Jamie
It was crowded in the drag show tent, and Jamie didn’t have to wonder whether he should maneuver around to be near Jo. He was all but pushed into her. When she caught him around the waist, laughing, to steady him, he was sure she could feel his heart pounding and probably the slight hesitation as he shifted his own grasp from save me to a hug and then—seriously, the bravest thing he’d ever done—one arm around her shoulders as they turned to face the stage.
She smiled up at him, and leaned into him, and kept one arm around him, too, so the nerves that she’d find an excuse to duck away turned into butterflies because she hadn’t.
It was nothing. Other couples around them were kissing or making out or grinding on each other. But it was also everything, because it was the first time.
The first time Jamie kept his arm around someone for longer than a hug. The first time someone actually wanted to engage with him for longer than a hug.
And in public. Maybe that part of it shouldn’t seem like such a big deal, but he couldn’t shake it. Anyone could just look over—well, try to look over, considering the crowding and the dim light—and see they were together. She didn’t mind being seen with him, even after he’d spent so many hours in the food truck, his clothes were limp and sweaty, and his hair was disheveled. It was the sort of thing where his own mother would cluck her tongue in despair that anyone would see her son looking like this and recognize him, much less be anywhere near him.
The music was turned up too loud for conversation, and the cheers and wolf whistles just added on top of that and filled up the space between the songs, so all they had were looks and winks and smiles, and it was weird and strange and electric. Each performer had three songs, and they laughed and cheered through Ricky’s first two when Jo tugged Jamie’s sleeve to get him to lean down. “Hold onto these for me,” she told him directly in his ear, passing over her small purse and her hoodie.
Uh. He took them, but she couldn’t just walk out at the start of Ricky’s third song. Jamie turned to Chase, but he was frowning and it looked like he tried to call Jo’s name.
She didn’t take off for the exit, though. Well, why would she, if she just gave Jamie her stuff? Jo worked her way up toward the stage where Ricky, oddly not nearly as ostentatious as some of the other performers, lip-synched to the opening of Dasha’s “Not at this Party.” It was his third country song, because Ricky made thematic choices, and he turned up his nose at anything that actually referenced gender, but that might have been because he’d been rejected the time he’d submitted “Man, I Feel Like a Woman.” So Ricky lip-synced, and danced how he usually did—with rhythm, but in a way that made it clear even to Jamie that dancing wasn’t the strongest part of his triple threat—and Jo … what, hesitated?
Jamie blinked when Jo jumped up on the stage as the chorus started, because she wasn’t hesitating. She’d been waiting for her cue, and she must have been the choreographer for this part, too. They went into a complicated stomping and clapping routine that seemed sort of like line dancing, but not quite, before they parted again for the next verse. Jo morphed what they’d been doing into a line dance, upstage and off to the side while Ricky went back to his usual style, because the verses were about trying to move on from a breakup. Then, yep, at the chorus where the singer was thrown back to memories of their time together, Jo caught Ricky’s hand and literally pulled him back into her dance.
When the applause exploded at the end, Trevor leaned in, clapping, to shout, “Did you have any idea they were doing that?”
“No!” Chase told him from Jamie’s other side, which was good, because Jamie wasn’t sure he could answer. Onstage Jo laughed, and bowed again when Ricky gestured, and seriously, Jamie was floored. Ricky was usually good, but adding Jo like that made the performance great. Chase elbowed Jamie. “They’ve been sneaking around on us!”
Uh. That was one way of putting it. Jamie tore his eyes away from the stage to see Chase laughing as he applauded. Chase and Ricky hadn’t had a dance floor at their reception, so Jamie wasn’t sure if there was some amount of envy, but then Chase stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled so it was all good.
Talon jostled his way toward Jamie’s ear. “Dude, your girlfriend does drag shows.”
His girlfriend. All he could do was blink again.
Chase was at least paying enough attention to grab Jamie’s arm. “Around back!” The words were almost lost in the opening bars of the next song, but his grip was strong. Jamie held fast to Jo’s hoodie and purse as the two of them wormed their way out of the crowd and circled the tent to the backstage area that was, in fact, just outside. It was closer to the speakers, but behind him, and two of the other performers were in highly animated discussion with Jo. Ricky stood back, arms crossed, but there was enough light for Jamie to see his smirk was smugly satisfied. There weren’t awards for first place or fan favorite or anything like that, but Ricky knew he’d won them all the same.
When Jo saw him, she broke away, almost bouncing on her feet to fling her around his neck. Her purse swung around and maybe collided with her, but it stayed on his arm, and he held her tightly in this intentional full-body contact when she was all but thrumming with excitement and adrenaline, determined not to be the first to let go.
Chapter Twenty-One – coming October 21
