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“Right.”
He kissed my forehead. “I gotta check on something. See you on stage?”
“Where else would I be?”
He started to walk away then turned around and caught me up in a hot, hungry kiss. “Right, gotta go.”
He released me, and I staggered a little. “Well then.”
Lindsey came up next to me. “Everything okay?”
“I think so. He’s being a little weird.”
“Well, he’s male. They’re thinkier sorts than we give them credit for. Don’t get me wrong, they definitely aren’t obsessing on the same things we do, but they aren’t quite as oblivious as they like us to believe.”
“I’m learning that.”
Lindsey squeezed my fingers. “You guys are really good together. I was a little worried about a Fleetwood Mac thing, to be honest.”
I laughed. “Pretty sure we won’t be trading partners in the band.”
“No, thank God. But I don’t want anything to hurt my family, and love makes us all a little crazy.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that.
She took my other hand and looked me straight in the eye. “Yours is the good kind of crazy.”
“I hope so.”
“I know so.” She fluffed my hair. Some part of me would always be the little sister, and I was really okay with that. “Now, it’s time to go kick some ass.”
We all took our places. The sea of faces out in the crowd and across the lawn were obviously ready to have a good time.
The sun painted the crowd in a golden hue, and the sky was so blue it hurt to look at it. And there was nowhere I’d rather be. That sizzle of excitement took hold. The one that told me a show would be extra special. It buzzed under my fingers as I laid my fingers on my keys. The stage wasn’t big enough for my Steinway, but I had a feeling we were going to be doing a lot of running around tonight. Everyone seemed charged up.
“Judgement” got the crowd riled. The outdoor shows relied on the chemistry we all had together. A dry summer had killed the pyrotechnics we usually used, and the end stage setup meant no huge mechanical arms sliding Jamie, Zane, and Oz over the crowd.
It was just us—stripped down and ready to rock.
Lindsey flew up and down the front of the stage, glitter and sunshine trailing in her wake like sparks. As always, her mood fed the rest of us. Jamie reached for riffs I hadn’t heard since before the tour began. Even Zane, who was the more solidly steady player, wanted his time in the spotlight. He climbed up on the stacked speakers on his side of the stage. He’d lost his shirt early in the show, leaving his skin sun-soaked and gleaming in the dying light.
We blazed through the first quarter of the set without even taking a breath. Even Lindsey wasn’t as chatty as she usually was.
The music had taken us all by the throat and wouldn’t let go.
Solos were a little longer than usual, and I’d taken center stage twice myself. The music was vibrating out of me faster than I could catch it. I was out of breath and ready to crawl under my gear to soak my head in a bucket of ice water. Between the lights and the warm night, I was toast.
And then Lindsey called an audible. We’d been jonesing to try out some of the new material we’d been writing, and tonight was the night. I gathered all my energy to play the new song. I hadn’t even properly practiced it all the way through yet.
Lindsey came up to my raised platform in the rear, and we played back to back. The song was so heavily layered that we were racing one another down the keys. Then I glanced over my shoulder and we quickly switched keyboards again and again in a waterfall of sound.
The sun had set, and cell phones lights lit the inky night as Lindsey crooned about coming through the other side of darkness. And for the first time, I sang a verse on my own.
I wasn’t just the younger sister of the band. Brooklyn Dawn was my home and my life, just as much as Cooper was.
The crowd whooped and called out my name. I laughed and found Cooper standing at his kit beaming with pride.
I couldn’t help myself, so I blew him a kiss, and the crowd lost their collective minds. I waved them off and we started up one of our summer hits, “Save Me”, which set the tone for the rest of the night.
