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The entire audience erupted with standing applause when I’d finished, and I gave them a grateful smile and a small bow before exiting the stage as quickly as I could. I was glad tonight was a set of mixed artists. I didn’t want to be dragged back out for an encore, and after the way the show had done so well for me before, I had a feeling that’s what many people would have wanted.
I really wanted to just go home after the show, but I knew that wouldn’t have gone over well with Erin or Neils. So, I headed out to the crowd to talk with some of the audience members for a few minutes after the last set.
I was wildly congratulated by everyone I met, shaking hands and thanking them as I pushed my way through the crowd trying to get to where my friends sat. Then I was stopped by Pat Owens, the owner of the hotel.
He owns an entire chain of hotels, actually, and he eagerly let me know how well I’d played.
“I would love for you to come down to the club I own in Marathon in a couple of weeks if you can swing it,” he told me as he continued to shake my hand. “I know they would simply adore you there.”
“Thank you,” I told him. “Here, let me give you my number, and you can call me with more details. I would love to work out something if you’re serious about this.”
“Very good,” he said as I wrote my number on a napkin and handed it to him. “I will give you a call this week, and we’ll discuss the details.”
“I’m looking forward to it already,” I assured him with the brightest smile I could manage.
Then, I continued pushing through people to get to my friends and was swept into Erin’s arms once I reached them.
“This is how you should be received,” she told me. “I knew you had it in you, and you just had to find the right venue.”
“You think so?” I asked.
“I do,” she said. “Why worry about going bigger and bigger when you are already at the top here?”
“Maybe so,” I told her. I quickly told her about my interaction with Pat Owens, and her eyes grew wide.
“Oh my God, good for you!” she cried. Neils, of course, was right there with her, telling me how amazing that was. I felt on top of the world until I saw Gavin.
My smile fell, but I did what I could to be polite when he finally came over to tell me I’d done a good job.
“Thanks,” I said, but that was all I said. It was all I wanted to say after everything.
“Can I walk you home when you are ready to go?” he asked me. “I really want to talk to you. I have to. If you’re willing.”
“Sure,” I said. I’d hesitated only for a second, weighing the pros and cons of going with him. But, in the end, I decided it was just talking, and it might do us both some good to get some closure.
I didn’t stay much longer, telling Erin that Gavin wanted to talk to me, so she understood I was leaving early. I then said goodbye to Kim and Andrew, then followed Gavin out of the hotel.
It was a quiet night, as it always was in Islamorada, but my ears were still so full of the pounding of my heart, I wasn’t sure I could hear him when he spoke.
“Do you want to go to our secret spot?” he asked me.
“You mean out on the beach?”
“That’s the one,” he said.
“If you want,” I told him with a shrug.
I followed him out onto the sand, and we walked in relative silence to the place where we had slept together for the first time. I tried not to think about that as we sat down.
“You want to see something?” he asked.
“What?” I replied.
“Look at this,” he said as he rose and reached under one of the fallen logs. He pulled out a blanket that looked practically new and smiled at me. “I moved this out here the other day for the next time we were over here. Might as well make use of it now.”
I moved out of the way so he could spread it on the sand, then we both sat back down.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked.
