“Fine,” I said, and my heart hammered in my chest. “But you’d better catch me if I fall.”
“You won’t.” Noah looked away and then back up at me. “I’ll never let you down again, Skye.”
I didn’t know what to do with that, even though my heart felt like filled to bursting at his words. Could I trust him again? Noah wasn’t a stupid young man anymore, but he also was mega famous. A part of me worried that once again, our timing wasn’t right.
Had I been stupid to even let him into my home? My arms? My bed?
Nerves hammered me as I went to take a seat to watch the Book Bitches’ riotous performance.
Esther burst onstage with the excitement of a woman who put something stronger than sugar in her coffee every morning. “Welcome, welcome!” she boomed. “Thank you for braving the elements, the economy, and our parking stewards. Tonight, we celebrate community, kindness, and of course, love. Please turn off your phones and remember this is a family show. Swearing will be done by me backstage only.”
Laughter warmed the room. The program rolled on. The kids’ choir looked adorable in tea towels and wings that shed glitter like dandruff, warbling throughAway in a Mangerwith alarming sincerity, the pensioners’ handbell ensemble ringingCarol of the Bellsas if they’d discovered heavy metal,Gregory and Cherise performing a duet that consisted entirely of him glowering while she sang like a contented robin. The paps sat at the back with their lenses, surprisingly well-behaved, probably because every time they so much as shifted their weight, a dozen villagers swiveled in unison and glared.
I laughed as Meredith swept out as Mrs. Bennet with pearls, a floral housecoat, and a hand fan. “Girls! The Kingsbarns Inn is let. And to a single man offortunewho willdonateto the Winter Warmer Fund!”
I laughed as they mentioned my inn. I had hope that guests would return in the new year now.
Esther’s husband, Daniel, in a tragic cravat, arrived as Mr. Darcy.
“I have standards,” he intoned and brought the house down. By the time Esther had arrived as Elizabeth and the cat, Wallace, apparently was standing in for Mr. Bennet, the entire hall was in tears of laughter.
A confetti cannon fired. Esther took the shower of sparkles like a coronation.
“Intermission,” she cried, wiping glitter from her eyelashes and likely calculating the till in her head. “Fifteen minutes. Buy biscuits or be declared a scrooge.”
During the break, half the village drifted toward the back to harass the press while I slipped to the back room to check on Noah.
Everyone in the room was pretending not to look at him as he lightly strummed his guitar, focusing on the paper in front of him, and I was struck by how many times I’d seen that silhouette in the press. Noah had lived a million lives since he’d left me. Even if Glen had screwedhim over, maybe it had been worth it? Maybe I’d been in the wrong to leave.
“All good?” I asked, suddenly feeling awkward around him.
“Aye, lass. Now that you’re here.” He smiled up at me and the Book Bitches let out a collective sigh of adoration behind me.
He stood and walked to the door, nodding at people as he went, and then stepped onto the stage. I followed, leaning in the doorframe just off the side of the stage where people couldn’t see me, and watched as he strode confidently to the microphone.
I could feel the shift in the room like a held breath.
Esther, to her credit, did not announce Noah. He didn’t need it. She simply said, “All right then,” and vanished into the wings.
“Evening,” he said, voice steady and warm. “Thanks for keeping our village kinder than the world, and for making the men with cameras buy baked goods.”
Laughter rose, warm and sharp.
“I’m going to sing two songs you know,” he said, “and one you don’t. The one you don’t was written around a fireplace with a good bottle of wine and an honest look at the past.”
He played a holiday song that belonged to everybody. Voices joined him without being asked. He let the hall sing itself, which is why I loved him then and now.
My heart skipped a beat.
Bloody hell, but I did love the man.
A part of me always had.
Always would.
He was impossible not to. His voice rising up, circling around me, dragging me under with his words.
He played a Christmas song the kids knew and he let them lead, all of us laughing and clapping along.
