The crowd erupted as Isaac introduced the first number, and again when he started to sing.Jess stood in the audience and watched.
"Go, have fun with others," her mother had said.
Her brother had chimed in, "You don't have to have anything to do with him, Isaac will be busy."
It had sounded so easy. What could go wrong? So, she'd come.
Intense harmonies filled the air and saturated the tent. The strobe light by the stage echoed the music as he sang.
Then she saw the slight start, heard the slip, the falter, the pause. Isaac had seen her.
She watched him watching her as he finished the set. The music faded, the lights dimmed, and Elwood went to the break.
Isaac settled in the wings. He leaned against a crate, relaxing until he had to go on again. Miles offered him a joint. He took it, had a puff and handed it to Toby, perched on a packing case too, boots crossed.
Toby held the joint like a piece of fine china. "What happened out there, Zac?" He gave a slight nod at the stage. "You forget the lyrics?" Smoke trickled out between his lips.
Isaac folded his arms and crossed his boots. "A pause for effect." He didn't expect to be believed, he'd been with Elwood for three years and never stopped in the middle of a number before.
"Unlikely, something happened."
Miles moved enough so he could see out into the audience. He pointed to the side of the crowd about two thirds down the marquee. "Over there. Tall, blonde, long hair, high heels, short lace dress."
Toby leaned forward and watched for a moment. He settled back onto his crate. "Not bad." He looked across at Isaac. "So, why are you still up here?" He took another puff.
Isaac grinned. Good question, Jess had caught the flash of awareness. He figured, now she knew she'd been seen, she'd leave. Couldn't believe she'd come in the first place.
He leaned over, took the joint from Toby and had another puff. The question was, what to do about it? He hadn't planned on having anything to do with her while he was home, that wasn't the reason he'd talked Toby and Miles into travelling halfway across the world to work for a fraction of the money they'd usually get.
He handed the joint back. But since she was here, talking to her wasn't a bad idea. Talking might make running into her accidentally easier to handle, especially as against everything he thought he knew about her, she was here.
Then he had an idea. "I'm going to do something different from what we planned. Follow me for the next number, then you two do the rest of the set."
Miles nodded. Toby took a puff then dropped the joint and ground it into the floor with his boot. "I don't know why we bother with a playlist," he said.
Butterfly Kisses is a standalone book in the Trainwreck series. If you like second chances, then you'll love this contemporary romance.
