“So what do you know?” Dominic asked, his voice caught by the mike even though he wasn’t speaking directly into it.
Trey grinned. “What do you know?” A better idea struck him, and he leaned toward the mike. “What do you guys want to hear?”
Everything from Beyoncé to Lil’ Nat X barraged them.
“Man crush!” Dominic said suddenly. “Who said Adam Lambert? You’re my hero.”
“Heroine!” someone in the audience shouted.
“My girl.” He looked at Trey. “‘Whataya Want from Me’?”
Trey grinned. “Oh yeah. You gonna start?”
“Definitely.”
This was going to be fun. Trey got behind the keyboard. Piaggero series. He was familiar enough with those to bring up the guitar voice. That would sound way cooler with Dominic’s violin than basic piano. He warmed up with a few chords from one of his own songs, “Familiar at Last,” and that got a wolf whistle from a fan.
“You ready, Coop?” Dominic asked.
Trey glanced up into playful brown eyes, so dark they were almost black. “Ready. You lead.”
Dominic shouldered his violin, pulled a few notes, then paused. He closed his eyes and drew the bow across the strings, ripping out the opening chords. Trey matched his tempo and joined in, fingers dancing across the keys, hitting all of the right notes. They didn’t blend perfectly—no one did their first time performing together cold—but it was pretty damned great.
Instead of Dominic keeping his eyes closed like he had when playing solo, his attention was firmly on Trey whenever Treyglanced up from the keys. The intense focus stirred something deep inside of Trey. Whatever it was he liked it, and he put it into his performance. He even found himself singing along. He’d performed this a number of times with Fading Daze, doing both vocals and acoustic guitar.
He liked this better.
And he didn’t notice when exactly the mike appeared in front of him, or when his voice joined the jam for real, but the audience went kind of nuts. They kept going nuts for a few minutes after the song actually ended.
Dominic gave a little half bow that was all kinds of adorable, that shy smile back now that he wasn’t lost in the music.
Trey didn’t want it to end. “You up for one more?” he asked into the mike.
“Whatcha got in mind?” The shy smile went all kinds of devilish once it turned on Trey. “You know All-American Rejects?”
Trey nearly laughed, thrilled at Coop’s musical knowledge. So many guys only seemed to know what was hot five minutes ago and ignored the greats. His brain spun through the dozen or so songs of theirs he knew somewhat well. Working the violin in would be the challenge. “‘Mona Lisa’?”
Dominic winked. “Sounds good. Never done it on the strings but I can figure it out.”
And figure it out he did. Trey kept the guitar voice on the keyboard, because that really was a guitar kind of song and he could make it work. He made it through the first verse and into the chorus before Dominic joined in, pulling smooth notes from his strings and bow and fingering.
More than the music this time, the words echoed in Trey’s mind.
“You can sit beside me when the world comes down.”
He wouldn’t mind having Dominic with him for a while longer, and he was absolutely stealing his attention once they were done performing. He needed to know where this musical genius had been hiding all of his life.
At the end of that song, Trey came out from behind the keyboard to match Dominic’s half bow. Beatrice came up and gave them both big hugs before stealing the mike. Trey shook himself all over, his adrenaline up, not ready for this to be over.
“Well, that was certainly a memorable duet,” Beatrice said. “And as much as I hate to break up this brand-new partnership, we still have some folks waiting to get their chance in the spotlight. So how about another hand for Coop and Dominic B?”
Dominic waved one more time, then started packing his violin away in its case. Tech guy Danny came up and took down the keyboard. Trey hung off to the side so he could snatch the keyboard case from Danny. He needed a way to start a conversation, because that was so not his strong suit. Dominic joined him at the bottom of the stage steps, violin case tucked close to his chest.
“That was a lot of fun,” Dominic said.
“Yeah it was.” Trey searched hard for a compliment that wouldn’t make him sound like a dork. “You’re really good onstage. You know how to play to a crowd.”
“I would hope so. I’ve been performing since I was six.”
