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Go figure.
I’d been publicly performing with other bands, solo, and now with Wilder and Days for more than ten years, and that had never happened before. I didn’t know whether to blame it on the sex or the guilt, but either way, I fucking loved the freedom it gave me to perform the very first song as good as my last.
I’d never experienced anything like it, and for now, I would hang onto that fact and worry about everything else later.
“That was amazing!” Emily said after our first set finished, and we’d come off the stage.
“Yes, it certainly was,” I told her, grinning like a kid with a million birthday presents to open.
She’d caught me by surprise, and until I realized that Cody and Dustin were standing behind me at the bar, I thought she was referring back to our sex on the sofa.
“The dance between Bernard and Natalie,” I said, trying to cover my stupid outburst. “Amazing!”
Cody came up next to me. “I don’t know if I’d call their dance amazing, but Nat sure looked as if she liked our version of the song. Have to admit, I was worried.”
“She already told me she loved it. That’s what I mean,” Emily began. “Everybody here loved it. Your version sounded so fresh. As if it was a brand-new country ballad. Who knew that a standard like that could be so… well… country? You boys should think about releasing that version.”
“I don’t think…” Dustin started to say, but Emily cut him off.
“I bet it’s all over social media by morning. I’m telling you, it’s your next hit. Frank would’ve been proud.”
“We’ll see,” Cody said. “It’s way off brand.”
“Not really,” I heard myself say. “Emily might be right. We should at least explore the possibility.”
I couldn’t believe I was agreeing with Emily when I’d been the one to argue the loudest when I first heard we’d be singing that song. But then, she could suggest just about anything at the moment, and I’d agree. And when our hands brushed, the spark was so intense, I swear I jumped.
“You okay?” Cody asked when I bumped against him.
“Yeah, fine,” I told him, then guzzled some of my beer, trying to regain my bearings.
“Maybe you need to take it easy with that stuff tonight,” he warned.
“It’s my first one,” I said.
“Huh. What’s going on, then? That stage freight getting the best of you tonight?”
“Something like that,” I said, then turned away from him as a fresh wave of guilt swept over me.
“What is it?” he pressed.
“I can’t say right now. Don’t know how you’ll take it.”
“Sounds serious,” Cody said, a smile on his face.
“It might very well be the most serious thing that’s ever happened to us.”
“If this is about what you and Emily did while you two were locked in the waiting room backstage, that’s between you and Em. She and I have our own date for later tonight. And from what I can tell, Dustin might’ve already spent some time with her.” He nodded towards Dustin who stood on the other side of Emily. Dustin wore his emotions out in the open. Nothing was a secret with him, not when it came to matters of his heart, and gazing over at him now, we both knew he had it bad for this woman.
“How did you know, I mean about Emily and me?”
“Let’s just say, I suspected it, and now you just confirmed it.”
I grinned at this man’s perception of things. It was as if he had a second sense about certain things. Which made me wonder if he had a blind spot when it came to his sister, or if he already knew about Dustin’s two-week affair with her, and my, well… one-night stand.
Of course, I wasn’t about to ask him. At the moment, I was grateful for the sister blind spot. I could handle him knowing about Emily, but not so much Natalie. That might not go over as well as this one was.
“So, you’re okay with it?” I asked Cody, trying to wrap my head around everything he was saying? “About me and Emily?”
