by Daisy Allen
But it’s a piece I know like the beat of my own heart.
No. How can they....no.
I shake my head, but the notes keep coming, sweet, simple, pure notes, like...I’ve said it before, like moonlight over water.
They’re playing “Cadence’s Song”.
And just as my eyes draw tears from my aching heart, a giant cheer erupts from the crowd. I’ve heard that cheer before. I look up, my breath catching in my throat.
It’s them. Jez, Marius, Brad.
But no Sebastian.
And my heart sinks.
I watch as the three members of the Rock Chamber Boys stop centre stage, position their instruments and join in with the orchestra. Their parts ring out clear above the band, and even in my disappointment, I can’t help but fall in love with their performance.
How had they even arranged to do this?
And how had they done it, without him?
And as if the gods have heard my question, the band and the orchestra fade away, and a single cello starts to play.
I search the stage, but he’s not there.
And then I see him, standing alone in front of the stage in the grass. One man alone, but creating a symphony of sound just from his cello and his bow.
He’s just like he was that first time I saw him on stage, eyes closed, hair over his face, lost in his own performance.
And just like that first time, he lifts his head and locks his eyes on mine.
I feel an explosion in my chest and I press my hand against my heart to stop it from breaking through my skin.
With the last few notes, I know. This song is mine, this man is mine and always will be.
The final note rings out and the crowd erupts into a chaotic applause.
I’m rooted to the spot and can’t move. He smiles and reaches into his pocket and holds an object in his hand for a moment before throwing it up onto the stage at me. I reach out and grab it, gripping it tight, afraid to drop it.
I’m frozen and just keep staring at him. He doesn’t move or say anything, his eyes dark and searching mine.
“What is it?” I hear a voice ring out, and it’s Sarah, of course. I think everyone laughs, but I’m not sure.
I open my trembling hand. It’s the rosin box. And all the memories come crashing back. I open the box and take out the little jar of rosin, wrapped in a little note.
I unwrap the note. And almost drop it.
“Marry me, maybe?” The clear black letters say.
Oh my god.
I look down to where he is standing, but he’s not there. Panicked, I search the crowd but he’s not there.
And then I feel a hand on the back of my neck. I spin around just as he drops to a knee. His hand reaches for the jar and he opens it, and like in a dream, pulls out a white gold diamond ring. He takes my hand and I can’t help but notice how small mine looks cradled inside of his.
“Cadence.” He says, I’m instantly dizzy from the sound of his voice saying my name. God, how I‘ve missed it. “Marry me? I can’t do this without you.”
I look up into his eyes, and I wonder how I managed to get through the last three weeks without him.
“Do what?” I ask, already knowing my answer.
“Life.”
Instantly, he looks hazy to me, and I realize I‘m looking at him through tear-filled eyes. Happy tears because I know I’m about to be his forever.
“Yes.” I say.
And now everyone knows it too.
He grins and slides the ring onto my finger and pulls me into his arms and kisses me. God, I’ve missed his kiss, the feel of my body fitting completely with his, the sweet salty taste of his lips. The way he moans when our tongues touch.
Suddenly, we hear the orchestra and the band break into the “Wedding March” and we pull apart and laugh. The crowd continues to cheer and we reward them with another kiss.
Finally, when the need for breath takes over, I pull away and whisper, “I love you, Sebastian.”
“I love you, too, Cadence.”
“How did you do all this?” I look around us, amazed that he could pull it all off. From the stage to the crowd to teaching the orchestra the song.
“Don’t you know by now? I’m a romantic.” He winks at me, and my knees do the wobble thing.
“You’re a pain in my ass, more like! Why’d you wait so long?” I pout.
“I don’t know, baby, I didn’t know what I know now.”
“What’s that?”
“There’s no living without you...”
I smile, before he continues “Without you telling me what to do!”
“Hey!”
“Just kidding. I’m so sorry it took so long, I’ll make it up to you.” He tickles my ear with a kiss.
“I’ve heard that before.” I poke my tongue out at him, and then yelp when he pinches my ass.
There’s a squeal from the speaker and we turn to see Greg back at the microphone. He gives me a big thumbs up and I feel a surge of gratitude towards him for allowing all this.
He grabs the microphone from the stand and starts to address the crowd.
“Well, what a day! And would you believe, I have one last piece of news! I would also like to announce a brand new music scholarship program we will have at the school, starting right now. Each year, one of the most gifted music students will have their music lessons and equipment paid for, they will have one-on-one mentoring with the some of the world’s best musicians and will be invited to perform as their guest performer at one of their concerts – and this year, the inaugural recipient of our Rock Chamber Boys scholarship is JENNY YU!!!”
There’s a squeal from the orchestra and we see Jenny jump up from her seat, screaming and covering her ecstatic face. She runs over to me, almost knocking Sebastian out the way and we jump up and down hugging each other tight. Finally, we calm down and I tell her, “I didn’t do this. I think it’s the band you need to thank.”
She turns and just stares appreciatively at the band. “Thank you, thank you SO MUCH.” She gushes.
Marius starts to turn red and brushes her thanks aside, grabbing his viola and yelling out, “Who’s ready to PARTY!!”
The crowd screams and the boys break out into The Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get It Started” with the orchestra playing along.
I feel Sebastian pull me back against him, his face in my hair. I sigh. Wholly and completely happy.
“Did you do all this for me?” I wave my hand out over the stage and crowd.
“Yes. For you, for me, for music. For everything that matters to us.”
“You’re a big ol’ softy, aren’t you?” I turn, wrapping my arms around his neck.
“Yes, well...parts of me.” He wiggle his eyebrows at me and I burst into a fit of giggles. “Other parts are big’ ol’ hard-y for you.” He finishes, and suddenly, I want him so much I can’t breathe.
“Oh, care to prove it?” I grin at him.
He pulls away me and leads me down the stage stairs. “You name the time and place, baby.”
“First one back to the hotel gets first orgasm!” I challenge him, pulling away from him and heading for my car.
He stops and grips my hand, pulling me back into his arms, “Er, small change, I’ve moved out of the hotel.”
“Wait, what?” I stop in my tracks, suddenly scared. “Where are you going?”
He smiles and presses a soft kiss to my forehead “I’m going home. With you.”
Epilogue
SEBASTIAN
“Another round of applause for the Senior Orchestra from RedFern High School!”
The crowd’s on their feet and I can barely make out the individual faces from my spot behind the curtain.
Cadence turns to the audience and bows and gestures to the orchestra who rise up onto their feet and take their bow. I’m clapping so hard I think I’m going to need to find a nurse’s station for a wrist brace.
“THEY FUCKING KILLED IT!!” Brad jumps up and down next to me, punchin
g his hands into the air and whooping with the best of them. We grin at each other proudly, as if we’ve had a part of it.
The kids file off the stage and into the backstage area where Marius and Jez greet them with hugs and high fives. Their faces are flushed and happy, still reeling from the excitement of their performance.
“Sebastian!” I turn at the sound of her voice and hold my arms out to catch her as she runs toward me.
“How were we???” Cadence asks me, her face no different to her students’, flushed with excitement and pride.
“Fucking brilliant, that’s how you were!” I tell her proudly, burying my face in her hair and taking a deep, deep breath of her heady orange blossom scent.
“Shhh! The kids!” She frowns at me for a moment, in response to my swearing, but the exuberance of performing breaks through like a streak of sunlight. I grin back at her, her joy for life always rubbing off on me.
“Oh shush, teach.” I wink at her, and the kids around us giggle when she pokes her tongue out at me.
I look around us, at the 50 kids hopping with anticipation waiting for the final results of the National Orchestral Competition and I can’t believe I could feel so connected to them after such a short amount of time.
These last few weeks in Australia after Cadence and I got engaged, we’d spent it in some sort of honeymoon like bliss, our time spent alternating between our bed, the recording studio and the school, the guys and I helping to get the orchestra into tip top shape for the competition. And now, seeing it all come together, it’s even more nerve wracking than waiting for the envelope to open at the Grammys, we want these kids to win so bad!
“Ugh, Miss Bray, I think I’m going to throw up,” Jenny moans, bent over a chair behind us.
“Are you ok, honey?” My fiancé runs over to her charge to check up on her.
“Ugh, yes, I’m just so nervous,” the teenager moans again.
“Oh, I’m glad I’m not the only one,” Marius pipes up, holding his stomach, “when are they going to make the damn announcement already?”
“I think…right now…” I point to the man in the suit walking across the stage with a sheet of paper in his hand.
The silence is deafening as we wait for him to clear his throat, tapping the microphone and making it squeal.
“After much deliberation, the judges have decided on the winner of this year’s National High School Orchestral Competition. “
I feel a sharp pinch on my arm and I turn to see Cadence clutching me tight, her eyes squeezed tight in some sort of prayer. I can’t help but feel my heart squeeze tight out of love for her in that moment, and I press a kiss to her forehead. Her eyelids flutter for a moment but stay closed and I turn my attention back to the stage.
“With their stunning performance of Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers and Cadence’s Song, conducted by Miss Cadence Bray, the winner for the very first time, is Redfern High School from Sydney!!!”
There’s a stunned silence around me, but just for a moment, and then the elation erupts and all I can see and hear are arms and happy faces and tears and hugs breaking out around me.
I can’t stop grinning as the kids flood the stage pulling my beautiful fiancé on with them as they practically snatch the trophy out of the MC’s hands, waving to the audience filled with proud family members who’ve traveled all this way to watch them.
“Good work, man,” I feel a pat on my back and I nod.
“You too, Jez,” I smile at my band mate, knowing he was as invested in them as I was. “Hey, thanks for, you know, helping me out with it all.”
A wolfish grin spreads across Jez’s face. “Man, don’t be going soft on me now, save that for your woman.”
“Oh, he’s never gone soft on me, Jez,” Cadence’s voice speaks up behind us, and we realize she’s left the stage to join us, “Just the opposite in face.” She winks at me, and instantly I wonder if there’s anywhere we can find a moment to be by ourselves.
Jez just shakes his head and walks off, high fiving Brad as he goes.
“Why, Mary, whatever did you mean by that?” I pull her in close and nuzzle my face against her neck.
She laughs and pulls away, glaring at me for a moment , “You know, you never did tell me why you call me that.”
“You still haven’t figured it out after all this time?”
“I’m almost afraid to now.”
“Mary. For Mary Poppins!” I finally admit and her mouth falls open.
“Dear lord, why on earth, why?”
“Because your first impression of her is that she’s strict and cold, but as you get to know her, you find out, she’s caring and thoughtful, loves the children to the end of the world and back even though she knows one day they won’t need her any more. Oh and under that highly buttoned collar, she’s sexy as all hell.”
Cadence lets her head fall back in a loud laugh, but the sparkle in her eyes tells me she probably won’t mind me calling her by her nickname anymore.
“And you knew all that about me after only 30 seconds?” She looks up at me with those full, round, brown eyes.
“A man can hope.” I wink.
“So, where to now?” Jez comes up to us, draping his arms around our shoulders
“What do you mean? I thought you never wanted to leave Australia?” I remind him.
“Well, er...you know, sometimes it’s better to leave them wanting more...and me wanting to be far, far away from them.”
“I knew it! I told you.” I give him a soft slap on the back of his head and he pouts and rubs it.
“Well, you can go wherever it is you want to go,” Dennis contributes, “As long as it ends up in London in two weeks. That’s when the launch of your publicity tour for the new album starts.”
I push Jez out of the way and grab Cadence by the wrist and twirl her into my arms.
“How ‘bout it? What are you doing for the next few weeks?” I ask her.
“School’s out for summer, so I’m all yours.”
“A month of tea and biscuits it is!”
“And kisses?” She looks up at me, with that look that is both sweet and unbearably sexy.
“Yeah.” I brush her eyebrow with my lips.
“Then I don’t care where we are, as long as I’m with you.”
“Always, babe. It’s you and me, forever. Here, there, everywhere and in between.”
The End.
About the Author
Firstly thing about the author you should know is, she hates writing these “About the Author” things.
But if you should run into her in a café in her hometown of Adelaide, Australia, then for the price of a free smile, she’ll tell you details you never needed to hear about another person.
Her husband can vouch for this. It’s how they met. Kinda. But you’ll hear about that when you run into her in a café in Adelaide.
She hopes you liked her book though. Like, really. It’s pretty much all she’s ever wanted to do. Write a book that you’d want to read.
Thanks for helping to fulfil that dream by reading this book.
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Other Books by Daisy Allen
Once Bitten: An O’Reilly Clan Novel – A Sexy Second Chance Romance
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