Wrong For You (Before You Series Book 3)(74)

***



Chasing Ruin stepped on the stage to applause and shouts, but nothing like the videos she glimpsed on YouTube. Apparently, that’s the response when the room was filled with self-important people rather than band-crazed groupies and band super fans.

Standing on the side of the stage was amazing. She couldn’t see the people in the ballroom so she felt a little like a voyeur sneaking into Chasing Ruin’s practice session.

“Thanks for coming,” Jax, the lead singer yelled into the microphone. “Since you so graciously opened your wallets for a cause near to our hearts, we’ll be playing two never before heard songs for you.”

Alec did a quick countdown with his drumsticks and then music exploded from the instruments. The crowd screamed the minute Jax’s voice crooned into the microphone. It was like honey over gravel and as everything came together, Violet understood why Chasing Ruin was so big.

“That’s my song,” Taylor said from behind her. “Cam didn’t tell me they were going to play it tonight.”

“You wrote it?” Violet asked.

“No,” Taylor smiled dreamily. “Cam wrote it for me.”

Violet listened to the words of redemption and love lost and found and she had to admit, it was achingly beautiful. “I love it and it’s getting a great reaction.” She yelled to be heard over the music and the shouts from the audience.

“I can’t believe it.” Taylor clapped her hands together like a kid. “Cam’s going to be ecstatic when they’re done playing. That song was his first real attempt at writing music for the band. In the past, Jax wrote all the lyrics.”

“I’m not a reliable judge of music, but it sounds incredible.”

Taylor’s eyes followed Cam around the stage, not veering away from him for a minute.

“How long have you been together?” Violet asked.

“Four months.”

“And Alec doesn’t mind that you’re dating him?” She probably shouldn’t have said anything, but her internet search of Chasing Ruin inevitably dug up some really outrageous stuff on Cam.”

Taylor laughed. “You watched the video, huh?”

Violet’s cheeks heated. She didn’t watch it, but she did read a lurid description of his not so innocent hook-up with two girls. “No, I just read a little about it.”

“Cam has changed. Alec knows that and so do I. We all have crap in our past—lies, secrets, moments we want to erase and moments we wish we could do over—but it doesn’t have to define us,” Taylor said the words so convincingly, she wanted to believe her.

Violet nodded. She didn’t want to erase any moments she shared with Alec, but she wished she had reacted differently to finding out Alec was the drummer for Chasing Ruin. She should have listened, or at the very least called him the next day once she cooled down and let him explain. She told him she loved him and she promised that nothing would change her mind about him. Her promise didn’t even last twenty-four hours. Instead, she ran from him just like his parents did when things got uncomfortable, and she spent the last month choking on her insecurities rather than picking up the phone and calling him.

“All of us are broken,” Taylor continued, “some a little more than others, but if you love someone, you accept them and their past, even if it’s ugly.”

Taylor’s words felt like pointed jabs aimed at her heart. She needed to say something, but just then the music stopped and Cam ran off the stage and twirled Taylor around in a circle. “Did you hear that, Tay? They loved our song.”

“They better have.” Taylor brushed a kiss across his lips.

Violet snuck by them. She didn’t want to intrude on their moment and she needed some time to herself before she talked to Alec. Slipping out of the ballroom, she wandered down the hall until she found the bathroom.





Chapter Twenty-Seven





By the time, he walked off the stage, Violet was gone. She said she’d wait, but maybe she changed her mind. As he walked through the ballroom searching for Violet’s pale hair, his eyes collided with Annette’s. She looked him up and down, her face hard before she approached him.

“Violet’s in the bathroom.”

Alec stuffed his hand in his pockets, not saying anything. Annette wasn’t his biggest fan. She made that clear the moment she met him. He couldn’t imagine she had changed her mind after she heard he lied to Violet.

“Turn left. It’s at the end of the hall,” Annette said, waving toward the open double doors.

“Thanks, Annette.”

He had taken two steps before he heard Annette’s voice. “If you fuck this up again, it will be your third strike and I’ll make damn sure that Violet doesn’t give you another chance. Even if you’re famous and most likely wealthy, she’s too good for you.”