Page 69 of Christmas in Mistletoe
Fran glanced up to see Victoria and Eric walking towards them, Eric with his guitar aloft.
“Get a room, you two!” Victoria shouted.
Ruby narrowed her eyes. “I apologise for my family.”
“Never apologise.” Fran winked, then stepped back. “You look every inch the superstar, too, by the way. Now go out there and break a leg.” She tilted her head. “Not literally, of course. One of those in the family is quite enough for one year.”
* * *
Ruby strummed her guitar twice,then stepped up to the mic. “One, two, Mistletoe!”
The crowd roared back their approval, and a shiver of pride rattled through Fran. Her girlfriend was on stage. From the look on Ruby’s face, she was loving it.
Fran breathed out a sigh of relief.
And relax.
“One, two, Mistletoe!” Ruby said again.
This time, someone in the crowd shouted it right back. Fran scanned the front couple of rows for the instigator, even though she recognised the voice.
Audrey. Sure enough, in seconds Audrey was on her feet, hands in the air. “Everybody!” she shouted. “One, two, Mistletoe!”
Ruby repeated it, then tuned her guitar.
Meanwhile, the crowd, led by the unstoppable Audrey, slowly began to chant. “One, two Mistletoe! One, two, Mistletoe!”
Beside them, Paul and Mary’s faces were a picture. “That’s what I always say!” Paul shouted at Fran’s parents. But he also chanted it right back at his daughter.
“Thank you so much, Mistletoe! This is my first time playing for all the people I love most in the world.” Ruby’s gaze landed on the elevated seated section to her left. She blew them a kiss. “I hope you enjoy my Christmas set.”
She launched into her first song, and the crowd began to sway along, voices loose. Right there in that first song, Ruby came alive. As if she’d been given permission to flourish, to showcase herself, to have fun. She was going to do just that.
Fran could do nothing but grin, just like the rest of Ruby’s family and friends. The looks on their faces were priceless. They knew what Ruby could do, but they almost never saw her perform. Tonight was the culmination of all those gigs Ruby had done, all the hours of practise she’d put in. Even the gig that had gone so wrong. It hadn’t diminished her. Ruby was born for the bigger stage. Bigger than the one she was on.
Five songs in and the crowd were going wild, Audrey now silenced, everyone hanging on Ruby’s every word. Ruby’s fingers dazzled on her guitar, and Fran’s mind jumped forward to what they might do to her later. Heat stole over her at the thought.
“Thank you so much!” Ruby shook her head as she scanned the courtyard. She looked like she couldn’t believe where she was. She also looked the most content Fran had ever seen her.
“I cannot believe I’m playing the courtyard where I grew up. I’ve built snowmen on this ground. I’ve scraped my knee, drunk too much mulled wine. I think I may have even thrown up in that corner over there. Don’t worry, Mum made me clean it up.” Ruby waited for the laughter to die down. “I want to say thank you to everyone for being here, and for supporting Mistletoe Christmas Tree Farm. Please order your trees for next year. But mostly, thank you to the people who made this all possible. My parents, my brother and sister, my wonderful brother-in-law, Eric, on the guitar.” She waited for the clapping to die down. “And also, to Fran Bell for dreaming it up in the first place.”
Fran stilled. She hadn’t expected a shout-out. She glanced at her parents who were giving her wide puppy eyes. Happiness danced through her. Ruby was so far from Delilah, just as Damian had said. With her, Fran could be out, be herself. She wasn’t a dirty secret with Ruby. It made all the difference.
“Now, I’d like to play you my new song which is very special to me. Very personal. And I want to dedicate it to a remarkable person in the crowd. She knows who she is.”
Fran’s stomach rolled. She gritted her teeth and held it together. Ruby had dedicated her new song to her. Emotion bubbled up inside her. Fran wasn’t a crier, but if she had been, this would have been the time. Instead, she grabbed her phone from her pocket, turned it onto Ruby and hit record.
When Ruby began to sing, the crowd hushed. By the middle eight, she had them in the palm of her hand. When Ruby hit the high notes, Fran swooned. Everyone was glued to Ruby’s every breath. Fran made sure her hand was steady, as she got every note of the song, plus the crowd’s reaction when it ended.
Fran knew stardom when she saw it. Ruby had it, the elusive ‘thing’ that all labels looked for. She could be a folk/pop crossover like so many before her. But she had to want it.
Fran glanced down at the video, then shared it on her Instagram feed.
If nothing else, her followers could hear it and marvel, too.
* * *
The crowd were still baskingin the afterglow of the gig, and her public weren’t keen to let Ruby go. She’d threaded her hour-and-20-minute set with her own songs, a smattering of Christmas favourites plus some folk classics, and it had gone down a storm. Ruby had hugged Audrey and Norman, chatted to farm staff and locals alike, and now she was with her family.
