Her Love Came Too Late novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Fourteen Thousand Seats

The arena held fourteen thousand people, and by nine-twenty that night every seat was full.

Elliott stood in the wings behind a black curtain, with Hannah at his shoulder and the captain two rows behind them in the dark.

He had come in through the loading dock at eight-forty.

Nobody had stopped him.

The stage manager had looked at his face, and then at Hannah's badge, and had simply pointed.

Out on the stage Marin stood alone in a long black dress, with one acoustic guitar and a single stool.

The opening number had ended.

The crowd roared, and she let it.

Her face looked pale under the lights, and her hands were steady on the strings.

"Thank you," she said. "This next one you know."

The arena screamed.

She played the opening bars of "Stage Door."

Fourteen thousand people sang the first line back to her.

Elliott had heard them do it from outside a hundred times, through a steel wall.

He had never once heard it from this side.

She sang the first verse, and the chorus, and began the second verse.

It was the verse about a man who offered to carry her coat until the sun came up.

She stopped in the middle of the line.

The guitar went quiet under her hand.

A few voices in the crowd went on singing, and then they faltered.

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