Page 97 of He's The Reason Why

“Maybe notallof them,” Blake said. “But definitely the core team, the leads, and all of the engineers.”

“Yikes. Okay. ” She started composing a message to her manager. “Neil will just have heart palpitations and hire extra security. No big deal.”

“Piper,” Tamar said from the doorway. “Will you be performing any songs from the movie?”

“I thought I might do the opening song, if that’s okay?”

“Of course.” Tamar looked from her to Blake. “But you might also think about adding the duet. It would be fantastic publicity.”

“That’s a great idea.” Piper beamed at Blake, whose face had turned to stone. “The fans will love that.”

The look on Blake’s face was that of a man caught between an oncoming train and a nuclear missile.

“Um, I don’t think…,” Blake said.

Piper squeezed his arm. “Sing with me. Just one song. We’ve rehearsed the hell out of it and you’re good.Reallygood. Plus, the fans will just die. Come on, please? We can go grab a drink or something after and talk about the design issue you’re having.”

His eyes flared with interest. “Okay.”

She didn’t know why he was so reluctant to sing in front of people, but she planned on showing him how fun it could be, and maybe after that…well, maybe they could have fun somewhere with no people and a lot less clothing.

Chapter Sixteen

Saturday night, Blake followed twenty-two Day Dreams Studios staff members into a roped-off section near the side of The Rox’s stage wondering how the hell he had gotten himself into this situation.

The biggest thing he’d done like this was karaoke night when he was a teenager.

He’d never sung on a real stage.

Sing the duet, they said. It will be great publicity, they said.

He shuffled down the second row of seats and ended up between Jeanette and Paul.

“I love this place! I’ve never been in the seats before. I’m usually on the lawn,” Jeanette gushed. “This is so cool!”

Paul patted her arm with fatherly affection. “We should do this more often. You all work so hard. You deserve a night out every now and then.”

The Rox was an outdoor amphitheater carved into a hillside with a covered stage in the center of an enormous bowl. The stage was backed by what looked like an old Grecian-inspired building,with huge columns along the sides and facilities and meeting rooms for the artists out back.

The stage was already decked out with drums, guitars, and keyboards just waiting for someone to come along and put them to use. Every now and then, he saw a stagehand dressed all in black hurry out to do something like check a microphone.

Rows of VIP seats and an open-aired expanse of green lawn sloped gently upward to an ivy-covered fence that enclosed the whole place and blocked out the city noise. Stadium-style seats rose up to the left and right to complete the bowl.

The lawn was packed with people on blankets or low-slung chairs. Every seat was filled. The low-level hum of people talking filled Blake’s ears with expectation.

“How many people can this place hold?” he asked Jeanette.

“I don’t know.” She scanned the crowd. “Couple thousand?”

Paul leaned closer to them. “It’s a six thousand-seat venue, give or take a few.”

“Six thousand. Wow.” His mouth was dry. Where was water when you needed it?

He wasn’t nervous, exactly. He’d performed in front of people his entire life. He loved the attention. Usually.

This, though…

He scanned the crowd. That was a lot more people than he was used to on set, and they were all focused on the person they wanted to see on stage.

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