Crude: A Stepbrother Romance (25 page)

Holy crap, I’m really going to do this.

The concert is at an actual,
real
venue. Like, one with real lights, an actual real-sized stage, a real sound system, and a real baby grand piano.

...And a
lot
of
very real
people mulling around waiting for the show to start.

Like, hundreds of them.

I turn to Knox, gripping his arm tightly in the backstage area; “What am I
doing
here?”

He grins; “Kicking ass?” He leans down and kisses my cheek; “Relax, you’re going to kill it out there.”

“OK there are a
lot
of people out there.”

“Sure are.”

I punch him in the arm; “That is
not
helping!”

He laughs, his whole face glowing as he pulls me close and he looks down into my eyes; “At some point you’re going to have to accept the fact that you’re seriously fucking talented, princess.”

I chew my lip, looking up into his eyes and slowly feeling the panic and the anxiety and the fear of stepping out onto that stage start to fade away

I take a deep breath; “OK...OK, I’ve got this.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I puff air out of my lips and grin up at him; “Yeah, I’m ready.”

The lights dim and an MC walks out on stage to introduce the first act, who seems to have brought every single person he’s ever met to this place judging by the volume of cheers and hollers from the crowd at the sound of his name.
 

A good-looking guy with shaggy hair and low-strung acoustic guitar strolls on stage, grinning away at his legions of fans as he steps up to the mic.

“What a douche,” Knox murmurs into my ear, making me grin as the kid begins to sing.

OK, then my grin fades.

“
Are you fucking kidding me?
” I turn and raise a brow at a frankly surprised-looking Knox. The guy is
really
freaking good; a killer, gritty voice, perfect guitar parts, and lyrical lines that are making me groan at how stupidly good they are.

“
That’s
what I’m up against?” I can feel all my bravado and confidence sink through the floor as I slump back against Knox.

“You’re better, you know.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Paige,” He whirls me around to face him in the dark of the side-stage; “Just think about this; you’re
here
. They listened to your stuff, and they fuckin’
liked it
. So just enjoy it. Go out there and sing your fucking head off, leave a piece of your heart on that stage, and just have
fun
.”

Damn he’s good at that
; I think.

The guy on stage is winding down, and as the last
perfect
notes of his song drift out across the audience, they all start to go crazy for him. Knox just cocks an eyebrow at me; “You’ve got this.”

I’m next, I already know that from the program, and I can feel my heart start to try and crawl out of my throat as I nod, trying to swallow it back down; “Yeah, I’ve got this.”

“You good to go?”

“I’m great.”

Knox grins; “Oh, good, then you don’t mind hearing about the record label talent scouts they invited.”

The room spins a little as I start to teeter on my feet. Knox just chuckles and wraps me in his arms.

The announcer is back on, and as I hear him say my name, Knox pulls away and looks me dead in the eye; “You’ve
got this,
Paige. I believe in you.” And then he’s kissing me, filling me up with this warmth before he pulls back and winks at me; “Go get ‘em, Stevie Nicks.”

It’s like a dream scene as I turn, all the confidence in the world passed from that cocky, arrogant, and unflappable boy backstage through his lips to me roaring through my body. I’m walking in slow motion across the stage, and the dim faces, dulled claps, and catcalls of the crowd just sort of fade away as I nod at the MC with a smile and take a seat behind the piano.

“Um-” I clear my throat into the microphone as I adjust it and place my hands at the keys; “This is about someone I know.”

There’s the dull sound of murmured conversation and the clink of bottles from the bar, but I don’t even mind.

Because I’m ready for this.

I look back once more off stage, my eyes meeting those of the boy that’s somehow changed everything I know about even who I am.

And then I play.

The words come easy, the notes dropping like rain on a pool house roof. It’s effortless and yet my everything, and every single word is a piece of my heart and my soul drifting out across the black abyss of the venue. I’m giving it everything I have, because I know that after this, it doesn’t matter what these people think. It doesn’t matter if they like what I have to say, it just matters that I
say it
.

And it’s perfect; I
know
it’s perfect.
 

And then, quicker than I’d have ever imagined, I’m finished, and it’s over.
 

There’s a beat, an absolute pin-drop
silence
across the hall. But then the whole thing shatters like glass as the entire place
erupts
in applause.

People are cheering - I mean
really
cheering! Heck, the damn
bartender
is whooping with his hands high in the air clapping over the crowd.

It’s like the dream turned real as I stand and give the world’s most awkward
wave
in the world, which only seems to fan the flames of the applause roaring through the crowd. I’m turning, my face just
alive
as I search the darkness of the side stage, and then I see him.

And everything else in the world drops away.
 

He’s got a huge grin on his face, his hands rocking together as he hollers my name loudly over the din of the crows. I’m walking towards him, but then he’s walking right out onto the stage to meet me, and it just feels
right
to jump right into his arms right there on the stage in front of the whole damn crowd. They go crazy, of course, when I wrap my legs round his waist and my arms around his neck, but they go absolutely
nuts
when I kiss him.

Right there in front of everyone.

“Think it’s fair to say you sort of knocked that out of the park, princess,” He murmurs into my lips.

“You think so?” I say, grinning as I mash my lips to his, grabbing him by the hair as I melt against him.

“I think you should probably take another bow so I can drag you off this stage and tear your clothes off, actually.”

I grin as I pull away from him, stepping back down to my feet. I turn, my hand in his, and
beam
at the roaring, wildly cheering crowd. I’m on top of the world as I start to bow, and then the house lights must come up
just
a bit, because suddenly I can see the crowd a little better.

And I just
freeze
.

Because right there, two rows back in the very middle of the crowd, is my dad.

His eyes are piercing, darting between Knox and I. And then he’s shaking his head at me, shaking his head as he turns and starts to push his way through the crowd to the back of the venue.

And absolutely everything just comes crashing down.

It’s every bit as bad as you’d think it would be.

Worse, actually.

When the lights come up and my eyes lock on Joe, standing there looking at the two of us up there like that, it’s like a slug to the gut.
 

But it doesn’t hurt because of me, it’s because of
Paige.

It’s that look of
utter
and crushing disappointment as he looks at her and just shakes his head like that before walking away. I mean he
must
have heard her play if he was that close to stage, right? And how could anyone - least of all a fucking
parent
- have anything but joy and amazement in them after seeing something like that? I mean even as she pushes past me and runs off the stage, these people are
still
going absolutely ape shit.

And then of course, I’m running after.

The scene in the parking lot is awful; there’s really no other way to put it. She’s crying and Joe’s red in the face, screaming at her; “You lied to me, Paige!”

“Dad! I just-”

“NO!” His voice booms across the empty parking lot; “No, Paige! You
ruined
your chances,” He looks up at me as I come up on them, his eyes full of fury; “And you ruined them for
him!
” He roars, stabbing his finger at me.
 

“I wanted better for you, Paige!” She’s crying, and I take step towards her but Joe whirls on me, his teeth bared and his eyes wild as she shakes his head at me before turning back to her; “You are
going
to Columbia, and you’re getting the
hell
away from here and from boys like
him!
” He stabs his finger at me again, and I can feel every fighting muscle tensing, every sparking synapse in my body firing.

“Dad!” Tears stream down her face; “Dad he’s- I mean I-”

“Do
not
say it! Do not even
say
it, Paige!”

It’s more than I can take, and I move towards her before Joe jumps between us, getting right in my face and letting me feel the full wrath of his ferocity; “You stay the
fuck
away from my daughter, do you understand me?”

He grabs Paige and yanks her towards his car, and she’s turning, her face streaked with tears as she looks back at me once more before he pulls her into the car.

And then they’re driving away.

Shit.

Shit-shit-shit-shit-shit.

*****

“I’ve made a decision.”
 

If the parking lot back at the concert was bad, the scene back home was a fucking
war zone
. Everyone - literally everyone - is screaming when I roar into the driveway on my bike and walk into a scene out of a nightmare. Paige is screaming at her dad, Joe’s screaming at her, my
mom
is screaming at him and he’s screaming right back. And of course, me walking in during all that is just throwing a stick of dynamite into it, and the whole thing just goes nuclear.

It’s later, after Joe’s separated us - by force, I might add - that he’s here in my room in the west wing of the house, glowering down at me sitting hunched on the edge of my bed.