Meant to Marry Me: Nashville Country Dreams Part 1 novel Chapter 16

Two Years Later....

Bright lights had Bree blinking, but that was all right. This was the biggest audience she’d ever performed in front of. Over five hundred people dotted the auditorium in front of her. It was all surreal. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. She couldn’t wait to start her songs.

After graduating with her degree in musical arts a few months ago, Bree had taken a chance and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, one of the most popular places in the world to live if you were a musician and/or a songwriter. She was both. Now, after a huge amount of marketing and networking, here she was opening for a band at a local theater. Crawfish was a great band, up and coming on the country music scene, and Bree was thrilled to have this opportunity.

“Good evening, everyone,” she said, hearing her voice shaking slightly. She cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and smiled. It was hard to be nervous when you were smiling. “How are y’all doing tonight?”

The crowd roared. They were clearly ready to hear some music. “Great! I’m so unbelievably happy to be here with you. My name is Bree Mathews, and I’m going to play you a few songs. This first one is one I wrote a few years ago for my mama, it’s called, ‘Rock Me in Your Arms.’”

Once again, the people in front of her cheered, and Bree tried not to look surprised. It was as if some of them actually knew who she was and were familiar with her music. It was possible. She had almost a hundred thousand followers on her YouTube channel, and all of her videos got lots of likes and comments. They were mostly her sitting in her apartment, playing her guitar, or live sets at the clubs and bars she was still gigging at, but it was awesome to think perhaps a few of these people were there to see her.

She started playing her guitar, all by herself, as she had been doing since she and Sam split almost a year ago. Immediately, the crowd in front of her faded away, and it was just Bree and her guitar. When she began to sing, a hush came over the auditorium as everyone listened, and a freedom soared through her veins like nothing she’d ever experienced before.

“Rock me in your arms.

Keep me safe from harm.

Though the night is dark,

I can hear your heart

Beating, beating, beating in my ear.

And I know you’ll be there.

Whenever I call,

And I’ll never fall

As long as you rock me in your arms….”

With the reverberation of the last chord, the audience went wild with cheers. Bree couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” She tuned her guitar while she spoke, explaining that the next song had been written one night when she was lost on the way to a gig. She played, “I Will Find You,” and everyone loved that song, too.

For the next thirty minutes, Bree played four more songs that she’d written and did a cover of “Landslide” by Stevie Nicks that got a huge response. This was the most fun she’d ever had, and she was so thankful to have gotten this opportunity. If she never walked on another stage again, she’d keep these memories forever. But, hopefully, this was the beginning of many years of success for her.

“This last song I’m gonna sing tonight is one so close to my heart. I wrote it for a boy I used to know, one I haven’t seen in a long time. One I thought I could love. This is called, ‘Meant to Marry Me.’”

Every time Bree played the song she’s written for Trent, emotion overcame her. She hadn’t ever actually cried on stage, but she knew part of the charm of the song was the fact that it struck home with her, so it did with the audience as well.

She put her entire heart into her performance and was fairly sure that others were singing along with her, especially on the chorus. When she got to the last line, she sang, “Baby, you were meant to marry me,” and let the guitar ring out.

It was silent. The audience was quiet, her guitar strings stopped vibrating, and the entire room was still. Bree held her breath and waited. Had they hated it? Had she messed up? Did the microphone fail? Then, as if everyone exhaled at the same time, a huge applause broke across the crowd. Everyone was cheering, whistling, clapping, shouting her name. She could hardly believe it! With her cheeks bright red from the realization that she’d made so many people that happy, Bree thanked them all and then headed off stage, still unable to register how excited everyone was to hear her play.

As she walked off, Howard Alvord, the lead singer for Crawfish stopped her. “Man, that was something else! Great job, girl,” he said, giving her a high-five. “Did you write that song?”

“I did,” Bree said, grinning up at the man with wild, dark hair that hung past his shoulders.

“Killer! You’re going to be big someday. You keep writing songs like that, and Crawfish will be opening for you one day!”

“Wow--thank you Mr. Alvord,” she said, bowing her head at the kind words.