Their attention shifted to Emily. She cast me a tender smile before she eased forward.
“I can’t wait to share this with you all. You . . . you are my family. The ones I can trust. The ones I’d give anything for. I’m so proud to be a part of this band. So proud to be Carolina George. So proud I get to stand up there and share this with you.”
“Thank you for doing this, baby sister,” Richard said, his voice thick. “I know you weren’t sure this was the direction you wanted for your life. But I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure this is the life you want to live. To right anything I’ve made wrong. I promise you that.”
Her smile turned somber, and she glanced back at me for a beat. “I don’t think I’d want to be anywhere else.”
My insides clanged. A fucking fierce urge to make those promises, too.
She pressed her little fist to theirs.
A four-pronged star.
My chest clutched, this girl shining the brightest to me.
Joy and pride lit up their faces.
Wholly deserved.
I just prayed it fucking worked out in the end. That I hadn’t made the wrong choice. Ended them before they ever had the chance to really begin.
Rhys jerked his head at Melanie. “Mells Bells, get your ass over here. You think we coulda done any of this without you nagging our asses all day long?”
“Asshole,” she mumbled.
“You know it.” He grinned.
She scooted forward just as the limo was rolling to a stop at the curb. The next in line.
They all looked out the window, knowing things were about to get real, before they all looked back to each other, their fists united. “A song is nothing but a dream. And we dream out loud,” Emily told them like it were their mantra.
The limo door swung open, and Richard stepped out to cheers that were no doubt going to grow after the world got a taste of them tonight.
Like Richard had said, they made magic.
It was no lie.
Rhys was all cocky arrogance as he slid out, already a rock star in his mind, celebrity to the bone, tossing out his dimple and his smile as he swaggered down the carpet. Leif ducked out, quiet the way he was, stretching out his hand to help his wife climb out.
I slipped out and then reached back in to extend my hand to Emily, who accepted it.
Lush legs exposed, tanned and shined up for the night, she stepped out in her super short dress. A dress that was a black sequined swath that hugged every curve of her body. Showed her off like the star she was.
Stunning.
Staggering.
Could feel the crowd take note. Certain she was someone remarkable even if they didn’t know her name yet.
They didn’t get yet that she was everything.
I clutched her hand as we stared down the crowd that made their way to the massive music theater.
Emily shivered, nerves making her back go ramrod straight, her spirit swamped in hope and apprehension.
“You look amazing. Fucking incredible, Emily. Talented beyond measure. Beautiful and kind. You are stopping the entire world in its tracks right now. You have this. But if you need me? I am right here, baby. I won’t let anything happen to you. You don’t have to be afraid.” I whispered the words into her ear as she struggled to find her footing, her courage where she stood at my side, staring down the red carpet like it contained a field of land mines.
A treasure buried at the other end.
“I’m so glad you’re here with me.” A weak smile pulled at her mouth, like I was the only person she could see right then. Not the flash of the cameras or the shouts of excitement or the thrill of the A-list celebrities who would be taking up the front rows. “Actually, we wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for you, would we?”
I turned to her, cupped her face, my voice hard, low with emphasis. “You would be, Emily. One way or another, today or in a year or ten years, you would be here. There is no stopping something as incredible as what comes out of you. I know it. Believe it.”
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Swore, I could feel her spirit reaching for me. Twining and twisting and making me into something I wasn’t before she came into my life.
Something better.
“And sometimes we need someone to believe in us for us to finally believe in ourselves.” The second she said it, she dropped her head to mine and pressed her lips to my mouth. Two of us were caught. Hovering around the other. Breathing the other in. Nothing else existing except for the connection that tethered us.
Kept us from floating away.
Magnets.
The limo drove away behind us and another pulled into its spot.