She continued to gape. “You want me to write the melody?”

“No, this is a guitar, and that’s my song in your lap,” I answered sarcastically. “I thought we’d knit.”

Lifting the notepad, it slapped my chest when she tossed it at me as she stood. Jericho caught her, which I’m sure was more of an excuse to touch her after so long than as a favor to me, and kept her from leaving.

“He’s sorry, I’m sorry, we’re all sorry,” he told her sincerely when she was seated next to me again.

Refusing to look at him, she flipped him off, surprising everyone in the room except Braxton. She’d never given him more than her silence, which rarely lasted long when she was upset with him. Loren and I usually bore the brunt of her wrath.

Jericho tried to nix it off, only to end up looking like his dog died. I refrained from laughing since Braxton would no doubt assume it was directed at her.

“I’ll create the melody,” I pretended to concede after picking up the fallen notepad.

I could see in her eyes that she wanted to do it, possibly since the moment she read the first line, but she was too stubborn to let go of her pride. I was starting to wonder if she’d picked up that trait from her conservative upbringing or if she came by it honestly.

Handing her the notepad again, I hid my surprise when she took it. “Sing it how you think it should sound,” I requested when she just stared at me.

Braxton had a powerful voice, and even though I should be used to it by now, I was always eager to hear it again.

I waited patiently as she silently read over it again, creating a natural rhythm for the verses, chorus, and bridge in her mind before she began. I listened, hopelessly enthralled, as she tried it a second and third time out loud. She shifted her tone and pitch, speeding up and slowing down her pace when needed until it flowed like water from her lips.

“That was good,” I praised as casually as I could manage. Clearing my throat, I lifted the guitar. “Let’s try that again. I’ll do backup.”

She did without argument, singing much slower this time as I tried to find the right chords to match the rhythm she set. We ran through it numerous times until it started to feel cohesive.

“Again,” I said the moment we finished our fourth attempt. It almost sounded like a plea. They might have been my words, but the song was always meant for her voice. Braxton didn’t hesitate before launching into the song I’d crafted from her pain.

Walking alone in this lonely existence

How much longer can I hide what I feel

There’s a wolf in the midst of pious sheep

It rages, can anyone hear me

(Give in to me)

It seems no one understands

No one else but you

You’re the vengeance that builds in silence

I’m the demon you wait to free

I can’t stop these imminent changes

You send a broken servant; sacrificed, he kneels

Looking into dead eyes, I come alive

Fucked and forsaken, I’m cast aside

(Just give in to me)

Don’t let this thing wither

Let my blood run wild

Set the flame and feel it burn

I hear you calling

(Give in to me)

It seems no one understands

No one else but you

You’re the vengeance that builds in silence

I’m the demon you wait to free

Just as Braxton was reaching the bridge that led to the fourth verse and the final chorus, Loren’s phone started to ring from where it sat on the table. Neither of us stopped. From my peripheral, however, I saw Loren lean over to check it.

I never questioned or understood how I’d become so attuned to my best friends that I could feel their emotions as if they were my own.

My fingers stopped playing.

Only one person inspired the measure of anger and apprehension I felt rippling off Loren in waves.

Braxton waited for me to tell her why I had stopped, but my focus was on Loren, who was lifting his phone from the table.

“Don’t answer that,” I snapped.

I never even considered if I had the right to come between a father and son. Loren gave me a lazy look like he was bored, but I knew better. He cared about his father calling. And he hated my attempt to strong-arm him into doing what he already knew was best—for everyone.

I didn’t know why Orson chose now to reach out, but it couldn’t have been because he cared. However, Loren’s lack of surprise and the tension radiating off him made me wonder if this wasn’t the first time.

It’s been six years to my recollection.

What had I missed?

“He’s my father,” Loren retorted as if that made a difference.

“Then explain why you’ve only had Rich and me for the past six years?”

“Fuck you, Houston, okay?” He grabbed his phone and stood, making me stand too.

He wasn’t answering that fucking call.

Loren might have forgotten how long it took him to stand on his own feet confidently, but I hadn’t. Five years and he was still waiting for me to apologize for talking them into signing that deal, but I couldn’t.

I just…couldn’t.

As much as I regretted Savant, it wasn’t even close to how much I would have missed my best friend.

I wouldn’t give him up then, and I wouldn’t give him up now.

Holding my gaze, Loren pressed the green button.

The moment he tried to speak, I charged the two steps it took to reach him and packed a lot of power into the fist I drove into his stomach. Loren dropped to one knee, and when his phone hit the ground next to him, I quickly scooped it up.

There was frustration and anger written in the look he gave me as he held his stomach and glared up at me. Braxton and Rich also wore deep frowns, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care if they thought I was being a dick. Frankly, what else was new?

“What the fuck is your problem?” Loren barked once he caught the wind I’d knocked out of him.

“Orson James is my problem. He hasn’t changed, and you fucking know it.”

The muscle in Loren’s jaw ticked. Hitting him and taking away the call with his father hadn’t pissed him off nearly as much as his fear that I might be right.

It was more than a possibility, though. It was a fucking fact.

And it was already driving me crazy to think that I might not be there the next time Orson called, and he would. He didn’t give up easily, but neither did I.

Standing, Loren didn’t break my stare. “What the hell makes you think you’re any different?” he spat, calling me out on my shit. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything other than take it because Loren was right. I wasn’t any better than Orson James. “You’re still a controlling piece of shit. Nothing’s changed.”

Bumping me as he passed to leave the room, I almost followed him to…I don’t know. Loren shot a look over his shoulder just before he disappeared that warned me off.

Rich jumped on me as soon as the door was closed. “Seriously, Morrow?”

My gaze shot to Braxton for some reason before I quickly looked away. Shame, maybe? I was acting like a lunatic and couldn’t explain why. “Drop it.”

Braxton silently stood from the couch and slowly walked by me before quietly leaving the room. I had a hunch she was going to check on Loren despite giving him the cold shoulder.

Dropping down into the armchair Loren had vacated and slouching, I leaned my head against the low back and closed my eyes. I’d barely finished exhaling all the air from my lungs and unknotting my fucking stomach before Rich broke the silence.

“I’m meeting with my lawyer tomorrow,” he quietly announced. I kept my eyes closed since I was too exhausted to know where he was going with this. “And then I’m going to tell Braxton about Emily.”

My eyes shot open at that as I lifted my head.

“No shit?” I couldn’t pin a reason on why I frowned when it was immense relief I felt. Perhaps it was because I knew Jericho couldn’t have come to this decision easily. “What made you change your mind?”

Rich was forlorn as he stared at the floor for a while before he finally answered. “It’s starting to feel like I’m in a hole too deep to climb, and I can’t help but hope that I’m wrong. Even if there’s a crumb possibility that Braxton will forgive me, I have to hold on to it with both hands, you know?”

I did know.

Because chances were Rich wouldn’t be the only one getting dumped when Braxton found out about his wife.

“We’ll figure out the rest,” I promised him.

Staring at him a little longer, I blew out a breath when that pitiful look in his eyes became even more palpable. I had an inkling of what had held him up from going around Emily and getting his marriage dissolved.

Silently, I waited for the anger and betrayal that never came.