“All right, let’s get everyone back out here,” Harry yelled, having done four songs and given Country Quad a good fifteen-minute break.
They flooded onto the stage again, along with Belle, and with the eight of them out there, Tex said, “This will be our last song, and then we wish everyone the happiest and merriest of Christmases, no matter where you are or who you’re with, may the Lord be with you.”
“And now I give you,” he looked down the line at everyone and back to Luke. “A brand new song written by Otis for the eight of us, because sometimes it takes quite the journey before you find a place to call home.”
He looked right into the camera, all of that Young charisma shining through him. “I give you,The Journey Home.” He moved to the neck of his guitar, and all eight of them, from the four Country Quad members to Harry and Bryce and Belle and OJ, came in together.
The song definitely reminded Bailey of the countryrock that Country Quad was known for. She couldn’t believe that they did this kind of stuff for free, and she pulled her laptop closer and did a search for the website that Adam had talked about at the beginning of the broadcast. Her clinic was doing very well, and she could definitely donate to horse rescue operations, one of which was in Montana.
She did that just as the song ended, and then Adam Harmon came back on stage as everyone else ran off, and he said, “Well, folks, wasn’t that the greatest thing you’ve ever seen?” He spread his arms wide, as if gathering the whole world together, and then brought his hands together into a loud clap.
“The website to donate should be on your screen right now.” It popped up. Bailey smiled at how flawless this presentation had been. “Remember, we’ve got three organizations matching you dollar for dollar, and we’d really love to give as much as we can to rescue these great equines in Wyoming and Montana.
“No matter if you can’t give or if you give a lot, we appreciate you being here and listening. We appreciate your donations—and as Tex said, Merry Christmas and may the Lord be with you.” He grinned for the next three seconds until the screen went dark and the broadcast ended.
Bailey sat there in the new silence in her home, feeling like she lost some of her best friends with the ending of that concert.
And then the voice of the Lord whispered to her,You could see them all if you lived in Coral Canyon.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
“Adam, you haven’t said anything about the concert last night.”
Adam looked over to Lauren and took a scoop of the cranberry sauce she’d made. “It was great,” he said.
“Oh, it was more than great,” Joey said as she followed him down the buffet line at her mother’s peninsula. “It was amazing, Momma. You should haveseenhim on that stage.”
Surprise had him turning toward her too. “Seen me on the stage? I was up there for, like, thirty seconds.”
“It was a couple of minutes at least,” Joey said, putting a slice of ham on her plate. She followed that with a big scoop of mashed potatoes, and he smiled to himself. She’d confessed to him last night that she liked the sides at Christmas far more than the main dish, especially when her mother was cooking.
I don’t know why she insists on having ham, Joey had told him.But she does, and it’s always kind of dry.
Adam wasn’t sure why Lauren had made cranberry sauce to go with ham, but he’d taken it as a lubricant, just in case.
“And he had the greatest speech ever,” she said. “I was willing to donate my entire salary to horse rescue.” She trilled out a laugh. “And this morning, they crossed one hundred thousand dollars of donations in one day.”
It had actually only taken sixteen hours to get to one hundred thousand dollars, which had been Harry’s original goal. He and Belle had both posted on their social media, and they’d asked their fans to think about how much they would pay to attend a concert by him, by the two of them, and by Country Quad, then to donate whatever ticket price they came up with.
Harry was exceptionally good at social media, and Adam had taken that idea and run with it. He posted the same call to action for Country Quad across all of their platforms. To double down, he’d asked people to post their receipts in the comments of any Country Quad concert they’d been to over the years. That had gotten a lot of engagement and a lot of comments, which helped the algorithms push the content out to even more people.
“I can watch it online, right?” Lauren asked.
Adam nodded as Joey said, “Yes, I’ve watched it three times already. Momma, it issogood. Daddy wrote one of the songs that’s brand new, and everyone plays in it—Harry, Bryce, Belle, and even OJ.”
Adam watched her mother’s face, and while she wore a smile, she certainly didn’t seem as engaged in the conversation as Joey was. He loved watching his normally quiet, reserved girlfriend come to life.
He waited at the end of the bar, so that she could lead them to a place at the table. It was just the four of them for Christmas this year, as they had spent Thanksgiving down in Coral Canyon with her daddy and his branch of the family.
Adam had arranged to go home in January after the concert series and Harry’s wedding, when Country Quad would have nothing to do but re-watch their winter performances. He would still have plenty to do, as he had to deal with the donations, as well as all the social media. Not only that, but he had already been contacted by three organizations who wanted to partner with Country Quad in some sort of mini concert series.
That would be a hard sell, and Adam had not replied to any of them, using the holidays as an excuse to set his autoresponder and get to it later.
Joey led them over to the table, and he pulled out her chair for her as she continued to gush about the concert. He took one bite of ham with mashed potatoes, realizing everything Joey had said about the protein was correct. He slathered cranberry sauce on it after that and managed to get down the two pieces he’d taken.
Joey paused in her play-by-play of the concert, and Adam put his hand on her knee under the table. He absolutely loved her enthusiasm, because Country Quad hadbecome such a big part of his life, and it felt like she was cheering for him and not the band. But her mother’s eyes had glazed over about the time Adam had taken his first bite of ham, and he said, “Why don’t you ask your mother about her tomato starts?”
