Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Levi couldn’t remember the last time he had gone out to a music night as a mere observer, rather than as a performer or as someone who was lending his professional persona to aid another up-and-coming musician’s reputation.
It was relaxing in the extreme to know that he just had to sit back, sip his beer, and listen.
He would have had a good time if this was the only benefit that Anchor Bistro provided, but there was a lot more than the mere absence of obligation. The performers were actually pretty good, and the atmosphere was friendly and jovial.
Even so, Levi was somewhat startled when the table behind him erupted into hooting and cheering far louder than anything else that he had heard from this crowd previously. He glanced over his shoulder in surprise and saw a group of three women calling out cheerfully toward the stage.
He followed their direction and looked to the front of the room and was even more surprised when the pretty waitress from the diner stepped out into the small spotlight.
“Hey, everybody,” she called into the microphone, her comfortable posture suggesting that this was not her first appearance at the open mic night. “Thanks for coming out to play with us this evening. I’ve got a classic for everybody tonight.”
The telltale opening notes of a Dolly Parton song started to play, one that, as a Nashville resident, Levi had heard done at a thousand different performances.
Some of those had been excellent, others not so much, and Levi wasn’t certain what he was about to get this time.
But then June opened her mouth, began to sing, and…
Whoa. She was great.
It wasn’t that she sounded exactly like Dolly. She didn’t, but then again, nobody sounded exactly like Dolly. But this woman was doing something better than that. She was making the song her own.
Levi was entranced.
Listening to the beautiful singer made him feel the way he’d felt when he went to his first concert, if the impromptu live session at his small town’s local barbecue joint could be really called a concert.
Whatever the proper term for it, Levi, then six years old, had immediately fallen in love with the way live music could be experienced not only with his ears but with the whole of his body.
What he felt now was the opposite of the burnout he had been experiencing these past few months while working. This was invigorating, electrifying.
Like the players at that long-ago barbecue restaurant, this singer was more raw talent than professional training. There was a roughness to her voice in places, but that lack of polish somehow added to the overall effect of her performance.
Levi didn’t think he blinked once during the entire song. This was why he loved music. This was why he’d fallen in love with it, why he had dedicated his whole life to it.
This was why he couldn’t ever leave it behind, not even when he was at his lowest point of the burnout.
He was halfway through his plan to get himself introduced to her when he remembered the little boy.
Right. She might be a great singer, and he might feel a draw to her that was practically instinctual, but that didn’t mean he was going to chat up a married woman. He had a sense of ethics.
So, when she stopped singing, he just clapped politely along with everyone else, and pushed away the sinking disappointment in his chest.
It was still a good evening, he reminded himself. Still a very good evening.
There was a brief lull in the music while the workers set up for the next performer, who apparently would be using a keyboard that needed to be plugged into a nearby amp.
Levi wasn’t trying to eavesdrop on the tableful of women nearby while the emcee scurried around getting everything connected, but he just happened to hear.
“Is it just me, or is June getting better and better?” asked a woman with wavy strawberry blonde hair who looked to be in her mid-thirties.
June, he thought, satisfied even though he didn’t have any reason to be curious about her name.
A slightly older woman with longer, deep red hair gave her head an impressed shake. “It’s not just you. She’s a marvel. Single mom, figuring out this new situation with sweet little Benjamin, and she’s following her passion and honing her talent? She’s completely remarkable.”
Levi hid his smile behind another sip of his beer. So, she was single. That was… interesting.
He wasn’t looking for a romance or anything, not with his life in flux the way that it was. But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t enjoy a flirtation with a pretty woman who happened to have a voice that made his heart race. It was possible to talk music without it meaning anything more.
At least that was what he told himself as he tipped back the last swallow of his beer and slid out of his booth.
He just wanted to meet her, and there was nothing strange about that, even if it was very much out of his comfort zone.
But then again, in Nashville, he would have known somebody who knew somebody who knew any singer at any open mic, no matter how amateur the performer.
Yeah. That was why he was nervous. It had nothing to do with her bright green eyes.
He waited until the open mic portion of the evening was over, as he didn’t want to be rude to the other performers, many of whom were quite talented.
Luckily, June didn’t leave right away, instead stopping to have a drink with her friends.
He waited until she stepped away from the crowd and then caught up with June near the bar, where she was waving down the bartender, who nodded and gestured he would be with her in a minute.
“Excuse me,” Levi said, then winced at how awkward it sounded, especially when June looked behind her as though she thought he was saying she was in the way, or maybe like she suspected he was talking to someone else.
“No, I—” he blustered. Wow. Apparently the ‘country star’ status was entirely to thank for any success he’d ever enjoyed talking to women. He cleared his throat and tried again. “June, right? I just wanted to say that your performance was phenomenal.”
She grinned broadly at him. She was, he found, even prettier when she smiled.
“Wow,” she said, pushing her hair back behind her ear. “Thank you. That’s… that’s so nice.”
“It’s really not flattery,” he said, feeling a little more comfortable as he kept talking to her.
“You’re seriously impressive. You don’t often hear such good singing at a night that’s just for amateur performers having fun.
” He paused, worried that he was making an assumption.
“That is, unless you’re a professional?”
It was too dim in the room to see if she blushed, but she pressed a hand to her cheek as though hiding a flush.
“Oh my gosh, no,” she said. “But my goodness, I am really so pleased that you thought it was even a possibility.”
“Have you ever thought about it?” he asked curiously. “Doing something professional with music, I mean. Or even giving lessons?”
She laughed, ducking her head slightly. “No, not even that,” she said. “Are you an aspiring professional musician, then? Or a singing teacher?”
“I haven’t taught music, but I do love learning about it in all its forms. Singing, playing, anything, really. But you sounded amazing.”
He thought about the tired slump of her shoulders as she left the diner, and how she had been explaining to her son that she was headed out to do even more work.
He didn’t want to make it seem like he had been spying on her though, so he didn’t let himself show any sign that he knew about her jobs when he kept talking.
“Getting some side gigs in music could definitely earn you some decent pocket change,” he suggested.
Privately, he thought that it was too bad that this wasn’t Nashville.
There, he could get June a good paying job in performing at one of the city’s countless bars or clubs with little more than a phone call.
June tilted her head at him consideringly, a thoughtfulness in her expression.
“Are you trying to ask me for music lessons?” she asked. “Because if you’d like to take a singing lesson or two from me, I think that’s something that we can make happen.”
Levi realized that he really should take this opportunity to tell her who he was.
If they spent more time together, she was very likely to find out the truth about his career, and he didn’t want her to feel embarrassed or like he had been making fun of her.
His admiration was genuine, but he could understand why she might feel bad about being left in the dark about his true identity.
But…
But he found that he couldn’t resist the chance to ensure that he would see her again.
He didn’t like the idea of letting June slip away forever without getting to know her a little better.
And talking about music kept this safely in the friendly, professional arena.
He would make sure that he was honest with her very soon into their lessons.
He wouldn’t keep it a secret… he just wasn’t bringing it up quite yet.
“Yeah,” he said, enjoying the happiness that lit up her eyes when he agreed. “I think that would be really nice.”