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It was three hours later when Caitlin was finally able to take a breather. Perched on the edge of the stage, with her long slender legs dangling over the side, she was attempting to eat her portion of the Chinese take-away that Rick had ordered. Her throat ached, her head throbbed and she could have fallen asleep standing up.
The band’s charismatic manager hadn’t let up for one minute in his efforts to get the best out of her vocal performance and she felt as if she’d done twelve rounds with a prize fighter. Whilst she was perfectly aware that singing was a very physical occupation, even if a person was blessed with a good voice, nothing could have prepared Caitlin for the sheer effort that Jake demanded.
During the past three hours she’d survived admonition after admonition to, ‘Try again!’ ‘Put your heart into it, woman!’ ‘Hold back a little on that note…drop down a key…’ ‘Damn it, Caitlin! You’re just not trying hard enough!’ Now she could barely summon up the energy to eat, despite the fact that the shrimp chop suey and bamboo shoots with Chinese mushrooms looked and smelled delicious.
‘Not hungry?’
Her tired glance fell on Jake’s long jeans-clad legs as he dropped down beside her. Her heart skipped a beat. Lifting her gaze, she looked up into the hauntingly misty depths of his soulful blue eyes. It struck her as unfair that a man should possess such enviably long black lashes, but then she mused that Jake must have been at the head of the line when God was dishing out extraordinary good looks…not to mention sheer animal magnetism.
Caitlin sucked in a less than steady breath when the scent of his cologne forged another assault on her beleaguered senses. In answer to his question, she responded, ‘I thought I was.’ Shrugging, she put her carton of food aside and touched a paper napkin delicately to her lips. ‘I only had a sandwich at lunchtime…it wasn’t very nice either.’
‘You must have known this wasn’t going to be easy. Still sure you want to go through with it?’ Jake challenged. ‘You need more than just talent in this game, Caitlin. You need equal measures of grit and stamina too.’
‘I can summon up plenty of grit and stamina when I need it. Just try me.’
A flash of defiance lit up her defensive green eyes and Jake chuckled softly. She’d freed her lustrous long hair from its ponytail and now it flowed down her back like shining black silk. Examining it more closely, he detected flashes of mahogany within the darker strands. His fingers were itching to touch it and he closed his hands into fists to stop himself from reaching out to do just that.
‘It’s obviously going to take me a little while to learn all the new songs,’ she breathed, ‘but I’ll take a copy of the music and lyrics home with me and practise them on my guitar.’
Jake had almost forgotten that Caitlin was a guitarist as well. How good he didn’t yet know, but judging by her vocal talent he guessed it wouldn’t be far behind.
‘Good move,’ he commented, ‘but the first thing you’re going to have to do is to hand in your notice at the shop. There’s no way you can have a full-time job there outside of singing with the band. In just three weeks’ time we’ll be on the road and you’ll have to kiss this sleepy little village goodbye.’
The words sounded so final that Caitlin couldn’t help shivering. But she immediately reminded herself that the most amazing opportunity had come her way, and she should take it with open arms and think herself blessed. No one got anywhere in life without taking risks. God knew she should have absorbed that fact by now, with all the New Age reading she’d done since working for Lia.
She’d lived in the village for most of her life, having moved from London with her family when she was just a toddler. When her parents had decided to join her brother Phil and his wife in California three years ago Caitlin had opted to stay put. She wasn’t ready to leave the country, she’d argued. There was still a lot to experience living in the UK.
But most of all she’d stayed because she’d needed time to forge her own identity—the chance to bring her own dreams into fruition, not just tag along on someone else’s. She’d even needed to make colossal mistakes, like her relationship with Sean. None of those things would have been possible surrounded by her well-meaning but highly controlling family.
