by Jamie Begley
Scanning the crowd, Ginny didn’t notice that Zoey had stopped singing, nor did she notice the crowd had gone quiet as she sang until the final note trailed off.
She was snapped back to reality when the entire audience clapped enthusiastically.
“Play another one!” Penni yelled out.
There were people whom she promised she was going to get even with when the audience started yelling again, stomping their feet. Ginny wanted to fade back into obscurity, and she wasn’t going to accomplish that goal if she had to spend the rest of the night fielding people in the audience wanting her to sing more. It would be smarter to give them what they wanted, then they would move on to someone else.
Nodding her head at Zoey’s questioning look, she wanted to die of embarrassment when she turned to the DJ, requesting another song. Had Gianna told all the women that she played that song every time she cleaned? Swearing to herself to tape her mouth shut when she turned on a vacuum from now on, she let Zoey start singing “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys before she jumped in.
Zoey stopped singing when Ginny’s voice radiated her joy, and she let the song take her over. She didn’t worry about the one in a zillion chance that she would be recognized or the consequences. The song filled her soul the way it always had since she was a child. The beauty within the words wound through her, so she could paint a picture with her voice and share with whoever wanted to listen.
Trudy told her once that her voice was a gift, and she said that the gift was something she should share. She could use her voice to sing to a child who was sick to make them feel better, or share it with someone who felt that no one understood them and show them she did. She could give her love and care to those who felt lost and alone for the few minutes that the song lasted, holding them in her arms so that at least one person knew someone cared. It was a gift that she had been forced to hide, like a Christmas present that couldn’t be opened, gathering dust in the back of a closet. Surely, it would be okay to open a tiny flap and give the once-innocent child she had been the pleasure of sharing her heartfelt gift again.
The sound of clapping had reality crashing back down on her. Hammer would be furious at her giving in to Gianna’s request.
Leaving Zoey to accept all the praise, she used the opportunity to escape back to the table.
Gianna took one look at her expression and held her hands up in the air. “I’m sorry.” Then she ruined her apology by grinning in triumph. “I knew you would do great. I’ve been telling anyone who would listen that you have a great voice. I told Penni that she’d make more money managing your singing career than hiring you as a caterer for Mouth2Mouth.”
“She’s right, Ginny. Your voice is fantastic,” Penni joined in cheerfully.
Ginny started shaking at the idea Gianna had planted in Penni’s head. Once she had an idea, it became a personal project until the result she wanted was achieved. If Penni worked on the space program, men would be walking on Mars by now. She was that obsessive. She was that dangerous.
Penni had already been pressuring her to talk to Kaden about her songwriting, so Gianna adding her own opinion on her abilities would only add more fuel to Penni’s goal of her working with the famous singer.
“Wow, Ginny, you did great!” Zoey congratulated her, sitting back down.
Ginny grabbed her drink, belatedly regretting not ordering something stronger.
“You’re better than Kaden’s opening act! You should try out. Jesse won’t be coming back for the next tour,” Kaden’s wife excitedly yelled from the end of the table.
“Sawyer, I’m not a singer. I like to sing to relax or make time go by faster.” Ginny desperately tried to retape the box closed, but the damn thing kept coming open. “I’ve never had any lessons—”
“Kaden could teach you. He gives lessons when he’s not touring.”
“No.” Forget retaping it; she would monster glue it closed.
“Ginny, don’t be negative to possibilities.”
Ginny knew that look on Penni’s face. She was in trouble.
“I’m not being negative. I’m being realistic. I have no desire to live like Kaden and the rest of the band.”
“I thought you liked traveling with the band?” Zoey questioned.
“I do, but that doesn’t mean I want to sing.”
“You would make more money to afford the house you want to buy.”
“I can do that when I save enough money doing a job I like to do, which isn’t singing.”
“That’s true.” Zoey nodded. “You have a lovely voice. It takes a lot of self-confidence and self-esteem for singers to put themselves out there to be open to criticism. Did someone make fun of your singing?”
Ginny shut down. She had no intention of discussing why she didn’t want to sing.
“I see. Would you stop cooking if I didn’t like your cooking?”
“No,” she answered reluctantly. Zoey was becoming a second to Penni in determination.
“Do you get nervous if Gianna doesn’t like the way you clean the apartment you share?”
“No.” Ginny looked around for the waitress. She needed a stiff drink. The stiffer, the better, one that was strong enough to drown out Penni and Zoey.
“Because you’re good at it. You have confidence in things you do well. If you took lessons from Kaden, you may discover you do that just as well and enjoy sharing your gift.” Zoey leaned closer to her. “I’m not talking about taking a gigantic step and changing your choice of careers but being comfortable enough that you could join a choir or sing karaoke without someone standing next to you.”
“I’ll think about it.” Maybe if she just agreed with Zoey, it would take their minds off trying to convince her. She could always come up with excuses to get out of it later.
Penni gave Zoey a mock salute with her glass. “Damn, Zoey, you’re good. You make me want to take singing lessons.”
“Please don’t.”
The whole table burst into laughter at Zoey’s remark.
Ginny relaxed in her chair as the women started discussing their children. Looking around the nightclub, no one was even paying attention to their table, everyone’s attention on a man who had decided to take a turn singing.
She had dodged a bullet and now debated on whether she should call Hammer. Deciding she was making a mountain out of a molehill, she laughed at Zoey for giving Gianna a hard time for not telling her boyfriend she wanted more of a commitment out of him. Sitting there with Penni and her assortment of friends might not be as much fun as hanging out in a motel room with Trudy and her friends, but it was pretty damn close.
Inquisitive eyes stared at the table filled with women obviously having a good time, trying to place a name to the face of the one who just sang. He had the unenviable gift of never forgetting a face, and the woman’s teased his memory. She wasn’t pretty enough or old enough for her to have ever caught his attention. He guessed her age to be in her early twenties. By the clothes she wore, she didn’t mix in the same social circles he did. The only reason he was in the nightclub tonight was because he was considering a business opportunity. No, he was sure he had never met her before, yet something about her kept tickling his memory.
Motioning for the waitress, he took out his money clip. “Do me a favor and find out the name of the woman who just sang.” Laying a hundred down on the table, he returned his attention back to the woman, before she snatched the money off the table.
It was probably a waste, but he could afford it. He would probably remember before the waitress came back with the information. He was a self-made man and could credit one characteristic that had helped him to make his fortune. He never forgot a face.
Chapter Forty
“Dammit!” Ginny muttered under her breath, gripping her purse in frustration as she took a seat at the upper part of the tables that had been fitted together to accommodate the large group. She was going to call Penni and give her a piece of her mind the first opportunity she had, onc
e she was out of Shade’s and Lily’s hearing.
Ginny was just as frustrated with herself as she was with Penni. The woman was a master manipulator, unashamedly using Lily and Shade visiting from Treepoint to lure her out of the apartment. She should have told Lily she wasn’t well, instead of being convinced to go. All those murder shows she watched were useless if a meddling blonde troublemaker with the personality of Pandora could stir a hornet’s nest that could potentially hurt not only her, but Trudy.
The table quickly filled as some members of The Last Riders and several of the Predators that were there with their wives took nearby chairs. Then she was shocked as another familiar face from Treepoint sat across from Zoey. Ginny didn’t know which surprised her more—that Greer Porter was there or Zoey was sitting next to Stump, a member of the Predators, whom she had met at Penni’s baby shower. The same man who was now glaring at Greer for something he was saying.
“God, could you please tell me why I get myself in these situations?” Ginny kept repeating the question to herself as she changed her order from a soft drink to a fireball when Greer shouted her name from across the long length of the tables. God didn’t answer, so Ginny answered the question herself. “Because you’re a sucker!”
When Ginny accepted Lily’s invitation, she told her they were going to a restaurant. It was only when she was in the car with Shade and Lily that she found out the truth. They were meeting up at the nightclub until everyone arrived, then going to a restaurant next door.
Arriving at the karaoke bar, she brushed past Shade and Lily to beat them to the seat next to Penni. Putting her elbow on the table to prop her chin on her palm, Ginny spread her fingers to hide her anger. “Do not even think about getting me on that stage to sing.”
Penni’s wide-eyed stare fooled her for a second, until she started to take her hand down and saw Kaden Cross walk in with his wife Sawyer.
Placing a foot over Penni’s, she shifted her weight to press down. “I’m so going to get you back.”
Penni’s eyes went wider. “Ginny … I didn’t … The Crosses are here because—”
“Shove it!” Ginny wasn’t going to listen to any excuses that Penni had devised to excuse her meddling.
Keeping her foot pressed firmly on Penni’s, she glared at her as she waited for her drink to arrive. Everyone around them would assume they were engaged in a private conversation, missing the fact that Ginny was letting her eyes speak for her.
“Uh … can I have my foot back?” Penni tried to break her concentration when her fireball arrived.
“No.” Ginny raised her glass to her lips, drinking it all in one swallow without removing her eyes from Penni.
“Just so you know, you’re kind of scary when you get mad.”
“Good.” Raising two fingers in the air with her free hand, she motioned to the waitress that she wanted another drink.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re opening the floor to the karaoke part of the night. If you’re a regular here, I’ve been asked to start it off with a woman who sang here before. Ginny, where are you?”
Ginny slammed her hand down on the table. “How could you do this?”
“I’ll go sing,” Penni offered.
“Don’t do me any more favors,” she fiercely hissed through her tightened lips as she pretended to press Penni back in her seat with a hand on her shoulder.
Penni’s mouth dropped open as her hand went to the side of her head. “Did you just rip some of my hair out?”
“I took three.”
“Why?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Yes, I do.” Rubbing the side of her head, Penni tried to snatch the blonde hairs back. She had enough good sense to be worried.
“Too freaking bad. I didn’t want to sing either. I guess neither of us are going to get their wishes.”
Placing the three hairs in her purse, she gave it to Lily. “Can you keep an eye on my purse until I come back?”
Lily placed it on her lap, giving Penni a reproachful glance. “Yes.”
“Ginny, don’t do anything hasty because you’re mad at me. I was only trying to help.”
Standing, Ginny spoke in her friend’s ear, “I can’t hear you because of the noise.”
Penni’s mouth snapped closed.
Rising to frantically scan the room for exits, she spotted one, uncaring of the shouts from the crowd calling her name. Then Penni caught her wrist just as the DJ called her name again.
“You might not want to sing”—Penni raised her voice, stopping her from escaping out the side door that she had just spotted—“but the woman who wrote the song I read does. You’re not being fair to her or yourself. You’re good, Ginny. So damn good it breaks my heart that you’re hiding that part of you.”
Struggling against Penni’s hold, her arm went limp at her impassioned words that described the turmoil she felt each time she opened the box in the back of her closet to put another notebook inside of songs she had written.
Ginny’s face twisted in grief. “I can’t …” It wasn’t fair to sing when so many lives could be destroyed. Had she sacrificed enough to earn the release of that little girl’s dreams? She couldn’t explain any of that to Penni nor to the others who wanted her to get on that stage.
“Zoey will sing with you. Just sing one, then come back,” Penni urged.
Zoey’s anxious gaze showed she would.
She started to feel the pressure from the mounting yells and from her table mouthing their encouragements, except for Kaden and Sawyer who were talking quietly, disregarding the raised shouts going on around them. She was making a spectacle out of herself by letting the crowd reach a fever pitch to persuade her and drawing more attention by refusing than she would by giving in to their demands.
Giving Penni the cold shoulder, she started making her way toward Zoey as the life coach struggled to get away from Stump’s grip when she wanted to rise from the table. Ginny was relieved her silent pleas were answered when Stump released her hand. Making their way to the stage, Zoey took her hand to give her encouragement. Ginny wanted to tell her that she didn’t need it; she needed a brain transplant.
She should have run when she had gotten out the car and saw where they were, or she should have gone to the restroom and stayed there until Lily had texted her that they were ready to go to the restaurant. She hadn’t done either because, deep down, the younger version of herself had been crying to get out, to share her voice and draw people into her world, making people stop just to listen. Listen to her.
Using her hand in Zoey’s to force her closer to the microphone, she stood slightly behind her as DJ started playing “In My Blood.” Letting Zoey start Black Stone Cherry’s famous song, the beginning of an idea came to her. She could masquerade her voice, sing the notes wrong, and wreck the lyrics like someone that was tone deaf.
Singing softly, she tried, she really did, for a second, and then she couldn’t bring herself to disrespect the songwriters. They had poured their heart into the lyrics, and she couldn’t do anything less than give them her best effort. She could rationale the reasons she was still on the stage when, truthfully, it was simple: she couldn’t help it any more than she could stop breathing. She had been created for two purposes: to sing and to be with her soulmate. Her soulmate was gone, but singing was still there, waiting for her. Turning her back on one would be like turning her back on the other.
Freddy hadn’t allowed his children to go to church until Saul Cornett had left town. Her father had been the one to teach his children his beliefs in God. He had taught each of them that they had a place in God’s heart, and that giving their best would make them stand out in God’s eyes like a bright star in a sky filled with a zillion others.
As each of the notes in the song played, Zoey pushed her forward. Ginny didn’t resist, letting the worry, fear, and feelings of regret loosen their bonds on her, allowing her voice to reach its full volume.
As the song trailed off, the crowd
started clapping and stomping for more.
Seeing the list of songs on the overhead monitor, she mouthed the Halsey’s song, “Bad at Love,” riding the wave of temptation to keep performing and not noticing that Zoey was no longer singing and had stepped away from the microphone.
When that song ended, the audience went crazy again. The shrill whistles brought her back to Earth. Grabbing Zoey’s hand, she jumped down from the stage and rushed by the crowd that now blocked her from reaching their table.
“More! More!”
Ginny heard the DJ announcing the next person’s name to perform, but the audience wasn’t listening.
“More!”
Grabbing Zoey’s arm, she steadied her when several people shoved at her, trying to get to Ginny. Seeing an opening, she tried to push Zoey through so that she wouldn’t get hurt, but Zoey wouldn’t move. She continued to hold on to her arm, thankful when the club’s security managed to shoulder their way into the crowd to escort them back to their table.
“How much do you hate me?” Penni whispered to her as she sat back down.
Ginny’s fury had abated while she sang, but she wasn’t about to tell Penni that, not ready to let Penni off the hook.
“I’ll take my purse. Thank you, Lily.”
“It was my pleasure.” Lily smiled, giving her purse back.
Shade caught her eyes, seeing the tension between her and Penni.
“I took the liberty of ordering you a strawberry daiquiri. I thought it would cool down the two fireballs.” A waitress leaned over her shoulder to set the drink in front of her.
Ginny sighed. Penni would always be Penni.
“Good choice.” Her good mood restored, she sipped on the drink. Then her mood lightened even further seeing the couple who entered. Casey and Max, accompanied by Casey’s brother Cole.