She took a long sip from her straw.
“Lead the way.”
The space in front of the bookstore grew increasingly crowded as more people arrived to see the show. Hannah and I threaded our way through, and I caught Renee’s eye as she searched for me.
“There you are,” she said, holding Paul’s hand. “And you must be Hannah.” Renee barely even looked at Hannah’s scars. I’d expected that; nothing phased Renee, least of all something like a scar.
“I must be,” Hannah said, shrugging. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re Renee.”
“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner,” Renee said, laughing.
“This is Paul,” I said, motioning to him. He nodded and smiled at Hannah. I whistled and Mase turned his head. He’d been deep in conversation with Darah. You could set a tornado around those people and they wouldn’t even be aware of it.
“Hey, nice to meet you. Any friend of Jos’s is a friend of ours.”
Then Taylor introduced her friend Megan, a fellow redhead, and her fiancé, Jake, and I liked her instantly and not just because we were hair comrades.
I went through the rest of the introductions and pointed out Hunter, who was busy chatting with some of the other guys as they got ready.
“He’s freaking out,” Taylor said, watching him.
“He doesn’t look like it.” He was smiling and laughing.
“He’s tapping.” I looked down and saw that he was tapping his hand against his leg. One, two, three, four, five times in a row. “He always does that when he’s freaking out. I have no idea why—this isn’t his first show. I swear, the minute I think I understand him is the minute he decides to surprise me.” She nibbled on a hangnail and I noticed her ring was missing.
“Where’s the rock?”
“Hunter’s lawyer, Joe, wanted to get it appraised or something so they could take out insurance on it, or something? I feel crazy not having it. You’d be surprised that you can get used to wearing something like that.”
Megan coughed and Taylor gave her a look. Huh. Wonder what that was about.
“Um, spoiler alert, but that guy over there is trying to eye f**k you,” Hannah said, her voice just a little too loud. I didn’t even need to look up to see who it was.
“Shh, keep your voice down. I’m fully aware of him.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, sucking the last few drops of her drink into her straw and then tossing it in the nearest trash can. “He’s pretty sexy.” She turned her head sideways and then to the other side.
“You should totally hit that. He looks like he’d be...good.” Like either of us would know.
I finally decided to look in Dusty’s direction. While he was talking with one of the other guys, his eyes were definitely turned my way. He caught me staring and winked. My eyes traveled down his arm, trying to make out the tattoo, but it was mostly covered by his sleeve.
“Stop ogling,” Hannah hissed in my ear.
One of the guys cleared his throat and stepped forward as the rest of the Steiners formed a line.
“Hello, everyone, my name is Kent, and we are The UMaine Steiners. Guys, you wanna introduce yourselves?” One by one, the guys stepped forward and said their names. There were twelve of them in total, and at least half were very good-looking, which was a higher amount than I would have thought.
Kent snapped his fingers to make a beat and counted. Dusty came in first, laying down a drumbeat, and then the rest of the group started the song. “One More Night” by Maroon 5. I caught Hunter’s eye and he pointed at me. The guys traded off who would sing lead, and Hunter got a turn. Dusty got totally into his beat boxing, even dancing a little with it. The other guys also danced, a few even making a little joke of it as everyone laughed.
They finished the song, and Dusty made the cymbal crash sound again. Everyone cheered and clapped and the guys regrouped and started another song. This time it was an old one, Hoobastank’s “The Reason,” followed by a mash-up of a bunch of Queen songs that got everyone humming along and had plenty of awesome dance moves, and then “P.Y.T.” by Michael Jackson.
“They’re really good,” Hannah said in my ear. “And your beat boxer is beyond sexy. I’m just imagining all of the things he could do with that mouth.”
I ignored her comments as the group took a quick break and had some water. Hunter stepped forward.
“Hello, everyone. I’m Hunter, and I’m going to have to beg for your attention for a second.”
“What the hell is that boy doing?” Taylor said under her breath.
“You see, I love this girl over here.” He pointed to Taylor, and her face turned red. “Yeah, you, Taylor.” He held his hand out, and she stepped forward. “Music has always been a part of our lives. I sang to her on our first real date. I sang to her the first of many times I screwed things up, and so I thought it was only right that I sing to her for this. So, here goes.”
One of the other guys brought out a chair for Taylor, and Hunter forced her to sit in it. She looked like she wanted to sink into the floor and kept ducking her head so she couldn’t see everyone staring at her.
I had a feeling I knew where this was going, and everyone else was whispering the same thing around me.
“Oh, my God, he isn’t,” Renee said.
“I think he is,” Paul responded.
This time it was Hunter’s turn to start the song. Dusty set a slow beat that was soft and romantic. It took a few seconds, but I recognized the song, and I knew what was going to happen.
I watched Taylor’s face as he started singing “I Can’t Wait” by Runner Runner. The second he sang the word wife, she put her hands to her mouth and started to cry. The crowd sighed in unison as Taylor shook her head and wiped tears as Hunter held her hand and sang to her. I caught Dusty’s eye and he smiled at me and I smiled back. You couldn’t help it. Such an open and beautiful expression of love had that effect.
Hunter was left singing the last note by himself, holding it and then letting it fade before he reached into his pocket as he got down on one knee. My eyes were more than a little moist, but I wasn’t the only one. The surrounding crowd held their collective breaths.
“Taylor Elizabeth Caldwell, you are the only song I want to sing for the rest of my life and I love you more than the stars. Will you marry me?”
She only paused for a second before she whispered it, but somehow that whisper carried through the whole room.