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Another knock on the door drew their attention. It opened and a gal wearing a headset leaned inside. “Thirty minutes to curtain, Miss Hart.” She withdrew, then leaned in once more. “Oh. You said you wanted an update on those VIP tickets you requested at the box office?”
Emma froze, then her eyes darted to Jessica and back to the woman at the door. “Yes,” she rasped.
“I believe they were picked up five minutes ago.”
Jessica spun around with bright eyes and a sharp laugh. “You hear that? He got them.”
Emma’s whole body shook. Her heart pounded erratically. “It doesn’t mean anything,” she whispered. “It could be anyone.”
“Anyone named Caleb Keagan.” Jessica grabbed Emma’s hands and jumped up and down. “He’s here, Em! He came. That has to mean something.”
Emma pulled her hands from her sister’s grasp. They were still trembling, and she couldn’t tell if she was breathing. Maybe she was dreaming. Still, she couldn’t allow herself to believe what she’d been told. The woman was long gone, so she couldn’t get any additional details. Emma shook her head again. “Don’t you think there could be another Caleb Keagan in a hundred-mile radius? Maybe it’s a more common name than I thought.”
“But you gave them his phone number to have them verify.”
She was right.
Emma’s legs tingled with a more intense numbness. She was quickly losing control of her faculties. This was her chance—the one she’d been praying for.
Caleb was here.
She closed her eyes and took in a shuddering breath. As much as she wanted to believe he was here to see her, she had to be realistic. There was still a very good chance that Caleb had only come because his sister wanted him to. He might have come to get additional closure.
Would she be able to handle it if he bought tickets only to tell her that he didn’t want her using the song he wrote?
Her stomach lurched with a new kind of anxiety. She shot out of her seat and shook her hands as she paced. “What if he doesn’t care for me anymore?”
“What are you talking about? He came to see you.”
She spun to face her sister. “But what if he only came to tell me he doesn’t want anything to do with me or the song? What if he wants to claim copyright for the music? I already have it in the album that’s releasing tonight.”
“Would he do that?”
Emma didn’t think so, but anything was possible. She couldn’t predict anything at this moment. She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Then don’t worry about it,” Jessica insisted. She stepped toward Emma and took her hands to stop Emma’s pacing. “All you can do is go out there and sing. That’s what everyone is here to see anyway, right? You can do this.”
Emma nodded. Her sister was right. Whatever was going to happen would happen. She had a team of lawyers at the ready if there was a problem. She closed her eyes briefly, took in a deep breath, then nodded as she opened her eyes. “Okay.”
Bright lights flooded the stage.Fans screamed. Everyone backstage hustled and spoke through their headsets. Beneath the floor of the platform, Emma sat on a simple stool, her acoustic guitar in hand.
Caleb’s Songwas originally planned for the second half of the concert, but Emma made the change at the last minute. If Caleb was here, she wanted him to know how she felt. It took everything inside her to push aside all the feelings of self-doubt and get on that stool.
Any second now she’d be lifted onto the stage and the lights would go down with only one shining on her. She wouldn’t be able to see him, she knew that. All she could do was hope that he was paying attention—and that he was there for her.
Emma wouldn’t have been surprised if her mic picked up her pounding heart. For the first time in a long while, she was nervous. So many scenarios played in her head, but there was only one that could bring her peace, and that was the one she latched onto.
“Okay, Miss Hart,” a voice said in her earpiece. “You’re on in five… four… three…” The floor beneath her lurched upward. Screaming voices and cheers reached her as the ceiling overhead split open and she was bathed in light.
She stared out into the dark expanse of the audience. For a brief moment, she had to focus on taking a deep breath. Then she shoved aside all the thoughts that threatened to drag her down and she put on her smile. “Hello, Colorado Springs!”
The crowd went wild. Phone camera lights flickered through the waves of people. Shouts and screams filled the air. Emma waved a hand, and they quieted down.
“The last couple of months has been quite a wild ride, hasn’t it?”
More cheers.
“I know!” She laughed, but on the inside she wished she could see him, know where he was. “There was some craziness a few months back. I don’t know if you heard about it.” She glanced around at the silhouettes of those in attendance. “Let me tell you, those few months I was MIA were some of the best I’ve had in my entire life.” Her voice grew solemn. “I met some of the very best people I could have ever hoped to meet. One in particular…” Her voice broke. “He stole my heart.”
