A Song for the Season

Under Pressure

Just outside Kingsport, the group stops for dinner at a squat brick barbecue restaurant with a live honky-tonk band and air that smells of hickory smoke. The food and the music are both great, but Tenney can barely enjoy either because she’s still stewing over Logan. He barely speaks beyond asking their server for the Wi-Fi password before burying himself in his phone, stuffing his face like it’s a contest.

By the time they reach the hotel, a freezing wind cuts through the parking lot. The lobby glitters with a Christmas tree beside a table of hot cider and cookies. It’s cozy compared to the van with a sulking Logan, who parks himself on a couch, eyes on his phone. Tenney checks her own phone and finds texts from Jaya, including a selfie with Holliday making pouty “sad” faces and captioned “We miss you!!” Another shows the two of them in matching elf hats, sipping hot chocolate. She texts back, aching with homesickness.

To distract herself, Tenney goes to ask Dad and Zane about squeezing in some bowling before the next show. Instead, she catches the tail end of a different conversation. Zane worries their offstage tension will follow them onstage, and doubts they’re ready to record an album together. Dad admits the two are seeming to get under each other’s skin more than usual. Tenney freezes, realizing they mean her.

Zane hands Dad a room key, cautioning that the two kids could implode before they even start recording. Dad lets out a sigh. Tenney, caught off guard, decides she needs to talk to Logan.

Tenney spots Logan near the elevators, his coat hood up, tapping at his phone. He startles, and she glimpses his younger brother, Jude, on a video call. Logan holds up a finger, turns away, and lowers his voice. After a couple of minutes, Tenney hears him murmur that he’ll see Jude in a couple of days. And then they hang up.

Tenney asks him if everything is okay. Logan, pushing his hood off his head, simply says that Jude wants him to come home. She can’t tell if he’s sad or frustrated or angry, or a mixture of all three. Tenney starts to respond, but Logan pushes past her.

Torn between confronting him and worrying that more conflict could cost them the album, Tenney decides to stay quiet for now. She follows Logan back to the lobby, where Dad and Zane study both their faces as everyone wheels suitcases toward the elevators. Tenney forces her biggest smile, hoping to convince the adults everything is fine.

Back in the room, Dad turns on a movie while Tenney changes into pajamas, trying not to replay what she overheard. Once the credits roll and Tenney switches off her lamp, sleep won’t come. She keeps thinking about the songs she and Logan worked so hard to write, and how close they are to losing the chance to record them.

“Everything okay, sweetheart?” Dad asks. Tenney admits only that she’s having trouble winding down, since it’s Zane she needs to convince, not Dad. He tells her tomorrow’s show is a big one and to clear her mind. And then he switches off his bedside lamp. Long after, Tenney lies awake, certain she and Logan need to be great at each of the three shows still ahead if they want any shot at proving themselves to Zane.