Page 60 of Another Postcard

Then I slowly started the melody from the very beginning and transitioned to the stronger one within a few bars, I sang the chorus one more time before ending on a sweet and comforting note.

Once again, I was confronted with a reverent silence and about thirty seconds later, the arena fucking exploded.

Before the lights went down to signal the break in the concert, some kind of magnetic force pulled my eyes to Levi’s. His sparkled and he nodded. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he’d been bursting with pride. And he said I was a good actor. He could win his own academy award.

I was smashed in hugs from everybody as we exited the stage, everyone but Levi, who hung back. Still, his eyes never seemed to leave me. Part of me dreaded the final moments of the concert when we would sing “Sanity.” But, there was simply no way to sing this song without being completely sucked into it. It fed off of emotion, no matter what kind. As the last notes were played on Sasha’s cello, Levi brought me close like he usually did, and his head descended until it was only inches away. His eyes were intense and locked with mine. Then the lights went out and he held firmly for another couple of beats, before releasing me.

There was no way to avoid the high of performing, but, underneath was a soul deep hurt and it tainted the euphoria. Once we’d finished the encores, everyone headed straight to a meet and greet/jam session with some underprivileged kids who’d won the opportunity. I wanted to grab a bag of goodies I’d brought for them, so I told Noah I’d run to my dressing room and meet them there in a few minutes.

33

Levi

The first timeI heard “The Road to Forever,” I knew it was a Grammy-winning song. I wanted to debut it on the tour to pick up steam, also because there was no better way to work out kinks, than to perform it live. It had been even more brilliant than I could have ever dreamed. From the audience’s reaction, they were smart enough to think so too. Staying back and letting Brooklynn celebrate with everyone else had been torture. But, there was too much unresolved between us and I knew it would dampen her excitement to bring our tension into her moment.

I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off of her all night. The only place where Brooklynn was more spectacular than when she was on stage was when she was falling apart in my arms. It was almost impossible not to kiss her at the end of “Sanity,” but I knew it would only bring our attraction to the front of our focus when it needed to be minds and hearts first.

We had an event after the show, one we were all excited about. A local charity had held an auction for underprivileged kids, the younger ones drawing pictures as their way of bidding and the older kids had bid with “gift certificates” for community service. There was limited space for the get-together, but we’d made sure that every kid had a ticket to the concert. As we walked to the room to meet the kids, I glanced back and noticed Brooklynn wasn’t with us.

“Noah.”

“Yeah?” He didn’t even lift his head from his phone as he answered so I punched his shoulder. “Fuck, Levi! What the hell was that for?”

I shrugged. “Felt like it. Where is Brooklynn?”

“What do you care?” he snapped.

“Just answer the question, fucker.”

His eyes went back to his phone. “She brought a bunch of American junk food to hand out. She ran back to the dressing rooms for it.”

Of course she did. Damn, I’d never get used to how big her heart was or how fucking adorable she was.

“I wouldn’t count on her joining us too quickly, mates,” Emma said with a smile. “She’s got a cracking surprise waiting for her.”

I gave her a curious raise of my brow. “A surprise?”

She nodded and grinned harder. “Yeah, her sister rang me and said she wanted to surprise Brooklynn. She told me you’d bought her a ticket and I guess Brooklynn had given her our numbers for emergencies and she couldn’t get through to anyone else. I thought it was brilliant. She was right knackered when she arrived though so I took her to our dressing room so she could have a kip.”

My feet were moving before I even thought about it, running as fast as they could.

34

Brooklynn

Idashedinto the dressing room and over to my bag sitting on a counter with a mirror surrounded by lights. A loud bang caused me to jump a foot and when my head flew up I saw Baylee in the mirror, standing in front of the closed door to the room. I whirled around in shock but it was quickly replaced with anger. I walked over to her, my hands slamming down on my hips.

“Baylee, what are you doing here? How did you even get here?”

“Levi wants me here,” she said sweetly. “He asked me to come and bought me a ticket.”

I had no doubt that was true. Levi had known how worried I’d been about going so long without seeing Baylee. Bringing her to Italy made perfect sense for us. He must have forgotten to cancel the tickets when everything fell apart. That still didn’t explain how she managed to get away from the hospital.

“You know I’m always happy to see you, sweet girl.” I tried to keep my tone light and fixed a smile on my face. “Did someone bring you?”

She shook her head, her chin-length hair swinging with it. “I remembered how to use my bus pass to get to the airport. Cecily taught me when we went to Canada.”

“Did the nurses tell you that you were allowed to do that, Baylee?”

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