Normal circumstances? If it weren’t for the mischief and excitement playing in their eyes, I would have already sunken to my knees in dread, thinking something terrible had to have happened for them to knock on my door.
Instead, I was latching onto their vibe, teeth hooking into my bottom lip as my heart beat faster and faster.
“Someone tell me what’s going on,” I finally managed.
Jumping in place, Kallie flapped her arms. “You have to get ready. We’re going to make you so, so pretty!”
Amused, Shea grinned at her daughter. “I think she’s already so pretty.”
She turned back to me, eyeing me as if she were gauging my reaction. “We’re just going to put her in an extra special dress, aren’t we?”
My gaze frantically jumped over the women standing in my living room.
Women who I’d considered friends. Women I’d hazarded daydreaming could one day be family. Women I’d thought I’d never see again.
Now they were staring back at me in both sympathy and anticipation.
My fingers trembled, and I wrung them together. “Someone please tell me what’s happening.”
Shea nudged Kallie, and Kallie grinned at her before she bounced forward, drawing attention to the card in her hand.
“This is for you,” she whispered as if it were a secret.
My chest squeezed, so tightly I rasped in a breath.
“Thank you,” I said quietly as I warily accepted it, my hands shaking as I read my name scrawled in masculine script across the envelope.
I swallowed around the lump that grew prominent at the base of my throat.
My heart throbbing and my breaths shallow.
Fingers fumbling, I turned it over and broke the seal, pulling out the flat card inside.
I scanned what was printed on the front.
My pulse jumped into a frantic thunder, an overpowering drum I could feel beating in my ears and strumming through my veins.
It was a print of a constellation.
Lyra.
The Harp.
Beauty and music.
Stamped below it was the name of a music hall downtown and the time indicated 9:00 pm.
Love bounded around me. Memories of the boy and his beauty as he’d sat at the piano. This man who’d captured me with every brilliant part of his mind and the sacrifice in his soul.
“Zee,” I whispered. A question. A statement.
Taking a step forward, Shea gave one slow nod. “He would be honored if you would attend his first piano concert in seven years.”
I gasped around the magnitude of it, struck by relief and belief.
But that self-preservation I could rarely find was right there, whispering the pain he’d left behind.
“I don’t…” The words trembled free. Reservations and doubt.
Shea blinked knowingly. “Most of us rarely do, Alexis. We don’t know and we can never be sure. We only have the chances we’re given.”
“I think you should at least go and listen. You might like what he has to say,” Willow urged, words laden with encouragement.
“I—” I gulped, a shiver racing through my being, the feeling at odds with the hope that spiked in my spirit.
Tamar smiled at me, soft for a girl who seemed so utterly hard. “Love’s a gamble, Alexis. The question is, are you willing to take the risk?”
No fear. Just life.
I bit down on my bottom lip that quivered, fighting the well of moisture that threatened my eyes. A smile pulled to my mouth. “Let’s see that dress.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
Alexis
Two hours later, I was in the back of a limo with all the women of Sunder. We inched down a busy, narrow street in historic downtown Los Angeles as I fidgeted with the plunging neckline of my dress.
My hair was coiled in a soft twist, wavy pieces falling down around my face, and the heels I wore were higher than anything I’d ever chanced stepping out in before.
And this dress…
This dress…
It was gorgeous and outrageous, lined in tiny blue sequins that somehow didn’t come across as tacky but instead sexy and elegant.
I felt beautiful…and terrified. I had no idea what was waiting for me at the end of the night. The only thing I knew was the girls were right. I had to take this chance. Life was meant to be lived, and I always, always wanted to live mine to the fullest.
By saving me, Zee had ensured I had those chances to take, so I was taking one more on him.
City lights flashed from a dazzling array of blinking signs boasting the best night life.
Nervous anticipation clawed beneath the surface of my skin as the limo slowed and came to a stop in front of the old movie palace that hailed from the thirties.
An old-style vertical sign hung from its ornate exterior, the box office tucked beneath the marquee that danced with large twinkling bulbs.
A thrill tumbled through my body, and I sucked in a breath as I peered out the window.
I gasp out a small, surprised laugh when the back door swung open, and Ash suddenly ducked his head inside, extending a hand my direction.
“Madam,” he exaggerated with a bow. He was wearing a pair of snug black dress slacks and a white button-up with the sleeves rolled up his forearms, the outfit paired with suspenders.
A giggle slipped free as I looked around at all the women staring back at me with smiles on their faces before I accepted his hand and allowed him to help me down onto the sidewalk. A cool breeze kissed my skin, and a shiver of chills lifted as I stared at the theatre.
“Have fun!” a chorus of voices called before the limo door slammed shut behind me. I jerked to look over my shoulder as it began to slowly pull from the curb.
“Aren’t they coming?”
Ash shot me a smirk as he extended me an elbow. “Nah, darlin’. I think this might be an exclusive kind of viewing.”
Oh God.
My heart sped as awareness took hold.
This was for me.
For us.
My knees were shaking as Ash led me toward the single door that was propped open. The box office windows were closed and the silence was thick and profound as we stepped into the lobby.
Maybe I should have realized something was up when none of the women had changed when they’d gotten me ready. I’d been too wrapped up in what was about to happen. This moment significant.
Critical.
Another beginning or a permanent end.
I sucked in an awed breath at the opulence when we stepped inside.
The lobby was at least six stories high and crystal chandeliers hung from their heights. Pillars rose on all sides and murals lined the walls, the carvings ornate and elaborate. A grand staircase ascending to the balconies rested in the middle, and the stairs were covered in the same red-and-gold tapestry as the floors.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
Ash patted my hand. “No need to be nervous, darlin’.”
“How could I not be?”
He guided us to the side of the stairs and toward the main entry to the auditorium floor.
“Think it’s safe to say our boy is about as nervous as they come, so you’re in good company.”
The auditorium was just as lavish as the lobby. The walls were a stunning display of architecture and art, lined with coved balcony seats that jutted out in welcome of the performance, and the rows of seats taking up the floor were covered in plush maroon velvet and edged in gold.