He stands at the grave, staring down sullenly. Breathing deeply to offset tears, his feet shuffle in the darkness. He bites the inside of his lip, unsure.
They…Jeff, they found him in the bathroom. Dead. Dead, okay? Blood, pills…he wanted to die.
…what?
Patty said it was all the stress he was under, from the jobs and the shows and trying to see his kids and be a good husband in between.
Would it make any sense to tell them? Would the secret affair make life easier or harder? Was understanding worth the conscience it would sacrifice?
Would they ever talk to Jeff again? It was his fault, after all.
Honey... he had begun We can’t get married. You’re already married.
We’re cheating anyway!
I…I don’t want to marry you.
That was Jeff’s only good-bye.

They had split up, there was no other way around it. Things just hadn’t worked out between them. Chip had left his wife, his kids, to be with Jeff and…their relationship had fallen apart. Chip left the tour. Jeff felt like everyone blamed him for Chip’s lack of contact with the other guys.
And now Harmontown was going to Nashville, in the same area where Chip was filming.
Walking down the street with his hands in his pockets, heading toward the bar, Jeff had no time for people. Something, like a godly string, pulled his head off the pavement and directed his eyes to the window of a van passing by.
In the window his gaze was met with the blue-eyed stare of his ex-beloved.
And all the feelings rushed back.

They stand on the bridge, staring out into the water reflecting the rays emitted by the setting sun, hand in hand. Jeff turns his head and looks at Chip, who smiles back. They had gotten together here, Chip kissing him out of the blue and waiting for a reaction.
“Those were the days, weren’t they?” Chip mused. Before Nashville, before podcasts, before…before everything
“I want to live them. Not just relive them whenever we get together, live them.”
Chip cocked an eyebrow. “Jeff, what in the world are you talking about?”
“Chip Esten, I want to be yours,” Jeff began, slowly dropping to his knees. “And I want you to be mine.”
Chip stared with an incredible look of shock on his face. “You know this won’t be easy, right?” He asked, staring in awe at the pretty gold band Jeff had produced.
“I always did like it hard.”