Chapter 53
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Lucy
“It’s the last show of the tour.” I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the wall in some random hallway in some random stadium in some random city. “We haven’t changed the choreography in weeks. Why in the world are we changing it tonight?”
Nash brushes a loose hair off my face, his touch gentle, his eyes nearly twinkling with merriment. Isn’t that a delightful twist? He’s merry while I’m grumpy.
“You never know with Sandro,” he says, a phrase that’s gotten so common among the cast and crew that someone ought to make a commemorative T-shirt out of it. “Maybe he wants to go out with a bang.”
“Or maybe he just likes to make everything difficult so he can enjoy watching us scramble to please him.”
“You know that isn’t fair.” Nash crosses his arms and gives me a reproachful look.
“Sure, Sandro can be demanding, but not because he has some big ego that needs stroked. He has a crystal-clear vision of what he wants and knows exactly why he wants it. It’s no accident he’s as successful as he is.
The man is smart. Purposeful. If he’s making a change, there’s a good reason. ”
“This alliance between you two is unnatural,” I say with a light shake of my head. “A year ago, you said that only people with brain injuries liked Sandro René.”
“I can like the man and the mind—” Nash lowers his voice to a whisper, casting a cautious glance over his shoulder “—while still believing his music sucks.”
“I’ve seen you bobbing your head to Bright Lights and Summer Nights. You don’t have to lie.”
“I like the beat.”
I scrunch my nose and place my palms on his chest, hitting him with my best smile. “You’ve turned into a fan. Admit it.”
Nash takes me into his arms, holding me close and swaying gently. “What I will say is that this music will forever remind me of you. Of us. It is, and forever will be the soundtrack, to some of my favorite memories.”
That earns a genuine smile from me. “You always know exactly what to say and when to say it.”
“That’s a far cry from the last review you gave on my bedside manner.”
Dani’s head pokes through a doorway. “You ready, Lu? They’re about to start blocking the changes and then we’ll go straight into the run through.”
I bob my head and roll my eyes. “See ya on the other side?” I say to Nash.
“Not if I see you first,” he replies, with that strange twinkle still in his eyes.
We block through the changes, and—go figure—most of them include me and the aerial kung fu fight.
The choreographer goes through the notes with the dancers and we mark the changes.
Everyone keeps looking at me strangely and it almost seems like they’re whispering behind my back.
I want to chalk it up to their frustration about the extra rehearsal, but there’s this odd sense of being the only one not in on a secret.
Of anticipation. Even the stagehands and aerial riggers grin a little harder when they look at me.
It's weird.
But also, probably my imagination.
“Places, please, for a full run of the last set!” calls the stage manager. Dancers scramble. Musicians take their places. The lights go out.
“We’re a go in five, four, three, two…”
Music blares through the speakers and I strut onstage with the rest of the cast. Normally, I’d search out Nash’s face in the wings as I dance, but the changes are new enough that I’m fully concentrating on where I’m supposed to be now instead of where I’ve always gone at this point in the performance.
We arrive at the aerial battle and Sandro blasts into the air, looking slightly ill at ease.
His movements are jerky, like he’s trying to catch his balance.
I have just enough time for a quick prayer that there isn’t a problem, and then I’m up there with him, soaring through the air as I execute wild leaps and turns.
Usually, Sandro ‘wins’ the battle, finishing the choreography with me on my knees before he does a wild kick that sends me flying offstage with the help of the rig.
But for some reason, for his last show, he wants me to win.
Sandro lands on his knees in a superhero drop and they lower me to stand beside him as planned.
But that’s when everything goes off script.
The lights go totally black for all of a second. I squeal, caught off guard, but then a spotlight hits the man in front of me. He’s down on one knee, head bowed, bathed in the brightest light possible. When he lifts his face to mine, I blink in shock.
“Nash?”
He’s breathless, eyes wild with adrenaline, chest heaving as he smiles up at me.
“Told you I’d see you first.” His grin deepens as he holds out his hands to reveal a small black velvet box, a diamond ring glittering inside. I gasp, cover my mouth with trembling hands and instantly blink back tears.
“When I was a little boy, my uncle told me that when I met the right woman, I’d know and damn if he wasn’t right. The moment I looked into your gorgeous eyes, part of me knew my life had changed forever and I never, ever want to go back to who I was before you. Lucy Calder, will you marry me?”
I’m nodding before he finishes. Running in place with sheer happiness. The dancers, crew, choreographers, even Sandro himself are cheering and clapping as I pull Nash to his feet and jump into his arms, legs wrapping around his waist as I duck my chin against his shoulder.
“Yes,” I whisper, smiling, eyes squeezed shut. He lowers me to the ground and slips the ring onto my finger, and then we’re enveloped in a crowd of people, eager to wish us well. And suddenly, familiar faces start to appear.
Nora. Bennett. Grayson. Gideon. All smiling and grinning from ear to ear. Behind them? My mom and dad, looking absolutely thrilled by everything that’s happened.
“That was amazing, Lucy girl,” Dad says as he wraps me in a hug. “Aerial kung fu? Wow.”
“And so romantic,” Mom whispers, smiling softly at Nash.
And then the Kincaids are on us and I’m surrounded by a mosaic of faces. My family. My friends. And throughout it all, Nash’s arm draped over my shoulder, a quiet promise that he’ll never let me go.