SWNOVELS Chapter Sweet Regret: Epilogue 2
“So we’re going to do something a little different in the show tonight,” Hawkin says as he moves across the stage, pulling my attention from my phone. What mischief is he up to tonight?
I know the performance by heart. Bent’s set list. The jokes they tell. The looks they give when one of them fucks up. The banter they repeat like a rehearsed skit.
It’s not that I’m bored by it, but let’s just say I don’t hang on every note like I did the first twenty-something shows of this tour.
So when Hawkin breaks the routine, it most definitely grabs my attention.
I glance toward the doorway Vince’s personal assistant took Jagger through to go to the bathroom. If there’s something different tonight, I want him to see it.
“You see, two years ago, like any family, we”—Hawkin points to Vince, Rocket, and Gizmo—“needed a little break from each other.” Boos fill the audience. “I know, I know. I felt the same way.” He holds his finger up. “But something really good came out of that break. My brother here.” He walks over and hooks an arm around Vince’s shoulders. “Had a single that went crazy popular, and I want him to sing it for you tonight.”
What? This is most definitely a change.
“Really?” Vince asks, playing it up.
“Really.” Hawkin walks over to a waiting stagehand and grabs Vince’s acoustic guitar. He holds it out to Vince and exchanges his bass with it. “You see, it’s a good song. Fucking great actually. I’m kind of jealous I didn’t write it myself.” He laughs. “So, will you play it for us?”
The crowd goes so wild I have to plug my ears.
“Okay. Okay,” Vince says. “I’ll play, but I’m going to need some help.”
“What, are we not enough?” Rocket asks, propping his elbow on Hawkin’s shoulder.
“You’re enough, all right,” Vince jokes, “but someone I know has been working really hard on learning this song and wants to help me play it tonight.”
My head can’t process what my heart already knows, seconds before Jagger shuffles onto the stage with his guitar in hand. The one that matches Vince’s. I gasp and put a hand to my heart, the tears already forming before they even do anything.
Jagger reaches Vince and looks up at him with a huge grin. “You want to say hi to everyone, Jenzo?”
He lowers the microphone and Jagger waves to the crowd, his high-pitched voice booming out of the speakers when he says, “Hi, everyone.”
The crowd says hi back as flashes light up the darkness.
Each one of the guys fist-bumps Jagger and ruffles his hair as he’s getting set up beside Vince. My heart pounds in my chest and every mom cell in my body is overwhelmed seeing the two of them together like this.
“So, I wrote this song a little while ago,” Vince says as he takes center stage. “It was for the only woman I’ve ever loved. A woman who has never given up on me or her dreams. A woman whose different is her beautiful.” He adjusts the mic and looks out toward the press box where he knows I am. “Jagg and I have added an extra verse to it tonight. I hope you enjoy it.” More cheers. “You ready, buddy?”
“Yep. Ready to rock,” Jagger says and elicits laughter from the crowd. My heart is in my throat as I watch them.
The familiar chords of Sweet Regret fill the arena. The cameras to the big screens zoom in on Jagger. On the furrow of his brow. The bite of his teeth into his bottom lip in concentration. To the way he positions himself on his guitar.
And when the camera zooms out, both of my boys are side by side, almost identical in all things but height. I couldn’t be any more in love with them than I already am.
Vince begins to sing. He pulls me under with his sexy voice and the lyrics I know by heart. With the ones that convinced me we had to say goodbye. With the ones that made me love him even more.
And when he finishes the chorus the third time through after the bridge, he looks straight into the camera and sings to me.
Time lost. Time apart.
But we found our way, new lives to start.
Healed hearts. Our souls consoled.
You and me, baby, let’s grow old.
I look at him. I look at you.
The love we have keeps shining through.
I did forgive.
You did forget.
Losing time with you, my one, true regret.
I stare at the screen, awed by Jagger’s talent and the love I feel for the man standing beside him.
I never knew I could be this happy. This content. This fulfilled. This loved.
God, I adore them.
They bow and the crowd roars. Then Vince pulls Jagger into his arms and holds tight. It’s a moment I’ll hold dear for the rest of my life.
So many choices have brought us to where we are today. A heartbreaking farewell in a bedroom window, a ticket to a concert and a phone number from a bitter man, and a colleague asking me to fill in for her one fateful night.
But perhaps the most significant choice of all was to follow our hearts.
That decision led us back to each other.
To this moment.
To a love I always knew existed but never thought I could have.