Opening them again, I see and hear Levi begin his short solo, and the raspiness in his voice makes everything and everyone around us go completely quiet, like I somehow knew it would.
He grabs the mic with both hands and throws his head back slightly. When I sing with him this time, we never lose eye contact. We grow louder and more confident.
Something in the air shifts, and I see Levi’s expression change. It’s one of the most intimate moments I’ve had with someone in a long time.
Then out of nowhere, Levi takes the mic out of the stand and walks around, coming directly toward me. My voice falters for a moment when he looks at my mic, giving me clear instructions to follow his lead.
My mic slips out of the stand easily as we’re seconds away from the highest note in the song. He stops a couple of inches away from me as we finish the chorus together and he grabs my left hand with his right, intertwining our fingers. As soon as they’re locked together, he joins me on the most difficult note in the song, throwing me off guard by both actions. Tingles spreadthrough my body at our touch, at the harmony, and as the final lyrics leave us.
The crowd goes wild, and I jump, remembering where we are. Levi shakes his head as if he was in a trance, looks at our hands, and turns to the crowd, still not letting go.
Why isn’t he letting go?
There are dozens of people around us clapping. Trying to come to terms with the fact that I sang in front of a large crowd for the first time, I find Em and Jake filming us and cheering while Em claps and wipes a tear off her cheek.
We were…good. No, we weregreat.
I turn my head back to Levi and find him looking down at me with an awed expression. He finally lets go of my hand, picks me up, and twirls me around, making me laugh.
“That was amazing, Bambi.”
He lets me go, causing me to lose my balance, but I steady myself. “Ditto, Hotshot.”
Levi smiles, and my chest fills with pride and happiness at what we both achieved tonight. While stepping off the small stage, I see a blur of a familiar face surrounded by blonde hair. But they’re gone the second I blink.
“What is it?” Levi scours the room to try to find what I saw.
I shake my head, doubting whether the person I think I saw was here in the crowd. “Nothing, I thought I saw…it doesn’t matter.”
He gives me a suspicious glance before we return to the table where Jake and Em gush over us. Jake sends me the video, and Em talks about how beautiful everything was. And although I’m speaking to Emma, I can’t help but feel the shift between me and Levi. It’s as if the second the two of us stepped off the stage, that intimate moment that occurred before and during the song didn’t happen. Not the words, looks, touch, or Levi’s new and odd demanding tone that made me feel things I hadn’tbefore. Not the sensation of finally feeling comfortable enough to sing not only onstage, but with someone else. As if sensing my thoughts, I feel Levi’s gaze on me. Turning slightly, his blue eyes meet my green ones, looking confused, but unlike myself, completely unfazed, as if to let me know that all this was, was a great performance.
Chapter Eleven
LEVI
Kami stares at Jake’s screen, mouth wide open, watching Stevie and me onstage. The video is about three-quarters of the way done, right when I’m about to take my mic out of its stand. Kami starts slapping my arm excitedly, and I have to grab her for it to stop. Stevie’s following my movements on the video, and I turn my head away at the intimate looks we’re giving each other. Stevie’s voice rasps as we get louder. She could sing any genre she wanted to with that beautiful fucking voice.
Kami’s eyebrows rise when the end of the song hits, while Stevie and I look at each other for a long time, not letting the other go. The bar is completely silent before erupting into cheers.
After it stops playing, Kami turns those raised brows and an awed expression at me. I know what’s coming next, not the compliments, but the questions. And we all know why, because I was stupid enough to let the moment take charge.
“It was all a performance, Kami. Don’t give me that look,” I say quickly before she can imply anything.
One brow lowers, while the other remains up. Jake chuckles at my side, and I feel like punching the fucker for showing her the video in the first place.
Kamila puts both hands up. “All right, whatever you say.”
Relaxing my shoulders, we walk down the hall of the liberal arts building.
“You two did look quite comfortable with one another,” Kami blurts out.
“They looked like they wanted to bang,” Jake adds.
I halt, turning to them, and punch Jake’s shoulder hard enough to make him flinch.
“I was trying to help her. You and Em gave us no choice. You guys are reading way too much into this.”
My feet begin to move again till we leave the building, and I can’t help thinking about what I called Stevie that night. I can’t even repeat the words in my fucking head. They’re not ones I use lightly. I haven’t said them in years. They brought back a rush of excitement, especially seeing how Stevie reacted to them, but it makes no sense why she would. It was an intimate moment between two artists in a performance…
