“Don’t worry, she’ll be here. Tucker’s on it.”
“What if we’re wrong?”
“We’re not,” Myles assured her.
Piper caught her lip between her teeth. “But what if—”
He gripped her shoulders. “Hey. It’s going to be okay.”
Those hands slid down her arms and squeezed her hands. The gesture comforted her, reminding her that she wasn’t in this alone. Grateful, she turned her hands to clasp his and squeezed back. Someone moving past bumped into her, sending her stumbling into Myles.
His eyes met hers and his lips curved in that slow, melted caramel grin. It was the prop closet all over again. Heat and humor and that damnedable pull.
You have the rule for a reason. But as she looked up at him, mouth not more than an inch from his, Piper was having a really hard time remembering what that reason was.
Before she could do something stupid, like lean in to kiss him right in the middle of the pizzeria in front of God and a goodly portion of the population of Wishful, a cheer rose up from the door, spreading through the crowd.
“And there’s our girl,” said Myles.
Piper took a deliberate step back, missing his touch the moment he released her hands. “It’s show time.”
Tyler looked dazed as she trailed Tucker and his crutches through the crowd, blindly accepting handshakes and well wishes. She’d clearly forgotten how beloved she’d been. Tonight would be a good reminder, Piper decided.
“Hey there, everybody! Who’s ready for some music?” Tucker, official emcee for the night, grinned at the crowd.
More cheers and claps. Piper and Myles joined the rest of the cast and a handful of other folks she’d acted with in the past as Tucker launched into his spiel, waving a hand at the marker board mounted on an easel beside the stage.
“So here’s how this is gonna work. We’ve got our performers listed in tiers. The more you love ’em, the more it’ll cost to have them sing for you. The bottom tier will cost you five bucks per song per person. The top is pricier. Twenty bucks per song, per person. You want a duet, you get to pick who sings it and pay for the pair. Group stuff, same deal. We encourage you to pool your funds and remember that this is for a good cause, so don’t be shy! You can pick anything in the book over here. We’ll start off with a freebie to kick off the night. This one’s for everybody.”
On cue, Piper and the others crowded onto the stage. People were already lining up, cash and checkbooks in hand. At least half a dozen people stuffed money in Tucker’s jar as they kicked things off with a rousing rendition of “Any Way You Want It.”
Piper was first on deck after the group dispersed to the clutch of tables up front. As she launched into “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend”, she was gratified to see Brody drop into a chair next to Tyler. They had actual conversation without trying to kill each other. Progress.
In response to whistles and applause, Piper took her bow and handed off the mic to Tyler for her first solo of the night, “Maybe This Time” from Cabaret. Off to the side, Rick Stevens figured out how to operate the lights on the tiny stage and spotlit her for it.
Piper shot him a thumbs up and fell into Tyler’s vacated chair. “I didn’t think she’d come.”
“You know she’s not going to let the Madrigal down,” Brody said, not taking his eyes off her. “It’s too big a part of her history.”
It was too big a part of her history with him, which was why she’d worried. But Piper wasn’t going to open that can of worms with Brody.
Even without the pre-seeded list, the crowd kept Tyler and Brody steadily busy. Tyler started off a bit stiff during “We Go Together” from Grease. But she made Ethel Merman proud as she dueled with Brody on “Anything You Can Do.” By the time they rotated into Garth Brooks/Trisha Yearwood duets, she’d hit her stride, having fun and playing the crowd, sparking off Brody in a way she hadn’t done in years.
Piper guzzled a glass of lemon water and leaned toward Myles. “I think it’s working!”
“C’mon. We’re up.” He tugged her to her feet.
“We are? Singing what?”
“‘Quando, Quando, Quando’. Bublé and Nelly Furtado.”
“Who signed us up for that?” she asked.
Myles grinned back at her and offered a mic. “Who do you think?”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “So it’s like that, is it?”
His only answer was to take her hand and jerk her into him with a spin. As he began to croon, he began to move. Following the subtle pressure on her hip, Piper fell into his rhythm, grinning as she recognized a slow cha cha. He wasn’t smooth like Tucker or electric like Brody, but for an improv number, Myles was pretty damned good. She sang her response, getting into the dance with some undulating hip action that had the crowd whistling. He upped the ante again, taking a firmer grip on her hip and following the motion of her body, and Piper forgot about the crowd, able to focus only on the man and the music.