Starting Over

Chapter 29- Celebrity Karaoke: Couples Edition

“How you doin’ Panama City?” Jill, the host for Celebrity Karaoke: Couples Edition, yelled to the packed crowd at Spinnaker’s.

The crowd screamed in response. It was a matter of seconds before we were all going to be on that stage. I was nervous. I had sung in front of sold-out crowds before, but this time it was not at one of Luke’s shows. This was different. These were people who were expecting me to belt out some of the greatest songs of all time with Luke.

“Don’t be nervous. You’ve done this before,” Luke told me trying to calm my visible nerves.

“This is not Saturday Night Karaoke at Winner’s. This is bigger than that,” I explained to him.

“Baby, it’s going to be okay. You have an amazing voice. It’s time to let people see how beautiful it is. Besides, I’ll be right by your side,” Luke comforted me as he leaned down and kissed me, slightly grazing his hand over my abdomen.

There was a group of girls at the side of the stage watching us. You could see the excitement and sense of awe on their faces. It was clear they were jealous of the relationship Luke and I had. I found it flattering that his fans, or whoever’s fans, would be jealous.

“Guess who?” someone said to me as he covered my eyes with his hands.

“Ummm….. Let’s see. It’s not Luke, and the only other person who would do that would be…. Jason,” I said as I turned around seeing him standing there with Brittany.

“How’d ya guess?” Jason laughed.

“I didn’t know you all were going to be here,” Luke told Jason.

“Bridget called Brit and talked her into it,” Jason said laying all the blame on Brittany and I.

“You know that’s not how it went!” I exclaimed.

“I know,” Jason laughed, “I was in from the moment she said karaoke.”

“Are ya’ll ready to meet our couples?” Jillian asked the crowd.

The crowd cheered as we were handed mics as we walked out on the beach stage at Spinnaker.

“Let me introduce our celebrities and their significant others,” Jillian began, “Dierks Bentley and his wife, Cassidy. Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel. Luke Bryan and his fiancée, Bridget Bowman. Jason Aldean and his girlfriend, Brittany Kerr. Fergie and her husband, Josh Duhamel. And last but not least, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert. Are you guys ready to get this started?”

“Let’s do this!” Jason and Luke said in unison.

“I’m ready,” Dierks said.

“Let’s roll,” Blake and Miranda said at the same time.

Brittany, Cassidy, and I just smiled and shook our heads.

“Well, all of our couples drew for their line up just a little bit ago,” Jillian told the crowd, “But first I want to fill ya’ll in on a few things. We have a list of songs that each couple has to choose from. These songs are from different genres and vary from fast to slow. All of the couples will be allowed to choose all of the songs the songs they are going to sing, but they can’t sing their own song. That’s just not fair. First up is Luke and Bridget doing a cover of Taio Cruz’s Dynamite.”

I really didn’t want to be first, but it is what it is. Luke decided on this song. It was one we turned into a pretty awesome duet at Winner’s one night when we were out with Jason and Brittany not long ago. Everyone cleared the stage but me and Luke.

“Are you ready?” Luke asked me quietly.

I just shook my head. I was too busy trying to mentally prepare myself for what was to come. This is just like a night out at Winner’s I tried to convince myself.