Fly With Me | ✓

18.2

Everleigh saw Stevie look at her out of the corner of her eye. Given how hot her face felt, she refused to venture her gaze toward her friend. No ma'am. She would stay in limbo of Stevie giving her eyes that would both make fun of her and scream with her.

"Ever leave a flight and wish you'd got back on? / The world keeps turning as I write you this song / Never felt so strong / Want you along for the ride / Why don't we step inside?" Maverick couldn't wipe the grin off his face as he sang the next line. "Now a mile high flier / On a trial by fire / Yeah, you got me fucked up."

Everleigh tried to hide her laugh at that. Idiot. Absolute fucking idiot. She was going to get stuck with a song on her phone about her with a fucking mile high joke in it. Fucking hell, Kingston Maverick. Even Stevie hadn't done that.

The rest of the concert was fantastic. Pulsing lights, pumping music, and conversations with his fans between the singing. Maverick pulled songs from both his albums in the perfect order. No other surprise performances—which was good for Everleigh's face. He was damn close to setting it on fire. Everleigh needed to relearn how to breathe or she was going to put her fucking foot in her mouth when they got back stage.

After the show, Brendon, Stevie, and Everleigh made their way over to where Maverick's stage security was. There was much less resistance from them when it came to letting Stevie in than there was with Maverick and MARS' security. Go figure. She was probably more recognizable; Maverick hadn't been nominated for any Grammys, MARS should've won album of the year.

Stevie skipped ahead of Brendon and Everleigh, laughing loudly. "Musician privileges are so fun!"

A small laugh escaped Brendon, too quiet for Stevie to have heard him. They were cute. Whatever they were. Adorable. Precious. Enchanting. Every adjective Everleigh could think of, Stevie and Brendon were. She couldn't wait for them to realize it for themselves.

As Stevie walked ahead of them, Everleigh looked around. There was something charming about the previous concert posters lining the walls. How they seemed to scream that whoever was performing was in good company.

A gasp tore Everleigh's eyes from the posters on the walls. Stevie stood in front of a curtain that had the slightest flicker of movement behind it.

"Uh." Stevie laughed. A little more high pitched than normal. "Did someone accidentally leave their phone by the seats? I just remembered seeing something on the ground—"

Everleigh frowned at her, but Stevie refused to look her in the eye. Weird.

"Look at that, my shoe's untied. Can't take me anywhere. Wait up," Brendon said, crouching down at tying his shoe. Also weird.

When Stevie managed a gaze over Everleigh's way, she responded to the questioning expression with an awkward shrug. Everleigh probably shouldn't have been impatient.

And when she pulled the curtain back for herself, Everleigh could've died on the spot. Fuck.

"That's... interesting," Everleigh managed. Trying her best to ignore the small tremble in her lip that she fought tooth and nail to keep from turning into something embarrassing.

The thing about Everleigh was that she didn't do relationships. She was always too busy and there was always something she was working toward and the last time she said she'd loved someone, they'd hooked up at prom and then, mutually, never talked to each other again. And that worked for her. The L-word was embarrassing.