Emily unclipped the microphone she’d been practicing with and then stepped off the stage, a bounce in her step as she walked toward us. She was breathless and glistening with sweat, and I had the sudden flashback of Emily running toward me during a game of tag, as we wove and ducked through the orange groves. Only this time, she was a woman and her…tassels were bouncing. I felt my blood notch up a few degrees at the sight of all that flushed, glowing skin. I looked away as she arrived where we stood, seeing her go up on her tiptoes and kiss Charlie on the lips from my peripheral vision.

“I see you took some liberties with the uniform,” Emily said.

I looked back at her, one perfectly drawn eyebrow arched as her gaze moved down my body over the medium gray cotton T-shirt and dark gray jeans, down to my black boots. “Yeah, about that,” I said. “I just couldn’t find exactly what Destanie described. I hope this will work.”

“The main point is that you’re comfortable,” Charlie said, clapping me on the back. “If there’s trouble, you need to be able to move. And move fast. Right, babe?”

Emily gave him a noncommittal hum as her only response. “How’s your hotel?” she asked.

“It’s perfect. More than I hoped for. Thanks.”

“Great.”

“Great.”

For a moment we simply stared at each other, some sort of tension swirling in the air. I wasn’t sure what it was, or maybe I didn’t want to look at it too closely. Didn’t want to see something that wasn’t there simply because I was way out of practice with women. All I did know was the hair on the back of my neck was standing up and my clothing began feeling overly tight as the seconds ticked by and neither of us looked away.

Charlie pulled Emily toward him, wrapping his arm around her waist and splaying his palm over her bare stomach. Emily startled slightly and looked up at him, her expression melting into adoration. “I’m glad to see you’re lip-synching, babe,” Charlie said. “Things will go a lot more smoothly that way, and you can give your all to the dance numbers.”

What? “You’re not really singing?” I blurted. I’d thought the recording was just being used for rehearsal purposes.

Emily’s eyes jerked to me. “No,” she said as she pulled her shoulders back. If she was trying to hide the defensiveness in her tone, she failed.

I remembered the sweet sound of her voice, the way her natural talent had been obvious to everyone from the time she was a little girl. “That’s too bad.”