Page 192 of Movers and Shakers

“Even if I streak across the stage in the middle of the show?”

“Is that an option?”

“No, but it would be wild.”

He laughed. “Then we’d make fun of you, but ultimately be proud because you’d be happy.”

“You have that much faith in me?”

“I do. You’ll find some way to make it work. You always have. And you know what? I can’t wait to see what you figure out.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Lila

The day before the show was always terrifying, even when I had a full crew. But this time, I had genuine reason to panic.

I paced the floor, mind going through the endless routine of what all we could do to fix this. The final dress rehearsal tonight was figured out. But what about the future? If we didn’t findsomeone in a week by some miracle, would we have to use a recording for the guitar?

God forbid if anyone found out about it. I was known for doing everything live, but I’d been the victim of lip-synching scandals for many years. Even my backing track was controversial. If the guitar were recorded, then people would assume everything else was too.

“Lila!” Juno called as she walked in. “It’s time for your last dress rehearsal.”

“Coming.”

“And I have a surprise for you.”

I didn’t know if I could handle a surprise, but then Barry walked into the living room in his usual LA disguise.

“Hey,” he said. “Ready to practice?”

“You’re stepping in for today?”

“We have to have some sort of run-through.”

“ThankGod.I would have understood if you wanted today off, but more practice is better.” Words poured out of me and I couldn’t stop them. “But if you want to spend time with Ruth and Tom, we can make this go faster and—‍”

His hands came to cup my cheeks. “Breathe,” he said. “It’s going to be okay.”

Here, with him close to me, I could almost believe it.

“S-sorry. It’s been a lot.”

“I know. Let’s start with practice and we’ll go from there.”

I nodded and let him lead me to the car.

“You okay?” Juno asked. “I gave you extra space in case you needed any time to . . . melt down.”

“We came close,” I replied. “But we’re good.”

She smiled and nodded at Barry. Juno had been worried about me as my stress piled up, but even she knew he would pull me out of it.

And everyone else, apparently.

When we got to the arena, my entire team was relieved to see Barry. The news had traveled quickly and Justice had been fielding questions for a while. One of my backup singers hugged him so tightly I thought he might burst.

“Ready to start?” he asked after everyone finished fawning over him.

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