“Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into a mosh pit,” Mr. Pike joked.
Philip Koenig smiled politely. Either they didn’t have mosh pits in Denmark or he didn’t find it funny.
Charlie scanned the crowd, trying to see if Jean was still standing where he’d left her. An elbow poked him in the side.
“Quit frowning, son. We’re having fun.” Mr. Pike led the applause as Adriana took the stage.
Charlie was close enough to see her eyes ping-pong back and forth, almost as if she were nervous. That didn’t seem possible for someone who had played sold-out arenas all over the world, but Charlie knew some fears didn’t respond to logic. He smiled at her, just in case. None of this was her fault.
“I hope it’s okay I brought my guitar.” Adriana flashed her dimples, and the crowd laughed. She was charming in a way that reminded Charlie why he’d liked her in the first place. Adriana was good at making you feel like you were seeing something special and private, like the inside of a geode, even though she wasalso sparkly on the outside—and like tonight, there was almost always a much larger audience than one.
“You all have inspired me with your lyrical stylings, so I thought I’d try out something new.” She looked down as she strummed a single chord. “It’s hard to find the words to speak what’s in your heart, but I’m going to give it a shot.” When she raised her head, her eyes were bright. “Sending this out to a special someone who’s here with us tonight.”
The whispers started even before Adriana fixed her gaze in Charlie’s direction. There were a few gasps and oneawwthat seemed to come from the spicy-cocktail guy.
“Honey baby,” she began, not quite singing.
“You said you had to go
I begged you to stay.
You said we had our fun
I asked for another day.
If I travel the world and don’t find another you
Will you still tell me what I feel isn’t true?”
She paused to strum another melancholy chord.
“Time didn’t fade this hunger.
And we’re not getting any younger.
Give me a chance to be part of your life.
You don’t have to make me your wife.
I just want to be near you, as much as I can.”
Her voice was stronger now, the tempo increasing as she sang the final line.
“I came all this way to tell you, honey baby, I’m your number one fan.”
She flashed another wistful smile, plucking a delicate melody on the guitar. Sergeant Cowboy chimed in on the harmonica, the fiddler adding a piercing vibrato.
After a final flourish, Adriana placed her palm over thestrings, silencing the guitar before hurrying off the stage to a burst of thunderous applause.
Charlie’s dad clapped him on the back. “What a moment. They’ll be talking about that for years. Good work, son.”
“I just stood here.”
“And that was perfect,” his father agreed. “We made the magic happen.”
All around them, misty-eyed beverage moguls chattered like squirrels, watching Charlie with varying degrees of subtlety. When he turned, ready to escape attention he neither wanted nor deserved, Charlie came face-to-face with Mugsy. If the rest of the audience looked like their hearts had melted, his oldest friend was a block of ice.
“Are you okay, Mugsy?”
