Page 96 of Hope & Harmony

And this was only the third song.

I couldn’t imagine him getting through ten.

Not to mention the two-song encore.

Their normal set was sixteen, with a three-song encore.

They’d scaled way back tonight, but I was nervous.

Kingston jogged off stage when Z started to sing ‘Not Going Away’, and the look he gave me was worrisome.

“I don’t know how much more I’ve got,” he admitted, his voice hoarse.

“Drink this.” I handed him the concoction Devyn had instructed me to have ready for him at any point in the show.

He took a few sips and closed his eyes.

“This isn’t good,” he whispered. “I may not be able to finish.”

“Do we need to cancel the tour?”

He met my gaze guiltily. “We might. The doc said it’ll take at least a couple of weeks for me to be back to a hundred percent. And we’ve got back-to-back shows for months...” He didn’t have to finish his thought for me to understand how difficult this could be.

“We’ll figure that out later. Right now, you have to get through maybe four songs? We can sub in some covers and let the other guys sing them.”

He took a breath, looking at me intently.

“Or…you could.”

I stared at him.

What the fuck was happening?

I’d been with the band nearly ten years and they’d never asked anything like this of me.

I’d been clear from day one that my life in the spotlight was over.

We’dagreedit would never come up again.

They knew the story.

They supposedly understood how painful it was for me.

They fuckingknewI couldn’t do this.

Not for him, not for the band, not for anyone.

“We don’t have to tell them who you are,” he said, his lips close to my ear since it was hard to hear anyway. “Just our awesome manager helping out because I have a cold.” That wasthe story he’d told the audience at the beginning of the show. Laryngitis would bring out every couch warrior doctor on social media, so it was easier to simplify things.

“I can’t.”

“You can. And it’s time. If you ask me, you need this more than I do.”

Wynter had hinted at the same thing.

I glanced over to where she was watching the show, her body swaying in time to the music. She looked beautiful standing there, and I watched her for a moment, wondering what she would say if she could hear our conversation.

She caught my gaze and cocked her head curiously, a faint smile playing on her lips. I’d been a dick to her today, going hot and cold like a fucking faucet on speed. She shouldn’t have pushed me so much, but I could have been more gracious.

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