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Liv said, “I have no doubt you’ll leave jaws on the floor.”
“It’ll be the gown,” Chloe told them. “Really, it would turn Cinderella green with envy.”
Chloe wouldn’t even describe it. Wouldn’t give the slightest clue as to what the dress looked like, and that made her bridesmaids and maid of honor all the more intrigued—and chomping at the bit for a glimpse.
When they reached the club, Chloe thanked Fallon profusely for working so hard to get the new restaurant and lounge up and running in time for the rehearsal dinner. John’s relatives had already arrived, and Sylvia hadn’t been lying when she’d said he came from a big brood, despite him being an only child. Chloe would never again lack for family. Or friends.
The festivities got underway with appetizers and socializing. Liv didn’t have to search for Nate and Tristan—they immediately sought her out.
She hugged both men and said, “I heard about the observatory and the academy scholarships. You’re certainly taking the town by storm.”
“Just trying to do our part,” Tristan said with a grin.
Nate told her, “We’d intended on funding the programs whether we moved back to Bayfront or not. They meant a lot to us when we were kids, and we never would have gotten into the academy without financial assistance.”
“Good deeds are worth kisses,” she said, and planted one on their cheeks.
“Just a peck?” Nate asked with a crooked brow.
She laughed softly. “Well, I don’t want to make too big a scene. I plan to do that later when I’m on stage.”
“We’re looking forward to that,” Tristan said. “Then we can talk.”
Liv’s stomach knotted. She was now only two days away from having to say yes or no to New York. But she couldn’t let her mind drift. She needed to give this option a chance. And, in truth, she could hardly wait to break in Fallon’s new stage.
Dinner was a lively affair, followed by decadent desserts that Liv bypassed. Painfully so. But in addition to her bridesmaid dress, she had a tight little red number to fit into tonight. Mostly, though, she didn’t have much of an appetite as anticipation hummed in her veins—along with a sexual charge as she sat between Nate and Tristan. The former rested his hand on her bare thigh under the table. The latter draped an arm along the back of her chair.
She inhaled both their expensive-smelling colognes, their distinct scents, and that sent her into sensory overload more so than the crème brûlée would have.
While dessert was being cleared away and the doors were opening to the throng waiting outside the lounge, Liv ducked into the dressing room Fallon had designated for her and changed clothes.
She fluffed her plump curls and added a dab of gloss to her crimson-colored lips. The electric current continued to flow through her, though now it rode a hint of nerves over this being a full showcase of what she was capable of—she wasn’t just a guest singer with Defiant. She was a co-lead and had numerous solos in the set.
But it was more than that. She’d already gotten a taste of what it was like to perform in front of her friends, as well as Nate and Tristan. This evening’s performance held a heavier weight because if it didn’t feel right on that stage, if lightning didn’t strike, she’d know what her true destiny was.
Yet Liv would give this night everything she had—and that made exhilaration chase away the anxiety. She left the dressing room and joined her temporary band on the stage, marveling over the standing-room only attendance.
The rush through her veins intensified. These people were here to see her.
“You ready to do this?” Ev asked.
Liv’s gaze flashed to the thick of people congregated on the dance floor and she found Nate and Tristan front and center.
Her heart fluttered. Excitement ribboned through her. She tore her gaze from them and said, “Yeah. I’m totally ready to do this.”
The band launched into Heart’s “Barracuda” to get the energy pumping, followed by some popular dance songs, then one of Liv’s originals. The response was through the roof. So she performed another. And another.
Confident she’d found her true calling, she was perfectly okay with more cover tunes everyone could dance and sing to, but not a soul left the dance floor when she sang her own music.
They demanded more with encore after encore.
She could have stayed on that stage forever. But as it inched toward two o’clock in the morning, a different yearning took over. Not the need to hear the roar of the crowd or keep people on their feet. But the overwhelming desire to be with her two men. Even a few nights away from them had, she realized, been a few nights too many.
She and the band finally said their goodnights to their audience and then Liv joined Nate and Tristan.
They had huge hugs for her but were edged out by Fallon and Liv’s other friends, who all wanted to congratulate her.
Fallon said, “You owned that stage! Oh, my God! You were sensational!”
