Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
“Do I have to call you everytime you do something I disagree with, or ...?”
Jesus.
“Kyle—”
“I didn’t call to argue about you leaving the Australian company. And even though I don’t agree with it,” her former mentor quickly added, “I understand your need to do something different. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? I called a couple of companies in New York when I had a minute last week, and guess what I found out?”
“Probably nothing that I care to hear.”
Kyle let out a sigh. “Like I said, I called a couple of companies. The only companies that I know would be worthy of you and your talents. Yet, none of the owners of those companies had even heard from you—mind you, they let me knew I should pass along the message that if you’re looking for a new company, one closer to home, they are very willing to bring you into the company. You just have to make a phone call to get it done.”
That was the thing, though. Five years later, and Roz wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. When she played show after show, it started to become the same thing over and over again. The bright lights wore off, a lot like the everything else. Her name had been in lights and was able to shine.
But here she was at twenty-three, and she didn’t know if she wanted to keep doing this. What she wanted to do, like she had from the moment she stepped foot on Australian soil, was go home. Constant homesickness wasn’t cured by a stage, a shined piano, and a beautiful dress.
She needed Naz more than she got him. He never said a word edgewise to her—never once asked her to come back. Over the last five years, they worked it out. He flew to her, or she flew to him. When he had a job that took him out of country and closer to her, she made sure to head his way if he couldn’t come to her. They took vacations to different spots. But typically, they were only able to see each other a handful of times a year, and for the most part, it might only be three or four days at a time.
The last time they had got together for a spread of days was two months earlier during a vacation to Barbados. That was really when Roz cemented her decision to leave the Australian company and head back home. Naz hadn’t said one thing about it when she called to tell him after arriving back in Australia. He simply told her to do whatever she needed to do. Her company, on the other hand, tried to convince her to stay a little while longer.
She couldn’t ...
It might have affected them—she loved him just as much now as she had when she was a stupid eighteen year old girl; she was faithful, and she never questioned if he gave her the same respect because she knew he did. But at the same time, she needed to close some of that distance now.
It’d been too long.
“How about you let me worry about my career?” Roz asked her old mentor. “And you worry about ... whatever it is you’re doing with your career lately.”
“Oh, nasty.”
Yeah, well.
Sometimes that was the only way to get your point across to Kyle. He didn’t understand anything else. She had to do what she had to do. Simple as that.
“What’s in England?” Roz asked, folding her arms over her chest, and heading into the living room. Her gaze skimmed over the tops of open boxes while she still had time, trying to find that fucking file. “Because I can promise you it’s nothing that will interest me enough to make me stay there, either.”
“A prodigy, actually,” Kyle said.
Roz stiffened in place. “What?”
“She’s sixteen. Typical sixteen-year-old, too. Moody, snappy, and impatient. She doesn’t follow direction well, and she’s already been expelled from two other prep schools for the musically gifted. Heathrow Prep was her last stop. If she gets kicked out of here—very likely that’s going to happen—then she’s going to be sent back to New Jersey where her parents have no idea what to do with her. Thing is, it’ll be a might waste of talent, Roz. She just needs the right person to—”
“Why can’t that be you?”
“Because I’m a man. She doesn’t like ... men,” Kyle said, his voice dipping a bit. “Seems everyone around this girl is more interested in trying to correct her behavior than trying to figure out why she’s behaving the way she is. Not that I think for even a second she would talk to me about it, that’s not why I’m calling. I thought ...”
“You mean for me to mentor her?”
“Roz, it would be a terrible waste of talent.”