Page 128 of The Fix

The room, the fans, all howl wildly as Finland offers the instrument to Toby, my Toby, and tears spring to my eyes.

He’s sharing his throne with Toby, in front of everyone.

Toby rolls his eyes to break the intensity, but we’re so close that I can see the emotion there, the lift to his lips. The appreciation shining in his rich brown irises as he accepts the guitar from Finland and straps in.

And then … he’s off, fingers flying over the strings like it’s what he was meant to do, the melody filling in the blank beats of the song as Rex’s vocals spill the lyrics of a man bearing his soul to the demons he intends to slay.

Toby’s on stage.

Illuminated by his grin and driven by his passion.

It’s so damn beautiful.

But when he finally takes in the stage and the fans beyond it, my heart surges with hope and pride as it lands on me.

He smiles big and goofy, and beyond the stage lights, when his lips work around the second best phrase to ever come from his mouth, my heart feels full.

Hey, Mama.

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Toby

My fingers throb.

My face aches.

My eyes sting.

And yet I’ve never felt more fucking alive than I do right now.

With my heart in my throat and a sweaty brow, I lock eyes with the woman I love standing in the sea of bodies, and somehow fall deeper in love with her.

She’s so fucking beautiful.

And so fucking mine.

I play to her, for her, as Rex leads us into the next song that has my eyes burning even more.

Each lyric off my brother’s lips, I echo back. Some into the mic when I’m supposed to for the backup. But all of them sang straight to her.

She inspired each word. Each line a moment of us. Each verse, a promise.

Because this song is the one that Rex helped me write.

For her.

I’m fucking flying by the time the last line leaves his lips, a growl into the void of the venue, and I drop the beat back to a soft melody of repeated strings.

It’s the beginning of the next song, one of our older ones, but then Mac switches the beat of his drum to a different one.

It catches me off guard enough that I toss a look at him, but follow his lead and switch the tune.

“Tonight … is a very special night,” Rex tells the wild crowd, his voice echoed in the in-ear-monitors shoved into my ears. “But you already know that, don’t you?”

He pulls a marker from his pocket, one of those ones that are super thick, and uncaps it.

“Sometimes, life fucks us up,” Rex says, and a cadence of agreement filters through the IEM’s. “And sometimes, that fuckup … sends us to some places that we may not wanna go.” The man nods along, the fans all cheering. “But what do we do with it? When we’re in those places. The dark ones with seemingly no way out.”

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