“I’m hurt by your lack of confidence,” Greer said as Drew nodded in agreement, wearing a mocking frown.
“I can’t believe you two are in on this.” Chloe threw her hands in the air. “I’m outnumbered.” She straightened her shoulders and gave the guys a defiant look. “If it sucks, you three only have yourselves to blame.”
A smile remained stretched across Reid’s face as Chloe turned and walked away in a huff. “You’d think this was her song the way she’s acting.”
Greer moved beside him and shrugged. “She may not have written the lyrics, but I’ll be damned if she didn’t make a hell of a lot of changes to the music. It looks like you’re not the only one who acts like a crazy person when it comes to protecting your music.” Greer’s face twisted with distaste. “I don’t know if I can handle you both. As it is, you’re barely tolerable on a good day.”
Reid punched Greer in the arm, grinning when he winced. “You’re damn lucky I’m protective. Otherwise, I would have kicked your ass out of the group a long time ago.”
Greer clapped Reid on the shoulder and smiled. “Face it, bro. You’d be lost without me.”
“Whatever makes you sleep better at night,” Reid deadpanned.
“Are you ladies going to stand here and chat all night, or do you plan on playing that encore?”
“Shit,” Reid laughed as he turned to Drew. “Y’all go out there. Tom already let the lighting guys know what to do with the intro. Otherwise, everything will be the same except the song.”
“I still can’t believe you want to do this without a real rehearsal,” Drew remarked.
Reid shrugged and pushed his hair out of his face. “It feels right. We’ll be fine.” Pausing, he looked between Drew and Greer. “That being said, I hope you two spent the last few hours looking over the sheet music like I instructed.”
Greer rolled his eyes. “Of course we did. Although keeping Chloe from figuring out what we were up to wasn’t all that easy. I had to threaten her with dirty boxers to make her leave the room.”
“He really did,” Drew added with a laugh. “You should have seen her face. She left muttering something about hazmat suits.”
Reid side-eyed Greer before shaking his head. “Round her up and get out there. And remember to loop the intro until I jump in with the lyrics.”
With a nod, the guys took off toward Chloe, the three of them disappearing to the stage moments later. The chant of the crowd erupted into screams and whistles. A nervous smile broke across Reid’s face and his body shook with adrenaline and nerves. He wasn’t sure why, but something felt different. The anticipation causing his heart to spike was a feeling he thought was long gone. Swept away with bad decisions and their consequences. As he moved toward the stage, he pulled in a deep breath and tucked his hair behind his ears. When the opening chords of “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” flooded the venue, Reid felt like he could fly.
Relaxed and full of swagger, Reid took slow, lazy strides to center stage. Soft and easy, Drew, Greer, and Chloe played the melody on a loop as Reid adjusted his guitar.
“So tonight, I’m going to close the show a little different.” When the screams intensified, Reid dropped his chin and smiled shyly. It only caused the roar to grow. Shaking his head, he peeked at the crowd. “I’ve played in a lot of cities. I’ve finished shows with a lot of different songs, but never one that wasn’t mine. Until tonight, that is. You see,” he said, taking a step back and turning toward Chloe. “A beautiful, talented violinist . . . we’ll call her Starburst,” he chuckled. “She hijacked my rehearsals earlier today with an amazing remake of one of my all-time favorite songs. It completely blew me away. So I figured, maybe I should play it tonight. See what the fans have to say.”
Reid grinned at the dirty look Chloe gave him. “I think she might be upset with me for putting her on the spot.” He moved to her side and leaned into her so that when she spoke her voice would carry through the mic on his headset. “Are you upset with me, Chloe?”
“I thought we were talking about someone named Starburst,” she snarked with an eye-roll, causing laughter to erupt from the audience.
“Right. Of course.” Reid winked and turned toward the sea of people. “What do you say, guys? When you get home later tonight, will you send your tweets and Facebook comments about how fucking awesome this song was?”