It’d matched my state of mind then, but now that she was here, shining her impossibly bright light all over my life, I could help but think it was too much, a wallowing in the pain that was no longer necessary.
I jumped into the final chorus, when the speed picked up and ended on the rousing anthem everyone expected.“Lookin’ for love in the same ole places…”
I ended, for the first time in three and a half minutes forgetting she was hovering at my side.
I cast a glance her way just as the audience erupted into a spray of clapping.
Augusta Belle was wiping at a tear, face racked with so much emotion it felt like I’d laid her wide open for the world to inspect along with me.
I didn’t know what I’d thought, having her come onstage with me tonight. Didn’t know what she thought either, but I should have known better. This world was too mean for a girl like her. Hell, it was too mean for a guy like me.
I didn’t know if I’d end up regretting this night, but I definitely knew it made me feel at home for the first time in all these years on the road. And that was a feeling that’d been long lost on me.
By the time I’d managed to wrest Augusta Belle away from the crowd and out into the cool night, I pulled her hand in mine, hauling her across the small space that separated us. “You doin’ okay?”
Her eyes cast up, moonlight shimmering off her whiskey-rimmed irises. “That song… The way you sang it.” A small shiver raced through her body. “It’s like it brought back everything.”
The way her voice cracked on the last word—everything—had my own heart fallin’ between my boots.
I pushed a hand through my hair, adjusting the guitar on my back before throwing an arm over her shoulder and pulling her into my space. Right where I liked her.
“We’ve been through a lot,” I admitted softly, nose brushing against the corn-silk wisps of her hair. “Just sorry I shared it with the world is all.”
She shook her head, wiping at another tear. “It’s not that. I’m glad you shared it. You went through so much after I was gone…”
Her steps slowed, body reduced to near tremors as she held her face in her hand and finally let the tears pour.
I enveloped her in my arms, wishing I could take away every ounce of this pain splitting her in two right now.
I’d spent so many years wishin’ for this day to come, I hadn’t stopped to think about what it’d be like if it actually did.
Hell.
Reliving our pasts together felt like a living hell.
Except, before I had whiskey. Now I was too hell-bent on makin’ sure she was okay to even think about the crutch that’d been my constant companion for so many years.
“I missed singing with you, even if I’m not very good,” she offered, trying to lighten the situation.
“You were born to fly, Augusta Belle.” I brushed her silky, damp skin with the pad of my thumb. “Some people never get beyond fearin’ the fall. But never forget that you, my dear,were born with just enough rebel heart to leap andsoar.”
Her eyes filled with water all over again, raw emotion spilling over as a soft drizzle of rain somehow wiped away the things clinging to both of us.
“I missed this.” I paused, letting the rain mist around us. “I missedus.”
Before my mind could register a single opinion about it, I ducked my head, pushing my lips softly against hers.
Honey and peaches.
The only thing I could think in the few milliseconds my lips brushed hers was that she still tasted like honey and peaches.
I pulled away, heart clawing its way out of my throat, the burn seared by her lips on mine still sending tingles through my veins.
I interrupted the awkward silence with a soft groan, looking up at the sky just as heavy raindrops began falling.
My fingers ached to slide into hers again, dig my nose into her hair and make sure she was safe from any sorta pain that might be coming, but I couldn’t.
I wasn’t ready.
