Chapter 27
THE CHRONICLES OF AN ANTI-ANTI-APHRODITE
Addie
The night was almost over and nothing had burned down, no police had shown up to arrest a ceremony guest, and no one accidently stepped in a steaming horse patty. Now, Addie sipped her wine and celebrated a beautiful couple whose souls were destined to complete one another.
It was a perfect ending to a perfect day.
Almost.
Standing next to Maxi, Addie’s gaze strayed past the dancing guests and toward the other side of the barn, immediately landing on Phoenix as if already knowing exactly where he stood.
He leaned against one of the columns, white dress shirt open at the neck and sleeves rolled up casually to reveal his corded arms.
Each of the Stone Talons looked the same, even East, who’d been thrilled at the notion of a more casual look for their ceremonial festivities. But it was Phoenix who took her breath away, and if she was being honest with herself for once, had done so since their first run-in.
The man should come with a warning label, one that read DANGER: WILL MAKE YOU FANTASIZE ABOUT HAPPILY EVER FOREVER.
Because that’s exactly what he’d done, and not just any happily ever forever, but theirs. With their friends and families standing by their sides. It didn’t take much imagination to picture the two of them having their own ceremony here on Emilio’s farm.
“You okay?” Bailey eyed her curiously.
“Yeah.” Despite the barn’s open doors, Addie’s next breath lodged in her throat, making her a little bit dizzy. “I’m going to go grab some fresh air. I’ll be right back. Set off an alarm if anything happens and I’ll come running.”
Bailey snorted. “We’ll be just fine. The curse is broken, remember?”
Addie turned toward the rear, her gaze once again stumbling directly over Phoenix, except this time he was staring right back, his heated gaze without a doubt watching her every move. It warmed the back of her neck and followed her as she skirted the dance floor and made a beeline toward the exit.
It distracted her so much that she nearly collided with Phoenix’s mom, Lani.
“Addie!” Lani pulled her into an immediate bone-crushing hug. “I cannot express my thanks enough to you and your team for making this the most magical of days for our girl and East. It was nothing short of perfect. Stunningly, breathtakingly perfect.”
Addie smiled sincerely. “It was my absolute pleasure. I’m not so sure I’ve met any two people who deserve their perfect night more than them.”
Lani grinned mischievously, the smirk looking so much like her son’s. “Oh, I don’t know. I could probably think of at least one or two more people.”
“You know, I need to go check on something outside. Make sure you and Judd find the photographer later and have him take your pictures. East and Nai will want them as mementos.”
She nodded and hugged her one more time, and then Addie hustled, the walls of the large barn starting to close in around her.
By the time she stepped into the warm open air, she practically panted, closing her eyes to the sky as she focused on every inhale and exhale until the world finally stopped spinning.
She told herself that she’d come clean to Phoenix about everything …
About how she felt …
About how much she loved him …
But after weeks of telling him that love was a farce, what would make him believe her now? She had no fucking clue, which was why it was easier to steer clear of him altogether, at least until she found the right words to explain how she felt and what he meant to her.
Addie lost track of time, and turned, finally somewhat ready to face the music, when a blur of cotton and lace bolted from the barn as if her dress were on fire.
Naiomi, panting heavily, latched onto her arms in a frantic death grip. “Thank the gods you’re still here. For a minute, I thought you’d left already, and I—”
“Why would I leave?” Addie chuckled. “There’s still a lot of celebrating to do.”
“Right. Yeah. That’s what East said, but when I looked around and you weren’t there and then Bailey said you stepped out, I thought, Ah! Runaway Bride moment.”
“Except you’re the bride tonight, Nai.”
“Right.” She laughed nervously, the sound a little high-pitched.
“Are you okay?” Addie studied her with full event-planner concern. “Did someone spike the punch fountain or something?”
“No! Well … maybe. I did see Gavin standing over there for an exorbitant amount of time looking all sneaky, but honestly, that’s his typical look so maybe he was just thirsty.”
“Nai.”
“Sorry. Um, there is something that you should probably be present for. It’s not a problem per se, but it is a little unexpected—for some people. Who weren’t expecting it.”
“You know I have no earthly idea what you’re talking about, right?”
Nai grinned. “I know.”
The brunette dragged her back into the barn where the crowd of guests parted and an anticipatory silence filled the room. No music. Hardly any conversation.
Dead silence.
“All right, Dread Pirate Roberts,” Nai exclaimed. “I got her here, now the rest is up to you.”
Addie shot the brunette a confused look. “What?”
Her gaze drifted to the small stage where the band had been playing for the majority of the night, and instead of the High Topps, there stood Phoenix—alone except for the acoustic guitar strapped over his shoulder and the microphone standing in front of him.
Gaze locked on her, his lips twitched into that coy smirk that never ceased to make her stomach flip. “I’ll take it from here, sis. Thanks.”
“Anytime,” Nai answered, making the crowd around them chuckle. The brunette flashed Addie a conspiratorial quick wink. “Talk to you later.”
The bride was gone in a blink, leaving Addie standing in the middle of the dance floor, a floor that no one was currently dancing on, their gazes bouncing between her and Phoenix as if waiting for something to happen.
Onstage, Phoenix gulped. The sound was picked up by the mic and he chuckled nervously. “If you all will bear with me for a bit, I’m used to hiding behind a massive drum set when I’m on a stage like this.”
“Not so easy, is it, big guy?” Gavin taunted from the sidelines, earning more than a few chuckles.
Phoenix rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the crowd, his gaze always returning—and staying locked—on her.
“Music has always been a big part of my identity, so much so that I revolved my entire life around it, commandeered my parents’ garage, formed a band with my best friends.
” He shot a glance toward the guys. “And it’s been a wild ride full of ups and downs.
But despite the dips, I was always able to fall back on music.
It was my security blanket. And then one day, that music just … stopped.”
Addie’s gaze was transfixed on Phoenix as he opened his heart for all to see.
“Suddenly, I was living in a quiet world, with no earthly idea how the hell to get that music back.” Phoenix’s gaze once again returned to Addie.
“And then late one night, a gorgeous, redheaded spitfire came banging on my door, and the moment I opened it, my world lit up in surround sound. I found my music again. In her. In the way she smiled at me—when she was done glaring.”
There was a chorus of chuckles, and Phoenix’s mouth twitched.
“In the way she snorted at the end of a laugh. At the way her eyes twinkled when she was teased. Not only did this beautiful, loving woman bring music back into my heart, but she became my music. This is my newest Phoenix Cross original, and I’m calling it ‘My Heart & Soul’ … and I’m dedicating it to her.”
He didn’t say her name, but there was no denying to whom he was talking. All eyes shifted to her before turning back to Phoenix the second he strummed the first chord. He stopped once and took a deep breath before starting over again.
His voice, rough with emotion and yet smooth like aged whisky, sang the first words, and as the song progressed, so did the emotions. They swelled from Phoenix and were absorbed by her … until he hit the chorus.
Looping around his fingers and lifting from the strings of his guitar, shimmered an ethereal golden glow, and this time, Addie’s eyes didn’t burn, blur, or ache.
They welled, full of such all-consuming emotions she didn’t know where to go with them. The gorgeous gold soul tether wrapped playfully around Phoenix and swirled through the air as if dancing with his words.
Before you, the world was dark and grim.
A silent battlefield.
The quiet, overwhelming.
And then you opened the door,
Walked into my heart.
My before and after.
My fresh start.
You are my music.
You are my stars.
You are my moon.
My heart and soul are no longer mine.
They belong to you.
Before you, my world was dark and grim.
A lonely battlefield.
The silence overwhelming.
Then you walked into my heart.
You brought music.
You brought love.
With you, our happily forever can now start.
Silence blanketed the room as Phoenix slid from bridge to chorus to refrain and played the last, soft note.
Bailey leaned closer to Maxi and used the hem of Maxi’s sleeve to mop up their mascara, and they weren’t alone. People sniffled from every direction.
One of them was Addie.
Tears slipped down her cheeks, but she couldn’t move, frozen to the spot and barely breathing as Phoenix hopped down from the stage and tossed his guitar to a waiting East.
He closed the distance between them, that ethereal cord moving with him. Hazel eyes filled with so much longing, longing she felt just as intensely, he didn’t look away from her even once.
He stopped an inch away from touching her. “I promised that you’d hear it.”
Addie struggled to clear her throat from the ball of emotions clogging it. “It was worth the wait. That was quite the song, rock star.”
His lips twitched. “That wasn’t just a song, love.”
“No?” Something like hope blossomed in her chest, and Addie glanced down, seeing the beautiful glowing link slowly wrapping around her waist. “Sure sounded like a song to me. It rhymed and everything. Mostly.”
Phoenix cupped her cheek and her heart nearly sang, her knees quaking as she fought to keep her eyes open and on him. “That was more than a song, Adalyn Love Whitlock. That was our beginning.”
Addie’s heart hitched.
“This isn’t Muse Sickness,” she blurted out. “Just … fuck. I was so, so wrong and I—”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“There was no doubt in my mind about what I felt,” Phoenix admitted. “No way in hell that the feelings I have for you could be considered a sickness.”
Tears slipped down Addie’s cheeks as she wondered what the hell she’d done to deserve this man.
“Adalyn Love Whitlock”—Phoenix’s lips twitched, and his thumb reached out, gently sweeping away the moisture on her cheeks—“I am, without a doubt, one hundred percent in love with you. Hearts and sky and all the moon, in love. And from the moment you opened that door, and until the stars cease to shine in the sky, my heart and soul will forever belong to you. I want you in my life, however you’ll take me …
but admittedly, I hope it’s in a way that involves a lot of naked time and a happily ever forever. ”
Phoenix wrapped his free arm snugly around her waist and drew her flush against his body. “So what do you say?”
Her lips twitched in a teasing smirk while happy tears fell down her cheeks, her entire being bursting with love. “I say … sparkles.”
Phoenix whooped much like Easton had earlier and dragged her into a kiss that literally swept her off her feet. Time froze. The air stalled. Everyone else melted away until it was just the two of them, their bodies entwined in that gorgeous glowing soul tether.
They kissed until they were both breathless and panting.
“Leave it to a rock star to prove to me that true love exists,” Addie teased wryly.
Phoenix grinned coyly. “I am a man of many talents … but you do know what this means, right?”
“What?”
“The media will have to find something else to focus on other than the chronicles of an anti-love Aphrodite. Either that, or you’ll need a new nickname. How about … Cupid?”
Addie wrinkled her nose. “Hard pass.”
“Come on. Think of all the possibilities.”
“I am. It’ll already take massive patience until I can get my matchmaking legs underneath me—maybe a minor miracle. Let’s not add to it by throwing nicknames around. Could you imagine? A Cupid Dilemma.”
Something flickered in the background, and standing at the rear exit against a starry-sky backdrop, stood Addie’s mother.
Aphrodite, wearing her Goddess of Love white toga and a gold leaf crown, watched them with a warm, loving smile. She blew a kiss in Addie’s direction and Addie sent one right back.
No one saw her except for Addie … until.
“Is that who I think it is?” Phoenix’s face paled slightly as his head swiveled from the back of the barn to her.
“Oh. Um … maybe?”
“Shit.” Phoenix looked panic-stricken.
“What? Why?”
“Your dad was pretty pissed off I hadn’t introduced myself to him when he thought we were dating. How will your mother feel when she finds out that you’re in love with a former rock star?”
Addie blinked. “Former?”
A slow smile spread over Phoenix’s face. “Surprise. You’re not the only one in need of a new nickname because you can’t call me rock star anymore. How does melody master sound?”
Addie groaned and shook her head.
“No? Okay … lyric illuminator. Or—”
Addie pulled him in for a quick, deep kiss. “How about I just call you mine?”
He smirked wickedly and brushed his lips over hers. “That works, too.”