“But you also said you loved Sadie. Like,reallyloved her.”
“Did I now?” Max didn’t know what else to say.
“You did. So, I thought you should know that Cruz leaked that photo and story. He asked me to update his calendar last night, and, uh, I saw the messages between him and HotStarGossip. Sadie had nothing to do with it. It was all Cruz.”
Max’s jaw clenched.Of courseit had been Cruz—that snake in the grass. He had the most to gain by putting a wedgebetween him and Sadie. But then Max thought back to the text fiasco in Banff, the way Sadie continuously held back bits of the truth from him. The puzzle pieces started to fit together in his mind. Maybe Sadie and Cruzhadbeen working together all this time. Maybe even from the beginning. Maybe Max really was a fool, and her apology—however genuine it had felt at the time—was just another tactic.
As mad as he was at having the wool pulled over his eyes, he also couldn’t ignore the burn of heartbreak. But, Sadie was with Cruz—that much was clear. Between Cruz’s power and her star potential, it would be a golden relationship the media and fans would embrace. Sadie would be fine. While he wanted to storm back into the studio and punch Cruz in his smug face for all his backhandedness and manipulations, he knew the best thing he could do was to walk away. From Cruz, fromStarmaker—even from Sadie.
Max was going to chart a different course.
“I appreciate you telling me, man.” Max clapped a hand on Landon’s arm. “But it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m done with this town.”
Max was nearly back at his truck when his phone rang.
“Hey, Becks. What’s up?”
“Max, you need to come home.Right now.”
24
Sadie
Nashville, Tennessee
December 22
Sadie rushed down the hallway, nearly blinded by her anger—and walked smack into someone.
“Sadie!” Landon said. “Are you okay?”
“Not really,” she said shakily. “Not at all, actually.”
“Sadie, I have to tell you something. Max—”
“Is he coming?” Sadie’s heart lifted. But then Landon shook his head.
“He had a family emergency. He was here, but he had to go.”
Sadie’s heart now sank to the bottom of her cowboy boots.No. Please no.“Wait. When? When was he here?”
“Just now.”
“Did he seem upset when you saw him?”
Landon swallowed hard, then said, “Yes. He was. He was really shaken up. Ran out of there like a bat out of hell.”
Tears flooded Sadie’s eyes. “I need to get out of here. And, Landon? You might as well start spreading the word now. Saxie isofficially over.” She turned off her phone so she wouldn’t have to see the oncoming barrage of tweets and texts, then turned on her heel and ran.
—
Sadie walked along downtown Nashville’s main drag, not quite sure where she was going. She couldn’t shake the feeling she was being watched, being followed. It was the same sensation she’d experienced on the bridge the day before, when she’d tossed her letters to her gran into the water—and she told herself that maybe this was just her reality at the moment, that shewasbeing watched by paparazzi. But it wasn’t always going to be that way. The official breakup of Saxie would be huge news for a few days—and then it would be over. Sadie forced herself to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and soon, she was in front of a familiar sign—and she realized maybe this was where she had been headed all along.
She stood in front of the modest-looking bar, its tattered awning and faded red curlicue name on the sign belying its status as one of the most legendary spots in Nashville. The Song Sparrow. Hallowed ground. She took a few steps closer and peered inside the window. It wasn’t open yet but a server was inside wiping down the tables to prepare for the night ahead.
Sadie pressed her face to the glass—and all at once could almost see the ghost of herself in there, nearly paralyzed by stage fright years before. She pictured a younger Max, trying to get his footing in a town that was all too familiar to him, unaware that his life was about to change for the worse that very night.The night I met you was the last time I was ever happy, he had told Sadie. And he had said he used to come to the Song Sparrow to reignite his passion for an industry that sometimes got him down. This was what had drawn Sadie here today, too. She needed a reminder, before she walked away for good, that therehadbeen some good moments—it hadn’t all been for nothing. She would say a last goodbye, and then call her mom and meet her at her hotel—and she would tell Lynn it was time for them to go home. Because Lynn had been right all this time. The music industry was only ever going to break her.
Sadie tapped on the door of the tavern, then opened it.
