Page 56 of All I Want for Christmas
“You are the last person who should believe some tabloid story!” Sadie crossed her arms, her eyes shining with anger. “Nothing happened.Cruz was drunk, and I got stuck in a room with him, and he got a bit...”
She sighed in frustration. “Why won’t you believe me? After everything? Besides, even if something had happened—and it never would—you and I, well, we werenothingat that point.”
“Exactly, we were nothing. Wearenothing. If Cruz is your type, yourconfidant, as much as that makes me feel like throwing up,” Max said, “who am I to stop true love in its tracks?”
Sadie was close to tears now, and he couldn’t stand to see her upset. But he steeled himself—she had brought this upon herself, and all he wanted now was to get as far away from her as he could.
“Please, Max, you’re not listening. Cruz had—”
“Save it. I’m leaving.” He slung his guitar over his shoulder, and picking up Patsy’s carrier, he strode toward the studio’s door.
“We have to rehearse! Max, stop, please. Would you just stop? What do you expect me to tell Cruz?”
“Is that all you care about?” His mouth in a taut line, hepushed past her and heard her breath catch. “Make something up. You’re good at that.”
“Fine, Max,” Sadie called out after him. “Do what you always do, run away and let everyone else pick up the pieces!”
Max kept walking, held up an arm and gave a wave without turning around.
20
Sadie
Nashville, Tennessee
December 21
After Max was gone, Sadie sat down at the piano, her elbows landing on it with a discordant clamor. She put her face in her hands for a moment and let herself absorb everything.
It was over between her and Max.
This was twice now—three times, if you counted the proposal that never was—that they had gotten close and then it had blown up in their faces. She wasn’t going to keep getting burned, time after time.
She could see why he was hurt that Cruz knew about her gran’s death and he didn’t. Why seeing all those texts from Cruz on her phone confused and hurt him. And yes, she knew, she hadn’t exactly been the most forthcoming with him whenshe’d had the chance. But did she really deserve to pay for this so dearly? He had walked out. Yet again.
She ran her hands over her face and got out her phone, to take another look at the photo herself. It was blurry, but unmistakable that she and Cruz McNeil were embracing on a couch. The article that accompanied the photo was filled with salacious speculation, and the comments were just cruel.
Sadie Hunter was a nothing and a nobody until Max Brody came along. And she’ll be nothing and nobody after this, too.
What a tramp!
The only reason to be interested in Sadie Hunter is because she’s dating Max Brody. And now she’s gone and messed up her fifteen minutes of fame... time to cancel her! #saxieover #sadiethetramp
Well, I guess now we know the real reason Sadie Hunter got as far as she did onStarmaker
What had been going on in that photo had not been the first time Cruz had crossed a line with her. It had started when she began recording songs with him: he’d brush a stray hair from her shoulder, allow his hand to linger on her arm too long when he greeted her, brush against her in a hallway when there was plenty of space for him to walk by. Sadie should have said something then—but she hadn’t, because it had felt like she needed Cruz’s support and approval to record a hit album. Ifshe had called him out on his behavior, would anyone have believed her? There was not a single thing she would have been able to prove.
Her phone rang in her hand. “Care to give me a backgrounder on that photo?” It was Amalia and she wasn’t happy.
“That photo is not what it looks like. Amalia, I would never—”
“Sadie, things are never what they appear with men like Cruz—and I know you well enough to know this isn’t the avenue you’d go down. But if we’re going to deal with the public relations debacle this is becoming, I need some intel.”
“I was at Stagecoach with Tasha, and it started out as the best day. But you know what I was going through then. I was still in so much pain about my gran. But that day, I let myself relax a bit. I let myself enjoy singing in the festival. I was in the greenroom, when Cruz and the guys from Saddle ’em Up came in...”
“Oh, dear. Jäger bombs?”
Sadie winced. “Yes. I was going to head back to the tour buses and see what Tasha was up to, but then I had two shots with them, and we were just laughing and chatting but then it all just hit me. I went to sit on a couch to try to pull myself together and suddenly I was crying. Cruz came over to comfort me. It was a weak moment—and I told him about my gran dying. He gave me this long hug, and it got uncomfortable, but I just sat there and let it happen. I should have pushed him away, but I didn’t.”
