“Guess I can’t call you a prude anymore, huh?” Jamie teases, a few minutes later when we reunite with the others.
I splash water in his face, fighting a grin as the others crack up laughing.
“Your neighbors are dickheads,” Jamie tells Conor, as we’re forced to move our party from the outside deck to the living room.
“Be fair, Jay,” Ash says, looping her arm through his. “They have small kids, and we are pretty obnoxious and loud.”
“You forgot drunk and stoned,” I tease, sinking onto Dillon’s lap while he sits in the recliner chair. Cat and Stephen went to bed when we got back from the pub, so it’s only the eight of us now. I hate to be mean, but the atmosphere is more relaxed when Cat’s asshole boyfriend isn’t around. No one likes him, and I bet Ash is regretting inviting them this weekend.
“Too drunk and stoned to sing?” Jamie inquires, removing his guitar from his case.
“Definitely not.” I’m actually not drunk in the slightest, having paced myself tonight, and I’m only mildly stoned. I purposely stayed relatively sober because I’ve been planning this surprise for a couple of weeks.
“What’s going on?” Dillon asks as I get up to sit beside Jamie. He’s perched on a little ledge in front of the elevated open stone fireplace.
“I’m going to sing for you,” I explain while Jamie strums a few strings on his guitar.
“What song?” Curiosity rings in Dillon’s tone.
“‘She Moves Through the Fair.’”
A slow smile spreads across his mouth. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I return his smile, my heart beating fast. “I know you wanted to hear me sing, and after watching Michael Collins the other week, I knew it had to be this song.” This song speaks about love and loss, and it’s heartachingly beautiful with sentiments we can relate to.
Dillon missed out on the rooftop singalong during the housewarming party we threw back in February—because he was being a dick—but the guys told him I have an amazing voice, and he’s been begging me to sing with them for months. I absolutely refuse to get up on stage, even though a part of me feels an enormous thrill thinking about it. However, my abhorrence of the spotlight overrules any temporary adrenaline rush.
I considered singing at Shane and Fiona’s wedding, but after Dillon serenaded me with his song, I was a pile of goo on the floor and incapable of anything but swooning.
Dillon singing to me that night made me determined to find an opportunity to sing to him, and after we watched the Michael Collins movie with Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts, I knew what I wanted to do.
I wanted to honor Dillon’s Irish roots and his love of the Irish history by learning a traditional Irish song. In the movie, Sinead O’Connor sings a slightly altered version of “She Moves Through the Fair” where the pronouns are altered from female to male to suit the film. Man, she has such a stunning voice, and her rendition is hauntingly beautiful. I could watch the video of her singing it live on stage a million times and never grow bored. Yet, I chose to sing the original version, practicing when Dillon wasn’t around, using a YouTube video performed by a talented singer named Caitlin Grey for guidance. After I had a pretty good grasp of it, I practiced with Jamie. He and Ash gave me some direction until we felt it was perfected.
“Ready?” Jamie asks, and I nod, stuffing my nerves back down my throat. Wiping my clammy hands down the sides of my jean shorts, I clear my throat.
Jamie strums the chords, and I start singing, staring at my boyfriend as the lyrics leave my tongue. My heart swells as my voice soars, and I have everyone’s undivided attention. Passion flows from my mouth as I sing the devastatingly beautiful song, feeling so many emotions as the words embed deep in my soul.
Dillon’s Adam’s apple bobs in his throat as he watches me in raptured awe. Our connection vibrates across the room as we stare at one another, and I see the same overwhelming set of emotions flit across his eyes.
When the song ends, I’m greeted by initial silence, and then a communal round of applause breaks out. My cheeks flush, and my heart is jumping around my chest as Dillon stands, striding toward me with a determined look on his face. His arm extends as he reaches me, and I let him pull me to my feet. With fierce tenderness, he reels me into his embrace, locking his arms around me and burying his face in my hair. My arms automatically wind around his back, and I rest my head against his chest, closing my eyes and fighting tears.
I don’t know how long we stand there, in the middle of the room, wrapped around one another while our friends probably don’t know where to look. Eventually, Dillon tips my head back, and I’m startled to see such raw emotion in his glassy eyes. He stares at me, chest heaving, and I see his love written across his face as plain as day.