AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"It comes from inside my head."
I thought about that, wondering just how dark the inside of Kade's head was. He seemed like a good guy. He'd been nothing but kind to me, but his art showed a very different side.Was he who he appeared to be?
"What about you?" Kade asked, interrupting my thoughts. "What do you do in your real life? I think you said you were sometimes a musician, but then you said something about a store."
"It's complicated."
"Is anything in your life simple?" he asked with a small, knowing smile.
"No, but it should be. I've played music my entire life. I minored in it in college. It was going to be my major, but Dani said I should be more practical. I should get a business degree with her. My dad had always made it clear that he wanted us to be responsible for ourselves. He paid for the first two years of college, and then we had to pay for the rest. It didn't seem likely that I could pay off my student loans with a music degree, so I switched."
"Interesting."
I found his one-word response to be extremely judgmental, but maybe that was because I was judging myself. "I thought I could still pursue music after I graduated, but that wasn't as easy as I'd thought it would be. A series of events sent me down a different path."
"What kind of events?"
"First, my sister got married in Carmel, and she needed my help with the wedding, so I followed her from LA to Carmel. Then she wanted to open a clothing boutique. Fashion was her passion, and she wanted me to be her partner. I didn't have any other great opportunities at the time, so I helped her open the Two Sisters Boutique."
"Appropriate name."
"She needed me to be the second sister. Everything was always supposed to be temporary, but then weeks turned into years. My sister had trouble conceiving a baby, then trouble carrying a pregnancy. She had multiple miscarriages. She was sick. She was hurting. She needed me to stay in the store, so I did."
"There's something to be said for family loyalty," he said.
"Really? You don't think I've just wasted my talent?"
"Do you think that?" he challenged.
"Sometimes. I've been playing on the side, performing locally, giving lessons, but my dream was to play for a renowned orchestra. Last Thursday, I actually got an incredible offer to be second violin for an orchestra that's going to play in Europe for two months starting in November. I was just figuring out how I would tell my sister that I was going to leave her in the middle of her pregnancy to go after my long-awaited dream when I got the call from the hospital about my mother."
"That was a big curveball."
"It threw everything into a tailspin. I have to give my answer to the orchestra by Monday, and I haven't told Dani yet, because I couldn't do that in the middle of everything else that's going on." I paused. "I think I'm going to have to turn down the job."
"Seriously? Why?"
"I don't know how long I'll need to be here. I don't know what's going to happen with my mom. There's just too much going on."
"You should do it," Kade said flatly. "You should go."
"How can I?"
"How can you not? You've put your dreams on hold for too long. This is your chance. You have to take it."
"What about Dani? What about my mom?"
"What about you?" he challenged. "Your sister has a husband, right?"
"Yes."
"And people who help in the store?"
"A few. But there's still my mother. I know I don't owe her anything, but I still can't imagine leaving right now."
"Well, you don't have to leave now. You said November."
"Rehearsals start in two weeks."
