“It just makes sense,” Amalia added. “The rumor on the set is you’re sleeping together anyway. Why fight it? Owning it means you will win this competition hands down through viewers’ votes alone.”
Sadie looked at Max again to see how he was reacting to this—but he was staring down at his cowboy boots like they somehow contained the meaning of life in their curlicued etchings. Sadie’s throat had gone dry. She opened her mouth to protest—but found she couldn’t do it.
Sadie wanted to win.
Finally, Max returned her gaze. And she saw it in his eyes.Hewanted to win, too. “What do you think, Sadie?” he said, his tone flat.
“I’m not sure. I mean, we don’t really know each other.”
“Max, you know this sort of thing happens all the time,” Bobbi said. “That show business is full of fake relationships.” She turned to Sadie. “It’s really no big deal. It’s make-believe. And the payoff would be astronomical.”
Sadie closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. Max was frowning at his toes again—but he was her shot.Thiswas her shot. She’d be a fool to say anything but yes. So, “I’ll do it,” she answered.
Max scowled. “So will I,” he seconded. “Now, are we done here? I have someplace I need to be.”
“Wait!” Bobbi said, pulling out her phone. “Max, take Sadie in your arms. Come on, just do it.”
Max sighed, then stepped close and put his hands on her hips—but rolled his eyes as he did it, while Sadie gritted her teeth. Her heart was fluttering, though, probably because standing this close to Max reminded her of being onstage.
“Sadie, look up at him like you’re about to kiss him. Lean close. Come on, make it look like you don’t know I’m here, and—” As soon as she snapped a photo Max released Sadie like she was a hot potato. “Perfect. Now to go ‘leak’ this to the press!”
—
Max ran a hand through his hair and turned to Sadie, a grimace on his handsome face. It was the day after their meeting and they were in a rehearsal room planning their duet—or, more accurately, arguing about it.
“Absolutely no way. I am not singing that song with you.”
“Come on, Max—”
“No. They may be forcing us together, but I hate that song, I won’t.”
“ ‘Forcing us’? That’s not quite how I remember it.Weagreed to this, Max. Can you at least make an effort?”
“Thanks to that photo, the Saxie hashtag is trending. What more do you want from me?”
Sadie sighed and forced herself to take a few calming breaths. “Let’s just settle on a song, okay? And please, not ‘Silent Night,’ performed in the tired style of Johnny Cash, with you staring moodily into the middle distance while I gaze at you and hum along.”
“Johnny Cash’s style is never, evertired,” Max said tersely. He put his head down and strummed his guitar, and even the notes sounded defensive. There were plenty of rumors about who the guitar had belonged to, including his own music legend father, but Max was tight-lipped about its origins. However, he treated it almost as well as he treated Patsy—who was currently being walked around the parking lot by Landon—so Sadie suspected the guitar carried as much pedigree as Max himself did. He stopped strumming and ran a hand through his dark hair again. Somehow, it managed to fall perfectly back into place—whereas every time Sadie left Hair and Makeup she had to force herself not to touch her long, thick waves even once, or she’d wreck the artfully contrived, over-hair-sprayed style.
She watched as Max, his full lips set in a perma-scowl, paced the small room. How was it possible that she had such great onstage chemistry with this man? She supposed it was because chemistry was just that: mix A with B and watch C happen. But just because you could mix baking soda with vinegarand watch it erupt into a volcano did not mean that baking soda was in love with vinegar. In fact, it could mean the opposite.
“Okay, fine, what about ‘The Angels Cried’?” Max said.
Sadie laughed at him, she couldn’t help it. “There is absolutely nothing sexy about angels crying!”
He stopped pacing and spun around. “Why does everything have to be sexy? Can you not be serious about music for one second?”
Her eyes widened. “I am very serious about music!”
He maintained the I-am-a-true-artist-and-you-are-just-wasting-my-time expression she was beginning to seriously loathe, and took a long look at her, letting his eyes sweep up and down her body and the revealing outfit Wardrobe had put her in, again. “Coulda fooled me, sweetheart.”
Sadie felt suddenly off-kilter. It was the fact that he wore too much cologne, she decided. “Max, please just listen to me for one second.” She looked up at him and sang the opening lines of “Christmas Without You,” the Kenny and Dolly duet she was advocating for.
His expression changed almost immediately. He started to sing along with her, almost as if he couldn’t help himself. At first he refused to look at her, but that was almost better. She closed her eyes and focused on the way their voices blended together and complemented one another perfectly—then opened her eyes to find him watching her, an inscrutable expression on his face. She felt like she was caught in an electrical current. Instead of fighting it, she allowed the now-powerful connection between them into her voice. It turned the sweet song about two lovers longing to be together over Christmas into something seriously sexy.
She could still smell his cologne, an earthy, spicy scent she didn’t exactly hate at that moment, as well as his cinnamon-gum-scented breath. She was grateful she had rubbed her skin with vanilla oil earlier and doubled up on the mouthwash. She sang a line about laughing until they fell out of bed, and he bent his head toward hers to sing his line, as if drawn toward her by a magnet. Then...
There was a knock at the door and Johnny King swaggered in, wearing a Christmas-themed tie covered in flashing lights. He was followed closely by Cruz, who took in Max and Sadie standing so close with what Sadie thought for a moment might have been a disappointed look. To her surprise, Max pulled her closer. It made sense, she supposed—they were meant to be pretending to be a couple. But she had to work to make it look as natural as it had felt a moment before. “Hi there!” she chirped.
