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Chapter Thirteen
Andrea
Andrea roseoff the seat at the piano with legs that felt like jelly. Everyone in the bar was looking from her to the new face of Irish rock who stood brooding at the bottom of the steps, his eyes focused on Andrea and no one else. Someone said her name and it snapped her out of her shocked state and spurred her into action.
She descended the steps leading up to the stage and made to cross the room when Charlie blocked her way. “I can tell him go, if you want. Or I can check into a hotel so you two cantalk.”
Andrea rolled her eyes at the implication in Charlie’s tone as she muttered. “Not if he was the last man on earth, Charlie. I’ll get rid of him.”
Blocking out the hushed murmurs from her friends, Andrea strode right up to Declan, ignoring the depth of his blue eyes as she folded her arms across her chest, Declan’s gaze dipping to her breasts before his lips tilted upwards.
“I feel like an idiot for never knowing that you had a voice like that.”
Declan’s tone was husky, heated, his eyes even more so but Andrea had nerves of steel, or at least she did with everyone but the too damn gorgeous man standing with his eyes focused on her. His hair was mused in that I just got out of bed look and his beard was thick and framed his full lips like a caress.
“You are a goddamn idiot for rocking up here for no reason!”
His grin deepened, that look of devilment in his eyes that no doubt made many a groupie drop their knickers for him in an instant. Hell, the way he was looking at her now, Andrea was tempted to drag him back to her place and give her body what it wanted, what it craved.
“You said you wanted to talk and I was in the neighbourhood.”
“Cut the bullshit, Declan. What the hell are you doing here?”
Declan glanced around, then shrugged. “This is a bar, right? I think I fancy a pint.”
“You are not stopping for a pint!” she hissed but Declan was already making his way to the bar, her fucking traitorous friends all stopping to say hello to the rockstar as if they didn’t deal with famous people on a daily basis. Declan grinned as he took pictures and was the epitome of a global rock star before Andrea stormed behind the bar and poured him a pint.
When Declan finally managed to make his way through his newfound fans, he downed his pint like it was water and then leaned on the bar, folding his arms across the bar. His gaze dipped down and he smirked. “Nice t-shirt.”
It was only then that Andrea remembered that she was wearing a Heartache Melody shirt with the band’s logo printed on the chest. She rolled her eyes and played with the strands of her long ponytail.
“It’s called being a good manager, promoting the band I manage. Even if their lead singer is a dickhead.” Her arctic tone must have gotten to him, or maybe it was the fact she was calling him a dickhead so loud the entire bar could hear them arguing, but his eyes seemed to darken and then he said. “Sing with me.”
Andrea staggered back, shaking her head. It was one thing singing in front of him but it was too intimate, too revealing to get on that stage and sing with him. It was a foolish dream that her teenage self had fantasied about, that Declan would be on stage singing and she would come out from the wings and sit down at her piano or with her guitar and join in with him. Then he would realize the girl of his dreams, the one he wrote songs about in his notebooks had always been there all this time.
It was a stupid childish dream that she had long given up on...hadn’t she?
Declan drained the rest of his pint, then headed for the stage before Andrea could do anything to stop him. She was powerless as he rolled his shoulders and sat down behind the piano and tinkled with the keys like he was rusty. Declan was a master at the guitar but it was Andrea and Rhys who had thought him how to play the piano so he would at least not suck and embarrass himself had a passable.
Everyone in the bar, including Andrea, was on the edge of their seats as Declan began to play the keys in earnest, using Andrea’s favourite trick of turning a dance song into a classical ballad as he began to sing. His voice was as smooth as silk, but somehow also gritty and raw with emotion as he began to sing the lyrics to David Guetta’s remix of the Whitney Houston song,How will I Know?
Andrea knew the song, knew the lyrics, where John Newman was singing about hurting, the lyrics being sang to the person about an act that was so bad, the singer wasn’t sure if he would know if they really loved him. The way Declan sang it, the power in his voice evoking emotion in Andrea and she hated him for it. In that moment she actually despised him because it felt as if Declan was mocking her, knew what he had done and he was sorry and this was his way of asking her if she cared about him.
But she forced herself to listen, absorbing it all until Declan finished to rapturous applause, yet, she did not clap. Her heart was racing inside her chest and it felt so damn hard to breathe. Her chest tightened and her palms began to sweat as someone handed Declan a guitar, his masterful fingers stroking the chords as he launched into Finneas’A Concert Six Months From Now.
Andrea was able to hold her composure until she heard him sing the line about how they never were good at just being friends and the pain inside Andrea seemed to punch its way out. Declan was still singing, his eyes on her but everyone else was watching him.
Struggling to breathe, Andrea bolted out from her spot at the bar and was up the stairs before the music halted suddenly and Declan was calling her name. Andrea kept moving until she pushed open the doors of the student centre and bent over, her hands on her knees as she tried to remember how to take air into her lungs.
The pounding of her heart was so loud in her ears that she didn’t hear anyone coming out behind until she finally managed to take a deep breath and it didn’t burn like before.
A hand rested on the small of her back and the contact seared her as Declan asked her if she was okay. Andrea jerked away from him, standing upright, aware that her cheeks were wet and she didn’t care if he saw it.
“Don’t touch me.” she snapped at him and Declan looked taken about at the venom in her tone.
“Andi...hey...this was not what I planned.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Andrea snorted, swiping the tears angrily from her eyes. “You didn’t show up to embarrass me in front of all my friends? You didn’t show up just to torment me? Do you hate me so much that you would come here and pick apart my life?”
