“Five minutes,” Wyatt announces, and my stomach does a complicated flip that would impress an Olympic gymnast.
Rhea sits in the third row, between Emma and Mrs. Chen. Her pretty blue sundress makes her green eyes shine, and her honey blonde hair catches the lantern light. She looks curious and excited, fidgeting with the hem of her dress. When our eyes meet, anticipation and warmth flood me, making my chest ache.
Emma had told her it was a “community appreciation concert” and our way of thanking the village for embracing us. Not technically a lie, since we are appreciating the community, but not the whole truth.
“Okay,” I say, taking a deep breath that goes all the way down to my toes. “Let's do this before I lose my nerve completely.”
We open with some of our older songs, the ones everyone knows that get the crowd singing along. Even as I perform songs that I've sung hundreds of times, my mind is on the piece of paper in my back pocket, which holds the lyrics to “The Ballad of Us,” handwritten this morning in case I forget the words I've been perfecting for months.
Three songs in, I catch Leslie's eye. He's positioned strategically near the sound board, and he gives me the subtle nod that means everything is in place. The flowers have been distributed to key villagers, the photographer he secretly hired is in position, and the mocktails are chilling at Mountain Mornings for the after-party that Rhea doesn't know is happening.
“So,” I say into the microphone, my voice steadier than I expected, “we wanted to share something special with you tonight. A new song that means everything to me. To us.”
I look directly at Rhea as I say it, watching her expression shift from casual interest to focused attention. She knows I've been working on a song and has caught me humming melodies and scribbling lyrics for months, but I've kept this song hidden like a sacred secret.
“This song is about second chances,” I continue, my fingers finding the opening chords on my guitar. “About learning that sometimes love means letting go, and sometimes it means holding on, and wisdom is knowing the difference.”
The opening notes of “The Ballad of Us” fill the square, and I can feel the collective intake of breath from the crowd. This is different from our usual sound. It’s a more intimate one, more vulnerable, more honest than anything we've recorded before.
I sing the first verse, looking directly at Rhea, watching her face transform as she recognizes this isn't just any love song. This is our story, set to music and shared with the entire village we've made our home in.
“I was ninety-one days clean when you walked in...”
Her hand goes to her mouth, and I can see tears starting to form in her eyes. Emma reaches over to squeeze her other hand, and Mrs. Chen is already dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief that probably came from Leslie's emergency supply.
“Coffee shop girl with the nervous smile
Said you’d take a chance on broken things
Help us make music for a while
You saw something in my shaking hands
That I couldn’t see myself
You loved me when I was learning how
To be someone else
This is the ballad of us
Written in scars and second chances
This is the ballad of us
Love that survives when the music dies
You saved me by letting me save myself
You loved me by letting me go
This is the ballad of us
The only song I need to know
For three years, we built a life on hope
And the promise I could change
