the need to taste her lips away, I forced my gaze to the crowd behind her. “We’re gonna start tonight off a little slower. This song is a favorite of someone special and I thought we would spoil her a little tonight.”
Behind me the band started the first chords to the song and I had to wipe my free hand on my jeans again because it was soaked in sweat, but right on cue I sang the first line.
From the first chord that Gray had hit with his guitar, I’d seen the way Kin had reacted. She knew without the words I was singing—singing just for her—that it was “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls. It was one of her favorite songs, not just from the band, but of all time. She told me one night when we’d been parked on some back road in my car, fogging up the windows as she kissed me until I was mad with need for her. The song had come on the satellite radio and she’d paused with her hands on my bare chest and started to sing along as she’d let me make love to her.
With that first chorus I saw the way her chin tried to tremble as that same memory flashed in her baby blues, and I wanted to jump down off the stage and wrap her in my arms as I finished the rest of the song, but just as quickly she clenched her jaw and slowly lowered her gaze to her clasped hands in front of her.
She had to know what I was saying with each lyric I sang, had to understand the truth behind it all. I would give up my last breath just to touch her one more time. For her to see me—the real me that she had fallen for just as quickly as I’d fallen for her—and know that when I was with her it was the closest to heaven I could ever hope to be.
My throat tight with emotion, I continued the song, my eyes trapped on her as I silently begged her to look up again. “And you can’t fight the tears that ain’t comin’.” I started the fourth chorus and her head snapped up. The glaze of tears I saw there, that I knew she wouldn’t let fall, sliced into my chest like a fiery sword.
Behind me, the guys were getting into the song. Kale was in the moment with the drums, and Gray was hitting each chord on his Fender like his hands had been made specifically to play that song right in that moment. Sin and Cash were both keeping up, their eyes half closed as they let the music become a part of their souls as they did with every song we performed. But I saw none of that because I was so caught up in Kin’s gaze. So destroyed by how much pain seemed to flood out of her and into me.
I welcomed it. I’d take every ounce of her pain away if I could, if she would just give me the chance. I’d take it all away and replace it with the love I’d never stopped feeling for her. Give her something more, something better.
I’d give her every part of me, including my soul, and this time…
This time I wasn’t going to walk away without her.
The song was coming to a close now, and I covered my heart with my hand as I dropped to my knees so we were on a closer eye level. “And I just want you to know who I am.”
The song ended and the entire club was suddenly so quiet I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. My gaze was still locked on Kin’s and she seemed just as spellbound as I was. There was a long pause, as if the crowd was just as much in a trance as I was. Then the smallest, sweetest smile lifted Kin’s lips and it was like the trance was broken for me and the hundreds of other people inside First Bass as they started clapping and screaming.
I touched my fingers to my lips and offered her my hand. She hesitated all of a full two seconds before stepping forward and touching her fingers to mine. My heart soaring with a million new possibilities, I was suddenly stoked to finish up that night’s show. The sooner we were done, the sooner I could get Kin alone and we could talk.
I rushed through