Restless Heart (22 page)

Then, after a two-beat rest, the band suddenly kicked it up and the sad song took a sudden turn. Destiny grabbed the mike, tossed her head, did an Elvis move, and belted out the refrain. The crowd seemed to love the rockin’ lyrics. Maybe, Destiny thought, this song could be her next release, after “Restless Heart” had made a big splash.

Destiny sang two more upbeat songs from the CD and then sat down on the stool. “Whew, that was fun, but I’m going to slow it down here and cover one of my all-time favorite classics, from Patsy Cline.”

“Crazy . . .” Destiny began and sank her teeth into the soulful ballad. She forgot about the camera and the audience—except for Seth.

She sang the song straight from her heart, to him alone. After she drew out the last line of the lyrics, she had to take a deep, shaky breath.

The crowd had fallen silent, she realized, and she slowly raised her head. From the lighted stage, it was next to impossible to see people’s faces. Her heart pounded wildly. What was wrong? Why weren’t they clapping? Had she sung off-key?

All at once, the audience collectively rose to their feet, clapping and whistling in approval.

Destiny’s eyes widened with surprise and then immediately filled with tears. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” She swiped at a tear but then knew she had to keep her emotion under control so she could keep on singing.

After clearing her throat she said, “Y’all having as much fun as I am?”

“ ‘Free Bird!’ ” someone yelled.

Destiny’s eyes widened. There was no mistaking that voice.

“Sorry, ‘Free Bird’ boy,” she said with a grin. “Not tonight. But don’t y’all go sittin’ down out there. I think we need to shake our tail feathers. Ya know what I’m sayin’?” She cupped her hand over her ear and was rewarded with a loud response. “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Destiny cheered and her confidence level shot through the roof. She sure hoped she was vamping it up enough for Amy’s approval.

“I wrote this next song after a night of line dancing at the Wild-horse Saloon when I first moved to Nashville. Well, okay, I watched line dancing and ate lots of their famous fried pickles. See, I’m not very . . . um, what’s that word? Oh yeah . . . good. I tend to turn the wrong way and crash into people, and the other dancers aren’t very happy with me. I found out very quickly that serious line dancers don’t giggle or stop and stomp their foot in frustration in the middle of a song. They also don’t say the heck with it and go freestyle.” She wagged her finger. “Big no-no.”

The audience laughed, hard and long, as she performed an exaggerated freestyle dance.

“Anyway, this was one of those written-on-a-napkin songs and I called it ‘Kick It Up!’ I would be oh so thrilled to have y’all dance with me! See, I didn’t want lots of stompin’ and scootin’ and spinnin’ around! Just a simple dance that even I can do. So stay on your feet because this song is high energy, meant to get y’all up on the dance floor, chair dancing while sitting in traffic or boogieing around the kitchen while cooking up dinner. Basically, it’s meant to getcha in a good mood no matter what you’re doin’! Here we go!”

With a signal to the band, Destiny jumped into the toe-tapping tune. Out in the crowd, hips swayed and hands clapped. Everyone seemed to be getting into the spirit of the song. Music had that special magic to transform a bad mood into a good one, and the only thing better was dancing along.

When the song was over, she grabbed a quick drink of water, recognizing her chance to take a short breather while showcasing the talent of Hart Rockers.

The band continued to play softly in the background as she said, “Allow me to introduce my band—mercy, I’ve always wanted to say that!” she admitted and the crowd applauded.

“Okay, on bass guitar is Nashville native Pete Reeves,” Destiny shouted and waved her hand in an arc toward Pete, who did an energetic riff that drew a big round of applause.

She swung her hand in the opposite direction. “From Brentwood, Tennessee, let’s make some noise for Matt Carter on keyboard!”

She waited for his solo to end and then shouted, “Hailing from Lexington, Kentucky, and backing me up on vocals is the lovely Zoe Carter!” Destiny pointed her hand in Zoe’s direction and the bodacious backup singer belted out some scat singing in her amazing range, and then gave Destiny a high-five.

“From Atlanta, Georgia, we have Murphy Quinn on drums!” Destiny shouted. Murphy performed a smoking-fast drum solo that had the crowd applauding like crazy.

“And last but certainly not least, hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, is hotshot Jesse Jansen on lead guitar!” Jesse performed a wicked guitar lick with lots of flash and then flicked his pick into the crowd. As expected, the women went wild.

Destiny turned and applauded her band before pivoting back to the audience. “Give it up for the Hart Rockers!”

When the applause died down Destiny looked out to the audience and smiled. “Y’all have been great. It means so much to me to see familiar faces in the audience! God bless!”

The lights dimmed and she bounced down off the stage to her dressing room to freshen up her hair and makeup.

“Hear that? They’re going nuts out there, Destiny,” Miranda told her with a big grin, bursting in behind her. “People are holding up their cell phones as lights and starting to clap and stomp their feet for an encore. Just listen! Hear that?”

“I hear it. How do people do this day in and out? It’s physically and emotionally exhaust—” Destiny broke off and wrinkled her nose as she was shot with a cloud of hairspray.

“Ready?” Miranda asked.

“Ready.”

Her heart was once again beating wildly, and she felt like she was going to collapse in sheer exhaustion. But the moment she stepped back up onto the stage to the opening strains of “Restless Heart,” the wild applause and warm acceptance made her fatigue dissolve like sugar in hot tea.

Destiny forgot about the cameras and her fear and exhaustion, simply pouring her heart into the song, which had been written beneath the stars on a warm summer night.

She might have glitter in her hair and fringe on her shirt, but in the end, she realized, it was still all about the music.

 

 

 

W
atching Destiny up there singing, Seth had tears in his eyes.

If he’d held a last shred of doubt about where she was headed—or what she meant to him—it was gone.

Why in the world had it taken him this long to figure out that he was in love with her? The realization couldn’t have come at a worse time, and he didn’t know what—if anything—to do about it.

He’d tried to tell her backstage, but the timing wasn’t right.

The timing between them
never
seemed right. They lived in separate cities and had vastly different dreams; that they might possibly build some kind of life together was against all odds.

“Thank y’all so much!” Destiny called out over the thunderous applause and then waved her hand in an appreciative arc toward her band.

She was about to walk off the stage, but Rex Miller stopped her. “Destiny, that was quite a performance—and you wrote that song yourself, didn’t you?”

“Sure did. Songwriting is my passion. I love the stories that country music tells. Music can take you back to a place and time in an instant.”

“Well, if that’s the case, Destiny, you might just be writing about this moment someday, because we happen to have a special surprise in store for you.”

Seth frowned. What was he talking about?

Judging by the expression on Destiny’s face, she didn’t have a clue, either.

Seth looked at Sara beside him. She shrugged, and then like everyone else, they turned their attention toward the stage and waited.

Maybe the mayor was going to give Destiny the key to the city or something.

Miranda Shepherd came out onstage, smiling broadly, and accepted the mike from Rex. “Destiny, I got a phone call from Tammy Turner just before the show tonight. Y’all know who she is, right?”

The crowd roared with approval for one of the biggest names in country music today.

“It seems Tammy saw you perform down in Nashville not too long ago, and she was so impressed she wants
you
to open for her Christmas show at her new concert theater in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee! What do you say?” Miranda asked over thunderous applause.

“Are you . . . are you serious?” Destiny pressed a fluttery hand against her throat. “I . . . I . . .”

Mesmerized, Seth watched her as Sara clutched his arm, shrieking, “Can you believe it?”

“No, I can’t. Looks like she can’t, either.” He knew Destiny had just made yet another giant leap toward stardom—and away from him—but in this moment, he felt only a sweeping sense of joy.

Onstage, Rex took the mike back from Miranda. “Wow, this is amazing news. Congratulations, Destiny! How are you feeling right now?”

“Well, I’m a huge fan of Tammy’s, so you can’t begin to imagine how thrilled I am!”

“And now Tammy Turner is a fan of yours,” Rex commented. “What do you think about that?”

“It just blows me away. I . . . I’m so honored just knowing that she’s heard me sing, let alone . . .
this.
”

Watching her, Seth was moved by how humble Destiny was—and said a silent prayer that she’d stay that way.

“Guess this means she won’t be coming home for Christmas after all,” Sara said low in his ear, and he nodded glumly.

He could feel her looking at him, but he didn’t dare catch her eye.

“You know, Seth, everything happens for a reason,” Sara said, “even though you can’t always figure it out until much later—sometimes years later.”

Destiny took one last bow, and the stage went dark.

“Think we can get backstage?” Sara asked.

“Hell, yes. Pardon my French,” Seth added. “I just . . . I can’t wait to see her.”

“I feel the same way. You push your way through, and I’ll be right behind you.”

He started shouldering through the crowd, filled with familiar faces and kids who called, “Hi, Coach!”

He wondered how many people here knew that he and Destiny were . . . well, whatever they were.

One person who definitely didn’t was Tracy Gilmore. He saw her coming at him, looking flushed and pretty, and gave a little wave, but meant to keep his distance. She still kept hinting around about getting together after hours, but she hadn’t come right out and asked. If she had, Seth would have had a good reason to bring up the fact that he was seeing someone. It didn’t seem right to announce it out of the blue . . . even though he’d been involved with enough women in his day to know Tracy was most definitely interested in him.

Behind him, Sara stopped to talk to someone who wanted to gush about Destiny, leaving Seth with two choices: abandon Destiny’s mother, or stop, too—right in Tracy’s path.

He stopped. No big deal. It wasn’t as if Tracy was going to make a pass at him right here in public.

“Seth, wasn’t she terrific?” she asked.

“What?”

“Destiny Hart. She was really something. That girl is going to go places. I’m so glad I let my nieces talk me into coming.”

“Your nieces?”

“Aunt Tracy, at their service.” She pointed at a nearby gaggle of giggling, gossiping middle school girls. “I’m babysitting while my brother and sister-in-law are out—which I was planning to talk to you about, actually, but I couldn’t find you after school on Wednesday.”

No, he’d bolted as soon as the kids were released that afternoon, wanting to get home and get things ready for Destiny’s visit—not realizing she wasn’t going to get there until two a.m.

“You wanted to tell me about your brother and sister-in-law’s date night?” he asked Tracy incredulously. “Isn’t that a little . . . strange?”

She laughed. “Not really. And actually, it’s not date night—or funny in the least. Tim and Joyce are splitting up and I thought you might be interested.”

He blinked. “In your sister-in-law?” Maybe he’d been mistaken about Tracy’s attraction to him.

“No!”

“Oh—in your
brother
?” Clearly, she’d had the wrong idea, too.

“Seth, you idiot—I’m talking about the house!” She laughed and poked him in the chest.

“Oh! The house!”

“They’re getting ready to put it on the market, and they’re both anxious to get out and move on. It’s a great house, and if they could sell it without getting Realtors involved, it would be much easier, and they could pass the savings along to the buyer. You, if you’re interested. Are you?”

“I’d have to see the house, but . . .”

“Trust me, it’s right up your alley. Brick, close to the school, affordable . . . and it has a front porch.”

He smiled. “Sounds good. I’ll take a look.”

“Great. I’ll put you in touch with Tim. Do you still have my number?”

“I do.”

“Call me over the weekend and we’ll set something up.”

“I will. I’ll call you,” he promised, and she smiled and moved on.

He turned away to see Sara, watching and listening and wearing a thoughtful—and disappointed—expression.

“I, ah . . . I work with her,” he said hastily. “She’s going to—”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me, Seth.”

“No, it’s not what it—her brother is getting divorced and selling his house, and she thought it might be right for me.”

Sara’s troubled expression vanished—but only momentarily. “Seth, if you’re thinking about settling down with Destiny, I’m not sure now is the time to—”

“No, I know it isn’t,” he told her, not wanting to hear her say the words. “I’m really happy for her.”

Sara nodded. “We all are. Come on, let’s go find her and tell her.”

Seth resumed pushing through the crowd, wanting desperately to believe, even now, that he and Destiny were meant to be together.