“Not that way. Gotta waddle up there. Haul me up, moonpie.”
“Just how,” Eve murmured to Roarke, “is she going to do whatever she does up there when somebody has to haul her out of a chair?”
He just smiled. “Wait and see.”
She waited, and she saw.
The drums went to a pulsing beat, like a heart quickening. Jake held his hands over his head, clapped in a steady rhythm along with his other bandmates. And so, Eve noted, did people on the dance floor, at tables.
“How do we rock tonight?” he shouted.
And in call and response, the ballroom shouted back, “Loud!”
“How do we rock tonight?”
“Hard!”
“How do we rock tonight?”
“Wild!”
He did something on the guitar that sounded like a primal scream. Mavis, dancing onto the stage, managed to do the same with her voice.
The crowd roared.
As the music roared back, Mavis twirled around the bass player. The dozens of glittery strips that formed her skirt spun as she did.
Then she and Jake, eyes locked, moved together.
“Down went the sun, so the waiting’s done. You and me, baby, gonna have some fun. Rock me. Loud. Rock me. Hard. Rock me. Wild.”
Leonardo gripped Eve’s hand. She’d have sworn his irises went from round to heart shaped. “Isn’t she… Isn’t she…”
“Yeah. She’s all that.”
During the next song, Mavis hip-bumped the keyboardist aside, and took over herself.
“When didthathappen?”
Leonardo grinned at Eve. “She’s been practicing.”
“She’s good.” Beside Eve, Charles let out a half laugh. “She’s really good.”
“The band’s been teaching her,” Nadine said. “They’re crazy about her. Well, who isn’t? Jake says she’s got a lot of untapped, and she’s thirsty. So he’s into helping her tap and drink it up.”
Eve turned to Roarke. “Did you know she could do that?”
“I didn’t, no.”
“She wanted to surprise you.” Leonardo just kept beaming. “She really hoped you wouldn’t have to work tonight so you’d be here, see her play in public for the first time.”
She did three numbers, the last in the set of her own composition. When the band took their break, Mavis came back to the table.
She sat with aWhew!, shook back her curly fountain.
“You astound me,” Roarke told her.
“Aw.” Then she looked at Eve.
