The Only Song (Only You)

26. Jaxon

Chapter 26

Jaxon

I t’s been two hours since Sadie slammed the door on me. She dropped her violin off after rehearsal but didn’t stay to chat, clearly mad that I failed to let her know where I was. A part of me thought she’d be happy to be Concertmaster for the day, but based on her tense shoulders and how she completely avoided my gaze, I think I was wrong with that assumption.

She might know about my injury, but I can’t help the need to hide it. To not burden her with it. To not be a weight on her potential.

Now the words left unsaid between us hang in the air like a held note with no ending. Unfinished. Incomplete. Missing the beat.

My heart sinks.

I’m sprawled on the couch and when my phone chimes, the lock screen is as bright as a camping light from underneath a blanket. The living room is almost pitch dark since the sun had set below the skyline maybe forty-five minutes ago. I’ve since sat in the dark shadow, too anxious to switch on a light. My phone chimes again, and I groan as I sit up to fish it out from under the blanket.

I have messages from two people.

Neither are from Sadie.

I swipe my lock screen open and immediately regret seeing the first message. It’s from my one fraternity brother I avoid at all costs. He himself is a cost.

Dexter

Can you lend me a few hundred??

For old time’s sake man

Just this one time

I swipe it away in favor of another text. I consider it the lesser of two evils despite the two words that glare at me from my screen.

Miles

BIRTHDAY KARAOKE!!!

The message is from the lead second violinist, Miles, who I’ve played with over the years. But we don’t know each other well enough for him to know my birthday—nobody does, because I hardly celebrate my birthday. And why did he choose karaoke? I’m far from any mood that could tolerate karaoke, and if I bargained a guess, I’d say Sadie is far from it too.

Maybe he just texted the wrong person.

Maybe it’s somebody else’s birthday.

I furrow my brow as I think about everyone I know in the orchestra. I didn’t hear anyone mention a birthday this week, but maybe Miles is drunk and meant to text someone from a different group he’s played with. I could see that—I partied with him last summer to celebrate his amazing performance at the Cherry Creek Country Music Fest with country music superstar Sunny Lee and he knew how to throw back shots.

My phone vibrates as another text whooshes through. I take my glasses off as if the message might disappear, but when I put them back on, it doesn’t. It’s an address and a time. Thirty minutes from now.

I groan. Another text.

It is for my birthday. Fuck . I can’t be a no-show now.

Maybe I can convince Sadie to come along, though. Get her to smile. Get her to listen to how I stupidly forgot to charge my phone, too engrossed in sharing a bed with her again, being lulled to sleep by her soft breaths and rosy scent that I forgot to mention I was on doctor’s orders to not practice today plus all my medical appointments ran late.

I don’t care if she’s mad at me the whole time. It’ll make this whole night more bearable with her there. I brace myself as I pull up our text chain.

Jaxon

Hey

Surprisingly, she answers within a second, but it does nothing to quell the ache in my chest.

Sass

Oh, good.

Technology isn’t lost on you, Tanner.

I thought you flushed your phone down the toilet since I didn’t hear from you earlier.

Jaxon

I can explain

Sass

Whatever. What do you want?

I squeeze my eyes shut. I didn’t pit myself to be one to grovel. But I will for her.

Jaxon

There’s a party. Tonight.

Sass

And this has to do with me because…?

Jaxon

Because I’d like for you to come with me

Please

Three dots dance on the screen for ten seconds. Twenty. Then they disappear entirely.

Minutes pass and she still hasn’t responded.

Fuck.

I pace around the hotel room, about ninety-nine percent convinced that there’s no chance I’ll be able to make it up to her when the hotel door clicks open. A whoosh of air follows and the familiar click of heels, but it’s her expression that makes me freeze in my tracks.

Sadie’s lips are still pursed, rings under her eyes, red hair in a loose wave, like she’d run her hand in it one too many times. I ache to reach for her, wrap her up in me, comfort her, tell her I’m sorry, but her arms are crossed in a way that basically screams DO NOT TOUCH, so I throw my phone to the bed instead. I give her my full attention even as the air thickens with tension.

She breaks the silence first. “Who-what-where-when?”

I blink, confused.

She rolls her eyes but clarifies, “ Who’s going? What are we doing? Where is it and when ?” Her tone is razor sharp. I can feel it bite at my skin, but I’ll take whatever she throws if it means she’ll come out with me tonight.

“Orchestra mates. Karaoke bar downtown. In thirty minutes,” I answer quickly.

Her eyes widen in surprise. Whatever it was she was thinking, karaoke was definitely not on the list. Nor is it ever on mine.

“Okay… not what I was expecting,” she mutters.

“Will you go with me? Please?” My voice drips with desperation, but I’m not embarrassed. I’m desperate to not go alone and desperate for her . Her attention, her warmth, just her .

She pins me with a stare, but then her hands fuss over her clothes. Anxiously, she looks over my shoulder at her open suitcase before her hazel eyes flick back to me.

“I don’t have anything to wear,” she sighs.

“You don’t have a dress?”

“I mean, I—I have a dress, but… fuck,” she grumbles, muttering some things under her breath I don’t understand.

My mind immediately goes to the fitted black dress she wore that one time to rehearsal. Skin-tight. Black as midnight. Hugging all her curves the way I want my hands to.

It took everything in me that day to not have a boner the entire rehearsal. Which means tonight I’ll be struggling just as much if that’s the dress she’s thinking about.

“I can’t wear it,” she whispers, a slight tremble in her tone. Now I know we’re thinking of the same dress. Another memory surfaces of me holding her behind my back to keep myself from beating Smith up in the hall after trying to touch her. The way she shook in my arms as she sobbed. Wide hazel eyes searching for comfort. I gave her everything I could that day to feel safe. I’ll do anything for her again today.

Closing the space between us, I stand close enough where she can see directly into my eyes as I say firmly, “I won’t let anyone get to you.”

Her eyes sparkle, pupils dilating slightly, and I clench a fist behind my back to keep from cupping her face or running a thumb over her soft lips.

Then her lips quirk. “Karaoke? Really?”

“I mean, we are musicians. Don’t we all sing?” I tease.

She huffs, the corner of her mouth tilting slightly into a half-smile, then she nods.

“I’ll go on one condition.”

I nod. Whatever it is, I’ll say yes.

“No one touches me. Including you.” She marches past me before I can respond, her rosy scent wafting over me.

It’s an easy decision though. Even if my cock is already swelling at the thought of her in that dress, in knowing I’ll get to see her in it all night.

She’s right though. No one’s going to touch her.

Even me.