Page 78 of Wild

"Try not to get yourself so worked up, okay?" she says, raising an eyebrow.

The singer smiles and accepts the water bottle Erin offers, taking a long drink because her throat is dry from all thescreaming. Her next nomination comes up, and the room goes quiet until the host reads the name:

"Mia Wilder."

Unlike what she did when her fellow artists won, Mia goes completely still — mouth half open, hands on the armrests. The freeze lasts only a second before her smile breaks wide, and Erin's heart turns over when the singer turns toward her, leans in, and stops dead when she realizes what she was about to do. The audience erupts into applause, but Erin doesn't register the effect the singer's reaction has on the crowd — because everything else has fallen away, and all she can see are Mia's blue eyes.

"I won," she whispers, like she doesn't quite know what to do with herself.

Erin leans toward her, cups her cheek in one hand, and brings their foreheads together.

"Congratulations, honey. Go get your award."

Mia can't stop herself — she kisses her. And Erin doesn't pull back, not even when the crowd erupts around them. It's a short kiss, a soft press of lips that ends in a smile before Mia stands and Erin sits there applauding, proud.

"For the people who give — the ones who stay in your life, and the ones who truly see you when they look at you," Mia says into the microphone, her eyes moving first to Noah, seated in the center section with Jude and Nell, and then to Erin, who smiles at her from the front row.

The singer steps down from the podium and sways slightly to one side — barely a fraction of a second, but Erin is already rising to her feet when Mia, who has grabbed the host's arm to steady herself after catching her heel, takes the microphone back and brings it to her lips.

"False alarm, Dooley," she says, laughing, and the audience dissolves into laughter.

Erin laughs too and drops back into her seat — not missing the fact that Abigail Stone had also stood up to catch her.

Chapter 29

When Mia comes out of the bathroom, Erin is on the balcony, leaning against the railing with the same faraway look she had when she got up.

They'd come back from the gala flying high and had gone at each other like mad the second they stepped into the doctor's room, but the euphoria and adrenaline of the night were long gone now, and the singer had the feeling Erin was avoiding her.

"Erin," Mia called from inside.

The doctor turned her head and straightened to come in. Mia was finishing pulling on a pair of comfortable pants, planning to spend the morning on the couch in her suite, scrolling through her phone or watching TV while everyone else had meetings she wasn't part of.

"What's going on?" the doctor asked.

Mia stood and stayed by the bed, watching Erin, who was still near the open terrace door.

"You regret it." The singer's voice came out rough, and she wasn't asking.

"Regret what?" Erin's pulse jumped, because deep down she knew exactly what Mia meant.

"The kiss. If you could go back, you wouldn't do it."

"I never said that, Mia," the doctor pushed back.

"You didn't have to. It's written all over you."

The doctor's brow creased as she tried to figure out what to say. Did she regret it? In some ways yes, in some ways no, but she still didn't know how to untangle why she felt one thing or the other. She was overwhelmed. She'd already seen the internet—the photo was everywhere, dozens of different headlines all speculating about something she'd started herself.

"I get it," Mia said, and the sadness in her voice brought Erin's heart to a standstill. "You were caught up in the moment, happy that I'd won, and you weren't thinking about anything else. You felt like kissing me and you did, but now, in the cold light of morning…"

"Mia."

"I'd rather you didn't say anything until you're sure of what you actually want to say. I don't need your sympathy, and I don't need you treating me like I'm about to break. I think we both know where we stand, even if we haven't said it out loud. I like you—you know I have since day one—and I want to do this for real. But if you can't, or you don't want to, for whatever reason, I need you to tell me right now and stop playing with me."

"I'm not playing with you, Mia. I never have. It's just that—"

Erin stopped, because she still didn't know what was holding her back.