Chapter 7 #2
This is going to be a long ass night. I catch the eye of the bartender and order another beer when Gemma Reynolds sidles up beside me. The beauty queen of Holly Ridge leans against the bar, nudging Jack out of the way and bats her overly made up eyes at me.
“Well if it isn’t Luke Dawson. I didn’t think we’d see you here tonight,” she says with a smile full of more teeth than I remember.
“Well,” I grunt, trying my best not to appear too interested, “Aunt May is extremely persuasive.”
“Tell the truth…” Gemma walks her fingers up my forearm. “Did you come to hear me sing tonight? I can put in a song choice especially for you.” She leans in, purring suggestively toward me. “Maybe a little Santa Baby…”
I don’t get a chance to answer because the announcer is booming into the microphone, “Up next is Eve Winters!”
My head snaps toward the stage ignoring Gemma’s delighted cackle.
Eve slowly makes her way to the stage through the clusters of people.
God, I remember that terrified look and those hunched shoulders so well.
She climbs up on stage and saunters over to the emcee.
With trembling fingers, she hands him a slip of paper.
I see her jaw set in determination and can practically feel the panic radiating off of her.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Jack says.
“I can’t believe she’s actually doing it,” Nicholas adds.
“Please give a warm Holly Ridge welcome to one of our very own,” the emcee calls out again. “She’s back after sweeping Los Angeles off its feet and now she’s ready to win the title here at Caroloke! Miss Eve Winters, singing All I Want for Christmas is You!”
The room erupts with applause but Gemma merely snorts. “This oughta be good. I can’t believe she has the nerve to sing anything in this town again after nearly costing us the show choir title.”
Jack snorts. “That was years ago.”
I slide a glance to Gemma. “Besides, what do you care?” I ask. “You got to sing the solo and take the win instead.”
Her scowl quickly lifts back to a flirty smile. “It was a duet, remember? I miss singing with you, Lukie.”
Nicholas raises his brows at me. “We all miss your singing, Lukie,” he mocks me.
After a quick roll of my eyes, I cut them back to the stage. A tremor shudders through Eve and she grips the mic with shaking hands as the intro music starts playing.
Nicholas chokes on his drink. “Oh bro… This is going to be brutal.”
I open my mouth to agree, but before I utter a word, Eve belts out the first note. Or shrieks it, anyway.
Jack winces like someone smeared jalapeno on his contact lens.
She’s trying so hard that it almost makes it worse. They should really check in on Santa up at the North Pole because he can probably hear it, too.
“You know,” Gemma says, leaning in way too close to me. “I could always change my song to our duet tonight. For old time’s sake.”
Eve glances self-consciously at me, her face draining of color when she sees Gemma and me standing so closely together.
She misses the next cue to start and for a moment, it looks like she might cry.
Then, with a shake of her head, she levels a glare straight at me right before she clutches the mic closer to her chest like a lifeline and belts out another verse—a note that cracks so bad it could drive right into my chest.
Fuck me running. This is too painful to watch. And not just because she’s not a good singer. But because she’s trying so damn hard and seems miserable up there. It’s a different story when someone loves karaoke even though they’re bad. Eve is doing this to win the contest… and failing miserably.
I shouldn’t care this much.
I shouldn’t and yet, seeing those glistening tears shining in her eyes nearly breaks me.
Gemma wins Caroloke every damn year.
She’s the best singer in this little town and she knows it… and she can’t even be a gracious winner.
Though I can’t explain why this contest is so important to Eve, it clearly is. She needs to win the Holly Ridge Christmas festival for reasons I don’t understand… yet.
And I’ll be damned if she loses because of Gemma.
I down the last of my beer and duck past Gemma, ignoring her whiny protest as I shove through the bodies clogging the floor before I can talk myself out of doing something colossally stupid.
Just as Eve's cracking voice pierces through everyone's eardrums again, I leap onto the stage, taking the three stairs in one big step, my heart pounding like a jackhammer.
“Need some help?” I say.
“I—are you…?”
“Yep,” I say. She looks confused as hell but hopeful too. It’s something that both softens and grates on me all at once as everyone in the crowd gets quiet, no doubt wondering what kind of train wreck they’re about to witness.
Eve’s eyes widen in shock and disbelief, but she nods quickly, passing me the extra mic just as another crackly noise bounces through the speakers.
Aunt May gasps from the crowd and I hear Jack’s low whistle.
Immediately, people start buzzing. Some are whispering, some just plain gawking, but it doesn’t matter because now I can see that Eve looks different.
She’s still strung tighter than Christmas lights on December twenty-fourth but there’s a spark behind it now that wasn’t there before.
It pulls something around the edges of my memories.
She’s looking at me with two wide eyes that suddenly don’t seem quite so panicked anymore, and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t make everything else slip away.
But there’s also a glimmer of hope that makes me suck in a breath and lift the microphone to my mouth just as the second verse begins.
I open my mouth and force out a shaky note, rusty but damn if it isn’t almost on key. The sound fills the room and Eve shoots me the kind of smile I haven’t seen in years. Relief. Pure relief.
"We’ve got this," I whisper, catching Eve’s eye again as her cheeks turn pink with confidence. For a second it feels just like old times but better—more improvised and ridiculous.
I look sideways at Eve, and this? This right here might just be my favorite sight in years: sparkly eyes flashing with joy as she sings at full volume.
Her shoulders soften, her eyes are shining, and before I know it, we’re singing the chorus together, me following that high voice of hers like something rickety chasing after a well-oiled train.
I don’t think about the past. I don’t think about old wounds or missed chances. I just sing.
Our voices blend together, her nervousness fading as she follows my lead.
Gemma fumes from the corner of the bar, lips pursed so tight you’d think she’s been sipping lemon juice. But all my attention is on Eve who grins at me with this reckless abandon that makes my heart stutter more than rusty notes ever could.
I hate to admit it, but as the music gets louder, Eve and I both relax into the song…
I’m actually kind of having fun. Eve does a little dance and bumps her hip against mine.The crowd warms up to us almost immediately, hollering and cheering, clapping along to the beat now.
Even Old Man Duncan’s doing a little jig at his table.
And Eve? She’s shining. Her confidence grows with every note, her energy infectious.
By the time we hit the final chorus, the entire bar is singing along. And I realize—damn it all—I love this. I love singing with her. I love watching her come alive.
“All I want for Christmas is—” we whip around to face each other, her eyes twinkling, her smile spread wide across her face as we sing at each other for the big finish.
“—Is youuuuuu!”
The song ends, and the crowd erupts. Aunt May is on her feet cheering along with Eve’s parents… and to my dismay, almost everyone else in the bar is whistling and clapping.
I grin at Eve and shrug. I have no idea if it was enough to save her performance to secure the title… but at least she isn’t near tears anymore.
Eve rolls her eyes at me with a smile so grudging it almost looks real. “What happened to you never singing again?” she whispers, just loud enough for me to hear over the applause.
“Some things are just too painful to witness,” I tease her back. “You clearly needed the help.”
“Hey!” She laughs and jabs me in the ribs with her elbow.
“You’re welcome by the way,” I shoot back, leaning in with my mouth barely off the mic.
The emcee elf is back on stage with us, taking the microphone from me. “A little rocky start there for Eve Winters, but anyone who gets Holly Ridge’s own Lucas Dawson to step up and sing a Christmas song cannot be ignored!”
The pink of Eve’s cheeks turns crimson as she curves her arm around my elbow when we exit the stage. "Thank you," she whispers in my ear before pulling back with an embarrassed laugh that makes butterflies flap against my insides. "I'm pretty sure you saved my life.”
“That’s a little dramatic, wouldn’t you say?”
“Fine… then you at least saved Christmas.”
I roll my eyes, but I’m still smiling at her. “Farmhands stick together.”
Her brows arch. “Oh? Does this officially make me a farmhand now?”
I shrug, my eyes catching a glimpse of Gemma’s ashen face, jealousy stamped across it. She takes one last look at us before stomping toward the exit. “Well, pissing Gemma off is a pretty good consolation prize, too,” I joke.
Eve turns to me, eyes bright, breathless. “You really are such a good singer, Luke.”
I smirk. “You weren’t so bad yourself, songbird. As long as you’ve got me there to guide ya.”
She laughs, but definitely doesn’t argue with me. “It’s a shame you stopped singing.”
Her smile drops as we both fall silent and I feel her sharp inhale beside me. Almost like she just realized what she said.
I swallow the lump lodged in my throat. “There wasn’t much to sing for after…”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there that night,” her voice is shaky but full of heart.
“It’s okay,” I say, my voice gruff with emotion that surprises me. But… is it okay? I’m not even sure that’s true. All I know is that I’m in trouble. Big, stupid, irrevocable trouble.
Because even after all these years, Eve still has me wrapped around her little finger tighter than garland around a banister.
And what’s worse? I think I like it.