I pulled back, my eyes lit with anticipation. “After my set, let’s do it in here.”

In answer, he gently extricated himself from me. “This is a sacred space, Skylar.”

Snorting, thinking he was being funny, it didn’t take me long to realize he wasn’t.

Which only made me laugh harder.

In fact, I was laughing as he slid the engagement ring on my finger, which made him laugh. Maybe it wasn’t the most romantic response, but I thought it a good sign. If we entered marriage laughing, maybe it meant our lives together would be filled with it.

Killian kissed the ring on my finger, gave me one last hard kiss, and then handed my Taylor to me. “Now, go get them.”

He followed me out, disappearing through the door that would take him into the crowd offstage. Hearing the loud murmurs of talk as they waited for me, I took a deep breath.

I couldn’t hear the floorboards creak under my feet since the conversation of a hundred people was so loud, but I felt them solid beneath me, holding my shaking legs upright.

Feeling a hundred stares beyond the stage lights, I didn’t look at them as a hush fell over the room. I plugged my Taylor into the amp, slid onto the stool, and adjusted my mic.

Finally, I looked up.

Everyone was a dark shadow against the lights and it was a familiar and yet unfamiliar sight. It had been a long time since I was so physically close to my audience, and I’d never been on stage alone before.

The silence seemed to boom around the room as I stared out at them, wondering what they were thinking. I knew they wanted to be here because the tickets sold out in the first ten minutes, but I was still nervous. I didn’t want to let them down.

“Woohoo, Skylar!” I heard Autumn catcall from the crowd.

It made me smile and reminded me she was out there. That Killian, my fiancé and best friend in the world, was out there. “Hey, guys,” I greeted.

That was all it took. The room erupted into applause and whistles and a wave of nostalgia hit me with so much force, tears pricked my eyes.

“Wow, thank you,” I said as they quieted down, my voice echoing through the mic. “I really appreciate the welcome. I don’t know if you know this, but my old band and I never got to play King Tut’s. The offer to play here was too great to turn down and I’m really grateful you guys came out tonight to let me tick this one off my bucket list.”

“King Tut’s!” someone shouted, and the applause started up again.

I laughed into the mic, feeling myself relax more and more.

“Well, let’s do this. I’m going to kick off tonight with a song called ‘Ghost.’” I strummed the guitar to the applause, noise that died down as soon as I opened my mouth to sing.

They were with me. Right there with me as I retold my story through music. I sang it all, feeling my pain and my anger, owning it, because it no longer owned me. And they sang it with me, singing those lyrics back to me like they felt it too.

I sang “In the Wind,” my biggest hit off the album, and felt a rush of love and support from that audience like I’d never felt in my life.

As the set drew to a close, I cut through the wolf whistles. “I’m sad to say this is my final song tonight, guys. This was the last song on the album but it’s definitely not a song about an ending. It’s a song about the best beginning I could’ve ever asked for. Killian, this one’s yours, babe, just like me.”

“I was concrete standing still,

Cemented heart, bricked-over soul.

But there were cracks I couldn’t see,

Through them my song called out.

“The river heard me and it came for me.

“I was cold there, forged in stone,

And you were colder on your throne

Of freezing waves that flooded me out,

To free my song upon you.

“The river heard me and it came for me.

It rushed me on toward a waterfall.

“I feel the wind on my skin breathing,

My heart is beating to the feeling.

I catch my soul as I free-fall,

Then your arms close tight around me

Right before we land.

“I’m alive and it’s all your fault,

Blood is pumping, burning hot.

Worse, I’m growing addicted to

Being awake, being with you.

“The river heard me and it came for me.

It rushed me on toward a waterfall.

“I feel the wind on my skin breathing,

My heart is beating to the feeling.

I catch my soul as I free-fall,

Then your arms close tight around me

Right before we land.

“You’re in my heart, you’re like a beat.

You’re the air I drink in breaths.

You’re the flood that set me free.

The waterfall I’d gladly drown in.

“I feel the wind on my skin breathing,

My heart is beating to the feeling.

I catch my soul as I free-fall,

Then your arms close tight around me

Right before we land.

“The river heard me and it came for me.

Now my song belongs to it.”