I shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. At least we have today ...”
Katie, Rome, and Vick came to stand beside him. I knew they’d given me space as I watched him, but they seemed to realize they had a moment as I talked with his friend.
Katie shoulder bumped me as his friend faded back into his own world, “It’s going well, but it’s almost over. He’ll probably be up here after to celebrate.”
The warning in her voice was clear. If I wasn’t ready and if I didn’t want an audience, we needed a better plan than being near his close friends.
She kept going. “I could intercept him for you to talk in private but I vote for you telling his ass off in front of everyone.”
Vick was shaking her head no, and Rome oddly kept silent like he couldn’t decide which side he was on.
“What I have to say won’t take long.” I’d hidden from crowds by doing the right thing for so long, I just didn’t care who heard or where I said it at that point. I was here, he would be too, and I didn’t intend to make a scene. “Let’s not complicate it.”
They all nodded, but none of them seemed convinced. I turned back toward the window. For once, I wasn’t going to worry about how convinced they were or weren’t.
We all listened to Jax who announced that a few more surprises were coming but he had to sing just this last song. He smiled to the crowd but when he looked up toward me, his glare was obvious, “It’s one all of us know but one I always save to see if I can really perform it the right way for you. Today, cut me some slack. It’ll be a little different.”
The band quieted and didn’t join him like they normally did when he started the introduction to “Sweet Sin.” He hummed with his guitar and then a violinist joined him on stage. The high notes from the instrument added an eerie sort of darkness to the melody and when his voice joined it, the effect sent chills down my spine.
Boldly, he changed the words from love to pain. His voice twisted and scraped like gravel grating on my heart as he built to the hook.
Sweet Sin, Sweet Sin,
You pulled me in
Like an apple from the devil
Like a moth to a flame
I’d have followed you to hell
But you couldn’t wait,
Sweet Sin, Sweet Sin,
you pulled me in
I was a fool, such a fool
To think this wasn’t a game
The words had changed so much. They eviscerated me, cutting deep in my soul. This was why he had looked at me with cold determination. This was why he glanced up again as he sang those words and his eyes got colder and colder.
I stared back just as coldly, I hoped.
The battle between us had just begun.
The screaming after his set finished rivaled the Super Bowl, I swear. Jax went down to meet his family. They walked into our building together where the media and crowds tried to swarm them. It took a while for Jax and Jay to enter the room upstairs, but it looked like the rest of his family had taken a private exit.
Jax and his band instantly had the women and men he’d invited crowd him with congratulations.
The place had turned into the equivalent of a backstage party that I didn’t want to be in attendance for. With the concert still going on and Taylor Swift now taking the stage to say she was, of course, backing one of the best artists in history with his new app, it was hard to hear or comprehend anything.
Jay pushed through the crowd of people to get to me. He didn’t say anything, just moved in to hug me tightly.
I knew he knew. He’d called about a hundred times. I just didn’t want to address it with anyone yet. He pulled back and held my face in his hands so I could look up at him. “When you’re ready, I’m ready, Brey.”
I nodded and held back the tears I could have shed from just those few simple words.