He turns his face toward mine and gives me a large smile. “No. It’s an acoustic version of one of my old ones: ‘Forever Starts Here.’”
“Really?” I ask. “Don’t people love the version you already have?”
Becoming a Jaxon Steele fan—a Steelie if you will—is harder than anticipated, especially when I’ve been spending every spare minute with him. Not only do I have over a decade of albums to catch up on, but there are often deep layers to each song that his fans really dig into on internet threads. But even when I was intentionally avoiding his songs, I’d still heard “Forever StartsHere.” It’s one from his last album that became the number one first-dance song seemingly overnight. I don’t think I’ve been at a wedding in the last two years where it wasn’t played.
Jaxon shrugs off my question. “Sure. But it hits different now. I just—let me play it for you.”
I take a seat across from Jaxon as he lightly strums his guitar.
“You’ve heard the original one?” he asks, a slight glimmer in his eye telling me he finds it amusing how few of his songs I know.
“I have,” I say with a small, magnanimous nod.
“So here’s what I’m thinking,” he says before starting into the song. It’s slower than the original, and while you can still feel the love in it, there’s also a darker undertone. More pain. Maybe loss.
When he reaches the part that says, “We walked different roads, found love in the dark, but I always carried the light of your heart,”his eyes meet mine, and it feels like he’s singing it for me, about me.
“I thought I moved on, thought I was fine, all the while imagining you by my side.”
I listen to the song, to the happy ending the couple has, and I wonder if it’s about me, even though I know it doesn’t make sense. Jaxon and I weren’t ever anything but friends, and up until five weeks ago, he likely never thought of me.
Though, he does have a tattoo that suggests otherwise.
I wipe a rogue tear from my cheek as I smile. “It’s beautiful, Jax.”
“They won’t let me record it that way,” he says, his eyes on his right hand as he plays an intricate finger-picking portion of the song.
“Why?”
He shakes his head just enough to make his chestnut locks sway back and forth. “It’s not the right vibes for Jaxon Steele.”
“But you’re Jaxon Steele,” I say. “Don’t you get to be the one who decides?”
“That is not quite how it works when you have a label. Plus, they’ve gotten me this far, I trust them to know what’s right for me.”
Jaxon’s making his team enough money that he could sing songs about dancing at midnight with enchanted pigs and they'd let him. But who am I to say? Since those six painful months in high school where I learned everything I could about the industry, I've gone out of my way to know as little as possible.
“Well, I think it’s a better version. You should at least play it for them.”
Jaxon gives a non-committal hum. “What are you doing here, anyway?” he asks. “Not that I’m disappointed. You know I voted in favor of us spending every possible second together. To really sell it for the town, of course,” he adds with a teasing wink.
Sure. Really selling it. The town. My family.
Me.
“I left you a voicemail,” I say. “Andre asked me to help you get ready for the movers.”
Jaxon’s face tightens at that. “I’ve got it.”
“I’m sure you do, but I figured I could help anyway. Plus, this way I get to hang out with you more.”
I’d told Jax he was on his own tonight after remembering my sister’s wedding is this weekend, and tonight is old-lady workout class. The Monday before the wedding is the right time to start trying to get in shape, right?
I brought my workout clothes, so hopefully I can get Jaxon started in his dad’s room before heading out to the gym.
Jaxon sighs, dragging a hand through his hair. “I don’t want to do it.”
“I know,” I say, moving from my seat to perch on the edge of the couch. I reach out to play with a couple pieces of his hair. “But it’s just a room. I could do it for you, but I think you should do it.”
