Boy, You Might Have Me Believin'

Adam is in the middle of a workout when his best friend Jack calls him, and the thought of ignoring it in order to finish flashes in his mind but he dismisses it almost just as quickly. Knowing Jack, he’ll just keep calling and calling until he gets some kind of answer, so Adam heaves out a sigh as he turns the treadmill down to a walk and jumps off.

“Hey,” he kind of shouts into the phone, holding it away from his face as he towels off the thick beads of sweat. “What’s up?”

“The sky, my roof, clouds, birds, some trees and the odd airplane or two,” comes Jack’s reply, followed by a laugh. “Who answers the phone with ‘what’s up’ anymore, dude? You’re so lame.”

“I’m really interested to see how this relates to why you’re calling me,” Adam replies with a grin. “Seriously, I’m so glad I stopped my workout to pick up the phone.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jack brushes off his heavy sarcasm. “I bet you are. Or, you will be, because I’m calling to invite you to Kelly’s show tonight. She got offered this gig at some place downtown and there’s supposedly going to be an important producer there to scout talent and he said he wants to see her play. She hasn’t told anyone in case she jinxes it but I know she’d want you there so…….”

Adam tunes out of the rest of the conversation almost immediately, distracted by the mention of Kelly. He tries not to think about her too often, because he knows that it will only lead to trouble. Sometimes though, it’s hard to ignore how much likes her, the way she always hugs him tighter and for longer than anyone else, how her grin seems to double when he makes a lame joke around her. He’s been in love with the way she folds herself over a guitar and sings covers like she wrote every lyric and lived every story herself as long as he can remember but…..

“She says it’s no big deal but this could be it, Adam,” Jack chimes excitedly. “My little sister could finally go from record-store worker to full superstardom so you’d better be there tonight to watch it.”

With his phone switched to speaker and resting in one of the cubbyholes of the treadmill, Adam uses both hands to unscrew the lid of his water bottle and tip it out over his face.

“Adam? Remember when we were kids and my Mom would only let us borrow the car if we took Kelly to her guitar lessons so we would muck around at the arcade or the rink for hours while she was at her lessons? I think we deserve a cut of whatever ridiculous money she makes,” Jack says thoughtfully. “What do you think?”

Adam towels off his face again and let’s himself think of Kelly, up on a stage with thousands of people in the stands of arenas, cheering her on as she plays. She’d rock at it; Adam has always known that. As surely as he knows how gone on her he is. But there is the small fact that she is Jack’s little sister, which has always stopped him from acting on anything he feels. It hasn’t stopped the underlying flirtations between Kelly and Adam in the time they’ve known each other though, but Adam knows he can’t ever in a million years cross that line, not if he wants to live anyway, because Jack is really protective of Kelly.

He always has been, but it’s gotten worse since she moved to Jersey. Now, there is no excuse for her to not be able to introduce Jack to whoever she is dating, and having Jack give his opinion on them is un-avoidable. Last year, Kelly was dating this drummer guy she met while playing a few gigs as an opener for the guy’s band. Jack practically showed up on her door unannounced, day and night, just to have the chance to size the guy up. Adam doesn’t know all the details, but he does know that after Kelly took the drummer boy on a double date with Jack and his wife Shannon, Jack didn’t have glowing things to say about the guy and Kelly hasn’t mentioned him since.

“I hope you didn’t push it too far in your workout and break yourself,” Jack jokes through the phone, and Adam finally comes back to himself and realises he’s still on the phone.

“You wish,” he retorts, nonsensically, “So, where’s this gig tonight then?” he adds afterwards, because he can never help himself.

-^-
Turns out, it’s in this nice bar, with wooden tables and chairs set out and a stage is set up with low, mood lighting. Adam makes sure he gets there on time, and he joins Jack and Shannon at their table just as one guy with a ukulele is finishing his set. Jack’s got a beer for Adam already and he slides it across the table to him with a smile. Adam takes it and tips it at both Jack and Shannon in acknowledgement.

Kelly takes the stage next, her brown curls falling softly around her face and her curves toned down in a modest black and a belt around her waist. She takes place in front of the microphone, organising herself comfortably on the chair provided and sitting her guitar right on her lap.

He watches her take a deep breath and cast her eyes out over to the small crowd, smile growing when she sees the table they are at. Her eyes light up under the lighting of the stage and Adam’s breath catches in his throat at the sight of her glancing up through her lashes like that. She looks gorgeous and she sounds even better, her voice starting to float out over the room as her song picks up tempo. She does one song which is sort of upbeat and then moves into a slower one.

Adam has the feeling he should be checking around him to see if he can pick which guy the producer is, and whether the guy’s facial expression is giving away any opinion he has of the performance, not just watching Kelly with big eyes and getting thoroughly suck in to the heartbreak she is singing about in the second song, but he can’t help himself.

It’s a song he’s heard a hundred times over but he’s still listening intently as if he’s hearing it for the first time. In his peripheral vision he can see Jack smiling proudly, relaxing back in his seat with his arm around Shannon and her baby bump, looking at Kelly with the nostalgia of a proud parent. By the end of the song, there is a hushed silence through the bar as the performance sinks in, and Kelly collects herself with a smile, brushing a small tear from the corner of her eye before standing and thanking the crowd with a bow.

It’s a long time until she emerges from the back and joins him at the table. After a solid twenty minutes she appears from nowhere at his side and throws her arms around his neck, then leans in to press a quick and innocent kiss to his cheek.

“Hey. Thanks so much for coming, you guys,” she smiles, brushing a curl behind her ear as she takes up the seat beside Adam. “It meant so much to me to being standing up there feeling terrified and be able to look out and see your faces.”

“No problem,” he, Jack and Shannon confer in more or less the same words.

“So what was the deal with the Producer Guy?” Jack jumps to. “What did he say? Did he love it?”

A blush rises in Kelly’s cheeks and she giggles shyly. “I talked to him back stage and he said that I really have some great talent. He told me that he was impressed, and he mentioned something about wanting me to talk about possibly relocating to LA, where his label is, for some development.”

Shannon starts clapping and reaching across the table for high-fives with Kelly, while Jack just looks a little frozen, and Adam’s face is stunned.

“Are you going to meet with him and discuss it? Figure it out?” Shannon asks.

Kelly bows her head a little and swings her eyes out to Jack, then to Adam, and her smile fades. “Uh, no, I don’t think so.”

Adam lets go of a breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding, and it’s Shannon’s turn to look bewildered.

“WHAT?”

Nonchalantly, Kelly shrugs. “I mean, it’s a great offer, but the chances of me getting a deal out of it are slim. I’d probably be one of hundreds just sitting around on his development list. I like the job I have here, and besides, music is really more just an escape for me. It’s never been my dream to release an album or anything like that. I just like singing and writing.”

Jack works his jaw, looking over with thoughtful eyes. “Are you sure, Kel?”

Kelly nods, a smile pulling at her lips. “Yeah, totally sure. I would hate the pressure of a deal. I enjoy just playing low key gigs and expressing myself. Besides, I love the record shop and all the kids I give lessons to. I have no desire to pack up and move to LA for any reason. I’m happy here.”

Her eyes flick to Adam again, but he’s too busy chewing his lip to refrain from yelling out a, “Thank God,” to notice. Shannon is still hashing out the benefits of the offer with Kelly, but Kelly’s answer seems good enough for Jack so he tugs Shannon away to the bar to get some more drinks. It leaves Kelly and Adam at the table alone, and once Jack and Shannon are out of earshot, Kelly settles her hand on Adam’s knee under the table.

“Thanks again for coming, Adam,” she says sweetly, blinking up at him.

Adam knows he wouldn’t have missed it for the world, even if he was tired after a hard workout today and looking forward to an early night. He smiles and puts his hand over top of Kelly’s.

“Don’t have to thank me,” he replies, meeting her eyes. “You were awesome, Kel. Like always. Are you sure you don’t want a shot at a music career? You’d be great.”

Kelly’s cheeks pinken. “Maybe,” she muses, laughing a little. “But there’s only room for one Super Star in every group of friends and I wouldn’t want to become a big famous musician and rain on your parade.”

“I think I could share the limelight with you,” he tells her with a grin. “You’re good enough to do it, you know that right?”

Kelly hooks her eyes with his and looks at him thoughtfully. “I love how much faith you have in me,” she says softly, “but really, I love everything here. I don’t want to give that up. Anyway, how would you survive without me being here to cut you big discounts on all the country music stuff we have in stock?”

Adam is on an NHL Salary, so they both know that it wouldn’t break his bank for him to have to pay fill price for music, who even buys CD's anymore? But that’s not the point here. Kelly laughs nervously and darts her eyes back over her shoulder to gauge where Shannon and Jack are before turning back again.

“And, maybe,” she adds lowly, “Just maybe, I might miss you. And Jack, and Shannon, and Mom. And you.”

Adam cocks his head and keeps watching her, the shyness in her face, and ignores the searing heat in his body that’s burning through his veins at hearing that she’d miss him. Adam knows he’s pretty much a goner, so when Kelly licks over her lip and leans in closer, almost in slow motion like in movies, and he doesn’t even try to remind himself of anything because there is nothing that can distract him from how much he wants this right now. Nothing.

Not even the fact that they are in a public place, or the chance of Shannon or Jack showing back up any second. He keeps hold of Kelly’s hand under the table and uses his other one to cup her face gently as their lips meet for a brief, chaste kiss.

“Oh sorry,” Kelly apologises, wide-eyed as they pull away. “I’m…..I didn’t even think…sorry.”

Adam slithers his tongue over his lip, chasing the taste of her. He’s about to tell her that she doesn’t have to apologise for kissing him, ever, that he likes her and that’s not even the half of it, but Jack shows up at the table, sitting back down with another beer in hand and Adam decides to take Kelly’s lead in pretending it didn’t happen.

The four of them make conversation for the next half hour and then split up to leave, Jack and Shannon going in a different direction to Adam, and Kelly going in a different direction again. Kelly and Adam hug goodbye though, and Kelly whispers another thank you, her lips brushing against his ear and sending fire through his body again.