AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, you’ve seen it,” Jack said. “You’ll see it tonight. She’ll get lost in the music and get this look on her face. It says she’s right where she wants to be. Where she needs to be. That the music is her world, and she doesn’t need anything beyond that. I love seeing that smile on her.”
She doesn’t need anything beyond that…Danny wasn’t expecting the sharp stab of pain that came with Jack’s observation. He said goodbye and slipped into the suite.
A moment later, the lights went down, and the crowd went wild in anticipation of The Kingmakers taking the stage. Shadows drifted out, finding positions at the different instruments, and the noise from the crowd ratcheted up. Cole and her friends started to clap, shout, and whistle. Danny found his seat and peered at the figures on the stage before looking up at the giant video monitors.
A few notes from DJ’s keyboard drifted over the thunderous crowd, and a single spotlight illuminated his part of the stage. Another light slowly came up over the riser in the back. Augie’s drumbeat picked up and was joined by Ox’s bass and Stevie’s guitar. Then a final spotlight illuminated, revealing Lauren at center stage, guitar hanging behind her, arms spread wide, and her head tilted back. Her eyes were shut, and as the audience’s roar peaked and washed over her, she pulled the guitar around. Her fingers flew over the frets, and she launched into the first verse of “Sinners & Saints,” one of the songs fromStone Heart.
Twenty thousand fans went crazy.
Danny stared at the larger-than-life image of Lauren projected on the huge monitor. She wore a fitted leather vest that laced up the front. It clung to her figure and offered a tantalizing hint of breast. Her jeans had insets filled with black and silver-blue metallic print. She was, of course, wearing boots, and they were covered with silver and crystal straps that glinted as she moved.
The next song was a fun anthem to rock and roll, but the third was the new single, “Leaving.” Danny knew this one—he’d heard it on the radio several times—and he took a deep breath. The song was about heartbreak and walking away.
“There wasn’t a choice, I couldn’t stay. I saw all my dreams start to fade away. As the space in between us stretches for miles, every mistake makes my heart break just a little more…”
Lauren’s voice filled the arena and left a deep, abiding ache in Danny’s chest that fed the doubt he’d been feeling that day.
After the soft anguish of “Leaving,” the band cranked the tempo back up. In this song, Lauren had a substantial guitar solo. As she stood on one of the platforms, she started to smile. Danny immediately knew it was “that smile.” The one her father talked about. The smile that said standing there on stage was, really, her one true love.
And in that moment, Danny knew that he couldn’t have asked her to stay back in high school. He had no doubt that Lauren loved him, but he couldn’t compete with the stage and the spotlight. She would wither without it.
I can’t compete with it. But could I be part of it?He thought about Bruno’s party, the press, the fans. It made his stomach clench.She said that I’d hate living in her world. But what if she’s wrong?There are plenty of celebrities who make relationships work. Why couldn’t we?
A not-so gentle elbow jostled Danny out of his thought. “You okay?” his brother asked.
“Fine.”
“You going to go to the after party? I don’t care either way, but me and Vinny will need to get a ride share home if you leave.”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I want to, but I’m not sure it’s the best idea.” The screaming fight he’d had with Heather before he left the house was still sharp in his mind. He was glad the boys had been out with friends and hadn’t seen it.
On stage, Lauren was in the zone. She felt like she could accomplish anything as the music flowed and the crowd responded. She grabbed her microphone and let her eyes rove over the floor and up to the higher balcony seats.
“We’ve got a special song for you right now,” she said. “This one was a late addition toStone Heart.Here’s “Empty Chair”—written and performed by our very own DJ Scott!” With a flourish, she pointed to where DJ sat at his keyboards. He started playing the song he’d written, and Lauren brought her microphone back closer to Augie.
Out in the crowd, people started holding up glowing cell phones, but Lauren did see a few of the old guard out there with their lighters aloft. In moments, the whole stadium was filled with soft glowing light that swayed to the tempo of DJ’s song. As he reached the end of the last repeat of the chorus, and the crowd’s enthusiasm swelled, Lauren looked up to find DJ looking at her as he sang, “…with all we’ve been through, I just think of how empty my life would be without you…”
DJ gave her a wink, and she smiled.
Seeing the interaction on the monitors, the crowd roared even louder.
The Kingmakers had played for close to two hours by the time they closed the main set. They were all exhausted but soaring on adrenaline when they bowed and waved to the crowd. Backstage, they laughed and hugged and high-fived. The crowd’s applause, chants, and stomping shook the building. Then the lights went down, and each one of them could feel the throng's energy level surge again as the band returned for the encore. Lauren went up to her microphone and put her hands on her hips.
“Well, clearly you guys still want to rock,” she said. “You don’t need to ask us twice! One… two… three… four…!”
The band ripped through the first two songs, and when they got into the third—and final—song, they improvised a longer musical section. The volume dropped slightly when Lauren grabbed her microphone and sauntered along the edge of the stage, her steps fluid and cat-like.
“We’ve had a great time tonight. Are you having a good time?” she asked as she paced. The crowd bellowed back at her enthusiastically. “Awesome! What would you think if we added some friends to the mix?”
The crowd thundered again. And as Lauren dove into the next verse, another guitarist joined them on stage. He wore nothing but black leather pants, giving the audience ample opportunity to check out the dozens of tattoos that adorned his arms, shoulders, chest and back.
“That’s Raphael Zima!” Cole shouted.
“Who?” Maggie asked.
“He’s the guitarist from Psychic Soul,” Danny said. “You didn’t know that? You’re showing your age, Mags.”
Maggie made sure Cole wasn’t looking before she flipped Danny off.
