Page 51 of Rock & Roll Nights: The Lila and Rivers Edit
Taylor reached out and grabbed my arm, turning me and hustling me toward the stage. “Where’s your other half? Does she have her keyboard here? Because I’ve got an idea.”
“My other half? Her keyboard?”
I mean yeah, I knew exactly where Anna was. And I knew that she did in fact have her keyboard with her. It was stored with all the other musical equipment—and my guitar, which I kept with the Authors’ equipment and retrieved every night, just in case I woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to write something.
That didn’t mean I knew what Taylor was up to.
“Where’s your guitar?” she asked, like she was following the same mental path I’d already walked.
“Huh?” I asked, sounding just as gobsmacked as I felt.
“Your guitar. Sam!” she shouted over her shoulder. “Get this girl’s guitar from the room in the back! The Fender, right?” That part was directed at me, but she didn’t pause when I didn’t answer. “And get the keyboard too! We’re going to need them both.”
“We what?”
She spun me to look at her, and I saw right then how she’d risen so quickly in the music industry and made a name for herself as someone who could quite literally magic her way right into what she wanted. “Stop asking questions, Lila, and get yourself together. You and Anna are going onstage. If Rivers doesn’t have the microphone he wants, I’ll give someone else time in front of the crowd. And for right now, that someone else is you.”
She turned me back toward the stage and I had just enough time to see Anna in the wings on the other side of the stage, flirting with one of the other guys in the band, before my guitar was shoved into my hands and I found myself stumbling out onto the stage, courtesy of a healthy push from Taylor James.
* * *
“Um, hi,” I said into the microphone in front of me.
Anna, sitting to my right behind her keyboard, snorted at that and I sent her a narrow-eyed look.
“Do you want to make the introductions?” I hissed.
She sealed her lips and gave me a big-eyed look, leaving everything up to me, and I almost snarled at her. Anna was the more outgoing of the two of us and had always spoken for us before, and if we’d planned this, we would have had her up here explaining why we were onstage with the guys from Global Authors shuffling behind us and their lead singer missing.
Instead, she was leaving it up to me. Like I wasn’t already in over my head.
“Right, well I’m guessing you’re wondering who we are and what we’re doing up here when you’re expecting to see Global Authors,” I continued.
“Are you kidding?” a voice said. “I’m betting they know exactly who you are.”
I glanced over to see Matt, the bassist for the Authors, leaning up to his microphone and grinning at me. I grinned back, unable to stop myself. Matt was almost as good-looking as Rivers, but where Rivers was dark and brooding, Matt was dark and yet sunny at the same time. Always laughing. Always cracking jokes.
And lately, flirting with Anna any time he had a spare moment.
I looked from him to her and lifted my brows, and noted the flush creeping quickly up from the neckline of her blouse.
I laughed at that and turned back to the audience. “Okay, so maybe you know exactly who I am, but I’m guessing you’re still wondering what I’m doing here. The truth is, our friend Rivers is having a bit of a... um... equipment issue backstage, and since he’s back there being distracted, some of the management thought Anna and I could come out here and entertain you fora bit. Y’all ready for some down-home Nashville-style country? Because that’s what we’re about to give you.”
And at that, Anna and I launched into one of our best pieces—this part, at least, we’d discussed—and broke into song. This was a good one, a real love song but with a catchy, quick tempo, and before long the audience was stomping and clapping with us, their faces breaking into surprised grins. A moment later, a bass line broke in on the song and I glanced over, surprised. We didn’t have bass lines in our songs. They were written for guitar and keyboard only. But hearing the deeper, fuller sound was...
Really good.
Like,reallygood.
Matt grinned at me again, his fingers working his bass, and I tipped my head. Then there were drums. And then another guitar. They weren’t doing anything spectacular—nothing complicated—but they were filling in the gaps in our melody with simple notes.
Notes that worked.
And oh my God, Global Authors were playing one of our songs. With us.
My heart grew three sizes, making it feel like it was about to break, and I launched into the chorus with the biggest grin I’d ever worn.
When another voice joined mine, I thought I might actually explode. I looked to my left and saw Rivers walking out on stage, his guitar swinging from his shoulders and his favorite microphone—I guessed—in front of him as he tried to harmonize with me. Difficult, considering he didn’t even know the words, and honestly, I was surprised he was trying at all. This was the guy who’d barely talked to me in the last week and now he was faking the words to one of my songs so he could harmonize with me?
