Chapter 24: Credits

Linnea's POV

The first line of notebook thirty-five said: "For the man who sang them all."

Abel had read it in the garage with the sun on his shoulders, and he had not said anything for a long time.

Three weeks later, on a gray Tuesday in December, I walked into the Chapel at nine in the morning with that notebook under my arm.

The shelf above the console was full again.

Thirty-four spines sat in a row, with a gap at the end, and I slid number thirty-five into it.

The engineer was at the board in his tie.

He looked up and gave me a nod, and I nodded back.

On the console lay a stack of proof sleeves from the printer.

I picked up the top one.

The cover of the new album was a photograph of the Chapel steps in the snow, and nothing else.

On the back, under the song list, small and black and plain, it said:

"Words and music by Linnea Sorrell. Lead vocal by Abel Tennant."

I ran my thumb over the line.

"It looks right," Calla said from the stairs.

She sat on the third step with a mug of tea, in a green cardigan, and her hair pulled back.

She'd signed with us in November, as an artist.

I had written her four songs, in her own range, and they fit her voice.

"Do you want to hear the first one?" she said. "I did it twice. The second time I didn't flinch."

"I want to hear all of them."

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