“As you keep reminding us,” her mother said, “you’re thirty. You have to make your own decisions. We love you, Emma. We just want you to know, whatever happens we will always be here for you.”
That had made her cry happy tears.
After ripping herself inside out for five days, she’d come to the realization Annie was right. She’d reacted without thinking. Run away like…like…like the old Emma. There had to be an explanation and the new Emma owed Marc the opportunity to give her one. Otherwise she wasn’t any different than the woman who had ran out of Andrew’s house as if her tail were on fire. If she didn’t like what Marc said she could walk away.
But now the question was how to go about it. She knew where he lived but she couldn’t bring herself to go to his house. She only had so much courage. What if he slammed the door in her face? At least a club was neutral territory. She knew they weren’t at Aftershock anymore, which presented a problem.
“Actually that’s going to be a lot easier than you think,” Annie told her.
“What do you mean?”
“Honey, Lightnin’s a hot topic right now. You can hardly hit a blog without seeing something about them.” She lifted her tote, reached inside, and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “I printed this out for you today, hoping you might get around to shaking your brain into place.”
Emma opened the sheet of paper and scanned it.
Music Musings Around the City
Hotter than hot rock band Lightnin’, appropriately named for the electricity in their music, will be the opening act for superstars Deep Blue River on a ten city tour starting the end of this month. Meanwhile local fans can get a last glimpse of them until the end of next week at rockin’ new club The Rock Den. But get there early. The lines are longer than those at a Deep Blue River box office.
She looked at Annie. “I’ll never get in. Look what it says about the lines.” She refolded the sheet and set it down on the pub table. “And I can’t see myself hanging around at the back door like one of the groupies I so despise.”
“Fortunately,” Annie winked, “you have friends in high places.”
Emma frowned. “I do?”
“Uh huh. My cousin is the bartender and he’ll put our names on the list. So we can go to the back door but a nice man will let us in.”
Her stomach turned upside down. “So…I’m really going to do this?”
“Listen to me. Do you care about this guy?”
Emma nodded. “More than I realized. More than I ever thought I could. If I learned nothing else this whole miserable week I learned that.”
“Then you need to do this or you’ll hate yourself for the rest of your life.”
She rubbed her forehead. “Can you see me bringing him home to my folks? They’ll pass out in shock.”
“Or just maybe they’ll see the same thing in him you do. So what’s it gonna be? Fish or cut bait?”
Emma took a long swallow of her drink and stared at Annie. “Fish. I’m going to fish.”
***
The blog had been right. The line to The Rock Den stretched down the sidewalk and around the corner, but Annie just headed to the parking lot in back. She’d insisted on driving both of them, leaving Emma with no option but to work things out with Marc. And Emma had offered up every silent prayer she’d ever heard, including a few incantations.
This was her chance to find out if Marc was right and they had something real. If he could forgive her for being such a coward, hiding her identity from him and running away the first time the going got tough. If she understood nothing else during her hours of self-examination, it was that she loved Marc and wanted to make a life with him. Whatever shape it took. Now if she could just get him to listen to her….
“I don’t know if I can do this.” She wiped her sweaty palms on her new jeans. “I mean, come on, Annie. What if he just ignores me?”
“If it’s that bad, we’ll just leave and I’ll drive you home.”
“You promise?”
“Word of honor.” She winked. “Pinky swear.”
Emma blew out a breath. “Okay, then. Let’s go. I guess.”
Her legs were trembling as they approached the back door, and Annie pressed the buzzer. The door opened and music blasted out at them at a very high decibel. Her friend shouted their names to the guy in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, and he checked his list.
“Oh, yeah.” He grinned and shouted back. “Ron’s cousin. Sure. Come on in. But I warn you, it’s packed.”
“That’s okay,” Annie told him. “We’re used to it.”
Emma couldn’t make herself move, but Annie grabbed her hand and pulled her into the club.
The Rock Den was larger than Aftershock but no less jammed. Again Emma realized there were very few booths, mostly a huge dance floor crowded with people watching the band and moving to the music.
“I don’t think we can get to the bar for a drink,” Annie yelled in her ear.
“That’s okay. I couldn’t swallow anyway.”
They were right at the edge of the stage and her gaze was focused on Marc, caught up as usual in his music, doing a bass solo that reverberated through her entire body. She’d wondered if her feelings for him would have lessened, if the humiliation and pain would have blotted everything away. But the moment she saw him, she was struck with an emotion so strong it stole her breath.
Around her, people stamped their feet and gyrated, the energy so high octane it was almost visible. Emma blocked out the rest of the band, watching only Marc until the song ended. The applause was deafening.
She saw Rick’s gaze land on her, his eyes widened, and he nudged Marc. The minute he spotted her, the
