“Natalie! Wow. I am blown away. From what I could tell, so was the school committee.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Mulaney.”

“You’ve made your case. Every one of you. And… I’ll be fighting for you too.”

I nod and thank Mrs. Mulaney again, because as much as I’ve wanted to hear that for so long, right now all I want is for this conversation to end. All I want is to make my way to Reid. I cross everything he’s still here. Pushing through the double doors, I fight the urge to overanalyze Mrs. Mulaney’s words. She sounds optimistic. But it’s not a promise. Nowhere close to a guarantee.

I need to accept the reality that there are no guarantees.

And stop using my fear of failure as an excuse to not even try.

My heart speeds up as I look for dad’s car and—just like I hoped he’d be, Reid is there, his hands stuffed in his pockets. I walk toward him, my lips pressed together so I don’t break out in a smile because he’s here. He’s still in conservatory audition clothes, black dress pants and a white button-down, the sleeves rolled up. He looks incredible.

Henry’s right. Reid’s smile is stupid. I hope it’s also for me.

“You’re not in Albany,” I say as if that isn’t obvious.

He shakes his head. “Nope.”

“You’re supposed to be schmoozing at the faculty meet-and-greet.”

“It turns out I am not a schmoozer,” Reid says.

“Okay. Okay, but you couldn’t just try to schmooze for the most competitive audition of all time? How was the institute? How did it go? How did you even make it back in time? Did you—?”

Reid takes a step toward me. “Natalie. Pause. Melted was amazing. You’re amazing.”

He’s so close to me, I could press my lips against his. So I do. Because against all logic, despite the mess I made, he is here. And it was amazing. What we made was amazing. We are amazing, especially together. And it’s time I take a chance. In no time at all Reid’s hands are on my waist and mine are around his neck and it feels right, this kiss, more than ever before.

He breaks the kiss. “Hi.”

Now I’m the one with the stupid smile. “Hey.”

“I killed my audition, for the record,” Reid says.

“Of course,” I say, lacing my fingers through his. “Tell me everything on the way to Chao Down.”

“Wait,” Reid says. “I had this whole thing prepared. A word speech.”

I nod. “Word speech.”

“Shut up. Okay.” Reid runs his free hand through his hair. “So. Do you know why I started playing clarinet?”

I shrug. “I mean, it’s my dad’s instrument, right?”

Reid sees Dad teaching me the clarinet. Reid decides he needs to learn too.