“I can do that, Sadie. Of course I can. Whatever you need.”
“Cruz doesn’t deserve one more moment of our time or energy, not today. But we’ll keep dealing with it. Together, whenthat makes sense. And I accept your apology, Max. I understand why you would have made judgments about me that weren’t always accurate. I never fully let you in, so you didn’treallyknow me—not until now. And I judged you harshly, too. I’m sorry for that. I hope you can forgive me. And...”
What Sadie wanted to say next was going to take a lot of courage. While she hoped the lyrics of her song had made her feelings clear, she knew she had to stop leaving things unsaid. “I love you, Max. That’s the truth. What we have has always been real to me. I want us to be together.” As she spoke the words she saw his expression change—and was deeply relieved to see in his eyes that he felt the same.
“Sadie, I love you, too. More than you can possibly imagine.” Max had never looked happier, and as he leaned in, he whispered, “I loved you since the moment I first laid eyes on you. I was just too dense to accept it.” Then he kissed her passionately, his hands tangled in her hair, their lips speaking a private language only the two of them knew. For a magical moment, the rest of the world fell away. It was almost as if they were standing in the snow, in the middle of the Banff wilderness, just the two of them, their bodies pressed together.
“I have something for you,” Sadie said, finally pulling away from the kiss and reaching into the pocket of her sweater. She’d been carrying the tiny tissue-wrapped package around with her like a talisman. Max unwrapped it: inside was a white gold Christmas ornament shaped like snowshoes.
“We were so happy there, together in Banff,” Sadie whispered.
“We’ll go back. We can be happy there again. We’ll go assoon as we’ve done everything we need to do here in Nashville.”
“But we’ll come back here, too?”
“Of course,” Max said. “It never has to be all or nothing. Never again.” He smiled down at the tiny pair of snowshoes, then tucked them in his pocket.
“Hey, is that your mom, sitting in the front row, there? She looks pretty happy.”
Sadie smiled and waved at Lynn. “Sheishappy,” Sadie said. “Because she’s finally starting to understand—with my gran’s help, I think—that I’m exactly where I need to be, right here, chasing my dreams. But I know it isn’t going to be easy. And I won’t take her for granted anymore. I know how much you wish your mom could be here to see you.”
The sound techs had spotted Max and descended on them now. Their private moment was over, for now. But Sadie smiled, thinking about what was to come.
—
As they strode out onto the stage, hand in hand, Sadie scanned the audience. She found many familiar faces: Lynn, flanked by Amalia and Bobbi, right in the front row. Tasha, sitting in the same row as her mother, mouthing,Break a leg, songbird!Tasha had popped into Sadie’s dressing room earlier and Sadie had told her about the happy reunion. Her friend and mentor was thrilled—and had also alluded to the fact that Cruz McNeil was in the process of getting exactly what he deserved.
There was Holden, too, winking at Sadie like the shameless flirt he was, then saluting his son with a smile. Becca wassitting beside her father with her hands clasped over her belly, and Stan, Becca’s partner, was in town for the holidays, too. Hugo was sitting near the front, his hand to his heart, mouthing,You look absolutely gorgeous,to Sadie. Claire was there, from the Song Sparrow, without whom Sadie’s song would not have come to be.
Sadie found her mother’s face once more. She touched the side of her nose and smiled.
Sadie took a deep breath and drank it all in. Max squeezed her hand and whispered, “Ready for this, sweetheart?”
“I’ve been ready for this my whole life,sweetheart,” Sadie said, giving him a kiss that made the already excited crowd go wild.
They stepped forward and took their places. Sadie on the piano bench, Max on a stool beside her.
The crowd fell silent as Sadie and Max looked into each other’s eyes. Sadie began to play the piano, and then Max joined in with his guitar. There were thousands of people in the audience, millions of people watching at home—but as Sadie and Max sang their song to one another, it felt like they were the only two people in the world. They traded lines back and forth, the words intertwining as if they had been written side by side.
When it was over, the audience stayed silent and Sadie experienced a beat of worry that maybe it hadn’t gone over the way she and Max had wanted it to. Maybe the crowd just hadn’t liked it. Maybe it was really just for them. But the sudden roar of applause was deafening. Most of the audience jumped to their feet to give Saxie a standing ovation. A jubilant Max pulled her from her piano bench and spun her around, then kissed her deeply as the crowd hooted and hollered for an encore.
“We did it!” Sadie said, throwing her arms around Max’s neck. “I only wish we had something we could do for an encore.”
Max smiled and said, “Darling, all the audience wants for an encore isthis. I love you, Sadie Hunter,” he said as he stared into her eyes.
“And I love you, Max Brody. All I want for Christmas is you.”
At that, Max kissed her again, as their adoring fans—and the people who loved them most—cheered them on.
HotStarGossip.com
BREAKING #SAXIE NEWS: Happily Ever After!!!
Nashville’s favorite duo has convinced us their love is real, just in time for Christmas!
All we wanted for Christmas this year was for Max Brody and Sadie Hunter to get back together and for Sadie to not really be secretly seeing the catfishing creep Cruz McNeil, but it’s a cruel world out there and you don’t always get what you want, right? Well, unless you recently moved to Mars (and even then, you probably saw theStarmakerholiday extravaganza) you know there has been Christmas romance and magic afoot in Nashville tonight!
Recent rumors of cheating hearts and an acrimonious breakup had us doubting the veracity of what we had all longed to believe was the feel-good romance of the year. But watching #Saxie sing the “The Best Christmas Gift” to each other live onstage at the Grand Ole Opry was enough to make even the most jaded among us believe in true love again. We were scared, though. Was it for real, or were we going to get our hearts broken again?
