I'll play it until it's mine in her head instead.
I'll rewrite over every other version until the only one she hears when she thinks of it is this one. Until all she remembers the next time she plays this song on some snowy New York night is the two of us on this porch on a Montana summer morning.
I look up at her.
She's smiling like it’s Christmas morning and I just gave her a present she never expected.
Kurt Cobain,eat your fucking heart out.
Chapter 27
Breakup Album
SADIE
Istare at Walker, trying to keep my jaw shut so it doesn’t hang open.
I’m getting a private concert, a never-before-heard cover, of one of my favorite songs, from my all-time favorite artist.
This is beyond my wildest dreams.
Walker’s velvety, raspy voice. The expert way his fingers move over the guitar strings.
Lord, have mercy.
When the last note rings out, he gives me an expectant look.
“So?” he says. “Me or Kurt?”
Oh my God. Is that what this was about? His competitive instincts got fired up and he couldn’t have another artist reign supreme in his household?
I can’t even fault him too much, because that cover might in fact be better than the original.
I press a finger into his solid, muscular chest. “You are such a dork.”
His eyebrow shoot up. “What?”
“You just had to prove yourself the king around here, huh?” But I’m smiling as I say it, so much I can’t even restrain it.
He tilts his head, studying my face, that vulnerability flickering across his features. “Does that mean you liked it?”
Liked it? I just had the full megawatt power of Walker Rhodes turned on to me.Forme. If I’d thought he’d had superpowers when he persuaded me to sit down at Jane’s office, it’s got nothing on being on the receiving end of his musical performance.
The man is a superstar for a reason.
“It was amazing,” I tell him. And then I kiss him.
When I pull back, he looks so adorably pleased that my heart swells.
Then, softer, I say, “Walker. You picked up your guitar.”
He looks down on it in his arms like he forgot it was there. “Hot damn.” And then he grins. Dazzling white. “Holy shit, Sadie.”
Suddenly the guitar is on the table and I’m being lifted by my waist and spun in the air.
I give a little shriek of laughter as he whirls me around. He's laughing too. Actually laughing, un-self-conscious and bright.
And then he’s putting me back down on the floor, and I’m sliding down the length of his body, and he’s looking deep into my eyes.
