Page 129 of Cadence
Even though she doesn’t stop playing, I feel her body relax, the tiniest smile blooming on her lips.
“I didn’t know you could play piano,” she murmurs, eyes still on the keys.
I half-laugh, half-sigh against her skin. “Definitely not as good as you. But I try.”
“Coming from a musical family, my parents supported us if we wanted to learn to play an instrument,” she says, her fingers effortlessly gliding over the keys. “I think I went through a couple until I held a pair of sticks and fell in love.”
She continues, the piece nearing the end with a final gentle chord, letting the sound hang in the air. Her fingers rest on the ivory-colored console before she finally turns to look at me. There’s no trace of last night’s tears, just clarity, a softness I haven’t seen before.
I shift, moving so my legs are on either side of the bench, bracketing her body with mine. “Paige…”
Her gaze lowers to my chest. “I know.”
“No.” I raise my hand, my fingers coming under her chin, tilting her head up. “Let me say it. Please.”
Her throat works on a swallow before nodding.
“I should’ve told you. About Penny… About everything… And I’m so sorry.” My fingers find the hem of my shirt resting on her thighs, playing with the stitching. “I wasn’t trying to protect myself, I swear. I just didn’t know how to explain something that still doesn’t make sense in my own head. But I never meant to hurt you.”
“You did,” she says, not accusing, just honest.
“I know,” I whisper. “And if you need time, if you want space, I’ll give you whatever you want. I just…”
She breathes in deep, closing her eyes, then lets it out with a finality that feels like a decision. When her gaze meets mine, it’s steady with clarity. “I don’t want to talk about the past anymore, Maddox.”
That stuns me more than anything else she could have said. She keeps going, calm and sure, like she’s had this conversation in her head a hundred times already.
“If we’re going to move forward, personally, professionally, we can’t keep dragging it back into the room.”
She pauses, fingers brushing the necklace at her throat. The familiar action that once set my nerves on edge, now settles something inside me.
“I’ve looked at this every way possible, and yeah, I still don’t agree with how you handled it. I don’t think I would have done the same thing, but I get it now. I understand why you did it.” She glances down. “I wanted to hate you. God, I’ve hated myself. I’ve even been mad at Penny. But what’s the point? What does that fix?”
She reaches forward, pulling a notebook I’ve never seen before from the top of the piano.
“This is Penny’s journal,” she says softly, her fingers brushing over the spine of the brown book. “We got matching pairs one year, and I’ve been carrying it with me ever since I found it in a box of her things.” She holds it out. “I’ve been reading it every night, an entry before bed. You’re in it, in every single one from the day she met you.” My stomach tightens as she gives it a light shake in front of me. “Take it.”
I hold it in my hands, my fingers numb as I start to flip through the pages, the neat curls and swirls of each letter so different from Paige’s. My eyes skim over a few lines, memoriesflooding my head as different events in a timeline I tried to forget come back to me like they were never gone.
“I couldn’t bring myself to read the last one,” she whispers. “Because then it’d be over, but do you know what’s funny?”
She leans forward, turning to the final entry, pointing halfway down the page.
“If the two of them could meet, it would be like two souls colliding.”
My gaze snaps up to hers, my heartbeat spiking.
“Even in her diary, she rooted for us.” Shifting closer, her thigh brushes mine. “I don’t want Penny to be a ghost between us. I want her to be someone we talk about, celebrate, someone we love, openly, because she deserves that.” She takes my hand, lacing her fingers through mine. “Youdeserve that.”
My fingers tighten around hers. I don’t even know what to say, how to respond to someone giving me more than I ever thought I’d be allowed. She’s not ignoring the past; she’s just choosing to let me grow beyond it.
And that somehow hurts more than any punishment ever could.
“Paige…” I swallow hard, trying to steady my voice. “I went to see Penny.”
“I know,” she says, a sad smile crossing her lips. “Dad told me.”
I shake my head gently, stopping her from saying anything more. “I told her I love you.” Holding my hand up, I keep going, “You don’t have to say it back. I just need you to know it. I love you, Paige, everything about you. Even the parts of you that still hurt, the parts I don’t deserve to have. Parts I want to learn everything about.”
