Page 43 of What Would Dolly Do?

‘I don’t know, Laura, I do have feelings for Tom, strong feelings, but I don’t want anyone thinking I’m using him for my own career. I don’t want him thinking that.’

‘Has he ever accused you of that? Has he ever said he thinks that you’re using him?’

I recalled the row we’d had at my flat. I shuddered at the memory of me calling him a ‘has-been’.

‘You said that to his face?’ Laura went pale as I tried to describe the argument.

‘I think “washed-up loser” was the phrase I actually used’.

‘What did he say?’

Try as I might I couldn’t really remember Tom throwing anything back at me about using him, riding on his coat tails or exploiting our relationship to make my own name.

‘He said some nasty things, called me a loose cannon, said I was gullible and needed to be more careful who I trusted. He also said if I didn’t take my chances now I’d end up back being a two-bit copycat Dolly Parton.’

Laura didn’t hesitate: ‘Harsh maybe, but fair,’ was her verdict.

‘Ouch!’

‘I get that he was lashing out at you a bit unfairly for all the stuff in the press but you have to see how awful it is for him to have his private life dragged through the mud all the time. He’s never really got used to that and I don’t think he ever will, he’s much too sensitive.

The two-bit Dolly line is rude but that’s only because he knows you’ve got so much potential.

He was going about it all wrong but he was trying to give you a kick up the arse and bring you properly into his world.

He wanted you to go to Nashville with him so badly. ’

‘He said that?’

Laura drained the last of her Guinness. ‘I haven’t been completely honest with you either, Reba.

It’s true Tom doesn’t know I’m here and he hasn’t asked me to come to see you but he has told me something and, well, he knows what I’m like so I think he knew I would tell you.

I know he wants me to tell you.’ She leaned forward and lowered her voice.

‘Tom was serious about wanting you to go with him to Nashville. I think it came out all wrong and the moment was spoiled.’

‘I laughed in his face and sort of threw him out. I thought he’d come to break up with me and was just making a hash of it.

’ An uncomfortable feeling was creeping up my spine as I replayed those moments in my mind.

How differently it all could have worked out if we’d both just handled it better.

Had I thrown a once in a lifetime opportunity away for the sake of my pride?

‘I get that but there’s now an offer on the table that you really can’t ignore.’

I leaned towards Laura. ‘I’m listening.’

‘Tom’s record company love “Moonlight Home”, the song you duetted on.

They want to throw everything behind it and make it the biggest hit Tom’s had in a long while.

They also love the quality your voice gives it, that ethereal sense your harmony brings and the genuine feeling that your voice is guiding Tom’s through the darkness. ’

‘Are you working for the marketing department?’ As usual I was using humour as a shield to hide behind. Laura ignored me and ploughed on.

‘There have been a few offers for you and Tom to perform the song live, the record company and Tom’s manager think it would make a huge difference to sales to secure an exclusive performance and, of course, it would help increase interest in any solo material from Reba Moon too.’

I could understand that Laura wanted to do everything she could to help her brother, support his career and maybe even get us back on track too, but if he really wanted me to sing with him again maybe I needed to hear it from him directly. Shouldn’t he have the guts to ask me himself?

‘Didn’t you block all his calls?’

Ahh, yes, I had to admit Laura made a very good point, and then she said something that blew my mind completely. ‘It’s The Grand Ole Opry. The Grand Ole Opry want you and Tom to perform “Moonlight Home”.’

It took a minute for the whooshing noise in my ears to subside as my brain exploded.

The Grand Ole Opry, the legendary home of American country music for almost one hundred years, was inviting me to appear?

The place that launched the careers of everyone from Johnny Cash to Garth Brooks and of course the country music queen herself, Dolly Parton.

I’d grown up reading about it as if it were the stuff of legends.

The Opry had started as a simple radio show in 1925 and was broadcast weekly from the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville.

By the seventies its popularity and influence meant it had outgrown the modest theatre and a purpose-built concert arena was built on the outskirts of Nashville to accommodate the thousands of devoted fans who wanted to experience The Opry magic for themselves.

I knew the new stage was constructed with a perfect wooden circle taken from the old Ryman Auditorium embedded in the centre so that an authentic piece of the original magic was present in The Opry’s enormous new home.

I couldn’t comprehend that there might now be a real chance for me to stand in the spotlight on that magical circle just like all the country music artists I adored had done before me.

Laura was watching the emotions flooding across my face. I didn’t know what was going to happen between me and Tom but faced with this opportunity there was only one thing I could possibly say, so I told her,

‘Tell Tom I’ll be there.’