Page 10 of Rebel Moon

“That one’s so sad,” Luci said.

“Yeah, it is,” Grant said.

I played the first few lines. “There you go.”

“See?” Grant said, when I finished. “Told y’all. Can’t be stumped.”

“There’s got to be one,” Ivy insisted. “Madeleine. You’ve known him longest of anyone here besides the band. Get him.”

Madeleine turned her head and looked at me. She appeared more relaxed than I’d ever seen her as she lifted her glass to finish the last of her wine.

“River,” she said.

“Ooh, good one,” Ivy said.

“Shouldn’t be a Christmas song. Way too sad,” I said.

Madeleine crossed one jean clad leg over the other, leaning forward slightly. “That mean you can play it?”

“Um, heck yeah, I can play it,” I said.

“River” had that little “Jingle Bells” line woven through the front of it so people often labeled it as a Christmas song, but underneath it was about wanting to skate away from everything after hurting the person she loved.

I bent my head over the strings and played it sad and slow under my fingers the way Joni meant it to be.

“Keep going,” Madeleine said under her breath.

So I did, picking my way through it, figuring someone would start to sing but no one did. The notes drifted into the cold night until there were no more.

When I was done, no one said anything for a second or two.

“How do fingers do that?” Holly asked finally.

“Tell me about how the band formed,” Blake said, coming to sit next to Luci. Her cameraman continued to record, but already I hardly noticed him.

“It’s all Rhett,” Jack said. “He found them, one by one.”

“I went around town listening to bands and hand picked these knuckleheads,” Rhett said. “Best in the business, every one of them.”

Conversation continued but I wasn’t really listening. Jack told the story about the first time we all played together and that we’d all agreed it was magical.

When tongues were tired, we gathered dirty glasses and bottles to set on the drink cart for the staff to take inside. I fell into step with Madeleine as we headed toward cabins one and two.

“Thanks for indulging me,” Madeleine said.

“I’m always more at ease with my guitar in hand, so it wasn’t a big deal.”

“It was the perfect way to start our month here. All of us around the fire.”

“I have a feeling there are more of those in our future,” I said.

We reached her cabin. My good manners forced me to stop and make sure she got inside safely. “I’ll wait until you get inside.”

“That’s not necessary. I take care of myself,” Madeleine said.

“What if a coyote got you and dragged you out to the forest?”

She raised both eyebrows, glancing around behind us. “Are there coyotes here?”