27. Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Lizzie
“A lright, all you Thirsty Beavers! Next up at the mic is none other than… uh, Hank Ressler—singing ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’! Let’s give it up for Hank!”
“Jesus Christ, not again,” Jack groaned as Kait rejoined us at our table near the stage. Hank had already made his way up, his gray-bearded face still flushed and sweaty from performing a rather painful rendition of ‘Paradise By the Dashboard Light’ twenty minutes earlier. “Kait, I’m begging you, put us out of our misery.”
Kait shrugged, waves of highlighted brown hair dancing across her shoulders as the opening melody began playing. “You’re welcome to finally get your butt up there, Jack. Unless you’re too scared?” “Picture yourself, in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skiiiiiiiiiiesss….”
There was audible groaning throughout the bar, the loudest coming from Jack. “Ok, fine… you win. Put me up next. Literally anything would be better than this torture.”
I glanced over at James sitting next to me and couldn’t help but giggle at the expression on his face as Hank continued on painfully through the first verse. “How about you? I thought you and Jack were going to do a little Bon Jovi duet for us?”
James grimaced, tipping his head back to take another swig of his beer. “Is that a challenge?”
I batted my eyelashes. “Maybe.”
“Oooh, make her sing her song first, James, it’s so good…” Indi said, grinning as she drummed her hands on the tabletop.
Kait perked up. “That’s right, Lizzie. I seem to recall our deal. No song, no more hooch.”
I raised an eyebrow at my friend. “ ‘Hooch’? Seriously?”
She threw her hands up, laughing. “I don’t know. I think I’ve had one too many Manhattans.” She stood up. “I’m gonna grab some water from the bar. Anyone else need anything?” I was about to raise my hand when she pointed a finger to stop me. “Not you, missy, until I see you up on that stage. And you know what song is required of you.”
Rolling my eyes as Kait walked away, I turned back to see James staring at me. “Alright, Red… time to fess up. Why are you resisting? Are you a really terrible singer or something?”
“Nuh-uh, our Lizzie’s the best,” Indi interrupted as she leaned wayyyy across the table, clearly in need of water herself. “She’s just…”
“... chicken.” Kait had returned, passing a few glasses of water around the table.
“Well, I was going to say shy…”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “I am not chicken.” Pushing back my stool without breaking eye contact, I stood up and turned to march towards the stage. Behind me, I could hear Indi squeak out a ‘Whoop!!’ as Kait scampered ahead, yanking Hank’s microphone cord from the speaker just before he launched into the chorus. He looked crestfallen as the bar erupted into cheers, though a moment later, Doris Minty had wrapped him in one of her signature boob hugs as consolation.
I took an anxious step onto the stage as Kait worked to pull up my music track on her laptop, wondering what the hell I’d gotten myself into. Seeing my face, Kait leaned over and whispered, “I’m sorry, sweetie, you know I love you. And you’re a far cry from ‘chicken’ .” She shrugged, her eyes alight with mischief. “But I just really needed to hear your song tonight.”
“I actually hate you right now.”
“No, really… you love me. Break a leg, JT.” Grinning, she backed away from the stage, giving me two thumbs up as she whisper-shouted, “You are ah-ma-zingggg!”
Clutching the microphone while simultaneously feeling like I was about to barf, I took a step towards the center of the stage while the opening beats began to play. “Just somethin’ about you… way I’m lookin’ at you, whatever…keep lookin’ at me… you’re scared, right?”
Twenty feet ahead, James had a look of perplexed amusement on his face as I made my way through the first half of the song. “Ain’t nobody love you, like I love you… You’re a good girl and that’s what makes me trust ya (hey!)… Late at night, I talk to you… You will know the difference when I touch you…”
And then, I felt something inside me shift. I don’t know what it was exactly that made me just go for it—maybe it was the three glasses of wine. Could’ve just been the nostalgia of it all. Or perhaps my friends cheering me on, screaming out the backup vocals from their seats. Maybe I just really needed to let loose and forget any of the doubts I’d been having since that last letter.
But suddenly, I was seventeen again—memorizing the music video with my friends until we all knew the choreography verbatim.
It was almost like an out-of-body experience—half in memories, half out. But as I sang through my moves on that stage, front and center, all I could see was James. Now, there was no mistaking that grin—his entire face lit up as he witnessed the ridiculous, early-aughts spectacle before him. “Maybe, we’ll fly the night away… I just wanna love you, baby, yeah, yeah, yeah… Maybe we’ll fly the night away… I just wanna love you, baby…”
I probably should’ve felt more embarrassed. Any other time, my face would be on fire, my hands all numb and tingly, my guts in a knot at the idea of a room full of people watching me make a complete fool of myself.
But the man I’d come to care so much about was also right there—and for once, I just didn’t care about all the rest.
As the song mercifully came to an end, Kait and Indi ran up to the stage, laughing and screaming, “That was incredible!” as I stepped down with a grin.
But as I looked across to James, I noticed his expression had changed—something had caught his eye across the room and his smile was fading fast. Walking over to the table as Kait cued up Indi’s next song, I planted a kiss on his cheek and threw my arms around his neck. I could feel his body tense beneath mine—clearly, something was wrong. Pulling back, I turned my head to spot a middle-aged woman with dark hair looking in our direction from across the bar. But the pinched smile on her face was far from friendly.
I turned back to James. “Hey, is something wrong? And what’s with that woman over there?”
He finally looked down at me, his smile making a brief appearance before his eyes darted back towards her again. “She’s nobody, just a former client. Everything’s fine.”
Jack had walked around the table by now, throwing an arm around me. “Lizzie, I have to say… that was probably the best fucking rendition of a Timberlake song that I’ve ever heard. The fact that you haven’t been signed by a label yet is criminal.”
Tearing my gaze away from James, I grinned at his friend. “What can I say? This talent was literally years in the making,” I said, giggling. “You guys are up after Indi, though. Don’t forget.”
“Oh, I haven’t… James, which song are we doing?”
James glanced over at Jack, still distracted. “Whatever you want, man.”
Jack gave him a weird look, then shrugged, walking over to talk to Kait as Indi began warbling through her second song of the night, her long mane of curly hair managing to look both wild and beautiful at the same time.
Still so unfair.
But as we drove home a half hour later—after the guys took the house down with their rendition of 'Wanted Dead or Alive'—I knew something was off. Whether it was about that woman who’d been watching us or something else, he was clearly bothered.
And it was also clear that he didn’t intend to tell me why.
I sat on my bed early the next morning, Bucky snoring against me. I’d barely slept, my mind perseverating all night over the woman at the bar. I wished I would’ve thought to ask Kait who she was. Because she didn’t seem like ‘just a client’. Not that I expected James not to have any romantic history — I wasn’t one to talk. It just felt like there had to be something more going on.
But it wasn’t only that situation that had kept me up last night. Sitting before me on the bed was the second bundle of letters, still wrapped tightly, ensuring their secrets remained hidden.
I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about my strange conversation with GiGi since it happened. Nor could I do as she suggested—lock away the rest of the story about my grandparents, pretending I’d never found these letters in the first place.
But I still had to wonder—was she right? Was I invading their privacy? If that were true, why did Grandma Cora leave me her books as well as the cabin, knowing that their discovery was inevitable?
There was something she wanted me to know here, I was certain of it.
Slowly, I untied the bundle, opening the first letter in the stack. I noticed a difference in handwriting… but it wasn’t my grandmother’s. May 2nd, 1966 “C - I know I shouldn’t be writing this letter. But I can’t help myself, nor can I pretend I have no desire to know you better. One week ago, I met the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on. But what’s made you unforgettable are these glimpses of who you are on the inside, through every conversation since. Now that I know the depth of your beauty, the idea of you—of us—is even more impossible to shake. Please, allow us to at least be good friends. I know it’s unfair to hope for more. And I will respect your wishes. But I am here, in any capacity you choose… if you’re willing. Yours, M.H.”
I was only vaguely aware of the letter falling into my lap, of Bucky tilting his head back to lick my palm—because inside, my mind was reeling.
Who the hell was M.H.?