Page 101 of Run Away With Me

My eyes almost bugged out of my head.

‘Is that my top?’

She looked down at her chest, then back at me with a wicked smile. ‘Oops.’

She was wearing red lipstick, too, deep, dark red that set all the rest of her features into sharp relief. She came up behind me and took the hairspray off the counter to work it through my hair, making it artfully tousled.

I had lost the ability to speak, because Brooke didn’t just look gorgeous, she looked gorgeousandshe waswearing my clothes. My brain short-circuited, and despite the cool air I was suddenly hot all over.

When I stood up, Brooke took half a step back, then smiled at me and stepped in close again, but I wanted to be in charge this time, to be the kiss-er, not the kiss-ee. The boots gave me a bit of extra height, and I leaned in to brush my lips over hers.

‘You look hot,’ she murmured when I pulled away.

‘Thanks,’ I said, still not used to her saying things like that.

She grabbed the overshirt that she’d left out and passed it to me. I put it on, and she took the ends and tied them into a knot.

‘Holy shit, this almost gives the impression that I have boobs.’

Brooke laughed. ‘You have boobs.’

‘Not like …’ I gestured at her.

‘Eh, we work with what we’ve got.’

She put on sneakers, which balanced out her outfit slightly. I wasn’t sure how I’d cope if she put on heels.

‘Come on. We’re gonna be late.’

The bar was already busy when we arrived, and Brooke pointed out our names on a list, so we didn’t have to join the people waiting to be let in. That wasn’t Brooke’s style. She skipped the line and held my hand as we weaved our way through the bar.

The other performers were gathered at a few tables to one side of the room, and Damien came over with bottles of water. We were up third out of ten entrants, which seemed like a good place. Not first or last, which were equally bad, or somewhere near the end when people started losing interest.

I drummed my fingers on the table through the first two sets, only stopping when Brooke put her hand on mine. Then I started bouncing my knee instead, and she gave up trying to prevent my fidgeting.

Damien was acting as MC, introducing each act and encouraging people to tip their bartender.

‘Hey everyone, our next set is from Swift Summer. They’re new in town, and I’ve heard they’re pretty great, so let’s give them a big welcome!’

‘I’m gonna puke, I’m gonna puke,’ I muttered as Brooke grabbed my hand and dragged me up onto the stage.

We’d agreed to run the set in the same order we’d practiced it earlier, which meant I had to get my shittogether enough to play guitar for ‘Jolene’. I took the tall stool, angling it a little to hide behind the piano, and ran my thumbs over the strings to check the tuning.

Damien came around and adjusted the two mics so one was pointed at the guitar and the other was way too close to my lips.

‘You’re amazing,’ Brooke mouthed at me. Her smile turned my blood electric.

The noise in the bar never dropped completely – the bartenders were still working, and some people kept low conversations going through our songs. That was good. It wasgreat, in fact, because it meant not everyone’s attention was on me, and I was much more okay with that.

The stage was lit with a couple dozen lights, so I couldn’t really see more than a few rows into the audience. But when Brooke started playing, I couldn’t keep my eyes off her.

She was in her element.

Not just because she was the center of attention, but because she was being her most authentic self.

I knew I loved her then.

It had been on the cards for a while.

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