“Yes. Just one more second,” she said.
She straightened up and moved toward the railing again, the nickel tight in her hand. She wasn’t going to leave without a wish, and there were so many things she wanted. She closed her eyes. Did a nickel mean five wishes? She sure hoped so.
She squeezed the coin again. She wished that her show tomorrow would be incredible. That Ruthanna would be proud of her. That lyrics and melodies would keep coming to her for the rest of her life.
She took a deep breath. She had two more wishes.
She wished that somehow, there might be a future for her and Ethan Blake someday.
And she wished she could keep her secrets forever.
She gave the nickel one last squeeze, and then she flung it into the water.
Chapter
70
After performing a hundred reps each of push-ups, crunches, bench dips, squats, and burpees—a holdover from army PT—in his hotel room, Ethan walked into the lobby café to grab a coffee and check in with Ruthanna, who’d been due to arrive last night.
U get in okay? he texted.
Not even two seconds later, his phone rang. “Morning, boss,” Ethan said, sandwiching the phone between his shoulder and ear as he stirred sugar into his cup.
“Dolphin yoga,” Ruthanna said indignantly. “Can you believe it? The concierge suggested I take the ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ to do yoga next to a dolphin tank. I think he must’ve been drunk.”
Ethan laughed. He’d missed Ruthanna’s orneriness, though, come to think of it, he got a fair dose of something similar, thanks to AnnieLee Keyes. “You going to try it out?”
“You’re plumb crazy if you think that sounds relaxing,” she said. “Imagine! There you are, trying to do mountain pose, and ol’ Flipper’s pressed up against the glass, staring at you like, Get me the hell out of here!” She giggled. “I got to hand it to these Vegas folks, though,” she said. “They sure do keep coming up with new ways to separate people from their money.”
“No kidding,” Ethan said, thinking back to the previous night’s three-figure dinner check, which had set him back deeper than he cared to think about. He knew Ruthanna would cover it if he asked her to, but he didn’t want to ask her to. “How was it getting into town?”
“I tried to sneak in under the cover of darkness, but I forgot there’s no such thing as actual dark around here,” Ruthanna said, still sounding disgruntled. “You wouldn’t believe the commotion! You’d think I was the Beatles.”
Ethan could imagine the crush of hollering fans, and tiny Ruthanna trying to make her way through them with Lucas, her bodyguard, and whatever security team they’d pulled together before leaving Tennessee. “Wasn’t it just a little bit flattering?” he asked.
“Yes,” Ruthanna said thoughtfully. “But also…a little scary. I’m not used to it anymore, Ethan.” She paused. “I’m not sure that agreeing to play this show was the best idea I ever had.”
Ethan detected a note of fear in her voice. “It’s a great idea,” he said firmly. “Why else’ve you been writing all those songs? Why else hire me and the rest of the band to play music in your basement every week? Don’t even say it’s because you like the company, because everyone knows Elrodd drives you up two walls at once.”
“And you, Ethan Blake,” Ruthanna agreed, laughing. “You’ve been trying my patience since the day I met you.” But when she spoke again her voice was serious. “Watching AnnieLee come up the way she did, appearing out of nowhere and taking folks by storm…I don’t know, it made me nostalgic. I thought it looked like fun. But I don’t think I’m having fun yet.”
“You’re going to love being up onstage,” Ethan assured her. “And you’re going to kill tonight.”
“Oh, what do you know?” she exclaimed.
But he could tell that a part of her believed him. Like AnnieLee, Ruthanna was a natural. And after four decades of life in the spotlight, she was also a trained and professional performer. She might think she was rusty, but she’d take the crowd by storm.
“Oh, I know it, all right,” he said. “I’d bet Gladys on it.”
“So about three hundred bucks, in other words?”
“Gladys is priceless!” Ethan said in mock offense.
“Sure she is. Well, thanks, cowboy.” Then Ruthanna took a deep breath. “Listen, I want you to go scope the scene for tonight, okay?”