Page 77 of P.S. I'm Still Yours

“Hads?” The nickname sends shivers crawling up my spine.

I hate that nickname.

It makes him sound like the boy I used to know.

“Yeah?”

His voice comes out in a low rasp. “You were right earlier. When you said I was avoiding you. I was being a dick.”

A normal guy would follow that up with an apology, but an admission is all I get before he disappears inside the house. He didn’t apologize for disrespecting me. Not even close. But he did admit to his wrongdoing.

It’s not much.

But I’ll take it.

HADLEY

Everybody knows first days at a new job tend to be stressful.

But you know what’s even more stressful?

Starting said job while running on two hours of sleep—I’m sorry, did I say hours? I meant minutes. At least that’s what it felt like when I dragged myself out of bed at seven this morning.

The icing on the cake? None of this is my fault. There’s only one person to blame for the dark circles under my eyes, and that’s Kane.

I made the mistake of looking him up last night.

Call it a mix of curiosity and boredom. I hadn’t been able to quiet my thoughts since I’d found him singing by the pool the night prior, and I needed to put my questions to rest once and for all.

Anything I’ve seen of Kane’s in the past five years, I’ve only seen because of Maggie. I’ve heard most of his songs, sure—it was hard not to with every radio station playing them on repeat—but I never let myself fall into a rabbit hole like this.

I searched his name online and wound up watching his music videos, interviews, fan edits. All the shit I’d been avoiding for ages. I even checked his song credits on Spotify.

Just as I suspected, he hasn’t written any of the songs on his last albums except for “I’m Still Yours.”

He’s been singing other people’s words for five years now. The thought pissed me off to no end.

What a waste.

But that’s not even the craziest part.

I stumbled upon one of his live performances and found out that Kane is one hell of an entertainer. He has this presence onstage. This… magnetism I can’t explain. He owns every show, exuding so much charisma and talent it’s impossible to look away.

I thought surely, he couldn’t knock me on my ass any more than he already had. That’s when I clicked on one of his acoustic performances.

And realized that I was wrong.

I was certain Kane played a thousand different guitars onstage, but… the only guitar he’s playing is mine.

Well, the one I gave him.

He plays it at every show.

Every. Single. One.

I must’ve gone through a hundred clips to make sure it wasn’t a onetime thing, and it doesn’t matter if the video was filmed off a fan’s phone or by a professional crew, I haven’t found a single clip of him playing another guitar.

Not one.