Page 95 of Play Me

Epilogue

SEBASTIAN

“Another round of applause for the Senior Orchestra from RedFern High School!”

The crowd’s on their feet and I can barely make out the individual faces from my spot behind the curtain.

Cadence turns to the audience and bows and gestures to the orchestra who rise up onto their feet and take their bow. I’m clapping so hard I think I’m going to need to find a nurse’s station for a wrist brace.

“THEY FUCKING KILLED IT!!” Brad jumps up and down next to me, punching his hands into the air and whooping with the best of them. We grin at each other proudly, as if we’ve had a part of it.

The kids file off the stage and into the backstage area where Marius and Jez greet them with hugs and high fives. Their faces are flushed and happy, still reeling from the excitement of their performance.

“Sebastian!” I turn at the sound of her voice and hold my arms out to catch her as she runs toward me.

“How were we???” Cadence asks me, her face no different to her students’, flushed with excitement and pride.

“Fucking brilliant, that’s how you were!” I tell her proudly, burying my face in her hair and taking a deep, deep breath of her heady orange blossom scent.

“Shhh! The kids!” She frowns at me for a moment, in response to my swearing, but the exuberance of performing breaks through like a streak of sunlight. I grin back at her, her joy for life always rubbing off on me.

“Oh shush, teach.” I wink at her, and the kids around us giggle when she pokes her tongue out at me.

I look around us, at the 50 kids hopping with anticipation waiting for the final results of the National Orchestral Competition and I can’t believe I could feel so connected to them after such a short amount of time.

These last few weeks in Australia after Cadence and I got engaged, we’d spent it in some sort of honeymoon like bliss, our time spent alternating between our bed, the recording studio and the school, the guys and I helping to get the orchestra into tip top shape for the competition. And now, seeing it all come together, it’s even more nerve wracking than waiting for the envelope to open at the Grammys, we want these kids to win so bad!

“Ugh, Miss Bray, I think I’m going to throw up,” Jenny moans, bent over a chair behind us.

“Are you ok, honey?” My fiancé runs over to her charge to check up on her.

“Ugh, yes, I’m just so nervous,” the teenager moans again.

“Oh, I’m glad I’m not the only one,” Marius pipes up, holding his stomach, “when are they going to make the damn announcement already?”

“I think…right now…” I point to the man in the suit walking across the stage with a sheet of paper in his hand.

The silence is deafening as we wait for him to clear his throat, tapping the microphone and making it squeal.

“After much deliberation, the judges have decided on the winner of this year’s National High School Orchestral Competition. “

I feel a sharp pinch on my arm and I turn to see Cadence clutching me tight, her eyes squeezed tight in some sort of prayer. I can’t help but feel my heart squeeze tight out of love for her in that moment, and I press a kiss to her forehead. Her eyelids flutter for a moment but stay closed and I turn my attention back to the stage.

“With their stunning performance of Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers and Cadence’s Song, conducted by Miss Cadence Bray, the winner for the very first time, is Redfern High School from Sydney!!!”

There’s a stunned silence around me, but just for a moment, and then the elation erupts and all I can see and hear are arms and happy faces and tears and hugs breaking out around me.

I can’t stop grinning as the kids flood the stage pulling my beautiful fiancé on with them as they practically snatch the trophy out of the MC’s hands, waving to the audience filled with proud family members who’ve traveled all this way to watch them.

“Good work, man,” I feel a pat on my back and I nod.

“You too, Jez,” I smile at my band mate, knowing he was as invested in them as I was. “Hey, thanks for, you know, helping me out with it all.”

A wolfish grin spreads across Jez’s face. “Man, don’t be going soft on me now, save that for your woman.”

“Oh, he’s never gone soft on me, Jez,” Cadence’s voice speaks up behind us, and we realize she’s left the stage to join us, “Just the opposite in face.” She winks at me, and instantly I wonder if there’s anywhere we can find a moment to be by ourselves.

Jez just shakes his head and walks off, high fiving Brad as he goes.