A tall, leggy blonde came bounding up behind them. It didn’t take Aidan long to deduce she was Laurel. “Oh please, Emma, sing Cowboy Take Me Away! You were singing that the night Dave and I met!”
Aidan brought his lips closer to Emma’s ear. “Go on. You know you could knock their socks off singing in the shower.”
She jerked away to stare at him, her mouth a perfect o of surprise. “Really?”
He nodded.
“Okay, okay, I’ll do it.”
Another cheer went through the crowd when Emma rose out of her seat. As she climbed onto the stage, Aidan leaned forward in his chair. He couldn’t wait to actually see her perform.
Emma’s shaking hand took the microphone off the stand. She cleared her throat a few times before speaking. “I think you all know I haven’t sung professionally in two years, so you have to believe me when I say that only pure and true love could get me on this stage. It’s the love I feel for Dave, who over the years has been like a brother to me, and it’s the love between him and his sweet, beautiful fiancée that makes me able to sing this song for you.” Her gaze went to Dave and Laurel who were already wrapped in each other’s arms, waiting expectantly on their song. “This one is for you.”
The twang of the rosin coming across a fiddle’s bow coupled with two guitars echoed through the barn. Aidan watched as Emma’s nervousness faded away the moment she heard the familiar chords. With complete confidence, she brought the microphone to her lips and began singing. The room filled with people melted away, and for Aidan, it became only the two of them. Pinching his eyes shut, he let her velvety voice wash over him. He didn’t care if the lyrics were about a cowboy sweeping a woman away from the big city into the wide-open spaces of the country. He just focused on the immense pride that filled him at her performance.
When she finished, applause and cheers roared through the room so loud they stung Aidan’s ears. Emma flushed a deep crimson, but a beaming smile filled her face. She curtsied prettily. “Thank you,” she murmured.
“Now sing Sweet Dreams, Emmie Lou!” Earl shouted.
Emma shook her head furiously as she started to put the microphone back on the stand. “No, Granddaddy, I’ve sung enough for one night.”
Earl stomped his foot on the sawdust floor. “Emma Katherine Harrison, your granddaddy wants to hear some Patsy Cline, so sing Sweet Dreams!”
Aidan couldn’t help chuckling at the stalemate between Emma and her grandfather. “Uh-oh, Em, he’s calling you by your full name. Better do what the man says,” he called.
She shot him a murderous look before turning back to her cousins. “I assume you guys remember Sweet Dreams?”
Dave, who had rejoined the stage, held up his hands. “Oh no, this one is all a cappella, little cuz.”
Pointing a finger at them, Emma said, “I just want you to know I’m going to hurt each and every one of you for this!”
The boys laughed heartily as they shuffled off the stage. Emma turned back to the crowd and pointed her finger then at Aidan. “That goes for you, too.”
He grinned. “I’ll happily take whatever you want to dish out. Now make your granddaddy happy and sing.”
When Aidan glanced over at Earl, he nodded and smiled at him. Maybe he was really off the hook…or at least his dick was. He settled back in his chair and focused his attention on Emma.
The moment Emma began singing the old country song a hush fell over the barn. If she had been good on Cowboy Take Me Away, she was hitting this one out of the park like a grand slam. Closing her eyes, she belted out the lyrics with such feeling and emotion that Aidan noticed tears sparkling in several people’s eyes.
Aidan’s enjoyment began to fade when Emma got to the second verse. A haunting, aching quality entered her voice as she sang Patsy’s lyrics about never wearing the ring of her lover or having him reciprocate her love. His chest tightened at how so much of the song could relate to him and Emma. He wondered if she often had sweet dreams of a life together with him—one that might never come true.
Thundering applause jolted him out of his thoughts. Emma had finished singing and now half the room were on their feet cheering for her. She flushed and grinned. “Thank you,” she murmured into the microphone.
Dave and her other cousins joined Emma back on stage. Each one hugged and kissed her before picking up their instruments. They started up a song as she came back to join him. “So what did you think?” she asked breathlessly.
“Absolutely amazing.”
Emma beamed at his compliments. “Really?”
He nodded. “You were spectacular singing to Mason, but damn…you were like American Idol good up there.”
She giggled and kissed his cheek. “Thanks.” After eyeing the couples on the dance floor, she turned back to him with a pleading look. “Want to dance again?”
He groaned. “If we must.”
***
It was after eleven by the time the last guest left. Pleasantly exhausted, Aidan dragged himself up the hillside to the house. After grabbing their suitcases out of the car, he joined Emma as they trailed behind Earl and Virginia. “Now Aidan, you’re going to be sleeping here,” Virginia said, pointing to a bedroom.
He dropped his suitcase in the doorway. It didn’t take him long to surmise his bedroom just happened to be next door to Earl and Virginia’s. It was a nice way for them to keep tabs on him. He smiled back at them. “Looks cozy. Thank you.”
“Emma, you’re going to be in your mama’s old bedroom.” Earl then looked pointedly at Aidan. “Way down the hallway from us.”
Aidan turned a laugh into a cough. It was so absurd that he and Emma were in their thirties and being treated like teenagers. “Then I suppose I should say goodnight now,” he said. Wrapping his hands around her waist, he pulled her against him. “Sweet dreams, Emma.”
“Sweet dreams to you, too, Aidan,” she murmured.
And even though he knew Earl wouldn’t like it, he gave Emma a chaste kiss on the lips. She grinned at him before saying goodnight to her grandparents. With a final wave, she went on down the hallway.
Reluctantly, he went inside and closed his door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Emma felt she was doing something truly illicit when she tip-toed past her grandparent’s bedroom towards Aidan’s. Her trembling hand slowly turned the knob, and she breathed a sigh of relief at finding it unlocked. Slowly, she pushed it open, trying not to let its loud creak echo through the hallway. She lamented the fact she hadn’t thought to grab the WD40 from under the kitchen sink.