6
Sadie
Nashville, Tennessee
December 16
Sadie limped from wilted houseplant to wilted houseplant in her apartment, a watering can held aloft. She lived in SoBro, a neighborhood in Nashville known for its trendy shops and restaurants. Sadie had taken the apartment because she could see the edge of the Music City Center from her tiny terrace. When she had moved back to Nashville months earlier, after raising enough money to make a go of it again—Starmakerwas just a long shot on the horizon—she had decided that this time around, she needed to try to put down roots and convince the universe she really did belong here. Houseplants seemed like a good way to do that—they literallyhadroots. So she had visited a local greenhouse and loaded up on them. But all her plants—the croton, the dracaena, especially the orchid, andeven the bamboo, which she had believed was impossible to kill—were now dried-out husks. The only plant that was still alive was the Christmas cactus. But it was stubbornly refusing to release its festive bloom, and its leaves were starting to brown around the edges. She resolutely watered all the plants anyway, hoping for a miracle.
When that was done, she sat down on her couch and picked up the Tasha Munroe autobiography she had been planning to read for ages. It was rare to have one and a half days off from the rigorousStarmakertaping schedule, and Sadie had been looking forward to it. But now that she was alone, she found she missed the bustle and the excitement of the set.
And, if she was being honest with herself, she missed Max, too. He had been very kind to her after she hurt her ankle the day before. Truth was, she hadn’t exactly hated being fussed over all day by Max Brody. And he had stood by her side while she explained to the producers that wearing heels was clearly a health hazard and she would still be wearing stylish but more practical footwear from now on,thankyouverymuch.All things considered, it had not been her worst day. She had seen a new side of Max. A side of him that was kind and caring underneath the swagger. A side of him that knit dog sweaters, and blankets for newborn babies. Maybe, she was actually starting to enjoy being around Max. What did that mean?
A loud buzzing snapped her out of her reverie. For a moment she had no idea what she was hearing.Right.Her apartment buzzer. She stood and hobbled to the receiver.
“Hello?”
“Sweets! It’s Gran!”
“What?!Gran!?”
“Surprise! Merry Early Christmas! I’ve come to stay with you for a few days!”
“Hang on, I’ll come downstairs and help you upstairs with your bags! Stay right where you are!”
An elated Sadie limped down the hallway to the elevator, hoping her gran wouldn’t notice she was injured—but, of course, it was the first thing she commented on when Sadie entered the wood-paneled lobby downstairs.
“What in the world?” Gran exclaimed. “Are you hurt?I didn’t think singing was a contact sport!”
“I’m fine,” Sadie said, trying not to grimace as she lifted her gran’s small suitcase and headed for the elevator bank. “What’s important is that you’rehere.How did you get here?”
“Put down that bag and give me a proper hug. And then, letmecarry it. I may be old but I am certainly not too old to carry a tiny bag—especially with you in rough shape! I’m glad I came. You need me! And to answer your question, I flew here, obviously.”
“But why?”
For just a second, sadness crept into her eyes—but then it was gone and Sadie wondered if she had imagined it. “Because I miss you terribly and the idea of not seeing you this Christmas because of your taping schedule broke my heart a little. Now, how about that hug?”
Sadie threw her arms around her gran. She seemed smaller since the last time Sadie had seen her, during her last trip home to Milwaukee months before, to sing the anthem at a Panthers basketball game. As she gently squeezed her gran’s birdlike shoulder blades, she felt a tingle of alarm but pushed it away.
“Let me get a good look at you.” Gran pulled back and gazed up at her granddaughter with eyes the same bright blue as Sadie’s. “Ah, there’s my girl. How I’ve missed you.”
Sadie breathed in her gran’s familiar scent: L’Air du Temps and Yardley powder. “I’ve missed you, too.”
They made their way toward the elevator bank, Sadie limping along and Gran peering about at the lobby, nodding her head approvingly all the while. “I like this place. Not at all as seedy as I pictured it.”
Sadie laughed. “You pictured me living somewhere seedy?”
“Well, the Nashville music scene used to be a bit more rough around the edges than it is now. Or so I heard.Mycareer saw me playing in some different locales than Nashville, as you know.”
It was Gran who had first sparked a love of singing in Sadie. Before Sadie had been born, she—then Elsie McKay, not Elsie Hunter—had been part of an all-female jazz ensemble reminiscent of the Andrews Sisters, who traveled the Midwest singing to war veterans. By the time Sadie came along, Elsie mostly only sang in the choir at church, but she had made sure her granddaughter’s life was full of music.
Upstairs, Sadie gave Gran a tour of her small but cozy apartment—galley kitchen, terrace overlooking SoBro’s cafés and shops and the Music City Center, living room, bedroom, tiny bathroom. Then Gran opened her suitcase and took out a hand-knit blanket, which she spread across the couch. “There we go, that warms the place up a little, doesn’t it?” She glanced up at Sadie and raised an eyebrow. “Takes some of the attention away from those dead plants. You should probably stick with singing and stay away from horticulture, my dear.”
Sadie laughed. “You’re probably right, Gran. And thank you for the blanket.”
“I have something else for you.” She sat down on the newly livened up couch and pulled a little gift-wrapped package out of her purse. The deep green paper was covered in tiny silver snowflakes. Gran’s eyes danced. “I came all the way here to give you your Christmas gift in person, and I can’t wait another minute for you to open it!”
“I don’t have anything for you,” Sadie said, limping over to the couch. “I had been planning to ship some gifts home...”
