them were whispering and murmuring, reacting to something. The music started up again, and Mia recognized the intro to the song from Dirty Dancing.
But it wasn’t Wyatt’s voice that started singing. It was a deeper, warmer voice. A beautiful voice. One she knew intimately…
Every muscle in Mia’s body froze in place.
It can’t be.
Andie grabbed her and spun her toward the stage. Mia lifted her gaze—
It was him. The last person she ever expected to see standing up there crooning into the microphone.
“Josh,” she breathed, not quite believing it was real.
He was looking right at her. Singing to her.
Josh. Her Josh. Was up on a stage. Singing “The Time of My Life” in front of a crowd of people.
Mia stared in open-mouthed shock. Unable to look away. Barely even able to breathe as she drank in the sight of him ablaze under the lights in her favorite blue plaid shirt—looking a little nervous, but not as much as you’d expect. His chestnut eyes were shining and locked onto hers as he sang both parts of the duet, every word imbued with meaning directed straight at her.
As her surprise wore off she started to smile, and it seemed to banish the last of Josh’s nervousness. His voice grew more confident, and his lips curved in a smile of his own as he belted out the last note of the intro.
The tempo picked up as the bass and drums came in. Wyatt pumped his fist at the side of the stage. Andie used her thumb and forefinger to let out an ear-piercing whistle as the crowd hooted and hollered in response, cheering as Josh started singing the first verse.
Mia blinked back hot tears as the song enveloped her, sinking into her heart before bursting inside her chest. She’d never paid attention to the lyrics before. She’d never been this moved by any song—or known this sort of happiness before. She’d never even imagined she could feel this way. She wouldn’t have been able to stop smiling if her life depended on it.
The music seemed to shimmer in the air, infecting the crowd with a delirious excitement. She was vaguely aware of people whooping and whistling around her, but it was the words Josh was singing to her that glowed like starlight in her mind.
This could be love.
The women next to Andie practically collapsed to the floor in a collective swoon when he launched into the chorus. By then Mia was openly crying, rubbing away tears with the heels of her hands as the music swelled. She wasn’t the only one tearing up either. People around her were hugging and swaying. Dancing. Losing their minds when Josh pointed at her at the end of the chorus and shouted, “Hey, baby!”
The crowd parted, opening up a path between Mia and the stage, and she felt a hand on her back, pushing her toward Josh. “Go on,” Andie shouted in her ear. “What are you waiting for?”
Mia stumbled forward as people around her shouted encouragement. Wyatt grabbed the microphone from Josh and gave him a shove off the front of the stage. She came to an unsteady stop as Josh jumped down onto the gravel a few yards in front of her.
Then she started running, straight into his waiting arms.
Mia’s breath caught in a joyous gasp as he picked her up—not over his head like the movie, thank god—and spun her around. The crowd went nuts around them as the band kept playing, with Wyatt taking over the vocals.
But all Mia cared about was Josh, who was holding her like he never wanted to let her go. She smelled the warm, familiar scent of his skin, and her stomach swooped like he had lifted her over his head, and she knew she never, ever wanted to be anywhere else but with him.
“I love you,” she said, the words tumbling out of her on a gust of pure happiness.
Josh set her down, frowning slightly. His eyes searched hers, wide with surprise and full of uncertainty. “What did you say?” His words were nearly drowned out by the crowd noise and the music, so she mostly had to read them on his lips.
She reached up and cradled his face in her hands. “I love you,” she said, louder this time and looking right at him so he could see her saying it.
The corners of his lips tilted in a heartbreakingly beautiful smile. And then those lips pressed against hers, still smiling as he kissed her, inspiring the crowd