Page 68 of The Girl with No Name

“I’ve been trying to grow some balls this weekend, so it checks.”

He cracks up.

Violet comes back from the handwashing station, and her gaze darts between the two of us. “Everything okay here?”

“Vi, this guy wants to play with the band. Wait. Notwiththe band. He says he wants to sing the first song tonightforus.”

“No shit? Well, he can sing Chuck Berry.” She turns toward me. “Do you know our stuff?”

My heart races.Is this actually happening?“Yeah. I do. Backwards and forwards. Your first album as the “new” Red Lemons was genius. Sorry, uh, for your loss, by the way. Johnny was great.”

“You’ve been listening since the Johnny Donovan era?” Henry asks.

The Red Lemons have been together for at least ten years, and the past three or four of those have been without Johnny.

“Definitely.” I feel like I’ve gained at least a shred of credit for being a long-time fan. I nod. “I, uh, lost my cousin a few years back, and it hurt. So I guess you could say I relate to your music. I was at your show with him at Thalia Hall back then.”

“The last Johnny show.” Violet’s eyes glaze over. “Well, first song on the set list tonight is ‘We Don’t Need Tennessee Whiskey’. Can you sing that one?”

“Hell, yeah, I can. One of my favorites.”

Vi runs a hand through her hair. “Could be kind of cool… I bet the crowd would enjoy seeing someone else—if you’re good. So we’re gonna need to hear you sing it first.”

I nod, summoning more confidence than I thought I had. “All right. Where can we go that’s quiet?”

“Our trailer. We’ve got fifteen minutes now. C’mon—wait, did you saywe?”

“Yeah, my friend and I do a duet.” That’s a bit of a lie. But is it? I get the feeling Luna and I could knock this out of the park.

“Well, shit. Get your friend and let’s go!” Vi says.

“You guys are amazing. Absolutely incredible,” I tell them. “You don’t know what this means to us.”

Henry shrugs. “Man, life is about having fun and doing random stuff like this. Let’s just make sure you can sing it, though.”

“Be right back. I have to grab my friend. Wait here?” Henry nods, and I give the man a hug, which he reciprocates, albeit awkwardly. “Be right back.”

I practically bound back over to Luna, using the lightpost for my guide. A couple of guys have started talking to her.

“Oh look at that, my boyfriend’s back! Have a good one!” she says loudly. She takes my arm. “What took so long? Those guys were giving me the creeps.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. They were commenting on… It doesn’t matter. Sorry about the boyfriend thing. I just wanted them to leave. Anyway, the show starts soon! We still need to find them.”

“Yeah, about that. I found them.”

Her eyebrows lift. “Youfoundthem? You found the Red Lemons?”

“Yeah.”

Her jaw falls open, and she seems like she’s trying to talk, but nothing’s coming out.

“Surprised?” I take her hand. “Come on. Can you sing ‘We Don’t Need Tennessee Whiskey’? That’s the first song.”

“You know which song we’re doing already?”

“Yeah. I negotiated with them.”

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