“My—what?” Shelby felt her eyes go wide as she struggled to keep her voice at a whisper.
“Your daddy. The man you sang with before you could probably walk. The same one who’d pull you up onstage to sing with him. The same one you smiled at like he was your best friend and your father rolled up in one package.”
Shelby felt her breaths coming faster as she darted glances at Cooper. Had he told?
“He didn’t tell me.” Liam’s voice was quiet, reprimanding, like he knew she’d had the thought, and was pissed she’d allowed it to surface, even silently. “Like I said the other day, I saw you in Denver a hundred years ago. You were fifteen, I was fifteen, and I was sure you’d marry me someday, if I could just convince you I was worthy.”
He paused like the memory half-pained him. “But then you took a different path from your father’s, and…well, here we are.”
Shelby took a shaky breath. “When did you realize I was…me?”
“When you were in my store, singing in the office. You’ve got a voice from the angels, honey. Nobody sounds like you, even when they try to cover you up with all that synthesized shit they try to pass off as real music.”
Shelby laughed, then sobered. “Unfortunately, it’s not really up to me, Liam. I’m still under contract.”
And I need the money. More than you can imagine, even.
“Well, that’s a damn shame. How many more albums?”
“Just this last one, but it comes with the whole gamut of tour and promo and all the other garbage, so…” She trailed off, feeling her stomach clutch with anxiety. “It’ll be awhile yet before I can shake off Tara.”
He nodded, not looking at her. “You could shake her off right now, at least for tonight.” He pointed at the stage. “He’s just about done.”
Cooper played the last notes of the Vince Gill song that had made Shelby’s knees go to Jell-O on his cabin porch, and then he set his guitar down beside him as he tipped his hat graciously at the tiny crowd.
“Thank you for not throwing any tomatoes. Appreciate it.”
Jasper laughed from the café bar. “We don’t stock ’em. Otherwise, who knows?”
Cooper looked straight at Shelby then, and it took everything she had not to melt in her seat at his glance. Then his eyebrows went up—an invitation—and she was powerless to say no.
She nodded, just the tiniest nod in all of nod-land, but when his face broke into a grin, she knew he’d seen it. He picked up his guitar and leaned toward the mic once more.
“We’ve got a guest in our midst who apparently has decided she doesn’t mind being seen with me tonight—at least in here, where nobody’s looking.” Shelby took a deep breath as people laughed and turned their heads to see who he might be talking about, their glances landing squarely on her.
Clearly she was the only stranger in their midst tonight.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d love to welcome my friend Shelby to the stage.” He held out a hand, and before she could talk herself out of it, she slid her chair back and walked to where she’d left her new guitar.
Polite clapping accompanied her to the stage, and Jasper pulled another stool next to Cooper’s, then grinned as he headed to his previous position behind the coffee bar. Liam sat back down at the table closest to the stage, his eyes closed and his arms crossed, a secret smile on his face.
Cooper covered the mic with one hand as he put the other on her shoulder—just a gentle touch, but proprietary, nonetheless.
“What should we play, princess?”
His use of the nickname made her smile, and tension whooshed out of her chest as she looked up to see just a group of friendly faces—not an invisible, front-lit audience she had no hope of connecting with on any more than a superficial level.
She suggested a duet they’d sung the other night, and he smiled as he adjusted the strap of his guitar and strummed the opening chords. She took a couple of deep breaths, waiting for the music to capture her, but her fingers felt shaky on the strings, and she wondered suddenly if this had all been an epically bad idea.
“Hey.” Her head snapped up at his voice—soft, but commanding. “I’ve got you.”
His eyes were intense, and she let herself fall into them as her fingers finally found their way to the melody. He smiled softly as he glanced at her hands, then back at her face. Then he took the first verse of the song, letting her find her footing for a few more moments.
When she joined in and their voices met, a low, zingy hum took hold down deep in her stomach, then traveled all the way up her spine and out her limbs. Their voices blended like they’d been meant to sing together, and she loved the contrast of his depth and her lightness as they broke into the chorus of the song.
And then she looked out at the audience, somehow needing to know whether they were finding the music even half as magical as she was.
They were.
She could feel it. She could see it. She could sense it from the smiles, the nods, the lips mouthing the words to the well-known song.
And she loved it.
She felt a huge smile break out on her face as she met Liam’s eyes, and he nodded affectionately, like he was responsible for all of it.
When the song was over, the audience erupted in hoots and whistles as they clapped, and Shelby couldn’t help but lean over and hug Cooper, who stood up and motioned toward her like all the credit should be hers.
“Want to do one by yourself?” he asked, grinning as he rolled his eyes toward the audience. “Like they’re going to give you any choice now?”
“I think maybe I do.” She smiled, feeling like yes, she really did.
“Okay.” He grabbed the mic and held out a hand to shush people. “All right, everybody. Hold your tomatoes for just one more. Shelby’s offered to give us a song on her own.”
The small crowd clapped, and before she could lose her nerve, Shelby started picking the intro to a tune she knew everybody here would know. It’d been on the radio a hundred times a week for months straight last year, and yeah, maybe it was a cop-out, but it was a way for her to sing, without risking one of her father’s songs…or her own.
She played and she sang, and as she watched the faces of the people gathered at the café, she felt her shoulders relax. She felt her voice gain strength. She smiled, and she played, and she felt.
Three songs later, she let her fingers fall off her guitar, sure the audience had finally had enough. But the applause said otherwise, and she took a deep breath, looking at Cooper, who’d leaned himself against the bar with Jasper as soon as she’d started singing.
He nodded, and the smile on his face gave her courage like nothing else ever had before. Not since Daddy.
“Okay, guys.” She pulled the mic closer to her mouth. “I’m a total hack at the songwriting business, but I have a little something I’ve been working on. If you don’t mind, maybe I’ll play it for you?”
Jasper and Liam clapped the loudest at her question, and she laughed as she launched into the first notes of a song she’d written over the past couple of days—one she honestly loved, but wasn’t sure had even one iota of commercial appeal.
But as her fingers skated over the strings, and as her voice traveled the soft melody she’d penned, the café grew quiet. It was just her voice and her guitar—a tiny circle of sound, but she felt the entire room listening, felt them lean forward, felt them feel the love and pain and fear and hope in her words.
And it was magic.
When she finished, letting her fingers linger on the final note, there was a long silence. For a moment, she feared the worst. Had she completely misinterpreted their reactions?
But then Liam stood up, clapping slowly, and Jasper pushed off from the bar, clapping beside him. And then, through a mist of tears, Shelby saw everyone rise, heard their hands, smiled as the whistles hit her ears.
It was like the old days—like those afternoons in those sunny parks with Daddy right beside her. She swiped quickly at her eyes as she sent a quick prayer upward, and then she stood up to take an awkward bow.
“Thank you,” she spoke into the microphone. “Thank you for letting me play.”
She looked at Cooper, and his face quieted any last nerve that might have still been twitching. I told you so, his grin said.
I believe in you, his eyes said.
When the applause died down and she stepped off the stage toward Cooper, he pulled her into a bear hug that ended with a square-on-the-lips kiss. It was a move so unplanned, so natural, that it made her laugh while zingy, happy fireballs rocketed through her veins.
How had she gotten so lucky to have found him, right when she’d most needed him? When she hadn’t even known she had needed him?
Jasper stepped up to the mic. “Well, folks, I say we leave it there. I pity the person who tries to follow that act up. Welcome to town, Shelby. Sure hope you’re staying!”
Shelby laughed again, squeezing Cooper’s waist.
Then she sobered.
Because…dammit.
She wasn’t.