Page 178 of Dirty Like Zane
Everyone started looking around for Zane and Maggie, and the crowd parted as they made their way onto the dance floor. Zane in the lead, drawing Maggie along by herhand.
“And the rest of you lovely people,” Summer called out. “Can you clear the dance floor for this gorgeouscouple?”
Everyone did as instructed, and the crowd got pretty thick all around the dance floor, everyone gathering to watch as Zane steered Maggie right into the middle of the floor, under the mirroredball.
She’d seen us bynow.
A smile lit up her face, and when she looked at her man, he pulled herclose.
“I’d like to welcome some dear friends of Zane and Maggie to the floor,” Summer said. “This is Ashley, Jesse and Seth, and they’re going to play a song for Maggie right now that Zane chose forher.”
There was some applause and some happy shouting and whistling, and when everyone finally died down, Jesse started the song, leading on guitar. Seth joined in… and then I started tosing.
The song was “You’re My Star,” the acoustic version, by Stereophonics, and if you asked me we did a pretty killer cover of it. Judging from the tears I could see running down Maggie’s cheeks by the time I got the first line out of my mouth, I’d put money onit.
According to Zane, the song was important to Maggiesomehow.
Seemed that wastrue.
Eventually, the two of them started dancing slowly in the middle of the floor, wrapped tight around each other. I got kinda lost in the song myself, but somewhere well before the end I noticed they’d stopped dancing to just stand there again and listen, watching usplay.
When the song ended, Maggie pulled Zane right on over to us, and before I was even on my feet she’d launched herself into myarms.
“Ash! That was so beautiful,” she sobbed, and yeah, she was definitely crying like a baby. “Thank you somuch.”
“You’re welcome. Congrats,Maggie.”
“Thankyou.”
She finally let me go to hug the other guys, and Zane pulled me in for a hug. I already knew he was grateful; I knew he would’ve liked to serenade Maggie himself, but this night wasn’t about him taking the stage. I was honored he’d asked me to step in, and he’d already thanked me about a thousand times. Now, he patted me on the back and told me, “You have no idea,man.”
“Anytime.”
When we drew apart and he moved on to thank the other guys, Amber was standing there. Teary-eyed, she gave me a hug. “That was amazing.” She kissed my cheek, her soft, caramel hair brushing my face. Then she looked me in the eye and told me, sincerely, “I missyou.”
“Thanks, Amber,” I said. It was all I could reallysay.
Dylan was next, pulling me in for a tight hug. “That was great,man.”
“Thanks.”
After that, there was a bit of a lineup of people wanting to shake my hand. Eventually, I managed to work my way off the dance floor and visit with a few more people who pulled measide.
Elle was one ofthem.
“You look great,” I told her. It was the first time I’d spoken to her all night. I’d been busy enough; the party was pretty full of people to talk to, and besides that, I still wasn’t all that comfortable hanging with her. Wasn’t sure why, but it still felt weird to me that she had Seth’s baby in her belly so damn fast after we fellapart.
Not that we were ever really together, according toher.
“Thank you,” she said, smoothing her hand over her giant belly. “The song was just beautiful. Thank you for doing that with the guys. I know it means a lot to Zane andMaggie.”
“Noworries.”
“So… My feet hurt and my hips ache all the time, but other than that, I feel pretty good,” she volunteered, when I didn’t ask how she was doing. “We’re hoping the baby decides to make an appearancesoon.”
“Cool,” I said. I wasn’t sure what else tosay.
I’d already heard, from Dylan, that no matter when the baby came, Paulie was joining Dirty for the first few weeks of the European tour, filling in for Seth so he could spend some time at home with Elle and the baby. After that… maybe he’d rejoin the tour and leave Elle and the baby here for a while, or maybe she’d bring the baby on the road. I didn’t know. Didn’t really care toknow.
