Page 84 of Wild

The singer's lips curved into a crooked smile before she kissed her, and Erin had to work very hard to find the strength to pull away. She set her back down on the table and stepped back, watching her while she felt her own heartbeat against her arm as she crossed it over her chest.

"Finish that," she ordered, nodding at the juice. "And I mean it—take it easy during this rehearsal. When you're done I'll check your blood pressure again and—"

"I'll be perfectly fine," the singer promised, draining the last of her juice.

Chapter 31

The sound check starts on time, and Mia runs through it at half intensity at Erin's request. She holds back her full vocal range and doesn't move the way she would in a regular rehearsal. She takes it easy, just making sure she knows where everything is and mapping out the space she can move through. She also asks them to adjust the direction of the fans and points out every spot where she wants water bottles.

Erin watches from the wings, sitting on a large wooden crate, earplugs in so the music blasting from the speaker right beside her doesn't blow out her eardrums. Toward the end of the rehearsal, the singer does ask to run two songs as if they were live. Her voice explodes through the mic and the doctor's skin prickles all at once, her heart kicking into a run. She can't help it — when Mia switches on, she's like a hurricane that flattens everything around her. The singer moves back and forth through the first song and dances the second alongside the dancers, turning in a flawless performance that leaves everyone watching with their mouths open.

When it's over, Mia turns toward her from the stage and smiles as she walks to the edge. As if no words are needed, Erin hops off the crate and walks to meet her, arriving just as Mia reaches the edge and leans forward to press her hands onto Erin's shoulders and jump down. And after that jump comes another: the one where the singer wraps her legs around Erin's waist, a position they both love.

"I love that you watch me up there," she whispers, still breathless from the effort.

Erin brushes the damp strands off her forehead and kisses her.

"I like to think you're singing just for me. How are you feeling?"

The doctor presses her fingers to Mia's neck to feel her racing pulse.

"Hot, but fine."

Mia sets her feet on the ground and lets herself be guided to the medical room so Erin can take her blood pressure again.

"How am I doing, Dr. Dooley?" she teases, all mock-formal, as Erin pulls the velcro off her arm.

"I'd rather you were closer to the middle range, but you're still within normal."

"So I'm perfect. Lose the face, Doctor," she says, grinning at her own joke.

Erin bumps her shoulder.

"Sorry, babe, I can't help it — occupational hazard, I think. Why don't you go lie down on the couch in the dressing room and rest for twenty minutes?"

"You know I can't do that anymore, Erin — once we get close to showtime I get wound up and I can't stop. I'm going to talk to Noah about adjusting the lighting with the technicians; there's one that blinds me on the right side of the stage, and then I'll go to the dressing room and shower."

"Okay," the doctor agrees. "I'll go check on the water bottles. I'll get you a couple of sports drinks — I know you only want water when you're singing, but I'd really appreciate it if today you made an effort and took a few sips every now and then."

"I'll try." Mia kisses her and heads for the door, but turns back before opening it. "About talking — about us…"

Erin turns and sees the singer tracing the edges of the floor tiles with the tip of her foot.

"What I want is to be with you. I want this to work, Erin."

The doctor wants to tell her she does too, that the only thing she doesn't know yet is how to make it work, but she can't — because Mia has already slipped out of the room as if she's afraid the answer might hurt her.

Erin steps into the hallway and watches her run toward the stage area to find Noah, and she rolls her eyes because Mia is not supposed to push herself any more than strictly necessary before the concert, but she also understands that the singer is nervous, that she wants everything to go perfectly, and that's too much pressure for Erin to ask her to slow down.

The concert starts ten minutes behind schedule, on Jude's call — because, as always, she says it's better to make the audience wait so they're even more eager when she comes out.

Mia's performance that night is spectacular. Her magnetism seems doubled, and the force she projects is so fierce that Erin is sure her blood pressure is higher now. The singer takes every gap to drink and follows through — she takes a few sips of the sports drinks while the doctor, standing in the wings beside the stage, concludes that, honestly, she's easy to work with.

The lights cut out and the crowd erupts when a single spotlight falls on the singer, seated at the edge of the stage as she sings with no music. Erin can honestly say she has the show memorized by now — the songs always follow the same order and the entrances are the same at every performance unless Mia decides to improvise something — but she still can't get used to it, and she still gets chills, like she's seeing it for the first time.

When the song ends, the darkness returns, and one of the crew members comes in nearly blind to reach the singer and help her back with a flashlight. Erin is certain she'd trip over everything given how little light there is — barely a flicker on the floor just in front of their feet.

He sets her down in front of the mic stand and jogs toward the wings, and as if Erin had brought bad luck by thinking abouttripping, he catches something on the way down and goes face-first onto the floor.