Sway (24 page)

Chapter Forty-Five

One year later

School was out for the summer but I found myself busy with a temporary gig. Sitting on a piano bench inside the Saddledome, my fingers pounded out notes at a feverish pace. The arena, nestled in downtown Calgary, Alberta, was packed with twenty thousand fans, all screaming for one man and his band. Calgary was one of many stops on The Eric Wentworth Band’s sold out Sway Tour, and Eric had just finished singing “Cry Me a River,” a song that still made me cringe.

“You guys are the best!” Eric shouted into the mic. “Calgary sure knows how to make a guy feel welcome!” The crowd roared in approval.

His voice quieted to a normal level. “I have the best fans in the world. It’s because of you that our third album,
Sway
, has made it to number one!”

The crowd screamed some more. I flipped the pages of my sheet music to the next song.

“You may not know it, but ‘Sway’ is a song close to my heart.” His smile was magnified on the large screen behind him. I watched Eric enchant the audience like he enchanted me every day.

“Okay, I’ll admit it, a lot of songs feel close to my heart.” He laughed sheepishly. “But this one…”

I’d heard him talk about the song before in other tour stops. Each time his speech changed a little. Each time I felt a thrill at his words and my heart would pound in my chest as if it was the first time.

He rubbed the back of his head with one hand. “This song is an apology, but it’s more than that. It’s me, begging and pleading with the woman I never stopped loving after more than eight years apart, to take me back.”

More screams.

“And can you believe it? She did!” Behind him, Adam blared out a
dum-da-da-duuuhhhh
on his trumpet. There was a collective laugh in the arena. “I know,” Eric said with a grin. “Do you want to meet her?”

Oh no.
I slumped on the bench, hoping somehow to disappear. He’d never done this to me before. What was he thinking?

Eric turned around. He motioned with one hand, his other still gripped around the mic. “Come on.”

The spotlight trained on me just in time for the crowd to see me shaking my head.

“Ahhh, I think she needs some encouragement, folks.”

The roar of the crowd intensified. As if that wasn’t loud enough, Eric raised his hands in the air a few times and the noise level increased by a thousand decibels.

I slowly stood from the bench and adjusted my black dress.

“There’s my girl.” I joined Eric center stage and he wrapped one arm around me. “This is Ava Elliot, temporary piano player, forever muse.”

I stared at him instead of the audience. He lifted the mic off the stand and turned to face me.

“Ava, there is no woman in the world equal to you. None as beautiful, as intelligent, as talented, as poised, as elegant. And none as madly in love with me as you.”

I laughed while the crowd roared. I would’ve bet good money that most of the women in the audience were screaming their disagreement.

“From the moment I walked into music class in tenth grade and you looked at me from the piano bench… This is gonna sound cheesy, but I knew. I knew my crappy life was about to change.” He reached one hand up and stroked my face. “I knew you would save me.”

I hadn’t saved him. Without me, he would have saved himself. But maybe I lifted him out of the darkness a bit, the way he did for me.

“I decided right then, you had to be mine. Forever.”

My heart pounded in my chest so loud I hardly heard the crowd screaming through the arena.

Eric’s hand moved from my face, down my arm, to my hand. He clasped my hand in his. He dropped down on one knee.

The roar of the crowd faded as I became woozy.

He pulled something out of his pocket. A blue sapphire ring surrounded by diamonds. He lowered the mic and said so only I could hear, “I believe this belongs to you?”

I grasped his hand tighter. Butterflies beat inside my stomach and my skin tingled, hot and sweet.

He put the mic back to his lips. “I love you, even more than I did back then. You are the music that fills my soul. The music that allows me to breathe. The music of my life.” Eric’s ocean blue eyes sparkled under the stage lights. “So what do you say? Will you be mine, forever?”

A smile stretched my cheeks.

“Marry me?” The crowd roared.

I didn’t hesitate. “Yes!”

His eyes twinkled. “I don’t think they heard you.” He put the mic to my lips.

“YES!”

He slipped the ring on my trembling finger. The mic fell to the floor with a bang as Eric rose from his knees and swept me into a crushing hug, spinning me around the stage, my feet off the floor. He put me down and then entwined his lips with mine. I pressed my body against his, forgetting about the twenty thousand strangers watching me make out with my fiancé.

The kiss had to end eventually. I didn’t want it to, but then it didn’t matter either. Because we had a lifetime ahead of us. And this time, no one could sway me, not even myself. He and I were exactly where we were meant to be.

Acknowledgements

It would be ridiculous of me not to thank Jane Austen for writing a book I really got, and the 2007 movie adaptation, which inspired me to write the book in the first place, to Rupert Penry-Jones who was the face of my Eric, and to Michael Buble who was his voice.

To all the people who made this book better than I could’ve made it on my own: Emily Stanford, Michelle Merrill, RuthAnne Frost, Amanda Hannah, Dahlia Adler, Prerna Pickett, Lindsey Frydman, and LeighAnn Kopans. And to my editor Noah Chinn, who took the book to a whole other level and brought the funny while he was at it.

A big thank you to Gabrielle Prendergast for designing a cover that I want to smoosh every time I see it. To the entire team at Samhain for believing in my book and making it a real thing.

I can’t forget the wonderful group Querying Authors, for all of their support, advice, and vast knowledge. The same to the ladies of VioletTendencies for welcoming me into their group and answering all my questions.

Last but definitely not least: to my family for never doubting that I could do it. And especially to Jeff, Jade, Logan, Kori, and Avery for allowing me the time to follow my dream. Hugs on the page, because you know I’m not good at them in real life.

About the Author

Melanie Stanford reads too much, plays music too loud, is sometimes dancing, and always daydreaming. She would also like her very own TARDIS, but only to travel to the past. She lives outside Calgary, Alberta, Canada with her husband, four kids, and ridiculous amounts of snow. SWAY is her first novel. You can find her at
www.melaniestanfordbooks.com
, on Twitter
@MelMStanford
and on Facebook
@MelanieStanfordauthor
.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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Sway

Copyright © 2015 by Melanie Stanford

ISBN: 978-1-61923-023-1

Edited by Noah Chinn

Cover by Gabrielle Prendergast

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: December 2015

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