Page 21 of Hope & Harmony

“A little much is better than nothing at all,” she says softly.

It’s my turn to reach out and place my hand on her arm. “I’m sorry, Maddy. That was insensitive of me to say.”

“Lucca, if there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that you have a tender heart.”

“There’re plenty of people in my past who would say otherwise.”

“They’re idiots.”

“Anyway, I have a few ideas for the song.”

She straightens her back and leans in my direction. “Whatcha got?” she says, the sorrow of our earlier conversation vanishing in an instant.

I jot down a few lines and add a few that she had in her previous verse. “I think if you do something like this, it’ll flow better.”

She starts to sing the song softly, starting at the chorus and heads into the verse as I wrote it. It sounds good. Not perfect, but better than it was before.

“What if we…” She takes my pen and crosses out two words, replacing them with something softer. “What do you think of this?”

I read over it, singing it in my head, where I can carry a tune. “I think it’s great.”

Maddy hops off her stool and snatches the paper from in front of me. “I need to do the entire song to make sure it’s right.”

I turn around, watching her as she walks up on the stage, grabs the guitar, and starts to sing. I’m envious of how easy it is for her to do it, too. She doesn’t have a moment of hesitation about singing in front of me. The very thought of me doing the same sends a cold shiver across my skin.

But when she hits the second verse, it’s better than the first time, but it’s still not the best it can be.

She stops playing the guitar, and her gaze meets mine. “Is it me, or is something still off?”

“You’re right.”

“Do you think it’s the words or the melody?”

I stand up, needing to stretch my legs. “Sing it one more time,” I request, knowing we’re so close to getting it right.

She starts over again, putting her heart and soul into every word and note that she belts out, with only me as her audience.She doesn’t hold back as she sings, and I could watch her every day of my life and never get bored.

This time, she sings through the second verse and heads into the chorus, giving me a longer chunk of the song to make a decision. When she stops, the silence in the bar is deafening.

“Well…”

“What if you changed the note of the last word in the second verse.”

“To what?”

I explain the change, but she just stares at me, blinking like I’ve said the wackiest thing in the world.

“How would that work?”

“Trust me.”

“Come up here,” she says, dipping her chin to the stool at her side. “It’s weird singing to you out there.”

If it were anyone else, I’d say no. But this is Maddy. A woman I’ve had a secret crush on for months but didn’t think she felt the same. The way she’s been with me tonight, with the small touches and sitting close to me, I think I’ve missed earlier clues and she is now doing her best to make her feelings clear. Even the drunk guy at the bar could see what was between us, despite the fact that I was too dense to do the same.

My shoes feel like they’re filled with cement as I walk toward the stage. “Only for you,” I say as I climb the stairs, and my stomach begins to flutter.

“Man, your fear is strong. You look like you’re about to pass out, and it’s only the two of us.”

---