With Me in Seattle Bundle One (107 page)

The whole room glows. The band is playing out of my sight, in an adjoining room, where I’m assuming the stage and dance floor are. I can see French doors that open between the two rooms, so those seated at the tables can watch the band and the dancers. People are already wandering in to listen, and they seem to recognize the band.

“Come on, let’s mingle.” Will smiles down at me. “I want to show you off.”

“Right.” I smirk.

“You are gorgeous today. Well, every day, but I love this dress.” He brushes his hand down my naked back and settles it right above my ass. “I can see your dimples.”

I grin up at him, enjoying that lustful look in his eyes. “I did that on purpose.”

My dress is simple but pretty. It’s eggplant and floor-length. The bodice is V-shaped, ending right between my breasts with a tiny rhinestone broach. It’s sleeveless, the straps only about an inch wide, and there is no back to speak of.

“Yeah, I thought so.” He laughs.

He looks amazing in his dark suit. Like his brothers, he’s broad-shouldered and tall and just delicious.

I want to eat him up.

He grabs us each a glass of champagne, and we start to wander the room, chatting and laughing with the other guests. I’m introduced to friends of Nate’s from his fighting days, all of whom are funny and nice, and clearly uncomfortable in their suits. Finally, we make our way back to Nat and Luke.

“Who’s the guy with Luke?” I ask Will.

“Oh, you haven’t met Mark yet. That’s his brother. He’s usually in Alaska working.” He leads me to the threesome and introduces me to Luke’s handsome brother.

Holy shit, I didn’t think it was possible to be hotter than Luke Williams.

I was wrong.

What was up with the water these women drank when they were pregnant? Seriously, it’s crazy.

“Hi, Meg, nice to meet you.” Mark offers me a cocky grin as he shakes my hand. “Too bad Will’s already snatched you up.”

“Watch it, dude. You’ve been back all of two days. Don’t make me kill you,” Will growls good-naturedly.

Mark just grins at him. “You’d miss me.”

Suddenly, Jules is walking briskly to me, her eyes wide and worried. “Um, Meg, we need to talk.”

“Why?”

But before she can say anything, I hear it.
Lonely Soul
starts to play, the song I wrote with Leo.

And Leo is singing it.

“Luke, who did you hire for this?” I ask, my eyes pinned to Jules’. I already know.

“Nash,” he replies, his voice confused. “Why, you don’t like them?”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
Holy fucking shit.

Natalie gasps, and Will wraps his fingers around my arm, pulling me around to face him. “What is it?”

“Meg, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” Jules runs her hand down my back. “I really didn’t.”

This is Jules’ wedding. She’s one of my oldest and dearest friends. I will be fine. I will do what I need to do to get through tonight, and it will be fine.

I paste a smile on my face and hug her tightly. “It’s fine, sweetie.”

“What did I do wrong?” Luke asks.

“Nothing.” I shake my head and smile over at him. “Nash is a fantastic band.”

“What am I missing?” Will murmurs down to me. I sigh.

“Leo Nash is
my
Leo, Will.”

“What?” he asks, frowning.

Natalie curses under her breath. Jules is still worried, biting her lip.

“I’m fine.” I look around at the group of people who have come to mean so much to me. They have become like family to me. “Honestly, this is great. The guests will love them.”

Will is watching me closely, questions in his eyes, and I feel like shit for not telling him the whole story before. But it was too painful to admit to him that Leo left me here while he went and became a big rock star.

That he just forgot about me.

“Luke, how did you manage to get Nash?” Jules asks him.

Luke shrugs. “They’re doing the soundtrack for the new movie I’m producing. They just wrapped up a tour and are taking some time off, so I asked if they would do this event before their vacation, and they agreed.”

“You’re so sweet,” Nat murmurs and kisses him.

“Maybe I should have checked with you guys, though. I didn’t think you knew any rock stars.”

I shrug. “We used to.”

Everyone is watching me. “Stop. I’m fine. What’s next? Dinner? When do we get cake?”

“Yeah, when do we get cake?” Will asks, making us all laugh, but his eyes are still serious and pinned on me.

“After dinner,” Jules replies drily. “Which I think they’re about to serve.”

The band stops playing, and a DJ takes over while we have dinner and go through the motions of the cake-cutting and the toasts.

Natalie stands and takes the mic offered to her and smiles shyly to the room at large.

“My husband is usually the one to speak to large audiences, but I’m happy to talk to you all about my best friend.” She looks over at Jules and smiles widely.

“Are you going to embarrass me?” Jules asks.

“Maybe.” Nat winks. “See, she can never break up with me because I know too much.”

We all laugh, then Nat sobers.

“I don’t remember a time in my life that Jules and her family weren’t in it. You have shared everything that has ever mattered with me, even the birth of my baby. When Jules and Nate got together”—Natalie turns to the audience and smiles. Will takes my hand in his and kisses my knuckles—“I was astonished to watch the change in her. Jules is a kick-ass girl. She’s not big on public displays of affection, which she reminds me of almost daily.”

“Seriously, you guys are gross.” Jules rolls her eyes, but I can see the tears threatening to spill over.

“But Nate brought out that soft side of her. He makes her better. And I think she does the same for him. I just couldn’t have found anyone more suited to you, my friend, if I tried.” Nat raises her glass, and we all follow suit.

“So, to my new brother-in-law, Nate, and my sister of the heart, his Julianne. May your love continue to grow every day.”

“To Jules and Nate!” The crowd cheers.

Even I wipe a little tear away from the corner of my eye and laugh when Will smirks at me. Gosh, I love those girls. I understand what it is to have a sibling of the heart. Mine is in the next room.

Holy shit.

“Are you nervous?” Will asks me, sensing my tension.

“To sing?”

“Yeah, are you okay?” He wraps his arm around me, resting it on the back of my chair.

I grin up at his handsome face. “I’m fine. I don’t usually get stage fright. And I’ve been practicing a lot.”

“I love the arrangement you’ve done with the song,” he murmurs and kisses my cheek. “You’re going to knock them dead.”

I smile and lean into him. “Thank you. I hope so.”

“Are you okay with Leo being here?” he whispers.

The mention of Leo makes my heart stop. God, I’m going to have to talk to him. I don’t think he even knows I’m here.

What will he say? How will he react?

“I don’t know,” I whisper back.

“Hey”—he pulls my face up with his fingers so he can look into my eyes—“it’s going to be okay. I’ll kick his ass if you want me to.”

I laugh and cup his cheek in my hand. “That’s okay. The time for that was about three years ago.” God, I love this man. He’s always so ready to protect me.

“I love you, sweetheart.”

I smile softly and kiss his lips, tenderly. “I know.”

“And now, ladies and gentlemen,” Jules’ dad, Steven, announces, “I am proud and pleased to introduce you to a very good friend of Jules, and the woman who seems to have snagged my son Will’s heart. Megan McBride is going to sing the song for the first dance. Meg? Where are you, honey?”

“Here goes nothing,” I murmur at Will, and he smiles widely and follows me, along with everyone else, into the ballroom.

And there by the stage is Leo, his mouth gaping open, watching me cross the dance floor toward him.

“Can I please borrow your guitar?” I ask, cutting to the chase.

“Meg-Pie,” he murmurs, shocked to see me.

The old nickname almost brings me to my knees. I lock them.

“Leo, I just need your guitar, please.”

He can’t move. He’s just staring at me. God, he looks good. He’s tall, about six feet. His light brown hair is cut short on the sides, a bit longer on top, styled into a fauxhawk. He has a small gauge in one ear with a hoop through it. His lip and eyebrow are pierced. He’s covered in tattoos.

And his sweet, soft, dark gray eyes are pinned to mine.

“Leo,” I say again, a bit stronger, and he blinks.

“Meg.” He clears his throat. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“Same here,” I reply with a grin. “I need to borrow your guitar, please.”

“Oh, sure.” He holds it out to me and offers me a half smile. “You’ve played it often over the years.”

I learned to play on this guitar.

I bite my lip as I loop the strap around my shoulder and back and look up at him. “Thank you.”

I climb the stage and move the stool that’s been set in front of the mic for me. “I don’t think I can gracefully sit on that thing in this dress,” I say to the audience with a smile, earning laughter and applause.

“So,” I begin, “Jules and Natalie and I have been friends since college, so they knew me back when I used to play with a local band here in Seattle.” I smile out at them. All the guests have gathered in a semicircle around the stage, Jules and Nate and the rest of the family and bridal party up front. Will is gazing at me with warm blue eyes.

I look to my left to see Leo standing by the stage with his arms crossed over his chest, watching me intently. I swallow hard and focus on the task at hand.

Just get through this one song, Meg.

“I was a bit surprised when she asked me to sing tonight, because I haven’t sung in front of an audience in quite some time, but I’m honored to sing for Jules and Nate’s first dance together as a married couple.” I smile again and strum the guitar, making sure it’s in tune.

It is, of course.

“The song they’ve chosen is
I Won’t Give Up
.”

I begin to play the intro as Jules and Nate take the dance floor. Nate pulls Jules into a firm embrace and moves her effortlessly across the floor.

I’m taken away by the song and watching my beautiful friends dance so gracefully, gazing into each other’s eyes. Nate is singing along with me, to his girl, and the romantic in me melts at the sight. He leans down to murmur something in her ear, then kisses her naked neck, below her ear, and sweeps her around the floor again, much to the crowd’s delight.

I find Will’s eyes across the dance floor. He’s smiling at me, watching me intently. God, I love him.

I’ve got to tell him.

The song ends, and the room erupts into applause and whistles. I smile and back away from the mic to offer a little curtsy, and then walk to the end of the stage, ready to hand Leo back his guitar.

“We have to do a song together,” he says, his face serious.

“No, thank you.”

He takes his guitar and hands it to someone else, then grabs my arm and pulls me back to him and whispers in my ear.

“Megan, please. I’ve missed you. Let’s do the song we used to do at weddings back in the day.”

I sigh and tears threaten. “Leo…”

“Please. You sound great. We’ll blow them away.”

“You don’t need me to do that, remember?” I ask, my voice cold.

He scowls. “I never said that.” He sighs. “Come on, people are watching.”

I don’t have a choice. I do not want to make a scene at Jules’ wedding. So, I follow Leo up the stairs and stand at his side as he speaks to the audience.

“Hey, everyone, are you having a good night?” he asks, and the audience applauds and whistles. “Good! I’m honored to be here tonight with my band to entertain you all and celebrate with Jules and Nate. I knew Jules back in her college days, and I’m happy to see she found a dude worthy of her.” He winks down at Jules. “We just came off a big tour, so being here with you guys is a nice and welcome change.”

He offers the audience that killer smile of his, and I swear half the women in the audience, including Samantha, look about ready to throw their panties at him.

I can’t help but roll my eyes.

“I kept Meg up here because Nash is that little local band she told you about earlier. She and I go way back.” He smiles at me. “She’s agreed to sing one more song with me before she joins you guys to get drunk and be stupid while I work my ass off up here.”

The audience laughs, and I join them. I find Will in the audience, and he’s watching, standing still. I can’t read his face.

Someone hands me a mic, and Leo takes his mic off the stand and sets the stand aside.

“Don’t we need a guitar?” I ask into the mic.

“Nope, we have backup.” He winks and nods at one of the guys to join us onstage with a guitar. He leans in and whispers the song in the guy’s ear. I don’t know him. He must have joined the band after they got to LA.

“This song,” Leo says into the mic and looks at me, his dark gray eyes happy, “is called
Marry Me
and was originally done by a band who is also from Seattle. Train.”

The audience applauds again, and I can’t look away from Leo. We always nailed this song. It wasn’t originally written as a duet, but we alternate the verses and join together for the chorus.

I start, while Leo watches, lip-synching along with me, his eyes bright and happy and encouraging, and I offer him a sassy smile as I start the song.

He joins me for the chorus. This tall, tattooed rock star, singing a sweet love song. It looks all wrong, but God, his voice is amazing. As his voice joins mine in perfect harmony, goose bumps break out on my skin and I smile widely at him.

I lower my mic to my side and watch Leo take over the next verse. I’ve always loved to watch him sing, even when I was very young in the first foster home with him. He would sing to me all the time, and then let me play his guitar, showing me so patiently where to put my fingers to make the sounds perfect. He taught me how to control my voice.

He taught me everything I know about music.