to say to him. I don't particularly care how he is and the feeling is clearly mutual. He hasn't reached out either, and I'm not hard to find."

Riley nodded and then held up his hand. "Okay, let me throw something else out there."

"Seriously?" Matt sighed dramatically.

"Hear me out. What is the worst thing that could happen? Come on. What would you do?"

Straightening in his seat, Matt then leaned back against the cushions and let his head fall back. "I know it's probably hard for you to understand but...I wouldn't do anything. I'd hear him out and wish him well. I don't want him in my life. I don't need him in my life. I needed him when I was growing up. I needed him when I was struggling in school, and I needed my mom there, but he forced her to leave too. So if he's gotten his life together or went and found Jesus, then good for him. But as for inviting him back into my life? It's never going to happen, and I'm okay with it."

Rather than saying anything else, Riley simply nodded.

"Matt?" Vivienne called out from her office.

"Yeah?"

"Can you finish putting the food on the table? Savannah and I will be out in a minute."

"No problem." He was thankful for the distraction, and he latched on to it like a lifeline. Jumping to his feet, he clapped his hands together and smiled at Riley. "Wait until you taste her cooking. I swear to you, it's better than anything I've ever had anywhere."

Riley got to his feet and clapped a hand on Matt's shoulder. "Then let's eat!"

From where Vivienne was sitting, things were pretty much perfect. This was a completely new feeling for her, and she found that it felt...good. She was happy. She was sitting, enjoying a meal with people who were happy. There was no drama, no awkwardness. If anything, she felt as if she had found a new BFF in Savannah Shaughnessy.

It wasn't something that came easily to her.

Maybe it was her upbringing or maybe she was just a snob, but Vivienne didn't bond with many people. Sure she had friends-lots of them. But even with those she'd known since childhood, she didn't feel this kind of closeness.

Besides their careers and love of writing, she and Savannah had similar tastes in food, hobbies, and-obviously-men.

While they had been back in her office, Savannah had grilled her a little bit on her relationship with Matt. Vivienne hadn't been prepared to talk about it-especially not with someone who was essentially a stranger-and yet she had.

In great detail.

And once she'd started talking, she couldn't seem to stop.

By the time she had gone through the whole kiss backstage, the rage at getting thrown out, the embarrassment, and then more embarrassment and rage when Matt had shown up at Aaron's, Savannah was wide-eyed and on the edge of her seat.

"Holy shit! That is crazy."

Vivienne nodded. "I know, right?"

"So how long until he remembered?"

"About a week. Aaron had left, and we were hanging out, arguing a bit, and he kissed me. And it was as if it all came back to him."

Savannah had given her a knowing look.

"What? What did I say?"

"It came back to him because it meant something," she said.

The first thing that came to Vivienne's mind was denial-force of habit-but she knew it would be a lie. And just the thought of all the times Matt had shown her how much she meant to him had her blushing.

"That must have been some kiss."

"You have no idea," she'd replied, giggling like a schoolgirl.

The sound of laughter brought her back to present, and the sight of Matt looking so happy and carefree had her smiling. Sure he'd been relaxed and smiling around her and Aaron, but this was different. Maybe he hadn't been as much at ease as she'd thought because there was a definite difference in his face right now.

As if feeling her eyes on him, Matt turned toward her and winked. Something so small, so simple, and it just tugged at her heart more than anything else. When he reached over and took hold of her hand, it hit her like a ton of bricks.

She was in love.

No maybes about it.

And no chance of her trying to downplay it.

She, Vivienne Forrester, was head over heels in love with Matt Reed.

"You guys should come to the show in Myrtle Beach at the end of the month," Riley was saying. "Come down Friday the nineteenth, the show is on Saturday, and leave on Sunday. We've rented a house for the weekend that is far too big for just the two of us, and it would be a blast to have more time to hang out. What do you say?"

Matt looked over at her, and she could see how much he wanted them to do this. Turning toward Riley, she smiled and said, "That sounds great!"

"Awesome!" Riley replied.

"So what has you here this weekend?" she asked him.

"My brother Aidan and his wife Zoe just had a baby two months ago-a little girl. The first since my sister Darcy, so everyone is just about losing their minds," he said, chuckling. "She is going to be spoiled rotten."

"Well, she should enjoy it while she can because another baby's on the way," Savannah said.

"Wait! What?" Matt cried, looking at the two of them with wide eyes. "Are you two...?"

"What?" Riley said. "Oh...no! No. Not us." He let out a nervous laugh. "My brother Quinn and his wife are expecting too."

"Wow," Matt said with a relieved sigh. "Okay. Whew. I was beginning to think you were holding out on me and that news would have been huge! I couldn't believe we'd been sitting here all this time, and you didn't mention anything about it."

Riley grinned before leaning over and giving Savannah a loud, smacking kiss on the cheek. "We've talked about it, but we want to get through this tour first and then see what we're going to do next."

"What are you thinking?" Vivienne asked, unable to help herself.

"We've only got another dozen stops on the tour, and then we know we're taking a three-month break to go back to LA and stay in our home."

"It's such a freaking amazing home-it has the best views. I couldn't imagine him getting rid of it." Savannah chimed in. "I had a small place, and believe me, it was no hardship to move out of it and in with him."

"And what about after that?" Matt asked, and Vivienne heard the twinge of anxiousness there.

Riley gave another sly grin in Matt's direction. "Why? What do you think I should be doing? Any suggestions?"

A hearty laugh was Matt's first response. Then, shifting in his seat, he said, "I don't know. By then it might be time to get the band back together. What do you think?"

"I've been thinking about it a lot," Riley replied as he reached over and snagged the last piece of cornbread. "But we'll need to see where Dylan's at by then and what Julian's doing. For all we know he's going to still be caught up in Dena's career." He snorted with disgust.

"Or we can hope that he'll have his head out of his ass by then and be ready to come back and play real music."

"We'll see." Riley shrugged. "It's something I'd love to do. But I don't want to do it unless it's the four of us. What about you?"

"I agree. I think I can honestly say that you guys make me a better musician." Matt's voice was deep and serious, and Vivienne knew it cost him a lot to make that admission. She squeezed his hand.

"I think we do that for each other," Riley countered. "Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this new album and the music and the group of musicians who are touring with me, but...it's not the same. Like I said earlier, it's a different vibe. I miss our music."

"Well, whenever you're ready, I'll be ready."

"What about you?" Riley asked cautiously. "What's next?"

Matt sighed wearily, and Vivienne wondered how he was going to answer. She remembered their conversation from the other night, about him wanting a home, but he hadn't talked about what he wanted to do professionally. The fact that he wanted to go back to recording and touring with Shaughnessy was a great thing, but what was he going to do in the meantime?

"You know," he began slowly, "I'm not really in any great rush to do anything. The whole Broadway thing taught me some serious lessons. For starters, I can now safely say that I no longer think I'm infallible. It's hard to believe I can find anything positive with the experience, but it helped me to get a bit of a grip on reality. I'm a good musician, but I'm not great. I know my limitations." He shrugged. "I thought I needed to be doing something different when my life, my professional life, was pretty damn great."

Riley nodded. "I know what you mean. When we put an album together, you, me, and the guys? It's easy. We work together and seem to know what's going to work. I thought I had the talent to do it on my own and it would be easy. But it sure as hell wasn't."

"I guess if nothing else, we can look at this time as a good thing-a growing experience," Matt commented. "Look at us. We're growing!"

"I'm so proud of us," Riley teased.

"You two are idiots," Savannah said with a laugh. She rose and started clearing away plates. Vivienne stood up and started to do the same.

"Viv, everything was amazing. Cooking has never really been my thing. Believe it or not, Riley's the cook in our relationship."

At that comment, Riley groaned. "I set the bar too high trying to impress her, and now I'm stuck in that role."

"Poor baby," Savannah cooed as she leaned over and kissed him. "You know you love it."

"Matt is learning," Vivienne said and then mentioned how they had been working together on meals for the magazine and blog. "The first week he was here, he was making sandwiches and heating up frozen entrees, but it turns out he can grill a mean steak and has been keeping up with me in the kitchen."

"Watch it, man," Riley said, sounding serious. "Next thing you know, you'll be making all the meals while Vivienne's locked in her office writing a novel or something. It happens before you know it."

"Nah," Vivienne said, unable to hide her amusement. "I'm too much of a control freak in the kitchen. I'm unable to sit back and relax while someone's in here messing around with my pots and pans."

"And her organizational system," Matt commented dryly. "I've never seen a space organized with such military precision."

"And yet I know where everything is and never have to waste time rummaging around for utensils or lids or seasonings when we're hungry and want to eat quickly."

"We can save time if we just make a sandwich or a frozen pizza," Matt teased and then looked at Riley and grinned as if to say, Watch this.

"Frozen pizza?" Vivienne cried as she loaded dishes into the dishwasher. Muttering curses under her breath, she sighed with exasperation. "So in the time it takes to heat up that...fake food, I can put a gourmet meal on the table. I cannot even believe you would compare the two! Have you learned nothing in the last couple of weeks? I mean, honestly."

She stopped her rant when she realized how quiet the room had gotten and when she looked up, Matt, Savannah, and Riley were all staring at her while trying not to laugh.

Hands on her hips, she let her gaze settle directly on Matt. "You did that on purpose."

"Guilty as charged," he said, still smiling.

"You won't think it's so funny when you're back to having no choice but to eat frozen pizzas every night," she said, doing her best to sound firm.

"You'd never let that happen," he countered as he stood up and walked over to her.

And then, right there in front of Riley and Savannah, he took Vivienne in his arms and pulled her in close and kissed her. It wasn't a quick peck on the cheek or quick in any way, shape, or form. It was deep and wet and filled with all kinds of promise, and she felt her knees go weak.

Her arms wound around him. Her hands raked up into his hair as she did her best to be as close to him as she could possibly be.

"Jeez, you two," Savannah muttered.

"Shush. It's like free porn," Riley teased.

That was like a bucket of cold water being thrown on them. Vivienne slowly pulled back and looked up at Matt. She knew her eyes were a little glazed, her breathing a little ragged, but she was relieved to see he was equally affected.

With a sly grin, she turned toward their guests. "Don't let him fool you. It's all about the food. And he likes to play dirty."

They all burst out laughing and as Vivienne finished cleaning up the lunch dishes, all she could think was, Yeah, this is pretty much perfect.

"Oh my God. I'm going to be late," Vivienne huffed as she ran back up the stairs to her bedroom. "I can't find my purse! Where the hell is my purse?"

Matt looked around the living room and saw a purse sitting by the front door. "Is it black?" he called out.

"Yes!"

"It's down here by the door!" He heard her footsteps overhead and then coming rapidly down the stairs. "You need to relax, Viv," he said, tying to sound soothing. "You've got plenty of time to get to the airport. Aaron's going to have to go through customs, and deal with his luggage and all that, so you're going to be fine. It's going to be okay."

She looked at him as if she didn't believe him.

"Do you want me to go instead? I can totally deal with an airport run."

Shaking her head, she reached down for her purse and looked around the room. "No, but thank you. I'm going to be fine. I really am anxious to see him and..." She paused, then added almost reluctantly, "I want the time alone with him to talk about us."

"You're going to do that on the car ride? Why?"