My Grumpy Old Bear - Jayda Marx Page 0,46
returned to the stage. The audience screamed even louder as my man took a bow and jogged off of the platform. “Next up we have Joshua Carr.”
I felt sorry for the poor bastard; Joshua tried his hardest to work the stage like Noah did, but my man had set the bar too high. Noah also succeeded in ratcheting up the enthusiasm of the crowd; they cheered louder for Joshua and his successors than they probably would have before Sunshine got them riled up, but their cheers didn’t come close to the ones they gave Noah.
Once the last singer completed their song, Keith called all of the performers onto the stage. “Let’s give everyone one more round of applause!” The audience clapped and cheered as all of the competitors smiled and waved. “All of our contestants did a wonderful job and made our judges’ decision difficult. But, they were able to come to an agreement on our top three performers.”
He called Rachel to the stage to present the third place prize. It went to some girl I didn’t even remember. I also didn’t care enough to pay attention to her name. Michael from the radio show awarded the second place prize to Joshua. That was all thanks to the left over excitement from my man performing, in my opinion. Keith then called Hunter to the stage and the crowd cheered again.
“Hey y’all!” Hunter called out to the audience, who collectively flipped their shit. I just rolled my eyes at his obviously fake southern accent. “It’s my honor to present the first place award to a man who rocked this stage to the ground. I was super impressed with his performance and energy. I loved him, y’all loved him, give it up for Noah Graham!”
I screamed like a fucking pre-teen girl as my boyfriend stepped to the front of the stage. He shook Hunter’s hand and took the envelope he held. Hundreds of phones were raised in the air, frantically snapping pictures of Noah as he gave one of his megawatt smiles.
Keith took the microphone again. “Let’s give another round of applause to all of our contestants, and for our winner, Noah Graham! I have a feeling this young man will do great things in the music world.” After more raucous applause, Keith added, “Don’t go anywhere, folks. In fifteen minutes, I’ll be inviting to the stage our headliners for the evening, Country Dream!”
I made my way up to the stage; or, as close as I could get. Even though I shamelessly threw a few elbows, people wouldn’t get out of my damn way. They were clumped together by the platform, trying to get close to not only Hunter (who disappeared through a curtain at the back of the stage and didn’t come back out, the coward), but also Noah. My man posed for photos with his new fans and even signed a few t-shirts of screaming young girls. I had to wait until everyone else was done with him before he was able to reach me at the back of the pack.
“Honeybear!” he yelled when he finally got to me, and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. “Did you see?”
“Of course I saw! I’m so fucking proud of you!” I kissed his forehead and circled my arms around his shoulders.
“I’m so freaking excited!” I could tell; his body trembled against mine. “I just can’t believe I won!”
“I can,” I replied seriously. “You’re amazing, Sunshine. You light up the whole damn stage.” He blinked up at me and gave me a dreamy smile. “You’ve won over Grayson. Next stop; world tour.”
“Only if you come with me.”
I pecked his lips and pressed my forehead to his. “Try and stop me.”
He gave me another quick kiss before pulling back. “We have to do something to celebrate!”
“Just name it and I’ll make it happen.”
There was that dreamy smile again. “Thanks, but I think someone gave me permission to spoil him with my winnings.” He held up a hand when I tried to protest. “I want to take you out to dinner at Chez Pierre.” Chez Pierre was Grayson’s fanciest and most expensive French restaurant. When I once again tried to protest, Noah just talked faster. “I’ve never been, and ordinarily I wouldn’t be able to afford to take you, so this has to be a sign. Come on, honeybear; let me take you out on a fancy date.”
How could I say no to that? “You’re too good to me.”
“I know,” he shrugged, and I