AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Relax,” Boone mouthed, as he turned to me. Then Kasey pulled his guitar strap over his head, let the instrument settle on his lean body, walked back to me, and said, “Just breathe into it. You’ve got this. I know it!”
Then the drummer, a man I’d never met, gave a count by knocking his sticks together. Suddenly, the music started, and I had no choice but to catch up. I knew this first song by heart:Then There’s Love.It was possibly my all-time favorite song of theirs. The violin, or fiddle, gave a melancholy feel to the song. The good thing was I loved playing it. The bad thing was I had a short solo in the middle.
Still, for how scared I was, how terrified I’d been when I first walked up on the stage, as soon as I began playing, all that terror flew away, and I focused on the music instead. Although I dropped a few notes now and then, when it came time for the solo, I nailed it, just like Kasey predicted.
When the song ended, and Austin’s beautiful voice faded out, I suddenly felt as if I could do fucking anything.
Go figure.
“I’d like everyone to give it up for Liberty Gallagher, for that enchanting performance.” The crowd followed his suggestion. “We haven’t been able to play that tune live in a while, but hopefully, with a little encouragement from y’all, she’ll be joining us up on this stage a lot more. Liberty Gallagher, ladies and gentlemen!”
The crowd went wild with applause, cheers, and whistles. I held up my bow, then tapped on my heart, trying my best not to bawl my eyes out. I’d never felt anything like it before. I’d always been so scared to perform in public, and these guys got me to do it without any struggle.
During the applause, Austin gazed at me, grinning, and a tingle zoomed through my body, thinking about what had happened only minutes ago. I wondered if that entire episode put me in such a euphoric mood that I hadn’t even considered backing down from a performance as we’d walked to the stage.
Had it been a plan between them? If it had been, their tactic had worked perfectly. Perhaps I needed to use that tactic when I began my pitch for the Marcia Reynolds agency? The thought flitted through my mind, until the drummer, a thin older guy with long grey hair, handed me a card with the titles of the songs for the first set.
“You don’t have to play all of these if you don’t know them well enough, but the guys thought you might know most of ‘em,” he said, as he leaned in closer to me so I could hear him over the exuberance of the audience.
I gazed down at the card and realized I knew all the songs, but before I could digest that information, once again, the music started. Without giving it another thought, I was suddenly a part of the band, with my fingers and my bow doing their thing without thinking about it.
What was even more amazing… I fucking loved it!
“BABE, YOU WERE fantastic,” Tammy crooned as I sat across from her on the other side of the long bar. The guys were already into their second set, but I hadn’t practiced these songs, so I was sitting the rest of the night out.
“Thanks,” I told her.
“How’d it feel?” she asked, wearing a wide grin.
She wore a bright-blue shirt, with matching streaks in her hair. Of course, her shirt was unbuttoned enough to see her abundant cleavage. Her hair was stacked up high on her head and hung down to the middle of her back. Her lipstick was brighter than mine, and before the night was over, I’d get the name and the brand.
“It felt like magic,” I told her, then I took a few sips of my extra-cold favorite wine.
“Oh, honey, I’m so glad.”
The place jumped with excitement, and I’d been lucky to find a seat at the bar. Folks seemed to be enjoying themselves tonight, or maybe I was seeing the place through a different lens.
“I have you to thank for all of this, Tammy.”
“Doll, don’t thank me. Thank those adorable down-home boys up on that stage. Never met three country boys with more heart than those three. How you getting along out there? Didn’t get a chance to talk to you at Hank’s party. Way too much going on. Kids driving you up the wall yet?”
I chuckled, then sipped my wine. No more whiskey for me, or I’d be under the bar or under one of the guys if I kept that up. Although, the vision of being under one of the guys sent a thrill through me that I liked… liked a lot.
“I found a way to handle them. Remember the harmonica lessons at the party?”
She nodded. “I thought that was cute. Hank seemed to be taken with it.”
“He’s more than taken. He’s obsessed with learning it. Annie’s learning the violin, or rather the fiddle, and little Emily is learning the ukulele. The kids seem to like playing music so much, we do an hour every day with their dads. Funny thing is the dads like it as well. We call it work… as in our job… but it’s fun work.”
“You should see your face,” Tammy said, looking straight at me.
“What? Is my lipstick smeared or something?” I reached in my bag for a mirror.
“Not at all, honey,” she said. “You’re perfect. And when you talk about those kids, you beam. You’re more than a nanny. I can tell, and that’s good. That’s real good.” She leaned in closer. “Which one caught your heart? Is it Austin? If I was twenty years younger and wasn’t in love with my Jimmy, I’d be aiming Cupid’s arrow in his direction.”
I didn’t know how she’d take my honesty. How she would react to my telling her I was falling for all three of them. This wasn’t Cricket where apparently, that was the new normal. This was Sweet Whiskey, and although the folks of this town could get rowdy and treat a funeral like a celebration, at least according to Austin’s parents, a polyamorous relationship didn’t always sit well with folks.
Still, if anyone might accept it, I thought Tammy might.
