This brought a devilish grin to Finn’s face. “Winner gets to pick the song.”

Zadie hesitated momentarily. “Fine.”

The cowboy belted out his last “I’ll be okay” and the instrumental faded out. A woman with teased blond hair stepped onto the stage to take his place and he handed her the mic with a small nod. Zadie zeroed in on the woman and waited for a premonition to come knocking. But nothing happened.

Zadie blinked hard and tried again. Every muscle in her body clenched from concentration, even her bones felt the strain, but it was not enough. Whatever magic had been working through her minutes ago was now out to lunch.

“Well?”

“Well, nothing. You win,” she said, defeated.

Finn slid her a glass of water. “Here. You’ll need this.” Zadie took a huge gulp and tried not to think about all the ways she could potentially humiliate herself.

Four songs later, it was Zadie’s turn to perform. Thankfully, only a handful of people were looking in her direction. Most of the patrons were understandably more interested in the bottles in their hands than the woman standing uncomfortably onstage clearing her throat for the third time.

“Woooo!” called a voice from the back of the room—Finn’s, obviously. For some reason, this show of support succeeded only in making Zadie more nervous, and she inadvertently heaved a shuddering breath into the microphone. How did Mom used to do this every week? she thought helplessly.

The instrumental track began to play. Zadie thought back to Nora and her singing along to “Piece of My Heart” by Janis Joplin as they drove home from a swim lesson at the YMCA. The memory was so strong, she could almost smell the chlorine.

“‘Didn’t I make you feel…’” Zadie began timidly.

She had belted it out at the top of her lungs, wet tendrils of hair dripping on the leather seat. Nora rolled down the windows, and Zadie sang into the street like her life was a musical. She hadn’t sung like that in years. She wasn’t as talented as her mom, but she was better than this, better than the shrinking violet who was being drowned out by her own instrumental track. So she closed her eyes—

—and sang. “‘Take it!’”

A few more heads turned in her direction. She spotted Finn dancing along in her seat. Zadie could feel her body start to move with the music, too.

Zadie was pretty sure she was enjoying herself. She felt free. It didn’t matter that barely anyone was paying attention to her. In fact, it was better that way. In that moment, she was singing out an open window, hair flying behind her, with no audience but the passing cars.