Page 85 of Synced to Us

“No more Wyn,” I say, a heavy weight settling on my shoulders. “I hurt him, like you said. I don’t know if we can come back from that, other than to finish the one small favor he asked of me.”

McKenna lifts her brows. “Are you sure? What if he gave you another chance? What then?”

“A chance?” I echo, never considering the idea, but as soon as I speak, the lights flicker.

I glance up in confusion but look at McKenna when she doesn’t look around in alarm along with me and everybody else.

In fact, she’s shooting me a devious grin.

I narrow my gaze at her. “What have you done?”

The music shrieks to a stop, and the room silences at the sudden change.

“I can’t sing for shit,” a voice, a familiar one, comes over the speakers. “But I’m trying to win over the woman of my dreams, so you’ll have to forgive me for making your ears bleed. If anything, focus on the music. Now that’s the shit I’m great at.”

Nervous laughter floats up from my belly. Stifling it, I lean over to McKenna and whisper, “What the hell?”

Despite the dimmed lighting, I note her flushed cheeks and bright, eager eyes. She always does this—wears her heart on her sleeve.

“You planned this!” I whisper-shriek.

She nods unabashedly.

Questions rise from other tables. Who is that? Is it who I think it is? Did you hear Nocturne Court is coming back? One of their wives is right there. Do you think—?

We’re all interrupted by the trickle of chords through the speakers, a beautiful swell of piano keys.

I scan the restaurant in search of a man hunched over a keyboard. Where is he?

And then the song that stitched itself into my soul starts to play, the instrumentals of moonlight and dockside bars and family homes.

Wyn.

There was a reason,

I had to go solo,

Heads twist and swivel, trying to locate the source along with me, but Wyn stays invisible, his voice cringe-worthy.

With no one beside me, around me, or with me,

Until you heard my loneliness and called me close.

“Oh my God,” I whisper to myself and look down at my hands so no one can see the tears pooling in my eyes. Wyn’s tone cracks. He’s completely out of tune, but his lyrics…the meaning of his words…

You took my chords,

Changed them into the notes of our song,

You held my heart,

Changed it into the beats of our love,

You breathed in deep,

Changing our air to fire,

Letting me know, with you,

---