“Jake…”
He came around and took her hand. “Come on. It’s even better inside.”
They walked the winding path in silence, fingers laced. The light reflected in the soft waves of her hair, and he couldn’t stop glancing over at her.
When they reached the center of the park where the lights made a canopy above a small clearing Jake pulled a white envelope from his coat pocket.
Kylee blinked. “What’s this?”
He handed it to her without a word.
Kylee stared at the envelope in her hands, her fingers trembling slightly as she pulled out the glossy concert tickets. The logoBleeding Haloshimmered beneath the soft park lights, and she froze as her eyes took in the words:VIP,Front Row,and Backstage Access.
Her lips parted, but nothing came out at first. Then she looked up at Jake, her heart racing. “Are you… serious right now!?”
He nodded, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “You and Kelly. I booked you two a suite at The Ritz-Carlton. You leave in two weeks.”
She blinked fast, trying to process all of it, the band she used to blast in her bedroom, the one that got her through her angsty years and pregnancies and heartbreaks. The idea of being in New Orleans again. Of laughing with her sister, wine in hand, music pulsing through her chest. Of being herself. Tears stung her eyes. She couldn’t stop smiling.
“Oh my God,” she breathed. “Jake… this is… this is amazing!”
He stepped closer, brushing a thumb along her jaw. “I wanted to give you something that reminded you of who you are. Not as a wife. Not as a mom. Just… Kylee.”
She laughed through a teary smile, pressing the tickets against her chest. “Seeing Kelly again, the two of us together in New Orleans… I can’t even remember the last time I felt this excited.”
Jake nodded slowly, and for once, his eyes weren’t guarded. “You deserve this. Every second of it.”
She threw her arms around him again, holding him tightly under the canopy of golden lights. For the first time in a long time, her heart beat with something other than heaviness.
On the way home Kylee sat with the envelope still clutched in her lap, her eyes fixed on the window, watching lights blur past like soft neon ghosts. The magic of the evening lingered the dinner, the lights, the feeling of being seen. But beneath it, something else stirred.
She glanced sideways at Jake. One hand on the wheel. The other resting on his thigh. Calm. Her voice broke the silence soft, but razor-sharp. “So… are you doing this to send me away?” she asked, still staring out the window.
Jake’s eyes flicked to her, brows knitting slightly. “What?”
She turned to face him fully, her expression unreadable now. “Are you doing all of this the trip, the hotel, the tickets so you can stay behind and keep fucking Rachel while I’m gone?”
The air between them snapped taut.
Jake’s hands gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Kylee…”
“Just answer the question,” she said, not angrily, but with a kind of cold exhaustion. “Because if this is guilt, if this is your way of making me feel better while you keep sneaking around, just tell me now.”
His jaw clenched. He didn’t speak right away. “No,” he finally said, voice low. “That’s not what this is.”
She looked back out the window, heart pounding, fingers curling tighter around the envelope. She didn’t know if she believed him. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
But the truth was, part of her had been waiting to ask that all night. Waiting to see if the sparkle and the gestures were just a distraction. A bribe.
He sighed, one hand briefly lifting from the wheel to run through his hair. “I know I don’t deserve your trust right now. But I meant what I said. I wanted you to have something that will cheer you up.”
Kylee didn’t reply. She just stared out the window again, eyes damp, her chest tight. Somewhere inside, part of her wanted to believe him. But another part still felt the weight of betrayal like a bruise that hadn’t fully healed.
By the time they pulled into the driveway, the tension between them had thinned but not disappeared. The porch light glowed softly against the snow, and Lillian waved from the front window before letting herself out with a quiet goodbye. The kids were already asleep.
Kylee didn’t say much to Jake as she kicked off her heels and slipped into the kitchen. She needed a second to breathe, to process but she also couldn’t hold it in any longer.
She pulled out her phone and dialed.
