THANK YOU!!

Hello sweet geese!

Happy spring! Have seasonal allergies knocked you out like they've done to me?

I am beyond grateful and truly blown away at all the love you've been showing Harper & Dan. I can't even begin to express what your kind messages and support mean to me. SO MANY EMOTIONS!!!

One fun question I've gotten a few times now is about the ending to chapter 26, where Harper and Dan look for a song to encapsulate their happy little moment (after banging. they're romantic like that). In all honesty, I left this vague on purpose, in the hopes you'd connect whatever song makes you happy to it.

That being said, I certainly had some ideas in my head when I wrote it ☺️. In all honesty, I'm not sure I'd be able to finish writing a book without having a working playlist for it. Songs have such a power to take us on a journey in a few short minutes, and then combine amazing lyrics (staring directly at you Taylor Swift), it's a beautiful creative well to draw from.

I've linked Harper and Dan's playlist below. Each of these songs helped in one way or another as I drafted their book (Nervous by Shawn Mendes might as well be the soundtrack to A Brush with Love tbh), and I hope you enjoy listening! I'm so curious what songs may remind you of which scenes hehe.

I've also written a tiny little bonus scene that shows Harper and Dan trying to land on one song. I was worried it would be hard to write about H&D after so long (I'm deep in the revision cave of book 4 and writing seems impossible right now please send thoughts and prayers), but it ended up feeling like calling that best friend you can go months without talking to, but the second you reconnect it's like no time has passed.

Anyway, I'm rambling at this point (oddly nervous to share all of a sudden? eek!) but I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 26 Bonus Scene 💖

An hour later

“Veto!” Harper gasped between her giggles as Dan finished up a thoroughly impressive lip-sync rendition of “Hands To Myself” by Selena Gomez.
He fell back on the pillows in a huff. “Ridiculous. The lyric is literally “can’t keep my hands to myself, I mean I could, but why would I want to?” It’s like you wrote it for me, Harps.”
“You’re an ass,” she said with another laugh, landing a punch on his thigh. “Gimme the phone. It’s my turn to pick.”
“We’re gonna go through your entire library at this rate,” Dan said, handing it over.
Harper scrolled for a moment, trying to find something good.
“I got it!” Harper said, a massive grin breaking across her mouth. She cued up “Til Kingdom Come” by Coldplay. They listened to the first few verses.
“You might be on to something here,” Dan said, the soft melody folding around them.

In your fire and in your flood,
I hear you laugh, I heard you sing.
I wouldn’t change a single thing.

“What made you think of it?” Dan asked over the last few lines.
“You really wanna know?” Harper asked, a slightly evil smile curling her lips.
Dan narrowed his eyes at her. “Why does this feel like a trap?”
Harper bounced her shoulders. “That song was in the soundtrack of one of the greatest movies of all time.”
“I don’t remember it in Die Hard or The Godfather,” Dan said, brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear.
Harper rolled her eyes. “No, silly. It’s from the 2012 cinematic masterpiece The Amazing Spider-Man starring the greatest actor of our time, Andrew Mother-Fucking Garfield. The best Spiderman the franchise has ever seen.”
Dan’s jaw dropped as he stared at her. “I literally cannot have this fight with you again,” he said, voice rough and stern and delicious.
Harper pounced on him, knocking him back as she straddled his torso, smooshing his cheeks between her hands. “Admit it, you fool! Admit it!”
“Neber,” Dan mumbled out through squished lips.
Harper pressed closer, peppering kisses along his forehead and nose. “Say it!”
Dan indulged her for another moment before easily flipping them, pressing her against the mattress as he smiled down on her.
He leaned closer, brushing the tip of his nose over hers—once, twice—before pressing a soft kiss against her lips that quickly turned hungry but languid.
“You do realize,” Dan whispered in the shell of her ear, sending goosebumps across her skin, “that the more I resist saying what you want, the more you throw yourself at me?” He finished the thought with a light bite to her neck that made Harper gasp in a combination of outrage and pleasure.
“You’re a menace!” she said, batting her fists on his back before hugging him close.
“Yeah, but I’m yours,” Dan said, the words falling soft and easily out of him like a ray of morning sunshine dancing through a window pane.
Harper sucked in a breath, staring at him. Dan stared back, pink rising high on his cheeks. Harper knew her heart was in her eyes as she held his gaze and, for once, she didn’t care. She let all the tenderness she felt for Dan radiate out of her.
“I’ve got it,” Dan said after a moment, breaking the tension pressing around them. He pushed away from her, grabbing the phone.
Harper sucked in a deep breath, head dizzy and heart racing. She sat up too.
“Four-hundredth times the charm, right?” she said, pressing the backs of her hands against her heated cheeks.
Dan gave her a triumphant grin, hitting the play button on the screen with a flourish.
And, of course, “Crash into me” by Dave Matthews Band started playing.
If Harper smiled any harder, her cheeks would crack.
“An interesting choice,” she said, biting her lip.
“A rather melty song, no?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.
Harper giggled.
“Alright, get up,” Dan said, standing from the bed. He turned reaching his hand out for Harper, wearing nothing but his grin and a pair of boxers. “You know the rules about melty songs.”
Harper wished she had the wherewithal to roll her eyes or come up with something sarcastic or clever to shoot back, something that would protect her silly little heart from all the big emotions it was feeling. But she was too gone for this boy to do anything but scramble out of bed and wrap her arms around his waist, head tucked under his chin.
Dan swayed them gently as the music played, humming along. His hands trailed in gentle circles across her back. Up her neck. Tangled in her hair. Repeating the luscious circuit over and over.
“So this one’s it? The official song for the moment?” Harper asked, feeling almost drugged with happiness.
Dan chuckled, the vibrations dancing across Harper’s cheek as she pressed closer to his chest.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to listen to any of these songs again without instantly thinking of you. You’ve ruined me for music.”
“What a travesty,” Harper whispered above his heart, her smile pressed against his skin.
Dan slid his palm up her arm and along her neck, cradling the angle of her jaw and tilting her head up to look at him. He smiled at her, dimple on full display and heart in his eyes too as he spoke. “You certainly won’t hear me complaining about it.”
He kissed her, pleasure humming through them in time to the music, unspoken words sung in harmony with every press of their lips.
Eventually, the song stopped, silence settling around them.
It didn’t matter.
They kissed each other all the same.

The End 🤡

Well, there you have it! These indecisive lil goons didn't pick one, but I do imagine they listened to most of the songs on the spotifly playlist above lol. Was this lame? Now I'm worried this was lame hahahaha

Anyway, ABWL is available wherever books are sold, and can also be requested at your local libraries! If you have a spare moment and feel so inclined, reviews on retails sites (Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Chapters Indigo, Goodreads) are so helpful to authors and make a huge impact in spreading the word about books and helping other readers discover them (there's also some weird algorithm things or something that I won't even pretend to understand but I've been told it's Important™️).

Sending you all my love,
Mazey ❤️🧠🦷

The [Horrifying] GIF

Can't forget about this thing:

From the Messy Desk of Mazey Eddings

A BRUSH WITH LOVE bonus content