Page 75 of Use Me
“Oh?”
He took a deep breath as though he was nervous. “Yeah, the machine is just the vessel.”
“The vessel?” I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.
He downed the rest of his coffee and reached for his iPad that was sitting on the table. “I’m actually going to put on a concert for you.”
I snorted. “You’re what?”
He exchanged the karaoke machine with his iPad. “I’m gonna sing to you.”
“You’re kidding!”
“I’m not.” He opened the box, and I realized it wasn’t taped completely. He’d already opened it.
“Why are you going to sing to me? And why now?”
“You’ll see.” He did some things on the machine and then said, “Open the karaoke app and follow along.”
I looked down at the iPadand noticed it was the only app on the screen. I touched the icon, and it opened to a list of songs. I looked back up at Rhys, not paying any mind to the titles.
“Are you ready?” Rhys asked.
I chuckled. “Are you?”
He grinned. “Well, I’m no Ed Sheeran, so you can’t make fun of my voice.”
I smirked. “I won’t.”
“Now, for the next twenty-three minutes or so, you can’t stop me.”
“You’re going to sing for twenty-three minutes?”
“Yep. I have six songs to sing to you.”
“Okay.” I smiled and sat back on the couch. I threw a blanket over me and sipped my coffee as I waited for the show.
Rhys took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and then pressed something on the machine. “I’m also going to record this so you can listen anytime you want.”
I laughed, but it died off when I heard the strum of a guitar of a country song.
Rhys started to sing, a smile on each of our faces. He nudged his head toward the iPad, and I looked down to see the words scrolling across the screen. He sang about meeting a girl who makes him smile. One that crosses the street and when she moves, it changes the whole world. Though he changed the lyrics to sing about my green eyes and not the baby blues in the song. I realized as he sang that he was talking about meeting me and my smile didn’t falter. It actually grew bigger, and I had to resist the urge to sing along with him.
After the song ended, another one started right away. As soon as he started tosingabout being a call away, I realized that the songs that were on the list on the main screen of the app were specifically put there by Rhys. It was like his own concert set list.
Rhys continued to sing about being a call away if I needed a friend, that Superman had nothing on him and no matter where I went, I wasn’t alone. His voice was beautiful. I hadn’t realized in the months that we were dating that he had a good singing voice.
I swayed my upper body as I listened to the words, wishing I had a lighter to hold up. Rhys started to move a little as though he was finally getting comfortable singing in front of me, and I caught myself as I quietly started to sing the words along with him.
The piano faded out, and the strum of a guitar started to play as thenext songqueued. My eyes widened when I realized what song he was singing. “JT?” I whispered-hissed.
Rhys nodded his head, not missing any words. My ears perked up at the mention of falling in love. I knew it was just a song, but it was clear that he’d chosen it and now he was singing that it was okay to fall in love with him. He was telling me that not only was it okay to fall in love with him, but that he’d be the guy to heal my heart. He was the guy who had healed my heart. The previous two songs were a timeline of our relationship, but now he was singing that I should fall in love with him. Did he actually mean it? Or was I reading far too much into these songs?
He sang the lyrics about being the last voice I’d hear at night and that he wanted me to be the one staring back at him when we woke each morning. I continued to sway in my seat as he did the same singing next to the Christmas tree. Listening to the words, I realized that it wasn’t bad to fall in love with him. I needed to tell him that I did love him, but before I could get a word out, the next song started, and Rhys quickly took a sip of my cooling coffee.
“Throat’s dry,” he whispered.
I nodded, not able to say anything. Then the song picked up, and realization once again dawned on me. “Savage Garden?” I whispered.
