My entry:
The Concert
There was nothing on TV. Three hundred channels of absolute drivel. Why was he subscribing to this, anyway? Click, click, click... Anything Mike wanted to see, he'd seen already.
Click. The local news. Bennett Alexander interviewing yet another music act about to appear during the new Summer Concert Series at the River. Click.
No. Wait.
Mike clicked back to the local channel. It couldn't be Laney. There, in the back, behind the keyboard player, holding a killer blood-red bass guitar... Was it? The camera moved, zeroing in on the lead singer, Joe somebody. Mike felt like throwing something at the widescreen TV, but he turned on the sound instead.
"---Rivergrass is live at the Pavilion tonight." The reporter stuck a microphone in the singer's face.
"Let me introduce the band. Robby Rice on drums. Ken Daughtry on keyboards. Laney MacNamara on the bass---"
That was the last thing Mike heard as he headed for the front door, not even bothering to turn off the TV.
Getting in to the concert proved a bigger challenge than he'd anticipated. Parking was a nightmare anywhere near downtown, especially now that a weekly concert had become a regular occurrence, canceled only because of storms. Mike had to leave the car about a mile away and hike in to the River Park. Walking down Garrison Avenue, music floated out of every other bar or restaurant, wafting along on the early evening humidity. It didn't feel any cooler the closer he got to the River.
Would he be able to see Laney? Would she be glad to see him? Would she even remember him?
Thinking back to the night of their first kiss, Mike lost himself in a dream, only having it knocked out of him by fellow concert-goers. The assembled crowd was dressed in everything from Western chic to Eastern geek, with plenty of standard jeans and cutoffs, T-shirts, and crop tops. Well, it was hot enough for them, at that. He just hoped the heat wouldn't totally destroy the bouquet he'd gotten for Laney at the flower shop down the street right before it closed. That had been hours ago. It already wasn't looking so good.
A few licks and clicks from the drummer, and the concert got underway. Mike blinked. Man, they were good! A minute later, he wondered why he'd thought they wouldn't be. Laney had always been great at music. She must have lucked out at last, getting a band that appreciated her. The crowd ate it up, and Mike found himself smiling, wishing he could get closer to the stage. Well, why not?
A few hundred dancing fans, that was why not. Rivergrass played a combination of bluegrass, newgrass, and Country Pop, and Laney drove every bit of it with a rocking backbeat from her bass. Mike couldn't take his eyes off her. She sang backup on a few of the songs, her face shining with an inner light as the sun went down. She was beautiful. She looked so happy. In her element. Right where she belonged.
Mike made his way through the crowd, being yanked around and danced to by one hopeful redhead. He just smiled at her, nodded once, and kept on going toward the stage.
It took an hour to get there. Forever. No time at all. Time had no meaning. Only Laney and the music existed. If only she knew he was there---but he was just a face in the crowd, the gyrating, cheering, hand-clapping crowd. She'd never see him.
And then it was over. The crowd asked for, and got, two encores, and then the bandleader thanked everyone for coming. People started drifting away. Laney turned around and unplugged the bass, putting it into its fitted flight case with tenderness, coiling the connector cable, turning off the amp. Near her, the rest of the band was breaking down their gear, all of them still wired from the gig. The keyboard player said something that made Laney laugh.
Her laughter pierced through his heart. He hadn't stopped to think that maybe she'd found someone else, a love as well as a career. Maybe he shouldn't have come. If he left now, she'd never have to know.
He turned away from the Pavilion stage, looking for the best path back to the street so he could hike back to his car, the flowers dangling from his hand.
"Mike!"
He froze.
"Mike?"
Laney's voice sounded better than the music had. Mike turned back toward the stage. She was already halfway down the steps.
He held out the wilted bouquet. "These were for you."
"Daisies, roses, and---is that crape myrtle?"
Mike nodded.
Lit from above by the Pavilion lights, she should have been washed out, but Laney looked fresh as a daisy---fresher than the ones he held in his hand, even. She reached out and took them, and the electricity he felt when her hand brushed his was even stronger than it had been when they'd been dating.
"I always wondered about you, whether you got that music career you wanted. I guess I just want to know if you're happy."
"Most of the time. You?"
He echoed her words, searching her face, hungry for any sign that she wanted him back in her life.
Laney smiled, but her eyes were sad. "There's only one thing missing in my exciting career."
"What's that?"
"You."
Mike's heart skipped a beat. "Are you saying there's still a chance for us, after everything that happened?"
"That depends on you. When I spotted you threading your way through the crowd tonight, it gave me hope. You didn't have to come."
"Yes, I did." Mike held out his arms, and as Laney melted into them, his lips found hers in a kiss that was half memory, half promise.
"I don't know how---"
Mike laid a finger on her lips. "We'll worry about how later; along about the time we say ‘I do.'" And he kissed her again.
