Tempting Prince Charming (Ever After #2) - Lauren Smith Page 0,2

Just kidding, but seriously, if anyone gets famous after singing here, you better mention the Chi-Bean!” The audience laughed and she laid out the rules for the night.

Veronica was only too happy to hide behind her counter and listen to whatever music came from the patrons tonight. Music had saved her, offering a light in a world that had dimmed so much she feared it would never be bright again. And whenever she filled the space she worked in with those melodies, it reminded her of how much she’d survived and how lucky she was.

Over the next half hour, she listened with a smile and refilled orders from returning customers.

“Hey boss, we need more venti cups,” Zelda called out as she rang up another order.

“I’ll get them.” Veronica opened the door to the storeroom and dug through a large cardboard box until she found a sheath of the right sized cups.

The coffee shop grew quiet as the performers changed, then a deep voice came over the microphone.

“I’m Thad, and I’m going to sing ‘You Are the Reason’ by Calum Scott.” There was a moment of silence before a soothing, yet haunting, guitar melody began to play and the man started to sing.

Veronica froze. Her skin tingled with goosebumps as she listened to his words. He sang of his heart beating and losing sleep over the woman of his dreams. It was a song sung to lull a woman into a sweet hazy spell of heartache and a breathless joy all at once. Pain filled his voice as he sang about being broken and needing to fix it, if only he could turn back the clock.

But it was the line about making sure the light defeated the dark and how he would spend every hour making sure the woman he loved was safe that broke Veronica. T

he song dug into her soul, dragging her back four years to that night her life changed forever…

The flashing blue and white lights outside her window. Opening the door to a pair of officers and rain-drenched slickers. They exchanged a glance and removed their caps as they stepped onto her porch. She didn’t remember the exact words they said. It all became noise to her.

“Very sorry… There was an accident… The storm…”

She remembered the way her porch light lit up the rain just behind the officers, and she remembered the small fluttering kicks in her womb as her unborn child seemed to understand what the police were telling her.

“We’re so sorry…”More noise.

That was the day the darkness consumed her world. Only Lyra’s birth a month later brought the light back, but the shadows still lingered at the edges of her heart. How could a stranger’s haunting voice and song do this to her?

Veronica struggled to breathe while the words washed over her like the ocean battering a wild, rocky shore. It was somehow less painful to embrace the tidal wave of emotions rather than try to hold them off.

She wasn’t sure at what point she started crying, but she felt the tears roll down her cheeks, dripping off her chin and wetting the baby blue apron she wore. She sniffed and scrambled around the storeroom until she found a box of tissues and wiped her face. The man’s voice died away, and the last bit of the guitar’s notes hummed in the air. There was a heavy silence for a moment before the coffee shop erupted into applause.

“Thank you,” the man murmured. He sounded almost embarrassed.

Veronica stayed where she was in the storeroom until the next song began. After an extra moment, she emerged and handed Zelda the sheath of cups.

“Hey, Ronnie, are you okay?” Zelda asked she got a better look at her face.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” They both knew it was a lie, but Zelda was nice enough not to pry.

Veronica glanced around the room at the customers. “Who sang that Calum Scott song?”

Zelda grinned. “The Chris Hemsworth look-alike. His voice was everything, wasn’t it?” she sighed dreamily.

“Yeah.” Veronica looked for him, but the mysterious stranger was gone. Yet his words and the sound of his voice lingered in her mind long after she and Zelda closed down the shop.

She saw her employee safely out, then climbed the stairs to the residential floors of the brownstone and unlocked her apartment door.

“Mommy!” a little voice trilled. Veronica groaned as she caught the four-year-old bundle of energy as she barreled into her arms. If it wasn’t for Lyra, Veronica wouldn’t have been able to rebuild her