"Again."
"Again," she echoed. "I was in a bad place after Joel. I wasn't thinking straight. You know the PTSD I deal with, the anxiety, the insecurity."
He did know, which had always made it difficult for him to turn his back on her. "You've been using your past as an excuse for everything for too long."
"That's what my therapist told me."
"I don't think that's the first time you've heard that comment."
"No. But it's the first time I listened."
"What made you listen now?" he challenged.
"You. Your absence. You never walked away before. You never disappeared. I always thought you'd be there for me, but I finally realized that I'd gone so far that I'd lost the one person who'd been in my corner, the one person I could count on." She paused, drawing in a shaky breath. "Did you read my song?"
"Yes. It's good."
"It needs you to finish it."
"You're the one who has to write the ending."
"I don't want to do it without you."
"You're going to have to."
"Please, Jason, just listen. It will be different going forward; I promise. And you won't be in the background anymore. I want us to be front and center together."
"This has never been about me being in the background."
"Are you sure? Because I think it bothered you in the past."
"It wasn't about the spotlight; it was about control. I haven't liked the direction we've been going in for a long time, but you didn't want to listen because you didn't feel the same way."
"I'll listen now."
"It's too late."
"That woman who was here… Is she the reason you don't want to come back?"
"This isn't about her. It's about us."
"I want there to still be an us," she said. "I don’t deserve the second chance, but I really want it. And even if you don't believe my promises, I'm still going to keep them. I'll show you I've changed. I swear I will."
As he gazed into her pleading blue eyes, he was swamped with emotion, seeing in front of him the scared young girl with the tragic past and not the superstar singer who'd been on the cover of every magazine. There were many layers to Wren, and not all of them were bad, but he'd been living in her chaotic drama for too long, and he didn't think his choices or actions had ever really made anything better. But it was difficult to turn away from someone who had also seen him in his darkest moments.
"Will you give me another chance?" she begged. "Will you make music with me again?"
His stomach twisted into a hard knot because whatever decision he made was going to hurt.
Kaia was going crazy with uncertainty. Three hours had passed since she'd left Jax's apartment, and she desperately wanted to know what was going on. Clearly, Wren wanted him to come back, wanted to make up for whatever had happened, which she knew in her heart was about more than stealing a song. Even more clearly, Jax was torn between his past and his future.
She didn't really care what he did with his career, but if his decision meant he was leaving here, that was another thing entirely. She felt like they were just getting started, but maybe she'd been living in a fantasy, ignoring all the red flags, all the secrets of his past that he had never really shared with her. He'd told her some things, but not everything. And that gap in knowledge made her wonder what he'd chosen to leave out and why.
She cleaned her apartment to make the time go by, and by two, it was spotless, but there was still no sign of Jax. She needed to pick up Walter, and she might as well get out of the apartment, because staying here was just making her head spin and her heart hurt. Grabbing her bag and keys, she headed out to the parking lot, deliberately not looking toward Jax's apartment.
She got into her car, started the engine, and was halfway out of her spot when Jax came running out to the lot, motioning for her to wait. Rolling down her window, she said, "What?"
"I'm coming with you."
