Strung Tight (The Road To Rocktoberfest #1) - Ann Lister Page 0,70

was ready to tell me, he would. In the meantime, I wasn’t about to pry into his personal shit. I watched him grab his clothes from the bathroom and start to get dressed. I let him do his thing and began picking up any trace we’d been inside the bus—even did my best to fix the bed and make it look like we hadn’t spent an hour fucking around all over it.

When Dallas was fully dressed, he found me in the bedroom holding the trashcan. He held out his hand for it and wiggled his fingers.

“I’ll empty that in the kitchen trash if that’s okay?” Dallas asked me. “It’ll be out of sight that way.”

I handed him the bucket and started to pull on my clothes. I met him in the living room, and he stepped into my space and kissed me slow and easy. “This was a really good night,” he said. “I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did.”

I wrapped my arms around him, not wanting to let him go. “Probably more than you did,” I said and smiled against his lips. “In fact, I can’t wait to do it again.”

“Me too,” Dallas agreed and kissed me one last time. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Our last rehearsal before the show,” I said.

Dallas patted my chest. “You’re going to rock this show, Fletch. Mark my words.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Our last rehearsal was more of a meeting than playing music. I think we needed to talk and vent about the show more than have an actual practice session with instruments. We discussed our positions on the stage and went over the cues and setlist again. Our techs were brought in at one point to confirm when we were switching out guitars and whatnot with them. The lighting techs were also there to go over some of the special effects. Then Dagger threw yet another surprise at us, which damn near knocked us all on our asses.

“Okay, so let’s talk about the end of your encore,” Dagger said.

“Are you sure there will even be an encore?” Mike said and chuckled.

“There will definitely be a two- to-three-song encore,” Dagger confirmed with his laser focus aimed at Mike. “I want you to end with ‘Strung Tight.’”

“I thought that was going to be the first song of the encore?” I asked.

“Remember how I said our goal is to leave your audience wanting more when you walked off that stage?” Dagger asked. “We’re going to give them their happy ending with ‘Strung Tight.’”

“You really think that song is strong enough to accomplish that?” Potter asked.

“Not only am I certain that song will work magic with the crowd, but I’m also going on record now by saying that song is powerful enough to be your first hit single,” Dagger said with conviction. “When we get back from Nevada, that’s the song you’ll record first and upload to YouTube and send out to the radio stations.”

“Seriously?” Dixon asked.

I thought it was kind of strange that Dagger felt so strongly about that particular song when the rest of us didn’t share the same feeling. But he was a genius when it came to shit like this, so I put my faith in his ability to see something here that we were missing.

“There’s one more detail I want to add to the end of ‘Strung Tight,’” Dagger hedged a bit but then looked us all in the eye, one after the other, as he collected his thoughts. “At the last bridge of the song when Mike fades off with the two measures of snare rhythm, I have an eight-person choir that’s going to walk in from the side of the stage and sing backup on the last quarter of the song.”

“What?” I shouted, not meaning to be so loud and jumped to my feet, nearly tipping my chair over in the process. “A church choir?”

“But we haven’t rehearsed with them, and we’re leaving tomorrow for the event,” Mike said.

“How do they even know our song?” Dixon asked.

“What parts would they be singing?” Potter piped in.

“We’re not religious, and neither is this song,” I added, and I ought to know since I was the one who wrote the damn piece.

Dagger waved his hands to get us to quiet down. “Let me explain this better,” he began. “These are more like bluesy gospel singers, and their sound will blend perfectly with the tone of the song. Trust me on this.”

“If they’re so great, then why haven’t we rehearsed with