Page 32 of Searching for Sadie (Mystic Falls #5)

SADIE

T he next morning the sun came peeking through the curtain in Lucas's room as her eyes blinked open.

Yesterday she'd woken with her eyes puffy from tears in her own bed.

That was a stark comparison to the way she woke up this morning with Lucas's arms wrapped around her waist holding her close to him.

She took this moment to take him to his room.

She'd never dated anyone like him before.

Her normal type was musicians who tended to think they were smarter than her and knew way more about the industry than she did, and for some reason she had always let them believe that, even though it was so far from the truth.

But Lucas was different, from his man cave of a basement to the understated masculine quality of his room done in maroon with lots of clean lines. Something about him made her feel safe, and with all the upheaval in her life she needed that right now.

The calm silence was broken by the alarm of his phone.

He grumbled and reached for it, snoozing it before snuggling right back into her and nuzzling into her hair with a satisfied moan.

He thought she was still asleep and the reverent way he kissed the top of her head almost broke her heart.

He treated her like she was delicate, but not breakable. She'd never had that before.

She turned in his arms and the sight of his sleepy face and mussed up hair made her smile.

"Good morning," he said, his voice still rough with sleep.

He rolled to his back and Sadie moved with him laying her head on his chest. His hand rubbed up and down her back as they woke up slowly.

"I like waking up like this," she said as she ran her hand over the dusting of blond hair covering his chest.

He planted another kiss on her head and hummed in agreement. After another long moment the alarm on his phone went off again.

"But sadly, I do have to get up and get ready. Do you want some coffee?" he asked.

"Yeah, but if I'm going to work with Liam James today, I need to shower."

"Okay, you go home and get ready. I'll get us coffee and breakfast and then we'll hit the road."

"What no cold pizza? I thought you said breakfast, lunch, and dinner?"

He laughed. "Not when I'm trying to impress my new girlfriend," he said with a wag of his eyebrows.

She knew she had to have terrible morning breath but even that couldn't have stopped her as she reached up and kissed him.

While she wasn't sure she was ready to be someone's girlfriend, something about Lucas's gentle steady presence in her life was more reassuring than anything had ever been.

Somehow, he'd become the calm in the storm her life was currently.

"Okay, I'm going to shower."

By the time she had showered and picked out what she wanted to wear it had taken her a bit longer than she'd thought.

I mean, what does one wear when they are going to play music with one of the world's most famous musicians?

She finally settled on some cut off shorts and her favorite vintage Dolly shirt. It's always brought her luck.

She went out the back door and crossed her backyard before knocking on Lucas's patio door.

"Come in," he called.

She slid the door open, and Lucas was plating up pancakes and bacon.

"What is this?"

"Breakfast," he said, sitting the plates down on the table.

"I was not expecting pancakes."

"I got to keep you on your toes," he said as he crossed back into the kitchen and returned with butter and syrup.

"Well done."

They fixed their pancakes and drank coffee like they'd been doing it for years.

"How are you feeling about today?" he asked.

"I'm actually really nervous," she said before tearing off a piece of bacon.

"I'm sure it will be okay," said Lucas as he took her hand.

"Yeah, you're right. I just haven't played anyone my songs in a while, especially someone like Liam James."

Her phone started to ring on the table. she picked it up to glance at it, it was an unknown number. She just flipped it over and laid it down. When she looked back up at Lucas, he gave her a knowing smile.

"It was an unknown number."

She took a sip of her coffee, and her phone rang again.

"You're popular this morning," he said.

This time it was Zara. She didn't want to answer it, but she also didn't want her showing up here again. Steeling herself, she answered it.

"Hello."

"Sadie, hi, I just wanted to go over the plans for the reunion show with you."

"I got your email, I got my ticket and the hotel reservation. What else do I need to know?"

"Well, we were wondering if there was any way we could film a sit down with you and Ryan."

"Absolutely not. I will be there for the reunion, but that's it."

"I get it, but Ryan is a little worried about how all this is playing out."

"That is not my problem," she said as she ran her hand through her hair. She glanced as Lucas furrowed his brow watching her.

A commotion came over the line. "Sadie, this is Ryan."

Her head snapped back, she was about to hang up. "Please don't hang up. I really need to talk to you."

"What?"

"I know you haven't been paying too much attention online, but you know we had a real connection. People online are saying that I was just clout chasing. It would really help if we came out as a united front."

"And why would you want to be united front with a fat girl?"

The look on Lucas's face turned from cautious to murderous.

'Is that him?' he mouthed to her. Part of her wanted to get up and go talk to him on the porch so Lucas couldn't hear, the other part wanted to just hang up and pretend this wasn’t her life.

Instead, she decided it was time to stop hiding and lean on Lucas who had been her steady support this entire time.

"Sadie, come on. It wasn't like that."

"You're right. It was worse than I thought. I've seen all the stuff you say behind my back. And now you want me to help you, absolutely not."

Lucas nodded.

"Let me talk to Zara or I'm hanging up."

"Please, Sadie, I'm begging you. If your feelings for me were ever real."

She scoffed, he had some nerve saying that to her.

"I would do it for you," he said, getting loud.

"No."

"Why do you have to be such a bitch?" he yelled.

Her mouth fell open and she felt like she'd just been slapped.

No one in her life ever talked to her like that.

An outstretched hand came into her line of sight.

She looked up at Lucas who was holding out his hand for the phone.

She knew if she waved him off, he would just sit there being the supportive presence he was.

But she wasn't sure anyone had ever stood up like this for her before and if he wanted to, she was going to let him.

"Is this Ryan?" he said in a deep voice she barely recognized.

Sadie really wished he was on speaker because she would love to hear him respond.

"Who I am doesn't matter, but if I ever hear you call her that again you'll have a much bigger problem. Do you understand?... Okay, now I believe she just asked to speak to Zara, put her on the phone... no, I won't let you talk to her. You heard her, Zara or she hangs up... Are you Zara?"

He nodded and handed her phone back. She looked at him wide eyed as he gave her a little smile and nod of his head.

"Zara?"

"Who is that?"

"My neighbor."

"Ahhh, your neighbor, things are making a bit more sense."

"Do you need anything else from me? I emailed my confirmation for the reunion, my socials are live, we're good, right?"

"Ummm, yeah, we're good."

"Okay, I'll see you in two weeks."

And at that Sadie hung her phone up and laid it back on the table.

She looked up at Lucas who seemed to be searching her for a hint of how she was feeling.

.. and surprisingly, she was okay. It might have been another hit to her already battered ego, but with Lucas here, she was starting to care less.

"Thank you," she murmured.

"I'm sorry if I overstepped, I just didn't like the way he was talking to you." He furrowed his brow and pushed a piece of pancake around his plate.

She covered his hand with her own. "It means a lot to me that you stood up for me. I hate that people have to see me going through all this. It's so embarrassing, but somehow you just make me feel better."

He looked up at her, the furrow of his brow gone and a small smile peeking out from his beard. "This is just an offer to go to Nashville and kick his ass."

A small chuckle bubbled inside of her. "I appreciate that, but I can handle him. Plus, some of the girls from the show have reached out, I think you might have to get in line."

"Good," he said, squeezing her hand. "Let's finish up and get out of here. I was hoping to be out there soon to get the building wired today."

"Okay," she said as they finished up their breakfast.

After they finished Lucas helped her load her guitar into the backseat of his truck.

She was trying to decide if she should bring her banjo, but that wasn't really Liam's style, so she just went with her acoustic.

The rest of the morning was quiet. Lucas seemed to be lost in thought, but that was okay because so was she.

As they pulled up to Liam and Lexi's house it was still just as impressive as it had been when she was here to watch the first couple episodes.

Lucas knocked on the door and after a moment Lexi came to answer it.

"Hey, Liam is downstairs already. He's usually not up this early, but he was excited to work with you. You can head down, and I can show you out back to what Liam told me was a shed but is really starting to appear to be another small house," Lexi said with a laugh.

"Sounds good," Lucas said.

"I'll stop in when I finish up and check in with you," he said with his hand on the small of her back.

She looked up at him and gave a little nod before she slowly walked inside. Lexi and Lucas left making their way down behind the house. The door snicked shut behind her leaving her alone in this beautiful home.

She was about to head downstairs, but the sight of the beautiful grand piano caught her eye again. Being here alone, that piano in the sitting room was even more tempting.It was so majestic, and her fingers almost ached to play it.

She couldn't seem to help herself. Without being aware of walking to it, she found herself standing right next to it.

Setting down her guitar, her fingers grazed the cool ivory of the keys before pressing a triad of keys filling the room with the hum of a chord.

Her fingers adeptly moved playing another chord.

Before she knew it, she was sitting down plucking out a melody she'd been toying around with over the past few weeks.

"That's pretty," a voice said behind her.

She jumped and turned to Liam leaning against the archway to the kitchen smiling at her.

He had on some loose-fitting jeans that hung low on his hips and an old Willie Nelson t-shirt, and it was like being in the same room with a poster.

That was a weird thought, but she didn't know how else to explain the surreal experience of someone like Liam James just popping up.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly, standing and leaving the piano.

"Don't be. I invited you over to play music, that's just what you were doing. What were you playing?"

"Oh, umm, it's just something I've been working on since I moved here."

"Does it have words?"

She nodded.

"Can I hear it?" he asked.

"No. It's not ready yet."

He just smiled and nodded. A little weight of nerves lifted. So often people pushed her to share things that weren't ready. Every artist has a different process, and every artist shares it at different times in the process, this one wasn't ready.

"I do have some songs I could play for you though," she said with a smile.

"Amazing. I was just coming up to get some tea before I head back down. Can I get you any?"

"Sure," she stood and grabbed her guitar and followed him into the kitchen.

"I like your shirt," he said.

"I like yours too. We have a similar theme today."

"We do," he said as he slid her a glass of tea. "I've been playing around with more Americana sounds recently so it felt like a good choice."

"Americana? I knew I should have brought my banjo."

"Oh man, yeah, that would have been amazing. Do you want to head downstairs? I've been messing around with Bertha and I could use some pointers."

"Bertha?" she asked with her head cocked.

"It's what I named the music board."

"Yes! Let's so do it! I'm so excited. I haven't messed around with a board in months."

"Well, Let's do it."

They both picked up their tea and headed down the stairs. Sadie had to pinch herself. She was about to play music with Liam James in his home studio. All she had to do was act like a person. Surely, she could pull it off, even if she was jumping up and down screaming on the inside.