Page 58 of What Would Dolly Do?

I realised the host was giving a great big build up to the next person who was due on stage. I’d missed most of what the presenter was saying about the special recognition award and what it was for, but it quickly became very clear that the recipient could only be one very particular person.

‘It is a rare and wonderful thing to have someone who is as loved as she is legendary. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we honour a true American icon – a woman whose words and melodies have moved millions, whose kindness and generosity have changed lives, and whose larger-than-life personality has lit up stages around the world for over six decades …’

Oh My God. It couldn’t be. But it had to be.

Yes it was. As I heard them announce her name, the unmistakeable figure of the one, the only DOLLY PARTON stepped onto the stage.

The audience roared and rose as one to welcome her.

Finally, it was happening, I was in the presence of my Queen, my Idol, my North Star and ultimate inspiration. I thought I might faint.

I gripped Tom’s hand tightly as Dolly addressed the audience, thanking them kindly for whatever honour it was they had just bestowed on her.

I didn’t know what exactly it was and I didn’t much care.

She wore a sparkly golden catsuit, the stage lights glinting and glistening off it as she moved, giving her the appearance of a walking, talking Oscar statuette.

‘Well it’s so sweet of y’all to be so nice to me,’ Dolly said.

‘Y’know I’ve been around such a very long time, or so they tell me.

I always say I’m as old as yesterday but as new as tomorrow so I don’t let it worry me too much.

All I know is it’s taken a lot of love to make a career like mine happen and I wanna thank you all for that love and tell you how much I love y’all too! ’

The Southern charm flowed from her, washing over the rapt audience who hung on her every word. She was everything you would imagine her to be … and more. She was just so … Dolly!

As she thanked the crowd once again and made a move to leave the stage, Tom began to tug at my hand. I was still transfixed, my eyes locked onto Dolly Parton, afraid of missing a moment of her appearance, but Tom’s tugging became more insistent.

‘Reba, come on … we need to move, come on, we don’t have long …’

I had no idea what was happening but I had no choice but to let Tom half drag me out of our row, down the side of the audience and towards a door at the side of the stage.

I stumbled behind Tom rather blindly as my eyes were still fixed on Dolly’s retreating persona as she tottered towards the side of the stage we were heading for.

Before I had time to figure out what Tom was up to, we reached a dead end and a large man wearing an earpiece stepped from the shadows, nodded to us both and opened the door ahead of us. We were heading backstage.

My eyes didn’t adjust to the darkness immediately but Tom appeared to know his way.

Up a few steps, along a short corridor, through a door into another dimly lit passageway and then through another door, and suddenly a rush of air hit us.

We were outside and a few people were milling around a large people carrier that had its engine running.

‘Okay, stand here and get ready,’ Tom pulled me to one side and we looked back towards a huge dock door that was wide open to a loading bay behind us.

I looked around and realised what it was Tom was trying to prepare me for …

Dolly Parton was about to leave the building and for some reason he had placed us directly in her path.

I opened my mouth to question his sanity but before I could speak there was a flurry of activity inside the loading bay.

A huddle of people was moving as one towards us.

All the people around suddenly seemed to jump to attention, car doors were opened, auditorium staff shuffled into place creating a sort of guard of honour and then there she was, the queen herself, thanking folks as she trotted on her tiny feet in sky-high heels towards her waiting car.

She spotted Tom straight away. ‘Well looky here,’ she trilled and slowed her pace as she drew closer looking up into Tom’s face, ‘if it isn’t Mr Tom Coltrane himself.

Hiya handsome, if you’ve come to pay me my royalties for that track I helped you with I told you I don’t want nothin’ from you except to see that gorgeous smile of yours. ’ She was laughing and Tom was too.

‘Hey Dolly,’ he said. ‘I just wanted to say congratulations on your special award.’ He leaned down and kissed her quickly on both cheeks.

‘Thank you, honey,’ she said, ‘and who’s this gorgeous vision?’ Dolly turned her attention to me and gave me a warm smile.

‘Dolly, this is Reba Moon, a very talented singer songwriter and a huge fan of yours.’

It took an enormous amount of self-control to stop myself from dropping a curtsey.

‘It’s so lovely to meet you,’ I told her, surprising myself with the coherent sentence I managed to produce, adding, ‘You … your music … everything … I can’t tell you how much it’s all helped me in my life …

I just want to say … say … thank you.’ I wasn’t making as much sense now but Dolly was smart enough to be able to work out what it was I was trying to say.

‘Aw honey, that’s a lovely thing to hear, thank you.

’ She looked between the two of us then with an amused expression on her face.

‘Look at the two of you, a matching pair of redheads! You look so good together. I’m not usually too fond of folk with flamin’ locks …

! I’ll make an exception for you two though, you look like you belong together.

Now look after yourselves … and each other.

’ With that, and a cheeky wink she stepped towards her car and was gone.

The next thing I remember, I was in the back of the car being driven by Angelo, speeding away from the Bridgestone Arena. Tom had pulled out his phone, punched in a message and within seconds the sleek limo had swung into the loading bay area and picked us up.

I lay my head back against the leather headrest and let out a long breath.

‘You okay?’ Tom sounded concerned.

I opened my eyes and turned my face towards him.

‘Am I okay? … Am I okay? What the hell just happened? What did you just do!?’ I could feel a lump forming in my throat as I considered the situation Tom had just engineered …

for me. ‘Thank you,’ I said in a small, quiet voice.

It seemed totally inadequate really but I didn’t know what else to say.

To have the opportunity to give thanks to Dolly for all she had unknowingly done for me meant so very much to me and Tom seemed to get that, he understood and that also meant the absolute world.

He wrapped his arms around me and held me close. ‘Your face was a picture, for a moment I thought you were going to pass out.’

I started giggling as I pictured passing out at the feet of Dolly Parton. ‘Can you imagine if I’d fallen across her path like I’d been struck by lightning? What would she have thought?’

‘I doubt much phases Dolly, she’d probably have stepped over your comatose body,’ Tom said as we both fell into helpless fits of laughter.

We were still describing increasingly ridiculous scenarios of what could have happened when the car began to slow down and Angelo spoke over his shoulder, asking Tom, ‘Shall I stop here now, sir?’

Tom instantly snapped into a more serious mood, answering, ‘Yes, yes that’s right Angel, my friend. Here is perfect.’

I looked out of the window and recognised we were in the same place where Angelo had parked on the night I first arrived in Nashville. It had been more than two months since then and such a lot of wonderful things had happened in that time.

‘Why have we stopped?’ I didn’t care too much, I was too happy and too in love to mind where I was right now. So long as I was with Tom it felt like everything was just fine.

When he suggested a walk I didn’t bat an eyelid. ‘Yeah, sure,’ I told him and followed him without question as we walked hand in hand along the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River.

It was a lovely way to end a wonderful night. The air was cool under the clear, star-studded November night sky. As we turned to look at the bright lights of the Nashville skyline I gave a little shiver and Tom took off his jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders.

‘Reba.’ I turned to face him as he murmured my name. ‘Reba honey, are you happy?’

I looked into his handsome, mischievous face.

Was he kidding? Happy was a pretty inadequate word for the way I felt right at that moment.

I recalled the first time I’d ever seen him, messing about on the steps of the police station with his police sergeant brother.

Hopefully I’d get to know Pete and his wife Helena very soon as they were coming out to join Laura and Fergus for a big Coltrane family Christmas.

But when I’d first encountered the brothers horsing around I’d jumped to the conclusion that Tom was a villain and a thief, mistaking his playfulness for something bad and not realising how sensitive and deep his songwriter soul really was.

A man who was able to be naughty and funny, yet also soft and emotional; someone who could pour all his feelings into words set to music …

could there be a more attractive kind of man in the whole world?

If there was, I’d never met one, especially one like Tom who was handsome and sexy too.

I took his face in my hands and gave him a long lingering kiss, but when I pulled away I thought he looked a little anxious.

‘Is everything okay?’

Tom didn’t answer me straight away and I was too high and drunk on life for anything to bring my mood down but even so a flicker of a question skittered across my mind.

Was Tom happy? Was everything that had been happening recently only for my benefit?

What about him? What did he want right now?

To be here, in Nashville, with me? Or was he yearning for something, somewhere or someone else?

I soon had my answer. Tom paused and then took a little step back and gave a small smile.

‘Oh Reba, everything is more than okay … and that’s why …

’ He stopped speaking and reached forward.

I thought he was about to pull me towards him but instead he slipped his hand inside his own jacket, which was still resting around my shoulders and his fingers dove into the inside pocket.

Before I knew what he was trying to retrieve he dropped down onto one knee in front of me.

‘Oh!’

Right there on the bridge, with a backdrop of Nashville’s city lights sparkling and twinkling like rhinestones behind him, Tom opened a small black box to reveal the most beautiful diamond ring which glittered and glistened in the starry moonlight.

‘Reba Moon, I love you to the moon and back again, will you marry me?’

He’d taken my breath away and for a second no words would come.

‘D’ya need time to think about it? Maybe consider … what would Dolly do in these circumstances?’ There was mischievous Tom again, teasing me as I stood there, giving me the moment I needed to pull myself together and give him my answer.

‘I don’t think I need Dolly’s help with this one,’ I told him, reaching for him and pulling him to his feet as his jacket fell from my shoulders. ‘I love you so much, Tom, you absolute diamond! Yes … yes … of course I’ll marry you.’