Page 190 of We Redeemed the Rain

I couldn’t speak.

Tag turned this dumb, weird closet into a…a studio?

I covered my face with my hands as my head tipped forward. Tag’s arms came around me from behind, supporting my sagging frame with his own. For a long moment, my shoulders shook in silence. His gentle kiss met my neck as he patiently waited for me to recover. His kisses slowly trailed up to my ear, where he whispered, “You haven't even seen the best part yet.”

Words rasped up my throat. “There’smore?”

He prodded me around to see the wall the open closet door initially hid from view. Ceiling to floor it was painted a soft pink. And there, right in the center, was a cork board with pictures on it.

The details swam in my vision. I reached up to swipe a finger under my eyes. “Tag—I have no words at all.”

Tag stepped away from me and stood behind the microphone as if he was about to sing. “I figured you could record this direction and have a kind of professional gray color behind you in case you wanted to go live or something, but you could face your pink inspiration wall.” He smiled, truly pleased with his plan.

“Inspiration wall? Is that what this is?” I tapped the drywall behind me.

“Yeah.”

I leaned closer to the cork board, inspecting through blurry eyes. Each picture was so carefully chosen. Every single one of my family members made it on the board. There was a picture of me with my favorite horses—Sprinkles, Tillie, and her foal, Starburst. There were several special pictures of me and Tag...and...

My heart thumped.No freaking way.

“Tag, what's this?” I pointed to one that couldn’t be what it looked like. I was sitting on familiar porch steps with Glory the Original across my lap. I couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve.

He stepped up behind me again, slipping his arms around my hips. His voice lowered to a reverent whisper. “That right there is a picture of you on the front porch of Meadowbrook. Fifteen years ago.”

“What? I had no idea this existed.”

“When I asked your family to send pictures, Lynn said she had a gem. It took her hours to dig it up.”

“Oh my gosh. I cannot believe it. It’s like…” My words dropped, leaving me at a total loss. Emotions pulled my throat taut.

“Like fate?”

“Yes. Like I was made for this life.”

“When you sit down at your mic, I want you to look and remember all the reasons you love to sing.”

I exhaled the word, “People.”

“Exactly. People.”

For some reason, I was teleported back to the time I sat at a bar stool in Barryfield Nashville Airport all those months ago. A woman there, I couldn’t even remember her name, showed me a picture of her cowboy and told me to find what inspired me. I’d considered our conversation so few times—it had all but left my mind.

But now, I recalled details that had almost evaporated into oblivion. I never nailed down what inspired my music and filled up my well. But Tag knew. He knew what brought songs to life in my soul—love for my people.

“Some of the stuff in here is second hand—I found the mic gentlyused on eBay and the price was the only reason I could even pull all this off. I hope that’s alright.”

“Did you renovate this?"

He lifted a shoulder. “I had a lot of help. People around here pitched in ‘cause they love you and your music.”

“So wait a second.” I laughed in disbelief. “Didyouarrange the girls trip?”

“That was all Lynn. I just asked her to get you out of here somehow.”

I stared at him, mouth agape. For a long moment, I was silent, incapable of speech or movement. In moments like that, life seemed too good, too right to be real. Somehow fate had arranged thingsjust sofor our paths to cross the night Tag’s boot fell from the hayloft. And still, I reeled from the beauty of it. As a kid, I had no idea I met the man of my dreams, the man who would hold my heart, the man who would grow to love me so ardently he frequently brought tears to my eyes.

When we made things official a year ago, it was like the guard around his spirit melted. Walls crashed and crumbled. Finally, he was on a two-way street with love. And he was hungry to receiveandgive.

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