She wasn’t wrong.
I made my way to the stage, and someone whistled. Then another person in the crowd shouted, “We just love your voice, Monroe.”
Karaoke had been a way to have fun, but the girls and I hadn’t done it in a long time.
The first notes slipped through the speakers, soft and haunting, as I stepped up to the microphone, my stomach a storm of butterflies.
I swallowed, took in a breath, and started, keeping my eyes on a poster hanging on the wall in the distance.
My voice wavered on the first note until the melody seeped into my soul, then suddenly, the room faded as if it were just me and the microphone. I closed my eyes, picturing my front porch on a balmy summer night. Me strumming my guitar. Ethan tapping a tambourine, music spilling into the dark. The lyrics weren’t sweet or forgiving but rather about emotional distance and the inability to settle down, which was par for the course being a former military wife.
Somewhere between the second verse and the bridge, I stopped thinking about where I was and belted out the words. As I sang the last chords, I glanced around the bar and almost faltered, more so when I spotted Jace. Suddenly, my nerves staged a coup.
He was watching me with that steady intensity, awe softening into a boyish grin. I smiled at him despite my heart jackhammering against my ribs.
Push through it. Don’t screw up now.
As the final note lingered, my voice trembled.
Finish strong.
I shook off the nerves, even though my legs felt like saltwater taffy. As if something clicked inside of me, I straightened, singing the last of the song like a pro, feeling like I was just reborn.
The crowd erupted in a standing ovation with applause and whistles. Lila and Evelyn were hooting and hollering.
“That’s my friend!” Evelyn shouted.
I was breathless, smiling and nodding at the crowd, feeling like I could conquer anything. I really needed this, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Jace placed a hand over his heart as he bowed his head in appreciation, awe, admiration.
I walked off stage, and people congratulated me.
“You were amazing,” a middle-aged woman said.
“Thank you” barely came out of my mouth when Jace sauntered over.
As if he lit a match, my body erupted in fire. He was wearing dark jeans that hugged his powerful thighs, flak boots, and a charcoal Henley that clung to his toned chest and fit too well for my sanity.
“Wow,” he said, leaning in to kiss me on the cheek. “You surprise me.”
“I have a lot of things in my arsenal,” I replied, silently scratching my head as to why that statement came out of me.
He chuckled, looking relaxed, unbuttoned from the stiff formality he’d exuded at Career Day. The air around him seemed to be calm yet charged, dangerous yet safe.
“I would like to find out what those other things are, Teach,” he whispered in my ear, his hot breath making me shiver in delight. “And you look beautiful. Your voice did things to me that would make a priest cower.”
Holy hell! If he started to tell me he wanted to be inside me, I might climb him like a monkey here and now.
I giggled, blushing like a high school girl as I placed my hand on his arm to steady myself.
“What brings you to the Rusty Spur?” I asked, my voice rough and wobbly.
His smirk was all kinds of sexy, deadly, and one that I would love to wake up to in the morning. “You.”
Once again, my cheeks were on fire, and my body burning with need. “Seriously.” I had to steer the conversation in another direction because I was seconds away from kissing him.
“I’m here with Dax and some of his buddies. By the way, is everything okay with you? The other day at school, you disappeared.”
