The man running the karaoke freezes for a few seconds, and the kid misses a few words of the vocals. Bump climbs up onstage, but before they can stop the music, he starts rocking with the inflatable guitar like he was born to play. A smile stretches across the kid’s face as he throws up the devil horns, and he belts out the lyrics even louder.
Hal and Scarlett watch with bemused expressions, but I can’t stop laughing. It’s pure Bump.
I wrap an arm around Scarlett and sing the words of the chorus in her ear. Her head swivels at my vocal performance—which isn’t half bad, if I do say so myself—and she joins in. By the end of the song, a crowd has gathered in front of the trailer, and even Scarlett has her hands up in the air and is jumping with the beat.
As soon as the music dies, the crowd bursts into cheers and applause.
“Encore!” Scarlett yells, and the kid whispers something to Bump.
Bump nods and yanks a handful of tickets from his pocket and shoves them at the kid.
“What are they doing?” Hal asks, scratching his head and then scanning the area, never fully letting his guard down.
“Oh, Bump isn’t done yet. The kid will play air guitar until the strings fall off, if you know what I mean.”
Hal chuckles as the strains of “TNT”come through the speakers next. Scarlett claps and screams to cheer Bump on, and heeats it up.
Bump holds that inflatable guitar like he was meant for the stage. All those years of playingGuitar Herodefinitely paid off.
When they hit the chorus, the crowd goes wild, and everyone sings along. Scarlett is bouncing on the balls of her feet, trying to see over a tall man who keeps bobbing in and out of her vision, so I pull her into my side.
“Trust me?”
It’s a simple question, only two words, and her answer is just as simple.
Her gray eyes, bright with excitement, meet mine. “Of course.”
Fucking hell. Hearing her say that without hesitation and knowing that I’ve earned her complete trust sends a charge through me.
“Up you go,” I tell her, squatting down and pointing to my shoulders.
“You want me to get up there?”
I wave her closer. “Best view you’ll get. You don’t want to miss Bump in his element, do you?”
“If you think it’s a good idea ...”
“Come on, ladybug. I’ll hold your toys and your purse.”
She hands off her handbag and ladybug to me, and Hal takes her bunny. After a moment of adorable-as-hell trepidation, she goes for it, climbing onto my shoulders until her crotch is situated against the back of my neck and her knees dangle forward over my chest.
“Up we go,” I say over the music and the people singing along to the lyrics. When I stand, she becomes the tallest person in the crowd.
After another verse, she gets more comfortable and releases her grip on my shoulders. I glance up, and all I can see are her arms in the air, proudly rocking the devil horns as she yells, “Go, Bump! You rock!”
Right in that moment, I fall in love with her all over again.
My sophisticated socialite knows all the words to AC/DC’s “TNT,” and she’s not afraid to climb on my shoulders and cheer on the man who will always be a boy because of a bullet.
Before I met Scarlett, if anyone had asked me to describe my perfect woman, I wouldn’t have had a clue what to say. If I’d have been pushed, I probably would have gone with a generic description, because I never thought I’d find one who was perfect for me. Not even in my wildest dreams would I ever have been able to describe Scarlett Priest.
On paper, we’re all wrong. It just goes to show that how things look from the outside doesn’t mean a damn thing. Life is messy, like Scarlett’s favorite hashtag says. We don’t always know what we need until it’s right in front of our faces.
I almost fucked it up, but if I know Scarlett like I think I do, she wasn’t going to let me. She’s too smart for that. Thank God I caught on too, because Scarlett Priest is the best goddamned thing ever to happen to me, and I will never take her for granted.
I squeeze her thighs on my shoulders to make sure she’s safe up there, and then together, the entire crowd belts out the last chorus. The cheers and applause are nearly deafening, and the cops have all gravitated toward the crowd.
Bump and the kid take their bows before jumping off the stage.