Take Me Home (The Heartbreak Brothers 1)

g was coming to an end. Becca and Maddie were leaning in close, singing about how much they needed their baby, their voices breathy and low. As Maddie played the final note, the crowd cheered loudly, stamping their feet and calling for more. Becca grabbed her hand and pulled her up, the two of them bowing to their audience. Somebody whistled appreciatively, and Gray frowned. That was his sister and his…

Friend?

Why did that word make him feel so disappointed? He looked back at Maddie. Watched the way her chest rose and fell rapidly as she took shallow breaths. Then someone put a glass in her hand, and another person pulled her away, and all Gray could do was watch her.

His friend.

“Next up we have some fresh Karaoke meat. Twins Logan and Cameron. Give a big Moonlight welcome to them both,” Sam shouted into the microphone. “And don’t forget, at the end you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite. Whoever gets the loudest applause wins the coveted Moonlight Karaoke Trophy.”

“He doesn’t have one,” Tanner told Gray. “Someone stole it last year. But he’s hoping by the end of the night everybody will be too drunk to notice.”

Gray chuckled as he scanned the room, looking for her. “I’m just gonna…” he inclined his head at the bar.

“Good plan. Logan and Cam sing about as well as I do.”

Gray walked across the room, smiling and shaking hands as people told him how great it was that he came here tonight. But his attention was elsewhere, looking for her.

She wasn’t at the bar, nor in the crowd of people staring at the stage as Logan and Cam ruined a perfectly good song. He looked at the bathroom for a while, but gave up when he started to worry what people might think.

Becca was talking to a couple of girls by the bar. Gray walked over to her and hugged her, congratulating her on her performance.

“Have you seen Maddie?” he asked her.

“No.” Becca looked around. “But she must be here somewhere.”

“No worries. I’ll catch her later.”

She’d gone home. He was sure of it, though he had no idea why. He put his beer down on the counter and grabbed his jacket, heading out through the peeling green door. The night air surrounded him, cooler than he’d expected.

That’s when he saw her. Sitting on a bench in the square – the same bench she’d sat on that first day they’d met. Her feet were propped up on the seat and her arms were wrapped around her knees, hugging them tight. For somebody who’d just had everybody in the Moonlight Bar – including him – wrapped around her little finger, she didn’t look happy.

It only took a minute to cross the square to join her. She looked up as he reached the bench, but she didn’t move.

“Hey.” He sat down next to her. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “I just needed some fresh air. It’s hot in there.”

“It’s cool out here.”

“You’re telling me. I’ve got goosebumps on top of goosebumps.” She looked down at her bare arms.

He shrugged his jacket off and laid it across her shoulders, not bothering to ask for permission. He knew enough about her already to know she would have insisted he keep it, and he wasn’t in the mood for bullshit.

She was cold. He could make her warm. Simple.

“You were good in there,” he told her. “Really good.”

A ghost of a smile passed her lips. “Thanks. Though it’s an old favorite. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve performed that one. It always gets people going.”

“I guess it resonates with everybody. Who hasn’t been up at one in the morning thinking about somebody?”

She nodded, pulling his jacket sleeves across her chest.

“You have an amazing voice. Better than half the ones I hear in the business. Have you ever thought of becoming professional?” he asked.

She looked up at him, the moonlight making her skin glow softly. God he wanted to touch her. “I like things the way they are.”

There was no conviction in her voice. No truth. It sounded like a line she’d rehearsed too many times. “You like living in a dead end town serving shitty eggs for a living?” he asked her. “And spending every Friday night gossiping with old women who are more interested in who’s dating who than what’s happening in the real world?” He curled his fingers into his palms, wondering where his anger had come from.