when the girl he loved was leaving.
“Zack?”
His eyes flew open and he was on his feet. It was Reese. Standing in front of him for the first time in months. “I . . . I thought I missed you.”
“I was in the restroom.” She smiled, but it didn’t touch the sadness in her eyes. “I thought they gave you another chance.”
“No.” He came a step closer. “They sent me home.” He held up his hands and then dropped them at his sides. “I’m finished with the show.”
“Hmmm.”
A voice came over the speakers. “All remaining passengers for Flight 449, please board at this time.”
Reese looked over her shoulder and then back at Zack. “I have to go.”
“No. Please . . .” He set his backpack on the seat beside him and came closer, so their faces were inches apart. “You can wait a week, Reese. We need to talk.”
In his mind, he had pictured this moment a hundred times. He would find her in the airport and tell her how sorry he was. She would understand and she’d cancel her flight. But now . . . the walls around her heart were locked in place. She shook her head. “I made a commitment.”
The message was clear. She kept her commitments. Zack’s heart raced and he searched desperately for the right words, anything to make her stay. “Reese, listen.” He put his hand alongside her face. “I love you. I’ll never love anyone the way I love you.” Fear made his voice shaky. “Please, don’t go. I need to talk to you. I need to explain what—”
“Last call for Flight 449. All remaining passengers please board at this time.”
“Zack . . .” She covered his hand with her own. “You don’t need to explain. We have different lives.”
“I don’t want that.” His words came like rapid fire. He was running out of time, and she wasn’t hearing him. Wasn’t budging. “Please, Reese, come home with me. You can go next week.”
“I can’t.” Her eyes softened. She came to him and put her arms around her neck. “Good-bye, Zack.”
“Please . . .”
She pulled away and walked with her things toward the gate.
The airline agents were watching them, anxious for Reese to board. Zack felt himself giving up. He couldn’t chase her onto the plane. She had made up her mind. He stopped and watched her leave, his sides heaving from the way his heart was breaking. “Reese . . .”
She turned around one last time.
“I love you. I’m sorry.”
Her eyes told him that somewhere inside she felt the same way, that she loved him and was sorry it had come to this. But she only held his eyes for a few seconds and then mouthed one last word. “Good-bye.”
With that she boarded the plane and the gate agent locked the door behind her. Zack shuffled to the window and put his hand on the cool glass. He stayed there while the jetway pulled back and the plane taxied out onto the runway.
When the plane moved out of sight, Zack grabbed his backpack and walked slowly down the empty concourse toward baggage. He had lost her. Because of his careless actions and self-centered motives, he’d lost the only girl he ever loved. Reese wasn’t only moving to London. She was moving on. Her eyes had told him that much.
As he collected his bags and waited out on the curb for a cab, Chandra’s words came back to him.
The cost was not only real. It was almost more than he could bear.
chapter
30
They had reached the finale, and Chandra wasn’t surprised when Samuel Meier gathered them an hour before the show and told them the results. The winner they would announce that night was Zoey Davis. The girl who had captured America’s hearts with her face and voice, the other half of the Romeo and Juliet team.
The second finalist was Kent Jordan, the married guy whose goal had remained the same throughout the show. He had told America that if he won, he’d sing for a Christian label. He knew who he was, his style, his genre. The show hadn’t changed him.
Chandra took her place on the panel with the other two judges. Cameras would roll soon and excitement buzzed through Carnegie Hall. From her place, Chandra waved at the audience and then spotted Kent near Zoey, the two of them talking to Kip. Since Zack’s departure, Chandra had taken to praying for Kent. His second-place finish was an answer, she had no doubt.
Suddenly she remembered Zack. He had to be in the audience. The top ten contestants had been brought back for tonight. They would perform as a group early in the show, and then after Kip Barker crowned Zoey as the season’s winner, the group would join her onstage for the final song while confetti rained down. Chandra scanned the audience, but she couldn’t see Zack or the others in the front section. They were probably backstage preparing.
Chandra looked at the stage and studied Zoey Davis, the girl who was about to win it all. Zoey would have a much harder time with the fame than Kent would have. Chandra didn’t like to think about the pressure and changes and celebrity that awaited Zoey in the pop world where she planned to make her mark. Her win hadn’t even been announced, and already every talk show and variety magazine wanted a piece of her. The teenager had no idea how her life was about to change.
The frenzy onstage and in the wings continued to build, but Chandra remained quiet, reflecting. Remembering. In Zoey’s interview last week, she had said the same thing Chandra had said the week before her own win. “This means everything to me. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.” Chandra narrowed her eyes. Would the girl look back and regret those words? How badly would she wish to climb into some special moment from her past, before her first audition?
Chandra clicked open the photo album on her phone. She pulled up the picture. Her parents and her fiance standing beside her. The moment she still tried to live in. Tears stung her eyes and she shut her phone. Often she had wondered how it had happened, how she’d become so famous overnight. Here at the end of her ride as a judge, she had the answers. The show needed to create a celebrity each season. Someone to stir interest and drive ratings and draw another hundred thousand kids out to auditions when summer came around again.
She was part of a machine. All of it made sense now.
She took a deep breath. They had a little time before the show went live. The energy onstage grew more intense and every seat in Carnegie Hall was filled. As Cullen told them about a few added commercial breaks, Chandra felt someone come up beside her. She turned and there he was. “Zack! You’re here!”
“I got in a few hours ago.”
“You’ll sing in the group number?”
“I will.” He looked deeply at her. “You were right. About the cost.”
“Yes.” She searched his eyes. “Did you make it home before she left?”
“I did.” He leaned closer, keeping it private. “I told her I was sorry.”
“And . . .” She wanted to believe the girl had changed her mind, that she’d forgiven Zack and stayed in Kentucky. But she could see that wasn’t the case.
“We had a few minutes in the airport, but she left. She . . . doesn’t want me.”
Chandra’s heart felt heavy. “I’m sorry.”
He smiled. “My family and I, we’re doing well. I’m so grateful . . .” He looked up to the stage where Zoey and Kent were getting final makeup touches. He didn’t have to finish his sentence. He looked at Chandra again.
