“Will you?”
“What?” His eyes were mesmerizing. How was it possible a pair of eyes could convey so much?
“Hit a wrong note?”
“She had singing lessons when she was younger, so I guess she can still hit a few good notes,” Noah said from behind her.
“Stay out of this, Noah. You’ve said enough.”
“Stop being a scaredy-cat and get up there,” her brother said.
“Scaredy-cat?” Ryan said.
“Wuss?”
“Better.”
“Stop being a wuss,” Noah said.
No one could rile her up quite like her twin brother. It was something they’d been doing to each other for years. Only with him would she do something she didn’t want to simply because he’d provoked her.
“I hate you,” Faith said with no heat in her words.
It had been a day of emotions, and she laid the blame for all of them squarely at Ryan’s feet. The fawning groupies and that viper, Shelly. Then there was the elation of winning, and the liquid heat that had filled her body when Ryan had swung her around in his arms.
Faith didn’t seem able to stop feeling things when he was around. It was disturbing.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t know you could still sing, so that was the first surprise,” Noah said.
“If you could sing when you were younger, chances are you still can. It’s not a faucet, Noah,” Faith snapped at him.
“But why don’t you sing, then?” her brother demanded.
“Where the hell would I?”
Ryan had moved from her side as she and Noah started talking. He and a few of the others now stood silently watching the altercation between the twins.
“In a band, choir, or even in our place of business?” Noah folded his arms, glaring at his sister. “If it’s something you still love, why do you hide it?”
“I don’t hide it. It’s not like reading a book; you can’t just wander about bursting into song all over the place.”
“But you want to?”
The anger fled as fast as it came.
“I still sing in the shower, and sometimes I go into Brook and compete in their karaoke competitions.”
She’d said the words because the guilt over not telling her brother what she’d been secretly doing had been building inside her. May as well get it out now in public where he couldn’t get angry—well, not too angry.
“And you never told me.” Noah looked devastated. “I would have come to support you.”
Mr. Hope began to introduce the school band.
“It was just something I liked to do alone. A hobby. If it turned out that I humiliated myself, no one knew about it.”
“I’m not just someone; I’m your twin brother.”
“Noah—”