I’ll be your biggest fan, Zack. But you’ll be busy with the show. The whole thing, the audition, the process . . . the tour. It could take a year.” She reached up and touched his cheek. “Maybe then we’ll know what’s next.”
“The tour, Reese? Really? I haven’t even made it past the first round.”
“Maybe the timing is part of God’s plan.” Her words didn’t come all at once. She took hold of his hand. “It sort of seems that way.”
He tried to keep control of his frustration. “What?”
“Don’t get mad.” Her smile softened things for a few seconds. “Just . . . you know, sometimes being apart is good. So we can be sure who we are. Before . . .”
He ran his fingers through her windblown hair. “Before I marry you.” He brought his face closer to hers. “That’s what you mean, right?”
“Yes.” Her voice was barely a whisper. Her smile touched his soul. “Maybe that.”
“Baby . . .” He wanted her so badly. “I’d marry you today if I could. You know that.” He stepped back and searched her eyes. “I have to audition. It could mean . . . saving this farm. It could change life for my family.”
“I know.” Her smile touched his soul. “If I move to London it could change things for those kids.”
“Look.” He kept his voice steady and worked to control his warring emotions. “I need you. Whether I make it or not. Please . . . don’t move to London.”
His words seemed to hit their mark. A few seconds passed and she took his hands. “I haven’t said yes. It’s just an option.”
“Crazy girl.” He put his hands around her waist and drew her close. “London’s not your dream. And New York’s not mine.”
“No?” Gradually the shine returned to her eyes.
“No.” He could breathe again. They had found their way back to normal. He eased his hands from hers and gently framed her face. Then he kissed her the way he’d wanted to since she arrived. “This is your dream, remember?” His voice fell a notch.
“You?” She giggled, brushing her cheek against his. “Zack Dylan? You’re my dream?”
“Not me.” He kissed her again and when he pulled back, he felt the humor leave his expression. “Us.” He searched her eyes, making sure his place in her heart remained. Untouched. Like before he’d made his decision to audition for
“Is that right?” The corners of her lips lifted and she rested her head on his chest, the two of them swaying in the warm summer morning air.
“Yes, baby. That’s right. This is the dream.” The words he’d said to his grandfather came back and he repeated them. “I want to marry you, Reese. I’ll audition and then I’ll come home. Please don’t go. Not for a year, anyway.”
“It is a long time.” She smiled up at him as they started walking. “Hey, Toby’s doing better. He’s talking in sentences.”
His pride for her work welled up inside him. “I love that boy.”
“He loves you.”
Zack listened, loving her heart, the way she cared for her students. They checked the one small stable that hadn’t been destroyed in the storm and walked back to her car. The show didn’t come up until he took her in his arms again.
“Zack, I’ve known you since you were eighteen.” She allowed some space between the two of them. For a long while she said nothing, only looked out at the land, at the horses. Finally she drew a deep breath and stared at the sky. “You said singing at church was enough. You were never going to try out.”
“We need the money. You know that. Singing’s the only other thing I can do and—”
“Let me finish.” She put her hand on his shoulder, a fresh depth in her eyes. “Please, Zack.”
“Sorry.” He shifted, waiting.
She paused as if having this part of the conversation with her own conscience. “You were going to be a songwriter. You’d spend your life here and continue with your family’s farm.” Her words came slowly again, like the passing white clouds. “That’s the Zack I fell in love with. You said the fame thing, singing on a stage, it wasn’t for you.”
“Reese . . .” He raked his fingers through his thick dark hair. They’d been over this.
“That’s what you said.” She turned her eyes to his again. The defeat in her tone turned to sadness. “Remember?”
“Try to understand.” He searched her eyes. “The music, the songs . . . they live in me. I have to try. Sure I want to write, but if I can sing, if I can do something I love and help my family, shouldn’t I try?”
“I know.” She nodded, never breaking eye contact. Her fight was gone. The finality in her tone told him she had accepted his decision. Even if she had doubts. She took a step toward her car door, her eyes still on his. “I want you to go, Zack. You’re amazing. I think you could win the whole thing.” Her smile didn’t hide the hurt in her eyes. “But you have to know . . . if you win, that could change things. It could change us.”
“Not in a million years.” He was sick of this, of the doubts from people who should’ve known him best. “Not ever.”
“Okay.” She smiled despite the shadow of sadness in her eyes. “As long as you’ve thought it through.”
He didn’t respond. Couldn’t say anything in light of her heartfelt reminder. Whether he liked it or not, she was right. If he went far, if he won, there might be no way back to the life they shared here. Now.
“You need answers.” Her tone was kind. “Your family needs money. I get it.” She kissed him more quickly than before. “I need to go. We’ll talk tonight.”
“What about your song? You haven’t heard it.”
She giggled. “Later. You’re busy.”
“But you want to hear it, right?”
“Of course.” She placed her hands alongside his face. “I can’t wait.”
He felt the minutes slipping away. He planned to leave at sunup. “I’ll play it tomorrow. Before I go.”
“Okay.” She tilted her head, like she couldn’t say exactly what she was feeling.
“I’ll be home soon.”
She shook her head. “You won’t.”
“Reese.” He wouldn’t argue with her. He was grateful she believed in him. He said the only words that mattered. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
She took a few steps back, her eyes still lost in his. But then she turned around, climbed into her car and drove off. He watched her go. She was worried over nothing. If his parents were about to lose the farm that had been in the family for over a hundred years, then he needed to find a way to make money. Other than working with horses, singing was all he knew.
That and the saving power and love of Jesus Christ.
God would see him through wherever the ride took him. Of course he had to audition, had to pray for a chance. If by some miracle he made it, he would have a platform to share his faith and the money to pay off the farm. Then he would marry Reese—the way they’d planned all along—and Grandpa Dan could die happy.
As he walked up the stairs to the old farmhouse peace spread from deep inside him. Whatever happened next he would be home soon. Reese would stay in Kentucky and they’d be engaged by Christmas. He was sure.
Before he turned in that night he found his guitar and played her song, the one he’d written for her. He called it “Her Blue Eyes” and the verses talked about a girl who saw beauty in the life of a handicapped child and joy behind the counter of a homeless shelter. As he fell asleep, the chorus stayed with him.
