She also looked terrified.
She lifted her hand tentatively and waved to the crowd, but she seemed focused on walking across the stage.
Charlie could understand. Probably every woman in the world could understand. If you’re not used to high heels, walking in them, especially on a slick surface, not to mention with millions of eyeballs on you, was not a piece of cake.
“Daaay-um,” Zeke said with a slow, appreciative drawl. “Jordan’s got great legs. And other stuff.”
Jason met Jordan partway across the stage and took her hand. He was smiling like someone had just given him a million dollars.
“Oh my gosh,” Maddie said. “This is pretty exciting.”
“I would die,” Paige said. “I hate public proposals.”
The group laughed. Yes, Paige said proposals, plural, and she knew what she spoke of. The girl had been proposed to five times before she’d come to Autre to be with Mitch. Mitch was letting her be in charge of her next proposal. She was going to ask him to marry her when she was ready. But the proposal was just a formality. The two of them were absolutely going to end up together.
“You already promised me you would ask Mitch to marry you here at the bar in front of all of us,” Ellie told her.
Paige nodded. “I guess I don’t consider you all public.” She smiled at the group. “You’re family.”
“Aww,” Juliet and Tori said together.
“Shhh!” Ellie told them again, waving her hand to shut them up as Jason pulled Jordan to the microphone at the front of the stage.
The crowd had been cheering the entire time, but now as he swung his guitar to his back and went down on one knee, they quieted.
“We’ve known each other forever,” Jason said with Jordan’s hand in his.
Charlie found herself holding her breath. But not so much for the words that were about to come from Jason’s mouth but because Jordan still looked petrified and like she was about to wobble off of her heels at any moment.
“And we’ve been through a lot together,” Jason went on.
Ellie was watching the TV, practically without blinking. Fletcher, on the other hand, had yet to look at the screen as far as Charlie could tell, and he looked like he was about to throw up.
“It just seems right,” Jason said, “at this point in my journey, that I ask this question.”
A couple of loud whistles came from the audience, but for the most part, everyone was quiet.
“I love you, Viv. Will you marry me?”
There was a long beat of silence.
Fletcher’s head came up quickly. His eyes now focused on the TV.
Then Zeke asked, “Who the hell is Viv?”
Ellie swung to look at Fletcher. “Does he call Jordan ‘Viv’?”
“What? Is that like her middle name?” Zeke asked.
But Fletcher wasn’t looking away from the television. Charlie looked too. Jordan looked white as a ghost, and she visibly wobbled on her heels now.
No one in the live audience seemed to know what to do.
Jason quickly got to his feet, grabbing both of Jordan’s hands. “Oh fuck,” he said into the microphone.
That was going to be a problem with the television producers.
“No, I’m sorry, Jordan. Jordan. Of course. I want you. “
Suddenly there was a crash, and the camera panned to the drum set that was now partially lying on its side, the cymbals having crashed against the floor as the drummer bolted off of her seat and ran for the side of the stage.
“Uh, that’s Viv.”
They all looked at Zander.
“What?” Ellie demanded.
Zander nodded. “Vivian Holbrook. Jason’s drummer.”
Ellie turned to face him, her hands on her hips. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that Jason Young basically just proposed to Vivian.”
“Why would he do that?” Ellie asked.
“Maybe because he’s actually in love with her, but his management team told him that breaking up with a sweetheart like Jordan would look bad for him right now,” Zander said.
“How do you know this?”
“I might have… read it… somewhere,” Zander said.
“Do you follow country music celebrity gossip?” Ellie asked him, her eyes narrowed, daring him to lie to her.
Zander shrugged. “Maybe.”
“I can’t believe you’ve been holding out on me!” Ellie exclaimed. “We could have been talking about Kelly and Brandon and Brett?”
“Well, apparently, you wouldn’t have been that great to gossip with,” Zander told her. “People have been talking about Jason and Viv for a while, and you seem shocked.”
“Don’t you tell me Jason Young has been cheating on Jordan,” Ellie said.
“Okay, I won’t tell you. But he basically just told you,” Zander said, pointing at the television.
Ellie shook her head, clearly not wanting to believe such a thing about her favorite musician. “Maybe he was just nervous in front of all those people. This is kind of a big deal. Maybe he just said the wrong name. Obviously, he knows Vivian really well too,” Ellie said.
Zander snorted. “Asking a woman to marry you is kind of a big deal. But not exactly something where you get the wrong name. Especially when you’ve been with the woman you’re asking for ten years.”
“But—” Ellie started.
Suddenly Fletcher shoved back from the table and stood. He tossed his wadded napkin onto his plate, then turned and headed for the back door.
“Where are you going?” Ellie called after him.
He yanked the back door open and looked back. His eyes flickered to the screen in the back of his grandmother’s bar. “Vegas.”
Charlie pivoted in her seat to look at the television. Jordan was running off the stage, tears streaming down her face, and Jason was going after her. The camera showed a bodyguard stopping him as they let her pass. Then his manager joined him, and they had a brief, heated discussion.
“I can’t believe they’re not cutting to commercial,” Maddie said, leaning in attentively.
“They better not cut to a commercial,” Ellie said. “I’ll call my cable company and complain so loudly they won’t know what hit them.”
“Won’t matter,” Zeke said. “That whole thing is going to be all over the internet in five minutes if it’s not already. Everyone there has a cell phone.”
God, he was right.
Charlie stared at the screen. She felt so terrible for Jordan.
But damn… the way Fletcher had gone storming out of here headed for Vegas? That was a whole new level of exciting.
She felt Griffin lean in.
“Just telling you now, when I propose, it might involve an otter or two. Or maybe a lemur. But it will be nothing like that.”
When he proposed. That was like a proposal for a proposal, wasn’t it? She gave him a huge smile and leaned in and kissed him. Then said, “As long as it’s not the goats.”
“No? But everything started with the goats and the barn,” he said with a grin.
“Yeah, but Sugar isn’t going to take my ‘yes’ well. Or,” she said, leaning in and putting her lips to his ear, “the way we celebrate after. She might leave a scar this time.”