She groaned and looked over at Liam desperately before trying again. “Psst, Ben!” she said in a stage whisper, waving her hands frantically. “Elaine! Go!”
Elaine was the first to notice her, dropping the sheet music in surprise before immediately picking it up and fumbling with it a couple of times before she finally managed to make it land on the music stand on the front of the piano. As soon as the sheet music was secure, her fingers promptly fell on the keys, immediately starting on the opening notes of “Holidays All Around the World.”
Hearing the music, Ben jumped and quickly got to work pulling the ropes of the curtain, and the heavy velvet drapes slowly made their way across the stage. Before it was halfway open, the kids, hearing their signal in the music, started singing the first lines of the song.
Liam grimaced at the rocky start. But as he took a couple big steps back to stand further off stage next to Sadie, he felt waves of emotion wash over him as he watched the kids go through the song’s words and simple dance moves. Glancing over at Sadie, he saw she watched them with nervous eyes and a frozen smile.
It was a simple play—if that was even the right way to describe it—just a line or two of dialogue spoken by each child sandwiched between two cheesy songs. It was over in fifteen minutes, and Liam had never felt relief so deep as when Ben finally closed the curtains on the finale of this ramshackle production.
If only the general populace was aware how he and Sadie had planned the play in various states of undress while lounging on her couch in betweenFriendsepisodes.
As the curtain officially closed, there was more screeching and jumping as the kids bounced in celebration, running on the adrenaline of their performance.
“We did it!” Sadie proclaimed triumphantly, a loud laugh bursting from her lips as she jumped into Liam’s arms, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Her fingers rested lightly on the back of his neck, causing jolts of pleasure to jump through his body. He closed his eyes as he breathed her in, his hands tangling in the strands of her long hair and pressing against the soft fabric of her dress.
Although they were standing in chaos, the kids jumping and squealing as their parents started to drift backstage, Liam couldn’t see or hear any of it. The only thing he could process was Sadie in his arms, Sadie by his side, Sadie in his life—where she belonged. Everything faded into a dull background roar, and he felt lost in her, consumed by her.
Consumed, that is, until his trance was interrupted by a dramatic throat clearing to his lower left. He pulled his head away from Sadie to see Annie standing next to them, and she didnotlook happy.
“Break it up, you two,” she hissed up at them, glowering at Liam especially. Her curls were streaming loosely down her back, and she wore a blue sweater featuring a couple of embroidered dreidels on the collar. “Not only are your co-workers, students,andtheir parents here, but a couple school board members are sitting front and center on the other side of that curtain.”
Ouch. “She’s right,” Liam said, feeling a bit ashamed, pulling away from Sadie. “Let’s get the kids hooked up with their parents. Can you help with that, Annie?”
“That’s why I’m here,” she said with a tight smile as she walked away, her eyes focusing on a group of particularly rambunctious children who were jumping to see who could touch a low-hanging rope.
As Annie walked away and Liam prepared to flash a departing smile at Sadie with a promise to meet up after the post-show craze, a new voice entered the fray—a bellowing, disturbingly familiar voice.
“Babe, that was pretty terrible.”
Liam’s heart stopped beating as blood rushed down his face and pooled in his lungs, making it impossible to breathe. All the chaos around him froze as he processed what was about to happen. He knew that voice: it was deep and teasing, triggering the same word in him that it had when he was fourteen years old—run.
His eyes shifted up a couple of inches, and his worst fears were confirmed. Standing next to Sadie was Tyler Carter. A green sweater stretched across his beefy frame. He was holding a dozen red roses in one of his ham fists, a cocky look of certainty stretched across his blunt features.
“Tyler? What are you doing here?” Sadie's voice came out high pitched and confused, her panic palpable. Liam hazarded a look at her to see her eyes were furrowed in shock, her face pale.
“Your mom told me that you had this play tonight, so I thought I’d drive out to see if you could actually pull it off.” He laughed at his own joke, his eyes settling on her with confidence.
“Tyler, I’m working right now.” She bit the words out while shifting a nervous glance at Liam. Liam’s feet felt glued to the floor, his instinct battling it out to decide if he should get out of here or suck it up and see how this played out.
“It’s okay, I don’t mind,” Tyler assured her with a wink. “I’ll wait for you to finish up, and then we can go get something to eat after.”
Sadie seemed unable to respond, her mouth opening and then quickly closing as she looked at Liam pleadingly.
Following her gaze, Tyler finally realized that Liam was there. His eyes narrowed on him, sizing him up as his knuckles tightened around the rose stems.
“Who’s this guy?” he asked disdainfully.
Sadie winced and looked at Liam apologetically. “This is my… boss …Liam Cohen,” Sadie said with uncertainty. “He’s the principal at my school. Liam, this is Tyler—myex-boyfriend.”
Tyler’s eyes brightened and relaxed a bit, apparently deducing that Liam wasn’t a threat. He shifted the roses from his right hand to his left and reached out his ham hand for a shake. Liam looked down at it hanging in the air for a brief second before reluctantly reaching out and taking hold of it.
“Your name’s Liam Cohen?” Tyler asked distractedly, squeezing Liam’s hand firmly as his small blue eyes explored his face searchingly. “Why do you look familiar to me?”
“I don’t know,” Liam responded gruffly, his eyes shifting away from Tyler’s. He attempted to pull his hand away, but Tyler held on to him, his ham hand tightening around Liam’s as his eyes narrowed in on Liam’s face. Liam could almost feel the intensity of his stare vibrating down his arm.
He officially knew he was screwed, though, when the wave of recognition transformed Tyler’s features, causing him to release Liam’s hand and bark out a loud, ear-cracking laugh.
Why didn’t I tell her? I should have told her.The thoughts danced across his mind, but it was too late. Tyler the Annihilator had arrived to do what he did best—make Liam’s life hell.