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A tingling sensation swept over Sienna, goosebumps breaking out across her arm, as Natalie’s voice danced with her own, both of them giving and taking, pulling back to harmonize while the other took the lead.
By the time they were on the third verse, Sienna was mesmerized, blown away by Natalie’s raw talent, the way her voice could hold so much emotion, and how different this version was from the original, but this time with Natalie’s powerful vocals instead of her own.
Sienna couldn’t look away from Natalie as they went into the final chorus, letting Natalie take the lead. Natalie’s eyes had been closed for the entire song, and Sienna had taken the opportunity to openly appreciate how gorgeous this woman was.
Natalie’s waves fell across her shoulders, her jawline sharp, her foot tapping lightly with the rhythm of Sienna’s guitar playing against the carpet as she delivered the last lines, her full lips quivering ever so slightly, and Sienna’s breath stalled when she saw a tear streak down Natalie’s cheek.
5
Natalie brushed away the tearthat had escaped, trickling down her face, hoping that Sienna hadn’t noticed, but judging by the look on her face, she had. Sienna opened her mouth like she wanted to say something but nothing came out.
Natalie blinked back more tears. She would not cry in front of a stranger, as amazing as she was. “Thank you,” Natalie said, a hint of a smile coming to her lips.
“I think I should be thanking you.” Sienna’s smile was warm, her arm draped across the polished wood of the guitar.
“I’m not sure where those tears came from.” Natalie took a deep breath, willing the rest of them away as she cleared her throat.
“That’s a long time not to have sung your own song.” Sienna studied her. “Not that I’m judging. I’m just saying that it’s only natural for it to be emotional.”
Natalie bit the inside of her cheek as she nodded. What was going on with her tonight? Maybe it was because she’d been alone for so long, that having someone in her home, sharing music with her had awakened her emotions and her ability to trust someone, even someone she’d only met a few hours ago.
“It’s funny that you arranged that song like that,” Natalie said, running her clammy palms over her shorts. “I really meant what I said about loving what you did with the song. I know it caught my attention at the fairgrounds, for obvious reasons, but singing it with you now, having the chance to sing it like that, slowed down, in such a haunting style…” She exhaled a long breath. “It’s just funny to me now. That that was the way you changed it.”
“Why?”
“Because it was never meant to be an upbeat anthem. It was designed to be a hit. I was too young to push back on it. I was just happy to be given the opportunity to get into a studio and record some of my songs, but when I wrote it originally, I was sixteen, and the lyrics were actually very personal to me. How I had played it back then wasn’t really that far off your version.”
Sienna’s eyebrows lifted, but she didn’t say anything.
Natalie didn’t know where this honesty was coming from, but she felt like Sienna deserved to know, because she apparently liked to perform this song, but also because of the way she’d reacted to finding out what had ended Natalie’s career.
“I deliberately toned down the lyrics,” Natalie said, a little impressed with her sixteen-year-old self, that she knew enough not to tell her whole story in those lyrics. “But I wrote that song the day I realized I was gay.”
Sienna’s mouth fell open. “Shit,” she murmured. Then she laughed softly to herself. “Fuck.” She shook her head. “I don’t believe it,” she said so softly that Natalie nearly missed it, a hand on her forehead.
Natalie just stared at her. What a strange reaction to have. Sienna met her gaze then, her expression neutral again.
“Sorry,” Sienna said. “I just had no idea.”
“That was the point,” Natalie said with a smile. “No one could have guessed the true meaning behind that song. People assumed just like you did that it was about discovering what you were meant to do, and I think a lot of people who reviewed my first album had it pegged as almost a love letter to country music.” Natalie shrugged. “It wasn’t that at all, but it helped to boost my sales. I just wanted to sing at the end of the day, and I let them take that song in a catchy direction. But what you did with it? That’s so fitting.”
Sienna blinked. “Who else knows the real meaning behind that song?” she asked softly after a moment, her voice barely audible over the low rumble of thunder.
“No one,” Natalie whispered. She’d never even told Amelia what that song had meant to her, but she wrote it when she was sixteen, and nine years later when she’d been experiencing the closest thing to love that she ever had, Natalie probably should have said it at some point to Amelia.
But then again, Natalie never could have foreseen how short-lived their relationship would be. Seven months. They’d spent so much time together towards the end, practically living together while Mason was on the road, that it had felt like years in some ways, but in others? That time had disappeared in front of them, like sand sliding through her fingers, and Natalie should have known how fragile the whole thing was.
“Thank you.” Sienna had said it so softly that it tookNatalie a second to come out of the fog, pushing those memories down again, unwilling to let them ruin what was, so far anyway, one of the better nights Natalie had had in… Years. She couldn’t dwell on how alone she’d let herself become. Instead, she met Sienna’s eyes.
“I should be thanking you,” Natalie confessed. “Not once, in the last eighteen years, have I thought about singing one of my own songs. I feel like that was…” She bit her lip. “I don’t know. An exorcism of sorts? Definitely therapeutic, anyway.”
“What about another?” Sienna asked, her fingers already moving across the strings, expertly coaxing out the notes that transported Natalie back in time. Sienna’s hair fell across her eyes as she played Natalie’s third single off her first album with the same tempo and key as the original version.
“No changes to this one?”
Sienna shook her head, her eyes sparkling. “I loved it from the first time I heard it. I wouldn’t change a thing about this song.” She nodded in Natalie’s direction, signaling her to take it away, and she did.
As Natalie’s voice filled the room, her walls began to crumble as she let herself get lost in a song that she used to love performing, holding Sienna’s gaze as she joined in on the chorus, singing together like they’d been doing this for years.
