Page 27 of Jingle Bell Rock

“Please, God,” Paige said under her breath before giving us a bright smile. “You guys all set? There’s drinks and catering in the room next door, and if you need me, just let the stage manager know.”

“Thank you, Paige. I’m sure you’ve got a million other things to take care of.” I nodded in Trent’s direction. “I can take it from here.”

“Oh, I’m sure you can.” She hugged the clipboard to her chest and looked me up and down. “It’s gotta be helpful to have a boyfriend who’s big enough to scare everyone off.”

Trent laughed and caught my eye in the mirror as he straightened his cuffs. “It’s a perk.”

“You two sayin’ I look scary?” I feigned offense.

“Nooo.” Paige shook her head. “It’s more the height and all those muscles. No offense to Trent, but I’m sure you could bench-press him for fun.”

“You’d be right about that,” Trent said, sidling up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. “It is fun.”

With a laugh, Paige headed toward the door. “And on that note, I’m gonna leave you two to—”

Before she could finish, the room went dark and the sound of Fallen Angel playing onstage went dead silent.

“Oh shit.” I could hear her fumbling with the door, and when she got it open and there was no light anywhere, she cursed again. Faint voices could be heard through her headset, and then, “The entire arena is dark?”

Fuckin’ hell. I reached into my pocket for my cell phone and hit the flashlight so it illuminated the space, and the alarm I saw on Paige’s face wasn’t something I would wish on anyone.

The sound of the crowd beginning to panic filtered down the hall backstage, people obviously starting to freak out in the dark, which wasn’t going to help anything at all.

“How soon do the backup generators go on?” Paige flipped on her own cell phone light and darted into the hallway toward the stage, as Trent and I followed behind her. “Five minutes? In five minutes, people will get trampled trying to leave—”

“Wait.” Trent reached for her arm. “I have an idea.” When he looked over his shoulder at me, I knew exactly what he was thinking and took off toward the crew backstage. They had what I needed—thank God—and when I ran back to Trent, I held up the battery-run floodlight.

“Babe, perfect,” he said, and gave me a quick kiss. “Light me up and I’ll take care of the rest. Paige—you good?” When she nodded, he shot me a wink. “Then let’s do this.”

With my cell phone light leading the way, he walked onto the stage, past the guys of Fallen Angel still standing in their places, waiting for the generators to kick in, but the crowd wasn’t in the mood to wait, judging by the restlessness in the room. I dropped to the ground at the front of the stage in front of Trent and angled the spotlight toward him before flipping it on.

The moment Trent was lit up like a beacon in the darkness, the crowd began to hush, but then roared once they realized who it was surprising them on stage. It wasn’t until Trent lifted his hand that the room once again quieted down, waiting to see what he’d do. Even without a microphone, the power of his voice could reach out across the arena, and he chose a song that would use that power to its fullest extent.

He’d barely gotten out the words “empty spaces” when cheers erupted from those closest to the stage. Trent had made the perfect choice: a Queen anthem the audience could sing along to.

As he reached the chorus of “The Show Must Go On,” I chanced a look behind me to see that the arena was lighting up in a wave of cell phone lights swaying back and forth. The pride I felt in that moment wasn’t unusual when it came to how I felt about Trent, but feeling the energy in the room turn from anxiety to excitement was overwhelming.

My guy was a real fucking rock star, and it had never been more apparent than it was right then, with the entire arena singing along to his a cappella.

As the song continued, the power slowly began to come back on. In such a large space, it would take a few minutes for the twinkling lights to shine brightly again, so I kept the spotlight on Trent as Halo moved his microphone stand in front of him. His voice rang out clearly now, echoing out of the speakers into the arena, and seconds later, Killian joined in on his bass, followed by Slade on the drums. One by one, the rest of Fallen Angel joined in, even, to my surprise, Viper on guitar.

It felt like every person in the crowd was singing along, and as the icicle lights grew strong enough to see Trent, I turned off the floodlight and got to my feet. Before I could hightail it off the stage, though, Trent grabbed my hand and pulled me right back. He squeezed my fingers and grinned as he continued to sing, content for me to stand right there beside him in front of—

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