A Song to Remember

by Kay Correll

  “Got a favorite you want me to sing?”

  “You choose.”

  He launched into one of his favorites about finding forever love. Not that he believed that really happened to people, but the song had a catchy melody to it. She was a great audience and smiled as he finished the song.

  “Do another one.”

  He sang another one as she requested. As he finished that one, he looked at her, remembering the silken tones of her voice as she’d sung to Trevor and Connor. “How about you do one with me?”

  Her eyes widened. “Me?”

  “Of course. You have a beautiful voice. How about we sing Road to Forgiveness? Do you know that one?”

  “I do.”

  He strummed a few chords and started into the song. Sophie joined in with her warm, clear tones and harmonized on the refrain. Their voices entwined, and the magnetism of their blended tones launched him into a parallel world. One where his troubles didn’t exist. One where he could believe in his songs and his voice again.

  The song ended, and their voices faded into the still air. The fireplace crackled and still, he said nothing.

  He finally cleared his throat. “That was really nice.”

  Sophie blushed. “Thank you.”

  He set the guitar down. He wasn’t sure he was ready for another duet. Not after trying for two years to be a solo act. Not even when he felt some kind of magic with their tangled voices. He shoved the thought aside and stood abruptly. “I should check on dinner.” He escaped to the kitchen and puttered around, taking up bowls of chili and slices of Nora’s homemade bread, totally ignoring the faint tones of the song he swore he could still hear in the cabin. Which was silly.

  He set the food on the table. “It’s ready.”

  Sophie got up from the sofa and came over to sit at the table. The rosy blush had faded somewhat from her cheeks. She slipped into her seat. “It looks delicious.”

  “It’s kind of hot. Spicy hot, I mean. Hope you like it.”

  He sat across from her and took a spoonful of chili. Steam rose from the spoon and he blew on it. “I guess it’s hot temperature-wise, too.”

  He watched while she took a spoonful. She pursed her lips, blew on it, then tasted it. “Oh, it’s wonderful.”

  “Glad you like it.” He was ridiculously pleased that she liked it. He realized she often made him ridiculously pleased… and that was… ridiculous, wasn’t it?

  They sat on the couch again after dinner. This time Chase didn’t pick up the guitar to sing to her. Or have her sing with him. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something had changed with him as she’d sung with him. Maybe he was sorry he’d asked her. He was used to singing with professional singers, even though she thought they’d sounded nice together.

  “So have you decided how long you’re staying?” Sophie leaned back on the sofa, resting against its comfortable overstuffed pillows.

  “I’m not sure.” He smiled at her. “I have to admit, I’m kind of curious about the Autumn Arts Weekend. I’m thinking I might possibly stay until it’s over. I talked to Nora and she said she had room for me to stay here.”

  “Well, I’m prejudiced, but I think the weekend is wonderful and lots of fun.”

  “I guess that settles it, then. I’ll stay.”

  A strange feeling of relief and happiness rolled over her. She was pleased he was staying. She wanted him to come to the show at the gallery and see the results of all her hard work with the festival.

  Though, why she cared, she wasn’t sure.

  “Well, if I’m staying, and you’re in charge of so much, why don’t you let me help you?”

  She looked at him in surprise. “You want to help?”

  “Sure.”

  She wasn’t about to turn down any help for the weekend. Her to-do list was miles long, and she’d already been worrying about how she was going to get so much done in so little time.

  “Well, okay… I can use all the help I can get.”

  “How about I come by the gallery in the morning, and you can put me to work. There, or anywhere you need help.”

  “Perfect.” They sat on the sofa in awkward silence. He’d offered to run errands for her and she didn’t even know how to even deal with that offer. Except to accept it, of course. She couldn’t quite imagine herself putting Chase Green to work running errands for her, but she was going to have to get over that. There still was tons of work to do.

  Speaking of so much to do… She stood. “I really should go now. Thanks for having me.”

  Chase stood and walked her to the door. “I’m glad you came.”

  “See you tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow.” She headed out into the cold night air and hurried to her car. He was still standing in the doorway, outlined by the warm interior lights of the cabin, as she pulled away.

  From her second date with Chase Green. The country singer who was going to help her with the Art Weekend.

  She shook her head. How in the world had she gotten to this point?

  Chapter 12

  The next morning Sophie rushed around the loft, hoping to get down to the gallery early. She’d spent last night after she got home from Chase’s going over her to-do list of things for the weekend. She’d made up a separate list of things Chase could do for her. Picking up flyers from the printer, moving things around in the gallery to get ready to display Hunt’s work, confirming with the food trucks to make sure they would be here and assigning them their parking spots. And so many other little details that needed to be done.

  Her phone rang and she snatched it off the counter.

  “How did last night’s date with Chase go?”

  “Morning, Beth.” She smiled. “I had a good time. And guess what. He offered to help me with the Art Weekend.”

  “So, he’s staying for a while?”

  “He says he wants to stay and see the Art Weekend.” She looked around for her shoes. Where had she kicked them off?

  “So, since you’re my best friend and it seems like he wants to spend time with you, I did some, um… searching on him last night.”

  “You what?”

  “I looked him up on the internet.”

  Sophie laughed. “Of course you did.”

  “So, you know that Kimberly person split off from him a couple of years ago?”

  “Yes, I knew that.”

  “Well, he’s been doing some solo work since then.”

  “He said he has a solo album.”

  “It looks like it didn’t sell very well.”

  “That’s what he told me.” So far Beth hadn’t told her anything she didn’t know. And anyway, wasn’t it creepy to look someone up on the internet? Even when they were semi-famous. Although she supposed people looked him up online all the time. But it’s different when you’re… not dating exactly, but… what where they doing?

  “So, he had a concert about a month or so ago in Albuquerque and it appears he froze or something. He’d started his first song, then he stopped. Then he just walked off stage and it was cancelled. He had another concert scheduled in Dallas right after that, and he cancelled and they refunded everyone’s tickets. Hasn’t had one since.”

  “Maybe he lost his voice or something?”

  “Maybe. There’s speculation that… well… who knows.”

  “So maybe that’s why he’s taking this vacation. Resting his voice.” Though his voice sounded just fine last night.

  “You’re probably right.”

  “Hey, I’ve got to go. Got to get down to the gallery.”

  “Yes, my class should start showing up any minute now, too. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  Sophie set the phone down and turned around and glared at her loft. Where were those shoes? She finally saw them peeking out from under the sofa. She hurried over, grabbed them, and slipped them on her feet.

  One last look around the loft to make sure the coffee maker was off. She flipped off the lights.

  She stood there staring
at the loft for a moment, wondering if there was more to the story about Chase and his cancelled concerts. Well, it wasn’t really her business, was it? She was just glad that whatever had made him take a break had caused him to come to Sweet River Falls and offer to help her with the Art Weekend. She walked out the door and hurried downstairs to the gallery.

  “Miss Brooks?”

  A tall man with thick brown hair and a quick smile approached her. It was Hunt, she recognized him from his photo from his website. He looked younger than she’d imagined, though, maybe about her same age. “Mr. Robichaux, it’s so good to meet you.”

  “Call me, Hunt, please. And this is my wife, Keely.” A slender woman stood at his side, looking around the gallery with what Sophie hoped was a look of approval.

  “Well, Hunt and Keely, I’m very glad to see you. I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to do the show.”

  “I was glad to. And we turned it into a nice road trip and little vacation.” Hunt smiled at Keely and squeezed her hand. “I got us a room at the Pine View B&B. Thanks for the suggestion.”

  “I usually suggest my friend Nora’s lodge, but she’s all booked for the weekend.”

  “The B&B is lovely. We stopped by and dropped off our things ,” Keely said.

  “I’m glad you like it. Lucy and Ron who run it are a great couple. You’ll love Lucy’s breakfasts. She’s famous for them.”

  “Your gallery is very nice.” Keely looked around the space. “What a great mix of art you have.”

  “Thank you.” Sophie glanced around. She was surprised when people complimented the gallery. She often felt she was falling so short of all her parents had done with it.

  “I’ve got some framed prints in my car I thought you could look through and decide which we’d use. I brought a few canvas wrap photos, too.”

  “I’d love to see them.”

  “I’ll be right back.” Hunt disappeared and came back soon with his arms laden with framed prints. “I’ve got another load, too.”

  “Let’s go back to my office and we’ll look through them.” Sophie led Hunt and Keely to her office. Hunt went and got another two armfuls of his work, and they leaned them against the walls of her office.

  She stared at the pieces and slowly began choosing some of them. She came up with two themes. One was his river shots, and one was a series of photos of lone trees.

  “I think we could do these two sets, what do you think?”

  “You’ve got a good eye for putting photos together.” Hunt nodded. “I think those work well together.”

  “I have one wall that we’ll use for the river photos, and then some standalone displays that we’ll use for the trees.” Sophie looked at the photos. “I don’t suppose you have one more river photo? I could use an odd number of them.”

  “I’m planning on going on a photo shoot tomorrow. I’ll see what I can get. I can get it printed and sent back by two-day shipping. It would be here in plenty of time.”

  “That would be wonderful.”

  “So what’s the schedule for the Art Weekend?” Keely asked.

  “The opening for the show will be Friday night. That’s when people will be expecting to meet Hunt. Then any time he can be around on Saturday will be great. People love to meet the actual artist when they come in to see the work. Saturday night there’s a concert at the event center. I can get you tickets if you’d like to go.”

  “Thank you. We’d love to go.” Keely rose from her chair.

  Hunt gathered up the photos they hadn’t chosen for the show. “I’ll drop by the last photo in a few days.”

  “I look forward to it.”

  Hunt and Keely left, hand in hand. She hadn’t missed the special looks and smiles between them. They were obviously very much in love, and she took an immediate liking to them. She had a good feeling about this showing. Hunt’s work was marvelous. Maybe things were going to start going a bit more smoothly for the Art Weekend after all.

  Chase enjoyed working with Sophie over the next week. He ran errands for her. He helped her hang Hunt Robichaux’s work at the gallery. He made phone calls and even convinced her to go out to eat with him again. Twice.

  He could see that with his help, Sophie was beginning to relax a bit about all the responsibility she had for the Art Weekend. He’d laughed at her four-page to-do list when he’d seen it, but most of the items were now checked off.

  Sophie walked into her office where he was sorting out table placards for the craft show.

  “I think things are finally getting wrapped up for the weekend.” She set down her ever-present to-do list.

  “I’m setting the tables up for the craft fair tomorrow morning. Then I’ll help check people in and give them their table assignments on Saturday.”

  “You’ve been such a big help.”

  “I’ve enjoyed it.” He really had. The people in the town were friendly and helpful, and he’d thoroughly enjoyed himself.

  “I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”

  “How about dinner at Antonio’s again tonight?” He flashed her a teasing, please-please-pretty-please smile.

  She laughed. “How can I refuse?”

  “I don’t think you can.” He nodded with mock sobriety.

  “I have to stay until closing tonight, so it will have to be a late dinner. I’ll close about eight.”

  “Then we’ll eat late.” He was agreeable to any time she picked. As long as she agreed to go out with him again.

  Her phone rang and she grabbed it out of her pocket. “Hello?”

  He watched while a frown crossed her face, then she reached back and pulled her hair back with one hand, letting it drop slowly back to her shoulders. “I see. No, I understand. I hope he recovers quickly.”

  She pulled the phone away from her face and clicked it off.

  “What is it?” He didn’t like the look on her face.

  “That was Jackson Dillion’s agent.”

  “And?”

  “Jackson was in a car accident. He’s in the hospital.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “He will be. But he’s not going to make it here for the concert.” She let out a long sigh. “I swear this Art Weekend is fighting me every step of the way this year. Everything keeps falling apart. We’re almost sold out for the concert. I don’t know how my mother ever managed all this and kept things running smoothly. I’m an absolute failure at this.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “I have a sold-out benefit concert with no main performer.”

  “I could do the concert.” His words surprised him as much as they did Sophie. He couldn’t believe he’d offered, but he couldn’t bear to see the look of disappointment on her face.

  But he was pretty sure he wasn’t ready yet. He didn’t even know if he could do it.

  But he had to.

  For Sophie.

  “I don’t know what to say…” Sophie’s eyes were filled with gratitude.

  “Say yes.”

  “Yes. Yes, yes, yes.” Sophie twirled around in the office. “This is fabulous. I’m going to do up new flyers right now. Chase Green is going to do a concert for the Autumn Art Weekend.” She twirled again.

  He grinned at her. He’d do anything to see that smile on her face.

  Now, he just hoped he wouldn’t disappoint her…

  Sophie went back out into the gallery and Chase continued to work on tying up loose ends for the arts and crafts fair portion of the Art Weekend.

  His phone rang and he glanced at the caller ID. Sam. He was tempted to let it go to voicemail, but he answered it with a sigh. “Hello.”

  “Just calling to check in with you.” Sam’s voice sounded tentative.

  Chase laughed. “What you mean is you’re trying to figure out if I’m back in Nashville or still away on my forced vacation.”

  “Okay, maybe,” Sam said reluctantly.

  “I’m still away. In Colorado.”

  “Really?”

  �
�Yep. I’m actually having a really good time.”

  “Well, I have a bit of other news…”

  “What?” Chase asked suspiciously.

  “Well, we might have a bit of a problem with your next gig. They’re getting cold feet after your… well, your problem with your last concerts. They’re thinking of cancelling or at least getting another performer to split the stage with you. You haven’t been on stage since that… mishap. They’re just a bit gun-shy.”

  “Tell them not to worry. I’m actually doing a benefit concert this weekend. Taking over for Jackson Dillion.”

  “You are? Without telling me about it?”

  “I’m telling you now.”

  “I heard about Jackson’s accident. That’s too bad. But where’s the concert?”

  “It’s in Sweet River Falls, Colorado.”

  “Never heard of it. But I don’t care. I’m really glad you’re getting back on stage.”

  “Well, they’re having an Art Weekend and the concert is scheduled in conjunction with it. I offered when Jackson had to cancel.”

  “Well, that’s good news. I’ll have to put out some publicity for it.”

  “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s just a concert at a small-town festival.”

  “Well, it will be good to see… well, I’m sure when you’re a smashing success at the concert that it will allay the fears of the sponsor of your next concert.”

  He only hoped it did allay their fears and he didn’t make things worse…

  Chapter 13

  Beth glanced at her watch. She needed to hurry up and get to the lodge. It was getting late. Her mother had picked the boys up from school and fed them dinner. Jason had offered to help them with their homework. She’d had a town council meeting she wanted to attend. She couldn’t miss those meetings while she was running for mayor. But the meeting had run late, and now it would be past the boys’ bedtime by the time she picked them up and got them home.

  She had to figure out a way to juggle all this so it didn’t affect the boys so much. She gathered her things and hurried out the door, her mind full of thoughts about the meeting.