Chapter 26

26

Kara

I have never been so nervous in my life, which is causing my stomach to not play along. I have to get a handle on my body if I’m going to be able to perform tonight.

“Okay, I have some papaya enzymes, some Pepto-Bismol, and some ginger tea that I thought would help,” Nikki says as she enters the dressing room, where I’m standing at the counter, taking deep inhales and exhales so I don’t throw up.

I love her gesture, but I don’t think I have time to take anything right now.

I shake my hands out and pace the room. “Why am I feeling like this?”

Silas engulfs me in his strong arms. “Don’t stress. Just breathe. You got this.”

I curl my arms into my chest and let him hold me like this. Feeling his warmth wrapped around me is the most comforting thing I’ve felt all day. Normally, when we hug, it’s me holding him just as much as he holds me, but right now, it’s like he’s taken complete control and he’s giving all his strength to me. In his arms, my fear and worries slip away because I know I have his support, no matter what happens.

He motions to release me, and I whimper, shaking my head and curling into his body more. Instead of letting me go, he holds me tighter, placing his chin on my head and allowing me to just be there with him.

The stagehand peeks his head in to let me know, “You’re up!”

Silas doesn’t say a word, just holds me, giving me these last few breaths before I nod and allow him to release me. Before I walk away completely, he places his hands around the nape of my neck, kissing me in the way I love most, then placing his forehead to mine.

“Go be amazing out there.”

I close my eyes, take one more deep breath, and nod. “Thank you.” He kisses my forehead. “Let’s do this!”

Nikki squeals as she claps and bounces on the balls of her feet. “My girl! So proud of you.”

We hug, and I reach for Silas’s hand one more time, giving it a tight squeeze, then head out the door to my destiny.

I try not to think about anything as I walk out on that stage. My parents wanted to experience the entire show, so instead of being with me backstage, they are sitting in the front row. At first, I was kind of sad they didn’t want to be backstage, but now that I’m walking out, I am so happy they are there to greet me, comforting me in that way.

My mom jumps up in her seat, making me laugh since everyone else is nowhere near as excited as she is for me to start the show.

“Hello, everybody!” I announce into the microphone. “I’m Kara Parsons, and as you can tell, these are my parents, sitting in the front row.” I point to my mom, who is still clapping wildly, making everyone laugh and clap, which calms me down a little. “I’m originally from Ohio, and this is their first time in Nashville, so why don’t we show them how these country concerts are really supposed to be?”

This gets the crowd pumped a little more as I strum my first note and get the party started with an old Shania Twain classic—“Man! I Feel Like a Woman.”

As I play, the crowd gets more engaged, and I get more pumped. Being onstage is truly what I live for. The energy up here is unlike anything you can experience anywhere else. I feel so alive and free as I do what I love for a crowd bigger than I ever imagined.

“Whew!” I say after finishing a song and needing to take a drink of water and catch my breath.

I take this moment and really watch the crowd. I’ve been to concerts where opening acts get zero love and no one pays attention to them, but that is not the case right now. Everyone is focused on me, dancing in their seats and hollering out.

I glance down at my mom, who is losing her mind with tears streaming down her face.

“I hope you guys don’t mind if I do something I didn’t plan tonight,” I say into the microphone. “You see, I haven’t lived in Nashville long, and when I moved here, my parents were nothing but supportive, so as I stand here and look down at them, I want to do something special and bring them both up onstage tonight.”

This gets a better response than I ever imagined, and I can’t help but laugh when my mom’s eyes open wide, and she shakes her head.

“Looks like they’re a little shy. Can we give them some encouragement?”

The crowd cheers even louder as the security guard offers to guide them up onstage.

“Here we go!” I say as we wait for them to walk up.

We hug, then, with my arm around my mom, I say into the microphone, “These are my parents. Parents, this is everyone.” I motion to the crowd, who cheers for them. “My dad here has always called me his baby girl after the Sugarland song, so how about we play that for them tonight?”

The crowd hollers as I strum the first chord and fight back my own tears when I see them falling down my dad’s face.

I change the lyrics of playing here at the bar tonight to playing here at Ascend tonight , which gets the crowd to cheer even more.

Then, at the end, when I sing, “ Dreams come true ,” my voice cracks as I look at both of them, so I laugh, eliciting the crowd to cheer the loudest they have tonight.

I swing my guitar behind me and hug both of them.

“Okay, okay, okay.” I shoo them away playfully as I wipe my eyes. “Crying isn’t going to help me finish the show.”

I hear everyone laugh and am filled with so much joy as the crowd screams and shares in our excitement of the moment.

“Let’s get this show back on track, but how about we bring out a few other people as well?”

The back curtain, which is hiding all of Sweetwater’s equipment, opens up, and the three musicians who are joining me come out onstage, getting the crowd even more pumped up.

“You guys don’t mind if they join me for a few songs, do you?” I ask and laugh at the response I get as I put my guitar down and grab the microphone in one hand.

“How about we play another Shania Twain song? Then, I’ll do another original too. What do you guys think about ‘Any Man of Mine’?”

Not having to play the guitar gives me so much more freedom to bounce around the stage, making the experience so much more fun. I move from one side to the next, engaging both sides of the stage, and I smile so big when I spot Katy and Luna jumping up and down on the right side a few rows back. I wave at them during a break in the song, then get back to the other side of the stage.

At the end of the song, when the lyrics break down a country line dance, I do the moves as I sing the song, which is probably the most fun I’ve ever had onstage.

When the song is over, I open my arms wide for everyone to cheer on the band, and they all point back at me, making me laugh even harder.

“Thank you all so much for being here with me tonight. I have one more song. It’s an original, so I hope you enjoy it just as much as I do.”

The crowd stays on their feet, clapping and happily anticipating the next song.

To my surprise, there’s zero falloff in crowd engagement as I sing a song they’ve never heard before. They all still clap and dance along, and when it’s over, there’s not one person who is sitting. Everyone is cheering and clapping above their heads with people whistling and screaming their appreciation for the show.

“Thank you all for being here tonight!” I wave my goodbye and walk off the stage and directly into Silas’s arms, who picks me up and swings me around.

“You were amazing out there!”

“Did you hear them? They were cheering so loud!”

“Hell yeah, they were! They loved you. I knew they would.”

I hug him again, still in awe of how amazing this night has been and not sure how my life could possibly get any better than this.