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The girls with guitars night finally rolled around and I was so nervous I could barely talk let alone be expected to sing. Scotty and I had practiced my song so many times I’d become sick of my own music and lyrics. Colt, on the other hand, never seemed to get enough. And little Darci absolutely loved it. Her body moved and grooved to the beat, while she giggled and laughed which always caused me to giggle and laugh just watching her.
As if all that wasn’t enough to turn my insides to mush, the girls with guitars this week were Connie Manors from Hot Sugar, Liberty Gallagher, from the Austin Sentry Band, and Tammy’s niece, Emily Jennings who got her start with Wilder and Days. We’d practiced that afternoon singing some of their songs, along with a few cover songs. And when it came time for Scotty and I to sing our song, I had to run to the bathroom first to vomit.
I’d had no idea the “girls” would be those “girls.”
Holy shit!
The good thing was, they were all total dolls, as Dolly liked to refer to them. They welcomed me in and made me feel like their equal, which I was not in any way on their level… but still it felt good.
Now, as I waited backstage, my guitar slung from a new red strap over my shoulder, to walk out on that stage once again, in front of a jampacked house, I didn’t want to vomit. Instead, I wanted to run as far as I could for as long as my body would let me.
“This was all your idea,” I told Scotty as he stood next to me, his own guitar slung over his shoulder from a thick black strap. Tammy had decided to change things around and bring us out first. Sort of like an opening act at a concert. I just hoped we wouldn’t end up being the bad opening act.
We’d sing my song, then the other women would step out with a full band behind them. And when I said full band, I meant an entire band complete with a slide guitar and a keyboard. The band was mostly guys with one woman who played that keyboard. Tammy made an exception to her rule tonight of no men onstage in honor of the three amazing women who had agreed to join.
They wanted to celebrate Tammy’s birthday. I’d had no idea, but everyone else knew. Plus, everyone else also knew about the three killer talents that would be joining us as well… but did anyone tell me?
Oh no. Scotty said they didn’t tell me because they didn’t want me to get intimidated and back out.
Okay, I probably would have, but still.
“Any word from Mickey?” I asked Scotty once again. Mickey wasn’t answering any of my text messages, but he did tell Colt, a few days ago, that he was fine and not to worry.
Still, we didn’t know where he was or if he would ever return. He simply wouldn’t answer those questions.
I decided not to think about him until he said for sure what he was going to do. He’d even cancelled all of his gigs with various bands for the rest of the week. Still, the biggest issue was that he never signed that contract with the Jess Davis Band, which didn’t bode well for his returning. The whole thing saddened me to no end, especially when it came to Darci who had really taken to him. Why he would want to give that up made absolutely no sense.
“No, but now isn’t the time to think about Mickey. Now is the time to enjoy this moment. No matter where this goes, this is your official first time on stage. You’ll want to remember it.”
“You can just turn that advice right back at yourself as well, Mister. This is your first time as well. Or are you trying to forget that?”
“Doing my best not to think about it, thank you very much.”
I could see those inner nerves on his strained face, so I kissed him, long and hard. We both needed a kiss. At first, his lips felt about as soft as a piece of burnt toast, but the more I lingered, and pressed my body to his, the more those lips began to soften until our tongues touched and that familiar fire swept over us.
When we finally broke the kiss, he said, “I thought we couldn’t kiss here.”
“That was before we both knew how nervous this whole stage thing would make us. Besides, didn’t your mom ever teach you to never say never?”
We both chuckled then, and just when we were feeling our best, Tammy announced us.
“Here we go,” Scotty said, taking my hand as we walked out onstage. My first instinct was to let go of his hand, but then, I’d fallen in love with this man, so instead, I held on tight until I needed to start playing.
The band played the intro to my song, and it sounded so good, I had to turn around for a moment to let them know how fabulous they made my melody sound.
I spotted him then… standing a few feet behind Scotty… staring down at his guitar.
“Mickey?” I whispered, but everyone heard me, even Scotty who whirled around to face him.
“What the f—” Scotty said, stopping himself right before he said the whole word onstage.
Mickey looked up, grinned like a sly cat, then nodded our way and continued to play.
Fine, so now not only was I nervous about singing, but my throat had closed over all the emotion I felt just knowing he’d returned.
The guys in the band must have known this would happen, because they played the intro once again.
I turned back around to stare at the audience, and spotted Colt right there in the front, mouthing, “You’ve got this!”
