The music started with a scruffy-looking bearded guy who came up and sang some bluesy number that rocked her right down to her black-and-white painted toes.
“Wow,” Liz said. “You definitely couldn’t judge that book by its cover. That dude looks homeless. But oh, his voice.”
“I know, right?” Jenna said. “He was fantastic.”
A band set up after that and laid down some serious rock tunes. They played two sets. A little loud, but she loved their beat. They didn’t play any covers, all original music, and they had people up on the dance floor hopping to the music.
There was a lot of talent coming forth tonight. No duds like there had been the first night Tyler had brought her. Jenna felt inadequate. Maybe tonight wasn’t the best night for her to get up and try this again.
“I wish I could sing,” Tara said as another band went up and started to set up. “It’s a talent I’m in awe of.”
“I can’t sing a damn note.” Liz lifted the glass of wine to her lips and took a sip. “Not that it ever stops me from belting out Beyoncé tunes in the shower.”
Tara laughed. “Oh, me either. I mean, I don’t suck at it, but I don’t think any talent agents are going to be knocking down my door anytime soon.”
“What about you, Jenna?” Tara asked. “Do you like to sing?”
Liz looked at her, too, and Jenna realized it was now or never. “Well, here’s the thing, you guys. I do sing.”
“Honey, we all sing,” Liz said. “Are you any good at it?”
Her heart slammed against her ribs, her skin cold and clammy while her face flamed with heat. “My guitar’s in the trunk of the car.”
Tara’s eyes widened. “What? You have a guitar? I didn’t know this.”
“Shut the front door.” Liz pushed away from the table. “You’re going to sing tonight, aren’t you?”
“I’ve thought about it.”
“Well, stop thinking about it and go get your guitar.”
“I don’t know.”
Tara shoved her. “Don’t give us that. Go get your guitar. I want to hear you.”
“Okay.” Trepidation was replaced by nervous excitement. She got her hand stamped so she could get back in, then rushed out to the parking lot and grabbed her guitar. She saw Tara and Liz talking nonstop to each other as she made her way back to the table.
Liz looked down at the guitar in its case, then back up at her. “I’ve known you for how many years, and I didn’t know you sang.”
Jenna shrugged. “I’ve never told anyone before.”
“Why?”
“Because I might not be any good.”
Liz sat back in the chair and crossed her arms. “We’ll be the judges of that. Get your pretty ass up there and sing for us.”
Jenna laughed. “I have to wait my turn. Which reminds me, I have to put my card in with the deejay.”
She wrote down what she wanted to sing and ran it up to the stage, then came back, her throat suddenly so dry she had to flag down the waitress and ask for a bottled water.
“That’s why you brought us here tonight, isn’t it?” Liz asked.
“Maybe. I wanted you two to hear me. If I could get up enough nerve to do this. I figured you would be honest and tell me if I sucked.”
“You’re not going to suck,” Tara said.
“Did you sing when you and Ty came here?” Liz asked.
She looked down at her hands. “Yeah. Once or twice.”
“Oh. My. God. Our girl has been keeping secrets from us, Tara.”
Tara shook her head. “I’m shocked and appalled.”
“Stop it, you two. Mom and Dad don’t even know I sing.”
“Shut the front door again,” Liz said. “Are you serious?”
“I am. I’ve never sung in front of anyone. Well, that’s not true. I sang in Europe. But I hadn’t sung again. Until Ty.”
Liz slanted a glance at Tara before turning it back on Jenna. “Reallllly.”
“Yes, and don’t read anything into that. He found the guitar and songs I wrote—”
“Oh, my God, you write songs, too?” Tara asked.
“What else don’t we know about you, Miss Riley?” Liz asked. “Do you put on a superhero costume and fight crime at night in the metropolis?”
“Yes, but only between three and five a.m.”
“Oooh, aren’t you the smart-ass.” Liz cocked her head to the side and studied her. “There are new sides to you I’m just beginning to discover.”
“I think you’re going to be really disappointed when you realize I’m just an average singer who doesn’t wear a cape and tights.”
“Too bad. That would have been a great angle to promote you.” Liz spread her hand in front of her, mimicking an arcing rainbow. “The Superhero Singer. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “And you’re in the business to promote your players? The poor guys.”
Tara snickered. “Mick will be jealous he didn’t get a superhero name.”
Jenna laid her hand on Tara’s. “I don’t want Mick or Gavin to know anything about this. I just want the two of you to give me a listen and tell me what you think.”
Tara frowned. “But—”
“Please.”
“Okay.”
A couple singers came up after the band, then the deejay called her name.
Jenna looked at Tara and Liz. “This is it.”
“Kick some ass up there, sweetie,” Liz said.
Nausea swelled in her stomach, but she grabbed her guitar and stepped up on the stage.
“Hey, Jenna,” the deejay said. “Nice to see you again.”
Surprised that he remembered her from so long ago, she nodded and smiled back at him. “Thanks.”
“Gonna sing your own song tonight, I see.”
“Yeah. Going to give it a try.”
“Break a leg, sister.”
She swallowed and headed out to the mic, grabbed the metal stool, and perched on the edge. She did her best to not look like she might throw up or pass out at any minute. She scanned the crowd and found Liz and Tara, who both grinned and clapped loudly for her.
Taking a deep breath, she settled in and began to strum the guitar, falling into the music she’d written. It was a mournful love song about a breakup, about hurt and pain and what happens when you thought you were in love, but it didn’t work out, and how you found the strength to go on from there. She hoped a few people in the audience could connect with it.
She could always get lost in music, so she let it flow through her fingertips and through her voice, letting the words and the meaning pour through her soul to everyone who’d ever had love and lost it.
When she finished, she looked up, and no one moved, spoke, or said a word.
Oh, shit. She sucked.
But then everyone leaped to their feet, thunderous applause and claps and foot stomps springing tears to her eyes. She slid off the barstool and bowed, grinned, and left the stage.
The deejay stopped her. “Oh, no, honey. They want more.”
“Really?”
“Hell yeah. Give them another.”
She turned around and went back, stunned to hear the whistles and hollers and clapping as she took her seat on the stool once again. This time she gave them a song more happy and upbeat, about finding your first love in the middle of summer, when everything is sweet and innocent, the kind of love that could never be forgotten. It was a fun song, something they could stand and clap their hands to.
At the end, they cheered for her just as loud and she couldn’t wipe the grin from her face.
“They love you,” the deejay said. “Don’t leave. I’m sure you’re going to want to play more tonight.”
“Okay, sure,” she said with a laugh.
She got stopped along the way back to her table for congratulations and pats on the back.
When she got back to the table, Tara threw her arms around her and squealed.
“Holy shit you were good,” Tara said. “I had no idea you could sing like that.”
“Thanks.”
Liz, however, sat back with her arms folded and glared at her.
Uh-oh. The true test. “You didn’t like it.”
“Are you f**king kidding me? What I want to know is why you’re wasting your time as a bartender when you should have a recording contract?”
Jenna took a long drink from her bottle of water, then set the bottle down. “Oh, come on.”
“Don’t you ‘oh, come on’ me. Surely you have to have some inkling of how talented you are.”
Jenna shrugged. “I like to sing and write music.”
“And I’m an agent and know talent when I see it.”
“Yeah, sports talent.”
“Talent, sweetie. You are talented. Amazingly, fuck-my-brains-out talented.”
Jenna shook her head. “No.”
“Yes. You need to get an agent and a recording contract, pronto.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Did Ty hear you sing?” Tara asked. “What did he say?”
Jenna didn’t answer right away.
“Jenna,” Liz said. “What did he say?”
“Pretty much what you said.”
Liz threw her hands in the air. “And you, what? Ignored him?”
“I figured he was just saying nice things because we were having sex.”
Liz shook her head. “You are such an idiot.”
Jenna looked at Tara, who said, “I’m going to have to agree with Liz here. You are an idiot.”
“You two are good for my ego. I appreciate it.”
“And you’re frustrating me with every second that goes by. Why don’t you believe in yourself?” Liz asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you hear the crowd out there tonight?” Tara asked. “They loved you. I mean they applauded for the other acts, but they loved you. They stood on their feet and asked for an encore.”
It was all too much to take in. “It was nice.”
“Tara, talk to her,” Liz said. “She’s killing me.”
“No, I get it, I really do,” Jenna said. “I’m just not ready for…all that.”
“You mean the chance to be famous?”
“I’m not that good.”
Tara laid her hand over Jenna’s. “Honey, I think you are. Liz thinks you are. Obviously the crowd here thinks you are.”
Liz studied her. “Who told you that you weren’t good enough?”
Leave it to Liz to be able to read her. She sighed and related the story of what happened in Germany.
“So some as**ole kicked you out of a band a million years ago when you were a kid and you let that change the whole course of your life?” Liz rolled her eyes. “Come on. I thought you had bigger balls than that.”
She shrugged. “I was sensitive.”
“Oh, bullshit. You’re awesome. And what’s the name of the band?”
She told them.
Liz looked at Tara. “Never heard of them.”
Tara shook her head. “Me either. So obviously they would have been better off to keep you. Honey, you have the voice of an angel. You need to be heard.”
Their encouragement meant everything to her, but there were still roadblocks. Plenty of them.
“I don’t want fame. I just want to open up my own club, play some music of my own.”
“Ohhhh,” Liz said.
Crap. Now she’d said it. She’d given voice to her dreams to someone besides Ty.
“So why don’t you do that?” Tara asked.
“Because I run Riley’s.”
“And you can’t open up a second bar because…”
Liz made it sound so simple, when it wasn’t. “It’s complicated.”
“Because you’re making it complicated. If that’s what you want to do with your life, then don’t let anything stop you.”
“I’ll think about it. In the meantime, please don’t say anything to the rest of the family about this singing thing.”
“Why on earth not?” Tara asked. “You have an amazing talent, Jenna.”
“Thank you, but I’m just not ready to share it yet.”
And if she kept getting this kind of reaction, she might never be.
TY WAS SURPRISED TO HEAR FROM LIZ, BUT SINCE SHE was in Los Angeles for business and he was there as part of his road trip, she suggested they meet for lunch. He didn’t have to report to the arena until four, so there was plenty of time to eat and get a workout in.
Since he was in Anaheim, she picked him up at his hotel. As usual, she was in a crisp black business suit, wearing killer heels, her hair pulled up in some kind of twisty thing that defied logic. The driver of her private car took them to some trendy restaurant that took a while to get to. He guessed Liz wasn’t into family friendly restaurants since they were in the heart of Disneyland.
“So what’s up?” he asked after they ordered lunch.
“Jenna took Tara and me to the club to hear her sing the other night.”
“She did? Good.” Maybe she was finally climbing out of her shell.
“She’s an amazing singer.”
He took a drink of water. “Yeah, she is.”
“No, I mean, her voice is killer. Like she should get an agent and cut a record.”
“Is that what she wants?”
“She said she wants to open a club and sing there, plus bring in other musicians, kind of similar to the club we went to.”