Page 120 of Cadence
Just like Maddox.
God, if the two of them could meet, it would be like two souls colliding. He’s stubborn and brilliant, one of the best musicians I’ve ever worked with. And his songs… No one writes like Maddox.
Well. Except Paige. And even then, sometimes she writes better.
He’d love her. I know he would. And that’s what makes this crush so weird.
And yeah, I know, I fall in and out of crushes all the time. I’m twenty-two, for god’s sake. It’s what I’m supposed to do. But he’s crazy talented and stupid hot. And if I thought for one second Paige would go for a setup… I mean, c’mon, we know her, she avoids relationships like the plague… I’d give him her number in a heartbeat.
I swear, with him, it’d be different. He wouldn’t use her for our name, and he’d actually help her become the best damn musician the world’s ever seen.
Mom and Dad might be the industry power couple, but Paige and Maddox? They’d be legends.
Anyway, I’m rambling. Call it nerves, because tonight, I’m telling him I sort of, kind of, have feelings for him.
If he rejects me, that’s okay. I’m a strong, independent woman. I can get over it.
But if he doesn’t…
This is stupid, I’ve spent half a page gushing about how good Maddox and Paige would be perfect together, and here’s me, preparing to lay it all out for him.
Either way, I’m telling him tonight. And if he says no, I’ll bounce back. I always do.
But if he doesn’t… OH MY GOD, what if he doesn’t…
I can’t wait to call Paige and tell her everything.
I just hope it’s good news.
P x
The next page is blank. The rest of the book, blank. No more stories, no more thoughts and feelings documented forever about a life taken too prematurely. No more Penny.
I clutch the book so hard the leather creases, the spine bending under my fingers. She was rooting for us before we even met. And I’ll never get the chance to tell her she was right. That’s the part that breaks me. Not the silence or the absence of my sister.
And for the first time since I found out the truth, the tears come.
Quiet and steady and endless.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Paige
Thiswasmeanttobe over by now.
I thought, two days, three, tops, and I’d be done being sad. Cry it out, breathe, then move the fuck on. But apparently, heartbreak doesn’t come with a deadline. Because it still sits in my chest, full and heavy, impossible to ignore, like someone just stilled a wrecking ball on my ribs and told me to pretend it doesn’t hurt.
His texts are still there, some unread, but all unanswered, the number at the top of the icon increasing daily. I don’t have the strength to open them, can’t bring myself to read them. Not when every time I think of Maddox or that last diary entry, something inside me caves in. Not all at once, but in slow, cracking pieces I can’t hold together.
Two souls colliding.
I think she might be right.
I knew I was falling for him, but I think I fell for Maddox more than I ever let myself believe.
And now the one person I would have spoken to about all of this is no longer here, and I’ve never felt this fucking alone. It’s like yelling into a canyon and only hearing silence yell back. Even Olive’s walking on eggshells around me, her pitying looks driving me up the wall.
Well, I didn’t ask her to come, didn’twanther to, but like the good best friend she is, she didn’t take no for an answer.
