Page 20 of Protecting Her

“What’s all the fuss about?” one commenter asked, and about twenty more responded with, “Wait for it.”

Ember soon came back to the stage to a large round of applause and began to play again. The fiddler joined in, and then the drums. It was just enough to give the song a kick, and I decided the band behind her had to be the ones to play with Ember. They’d all meshed together perfectly, and every instrument brought something evocative to the song.

“Book them too,” I told Mark, and the commenters on my phone agreed. I laughed and went back to watching the woman I’d finally realized I loved.

She might forget me once she was a superstar. That thought came out of nowhere to torment me. I decided I’d just have to be the man she needed me to be. That was all I could do. As long as she was happy with the world, that was all I cared about.

I watched for the rest of her set and waited until the moment when I could go back to her. I wanted to protect her from the world, but at the same time, I wanted to give her to the world. It was an odd road to be on, but it was the one I’d chosen for myself the moment I heard her sweet voice in the park. She deserved whatever the world could give her. I’d just given the world a star, I knew it deep in my bones.

Now, I just had to protect her from it. There were a lot of cheats in this business, people who would take advantage of her and throw her away once they’d wrung every dime they could out of her. I didn’t want that. I wanted to give her everything instead.

And as she sang her last song, a song about finding love at last, I knew she was the one. That one. The final and best one. The woman I’d spend the rest of my life with. It didn’t bother me a bit. I’d suspected it from the start, but knew it for sure now. Ember was the woman of my dreams, and the one I’d spend the rest of my life with.

Ember

“I’m busy tomorrow, can we make it sometime next week?” My head was turned down to hear my phone against my shoulder as I typed into my laptop.

I’d bought it with my earnings two months ago. I could afford it now, especially when Kevin increased my pay every single week. It had been almost three months since that first awesome night on the stage, and I barely had a moment of peace anymore.

I was on the phone with a local radio host now who wanted to interview me. I had a lot of requests for that now. I also had a lot of managers, agents, and producers knocking on the door to my dressing room. I turned them all down. I wasn’t ready for that yet, but the interviews would help the bar. Those I went on.

I’d gone from filling the bar with patrons of the hotel to having a crowd of people from the area coming in too. They’d had to add more seats as word of my songs spread around town. I was sure a lot of people were talented in this town, it was one of the main reasons it existed, after all, but everybody said there was something special about me.

I could barely take it all in, but tried my best to. At times, Kevin would disappear, but it was business, and he’d always come back, hungrier for me than ever. Those were the nights he got really wild and blew my mind.

I couldn’t help but grin as I brushed a stray lock of hair out of my face. I had it clipped up in a messy knot on my head and had on a simple zip up bathrobe of dark blue terrycloth. I looked terrible, but I knew if Kevin walked in the door right now, he’d still think I was the most beautiful woman on earth.

Except for the infrequent disappearing acts he’d pull, everything was perfect. I didn’t have anything to worry about, and life was grand. I’d never been happier, and I didn’t want to scratch at the surface too much. Less than three months wasn’t very long, and I’d decided to let the relationship develop as it wanted to. I didn’t push for declarations of love or make plans for the future. I just lived for the day, and today, I had decided to have some downtime before my set this evening.

I’d been going non-stop all this time, with only a day or two off when I had to have one. I was working hard to reach my goals, and right now, my goal was to give my all to the contract that would be up soon. We hadn’t discussed what came next, but I knew Kevin had plans for my future. If his brothers would stop bugging him all the time, we might find time to talk about the future. In between sex.

That made me giggle more than I should have. I wanted to make an album, something that was solid and that I could hold in my hands. The bar had a YouTube site, and my songs were already making us all money, but I wanted more. I wanted a real contract and to go on tour. In the future. I wasn’t in a huge rush. I wanted to make sure Kevin was paid back what I owed him, and I knew he wanted to be part of my future, but I was getting antsy. Those trips away.

He wouldn’t call me while he was away. He’d said often that he was too busy to think most of the time much less to call me, and when he walked out of the office he was too exhausted. That was why he was so desperate for me when he came back. That made me feel good, that he wanted me so much, but it didn’t really help me when I wanted to talk to him about important things.

I could feel my face droop, and I went to pour myself a glass of wine. It was a dessert wine, so I wouldn’t get tipsy until the second glass. Depending how much I filled the glass, I thought with a snicker. I had a feeling I’d be alone until it was time to go downstairs, so I could have a nap before I showered and went down anyway. One glass wouldn’t be a problem.

I scrolled through the website that had been set up for me and saw the page visits had increased. A lot. My name was spreading, and that started a warm glow in my chest. People had started to notice me. That wasn’t a bad thing. I’d never let myself dream before, but now I’d been given permission to do just that. I had started to dream big, but only Kevin knew that. Only Kevin knew my innermost thoughts.

He knew I wanted to go back to England, to perform there, in the place where I’d finally been noticed. Where I’d been at the lowest point in my life before one incredible man changed it all. He knew I wanted to sing at festivals, at bars, on a stage, as the main act. He knew all of that.

But not a single other person did or would. Those were my secrets. I knew he’d keep them.

I hummed as I flipped from the website to my Facebook page. I had a lot of friend invites from people I didn’t know, messages from men who wanted to give me babies, and fans who really wanted to connect. It was strange what some people would do online, I’d come to find out. Luckily, this wasn’t my personal page, and I allowed most of the people who'd sent requests. I’d weed out the bad ones over time.

I hummed an old song under my breath as I sipped at my wine and went to my Twitter feed, also a public account, not my private one. A lot of new people there, and a whole lot of tweets about how much people had enjoyed my shows and the hotel. Alright, good marketing for both of us. I smiled happily and wished Kevin were here. I really missed him when he was gone, and couldn’t wait for him to get back.

My phone buzzed, and I saw it was one of the women who acted as a bartender downstairs. They’d had to hire another one to keep up, and she and I clicked really well. “What’s up, girl?”

“Honey, you wouldn’t believe what just walked in down here. A load of women from the UK. They all want to know about the great and wonderful Ember!” Sarah said, her voice low. I knew she must be on a break.

“What? People over there have heard about me?” I felt a tingle start in my toes and work its way up. Then it kind of simmered down when I thought about Graham. I wondered if he’d ever made it home then decided I didn’t care. He wasn’t a threat to me anymore, not with Kevin in my life.

“I guess so. They’ve asked all kinds of questions about you, but I keep telling them they’ll have to wait until they see you to find out.” Sarah was in her late twenties, with dark hair and a beautiful face that went with an even better body, but she didn’t suffer fools lightly.

“I guess they’re driving you up the wall then, huh?” I tapped a fingernail on the table as I waited for her to answer. The nail was manicured with a gel polish job that would have YouTubers screaming in envy; something else I’d never had before.

“They are, but I know it’s good for business. I guess I better get back, I just wanted to tell you there are some foreigners here because of you.” I heard her chuckle and laughed as we said goodbye.