Still, the world-weary look behind her eyes made me yearn to reach out, take her hand, pull her close, and soothe the tension away. I wanted more than anything to be that for her, but after ghosting me, it was clear she didn’t.
That was why I watched her take her ridiculously minuscule portion of bland chicken and vegetables from the microwave and dump it on a plate. It was also why I kept my hands glued to my sides as she grabbed a fork and then turned her back on me as she walked into another room to eat.
And lastly, it was why I sighed and pulled my cell back out to look at the DoorDash app so I could order some real fucking food, all the while thinking how much I fucking hated this town.
All that glittered certainly wasn’t goddamned gold.
CHAPTER SIX
SAINT
“Ilove that bridge,” Skip declared. “It’s fuckin’ Taylor worthy.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I murmured with a smile. “Love TS or hate her; everyone knows she’s the queen of the bridge.”
“After releasing that, you will be, too,” my producer muttered, holding a headphone against his right ear. “That melody is fire. What the fuck’s got into you today?”
My eyes drifted toward the window, where I could see Jacob sitting in the green room, typing on a laptop.
I knew exactly what had inspired me. Jake had been my muse since the night I met him. There was no rhyme or reason to it, but then there didn’t have to be. Emotions and feelings had no rhyme or reason anyway.
“Who knows?” I shrugged.
“That arrangement’s been bugging me for days,” Skip went on. “Something about it wasn’t right, but I couldn’t work out what was annoying me. That change of key in the middle is genius. It really adds the layer we were missing.”
“Sometimes it’s the simplest things,” I agreed. “It came to me last night, so I tried it out on my mixing desk at home, and bam, suddenly it just came together.”
“I think that song’s finished now,” he told me.
Slowly, I nodded. “Yeah. I’m happy with it, too.”
Jacob looked up, and our eyes locked. His smile took me by surprise, and without thinking about it, I beamed a smile back.
I’d been watching him on and off ever since we’d arrived at rehearsals a few hours earlier.
The sight of him there, focused and lost in whatever he was doing, stirred something inside me.
Jacob had struck a chord that kept resonating and refused to be ignored. It felt like we’d never been apart. The familiarity of his presence still settled me. Jacob was a paradox—tall, strong, and alpha as hell, but still almost childlike, mischievous, and unpredictable.
It was his mix of strength and vulnerability that drew me in from the moment we met, along with the rawness just underneath the surface that threatened to burst free when I least expected it.
Thrilling.
Enthralling.
Consuming.
An enigma that hijacked every thought and feeling.
Reaching for my pen, I opened my notepad to a clean, blank page and began to write. My mind was already elsewhere, formulating words and melodies simply because I couldn’t help myself.
Art was created when I was inspired.
My poet’s soul reared its head, and I became lost in the words buzzing around my brain like bees desperate to get out.
I poured my heart out, not even noticing when, one by one, the rest of the band arrived or even when Talia stuck her head around the door to say hi. By the time I was ready to tear my focus away from the song I waswriting, the afternoon sun had moved across the sky, and my stomach rumbled from hunger.
The door to the sound room opened, and I glanced up to see Jacob move inside, holding a takeout juice drink and a big plastic bowl of salad.
