I felt a smile twitch on my lips. “You did this.”
Her smile was so dazzling it was intoxicating.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Ella promised. “I figured they would call me up first. We can just pretend you’re not here.”
“Cash… where is Mr. Cash?” The host looked out into the crowd, shielding his eyes from the lights of the small stage.
I chewed my lip a moment before throwing back the rest of my beer. “What the hell. Why not?”
“Are you serious?” Ella squealed as I rose to my feet.
“If you want some Sinatra, then honey, I’m going to give you Sinatra.” Perhaps it was the beer talking and all the scotch I’d had earlier in the evening. Or maybe the liquid courage was giving me the push I’d needed for months.
I maneuvered my way to the stage to the sounds of a few errant cheers and applause. I leaned down to see that she had submitted me for “Fly Me To The Moon.”
“Hey, man,” I said to the host. “Mind if I switch Sinatra songs?”
“Sure, dude,” he answered. “Whatcha want?”
He shifted so that I could see the song list on the screen of his laptop. I saw the one I wanted and pointed. I took a deep breath and shook out my shoulders as the opening notes to “The Way You Look Tonight” began to play.
Five
Ella
Cashand I exited our Uber at the entry of Printers Alley in downtown Nashville. It was the only part of downtown proper I went to on the rare occasion that I had a night out. Broadway was home to the honky-tonks and the bachelorette party invasion, but Printers Alley was a former publishing industry hub turned nightlife dream. With its twinkly-lit cobblestone alleyway, speakeasy-style bars, and robust music scene, it was a true testament to the diversity that made Nashville so much more than the country music capital of the world.
“Holyshit,” I said, looking over at Cash, my face still veiled with shock. “I still can’t believe you did that.”
He chuckled softly. “I blame being under the influence of alcohol and a certain beautiful blonde who put my name in for me.” Despite the evening breeze, I felt a heat rise to my cheeks at the sound of him calling me beautiful.
“I didn’t know you sang!”
“I don’t,” he insisted. “Not usually, anyway. Not unless I’m in the shower.”
“Andyou sing in the shower? I’m learning so much about you tonight, Cash Montgomery.” The heel of my stiletto slid on the cobblestone, and Cash wrapped his arm around my waist, steadying me. I looked into his hazel eyes, and for a moment, the twinkle lights strung above the alley seemed to circle around us. I cleared my throat, shifting my eyes ahead again. “You had quite the stage presence too. You would have given ole blue eyes a run for his money. I’m pretty sure that lady in the front row was ready to stuff a couple of twenties in your belt.”
Cash choked out a laugh. “I’m pretty sure the lady in the front was so drunk she didn’t know where she was.” He looked around as we neared the bars and businesses with small groups of people scattered in the alley. “Where is it we’re going?”
“It’s this newishspeakeasy I heard about called Dirty Little Secret,” I explained. “It’s even got a super-secret entryway.” The lights of Skull’s Rainbow Room and Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar beckoned us closer.
“So, how do we find it?”
“Oh, I know where it is,” I said with a wave of my hand.
He broke into a laugh. “That doesn’t sound like much of a secret.”
“Here we are,” I exclaimed, stopping in front of the All Saints clothing store.
He shot me a quizzical glance. “It’s a club inside of a store?”
“It’s a club withan entranceinside of a store.” We flashed our IDs to the bouncer who pointed beyond the clothing racks to a door that could have easily been a storage closet. The sounds of music with a heavy bass made the ground vibrate beneath our feet.
Cash stepped ahead and opened the door for me, revealing colorful strobe lights dancing across the small sea of people in the shadowy nightclub. We squeezed our way to the bar where the bartenders were all clad in crisp white shirts and ties.
“What would you like?” Cash asked.
“A vodka tonic.”
