Sing to Me (6 page)

“By telling him that you have a boyfriend now, so you’re very sorry but you can’t go with him.”

“But I don’t have a boyfriend. I mea
n, we haven’t even talked about it, so it’s not like we’re a couple or anything.
And Brian already rented a tux to match my dress and ordered my corsage to match.”

“I didn’t know you got your dress.”

“Yeah.
On Saturday.
The money I earned babysitting was the last bit I needed.
I
t’s perfect, but I
don’t even feel like going now.”

“Are you crazy
?
Just because you go with Brian doesn’t mean you have to
stay
with him the whole night. Colby won’t be playing the whole time, and every girl in the place w
ill be
willing to shave off their
e
yebrows
to dance with someone from the band.”

I laughed. “Well, I’m going so
you can relax.
”

The band was playing the last chords of the
ir s
ong, letting them die away, so Olivia jumped up to get her guitar. Our girl talk was over for now.

Micah stepped away, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he went. He wasn’t needed anyway. The rehearsal was now all about Olivia. After she and Colby had a quick discussion, the other guitarist and the drummer coming over to join them, they went right into
“Breaking Even,”
one of the more popular s
ong
s from her self-released album
.

Obviously, since she was my fr
iend, I knew the song by heart, but
I’d only
heard her
sing
it to
her own
accompaniment before
. Somehow, hearing her sing with a live band was a completely
different experience. She was e
lectrified with it and
almost seemed to glow as she sang. Then, as they
prepared to sing
the next song,
Colby asked if she’d like to sing a duet on the title song from her album, “Blown Away.” Olivia jumped all over the idea.

They spent a few minutes go
ing through the music, with Colby
arranging it as they
went, and then they ran through it from the beginning. Hearing Colby’s deep but almost sweet voice singing the melody on the second verse made my jaw drop. Olivia’s excited eyes jumped to mine, and I could tell she was about to blow a fuse she was so lit up.
W
hen she came back in on the chorus as Colby slipped effortlessly into the harmony, I knew that this song would be the hit of the night at prom.

About thirty minutes later, they’d gone through about five of her songs, tweaking them until
they were in pretty good shape, and Olivi
a was done. She put her guitar
in
its
case and came towards me, almost floating off the floor with happiness.

She grabbed her salad off the table and settled down next to me. “Oh, my gosh! Colby is amazing. I’m half-in-love with him myself.”

“Should I warn Parker?”

Olivia giggled and worked on opening her packet of Light Italian Dressing. “No. Music just gets my emotions all crazy, but I’m still a one guy kind of girl. Besides, I wouldn’t have a chance with him. He’s too far gone over you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Sure I do. Didn’t you see how often he glanced at you while I was up there?”

“No.”

“Well, he was trying to hide it, but I was watching him. I’ll tell you what though, you’d better grab him. That guy’s popularity is about to go through the roof.”

“I know. He’s totally hot
when he’s performing, huh? You know, Mr.
Grisom
will behead you if he catches you eating that in here.”

“He’s in his office. Want a tomato?”

“Sure,” I said, picking one out of her salad. “So, how long are you planning to stay?”

“I don’t know. I want to eat this before it gets any warmer. And I kind of wanted to see a little more of their rehearsal, b
ut we can go if you want to.”

“No, um
,
actually, Colby asked if I could wait around
so we could talk.” I felt strangely
shy as I continued, “In fact, he said if you couldn’t wait, he’d give me a ride home.”

Olivia froze with her fork halfway to her mouth and her eyebrows halfway to her hairline. “Really
?
Don’t worry, girl. I’m leaving right now.” She began putting her salad away and gathering up her stuff.

Alarmed, I asked, “What are you doing?”

“Um, hello? I’m getting out of here so he has to give you a ride home.”

“
Oh my gosh
!
But if you leave now, it’ll be obvious that I’m waiting for him. Everyone will know it.”

“Including him. That should get the message across.”

“What message?”

“You know, that you’re interested. Now, can you help me get my guitar out to the car? We’ll see if we can give Colby a mini-heart attack when he thinks you’re leaving. Then watch his face when you come back in, and it should tell you everything you need to know.”

Pulled along by Olivia’s determination, I carried her guitar out for her and waved her off
as she drove away a minute later
, rolling my eyes
as she
called out her window to me, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

I walked slowly back inside, feeling my throat get dry and my palms get sweaty. What in the heck was I doing?
But w
hen I saw the eager way Colby’s eyes went to the door when I came in and the way he smiled as his shoulde
rs relaxed, I knew.

*****

It was
after 10:00
before Micah called an end to the rehearsal.
I’d begun fantasizing about my mom’s recliner at home because the plastic chair I was sitting in had only been comfortable for the first hour or so.
I’d actually managed to get my physics homework done, though I glanced up from it pretty often to check Colby out.
I’d started to wonder if I should have gone home with Olivia after all because it was getting so late, but when Colby walked over to me, his guitar case in one hand and the other held out to help me up, I was glad I hadn’t.

It took me a minute to put all my stuff back in my backpack, and when my back was turned to Colby, I heard him punch out a few notes on the piano. Then he sat down on the bench and played the melody to “Moon River.”

I turned around and smiled at him, remembering the night we’d sung it together to put Abby to sleep. “Do you play the piano too?” I asked, not knowing how else to respond to the message in the notes.

“Nah. Not really. Are you ready to get out of here?”

“Definitely,” I said.

I must have sounded a little too relieved because Colby immediately began apologizing. “Yeah, sorry about that. I had no idea it was going to take so long or I never would have asked you to stay.”

Wanting to reassure him, I said, “Well, I’m glad you did - even though my butt’s sore from that plastic chair.”

He burst out laughing and reached out to take my hand.
He
laced his
fingers through mine and
said, “Well, the seat in my car will be a lot softer, so let’s get out of here.
”
As we headed to the door, Colby called out over his shoulder, “Good
night. I’ll see you guys later
.”

There was a general chorus of goodnights in response, but Micah called out, “Kiss her for me
,
Colby.”

Wow.
Micah was definitely annoying me.

What if Colby felt
pressure
d to kiss me
now?
Not that I didn’t want him t
o ki
ss me. If only Micah would keep his big mouth shut, this would be a lot easier.

Colby held the main door to the parking lot open for me so I slipped past him, feeling bad since he was still carrying his guitar. Plus, he’d had to let go of my hand and that didn’t sit well with me either. When the door was shut behind us though, Colby reclaimed my hand and even gave it a gentle
squeeze
as he said, “I
gnore Micah
the best
you can. He’s pretty obnoxious, but he’s got a great voice so I put up with him. A band isn’t worth much without a lead vocalist.”

“Why don’t you
sing lead?
I think you have a better voice than he does.”

“Maybe. I don’t know though. I’m more of a backup singer. Besides, he likes it and I don’t
so much
.”

“Well, I think the duet you sang
with Olivia was the best thing I heard
all night.”

“Yeah. I’m
really excited about that one
,” he said,
his face lighting up with enthusiasm as he led me
ov
er to his car
.
“Of course, there are other things I’m
more
excited about right now.”

He was now holding open the passenger door for me to get in, so I slipped into the seat and asked, “Like what
?
”

Before he shut the door, he leaned over it and asked, “What do you think?”

As he got in and put the keys in the ignition, I said, “You know, you have a habit of asking leading
questions like that. W
hat
are
you excited about?
Tell me.
”

“Well, that you’re in my car,
and that I’m finally going to be able to
say
what I’ve been wanting to say
for a long time.”

“You mean you’re actually going to say something this time, and not just give me a confusing, half-done kiss as
you
r
only explanation?” My voice was teasing but I really wanted to know.

“You didn’t like that kiss much, huh? Were you wanting something more like this?”

Colby leaned across the seat towards me and I was glad it was dark, because otherwise I’m sure he would have seen
a
fiery
blush sweep across my face. I met his lips eagerly and
surrendered to the pull of our attraction.

The sensitive mouth that I’d watched
as he’d sung
all night moved surely ove
r mine, tasting and exploring
while allowing me to do the same.
One of his strong hands circled my waist and I ran my
hand up his arm until my fingers
brushed across his shoulder and around his neck.

At this rate, we weren’t going to do much talking, but
we were certainly communicating
. The only thing distracting me was a familiar song that played over and over again. I chose to ignore it, because there was no way I was breaking away from this kiss before he did.

“Is that your phone?” Colby asked, murmuring against my lips
, teasing them still further.

“Uh, yeah.”

“Do you need to answer it?”

I sighed. “Probably.”

Colby pressed another kiss on my cheek and sat back in his seat. I fished my phone out of the black hole at the bottom of my backpack and checked the missed calls.
Several were from Olivia, but those weren’t the ones I was worried about.
“Oh, dang
.
It’s my mom. Sorry, but I’ve got to call her back.”

“Of course. Hey, I’m
going to drive around while you’re talking, ok? The rest of the guys are coming out to their cars now and I don’t want them to give us a hard time.”

I nodded absently. My mom picked up after the first ring.

“
Rylie
, where are you? I’ve called you I-don’t-know-how-many-times. It’s past your curfew.”

I glanced at the clo
ck on the dashboard. “What?
My curfew isn’t till 11:00.”

“Not on weeknights.”

“Oh,
s
orry.
I’m never out on weeknights so I forgot.
”

“Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“I guess I didn’t hear it over the band. My ringer wasn’t turned up very loud.”

“Well, where are you? And don’t tell me you’re with Olivia, because she just called the house wanting to talk to you.”

I closed my eyes in frustration. Thanks Olivia. “No, I was with her, but I’m with Colby Adams now -you know, Marcy Adam’s stepson.
He asked if I wanted to stay for the rest of rehearsal, so I did. He’s driving me home right now.”