Falcon Song: A love story by Kristin Cross Read Free Book Online Page B

agreed to take them. That was something.
    He should have known she’d deal with things fine. She’d been handling the business for the band for a couple of years. In truth, even though she was only nineteen, going on twenty, she was the most competent person he’d ever known and handled the business end and scheduling and travel arrangements more smoothly than a whole team of help did for other bands their size. And she did that on top of being the general manager of her parents’ restaurant now and even going to college full time. She was amazing that way.
    She’d had to learn to be professional at an early age as a result of her dad being injured so badly right before she turned fifteen. At that time, Kate had been helping at the family restaurant, while her parents managed it and her older sister Kiersten, who was then twenty, had been off to college just outside of Tulsa.
    When her dad was hurt, her mother had needed to be with her dad, and Kiersten could only come home on the week ends. Kate had been the temporary stop gap and had pulled off being a very under aged manager with an amazing amount of aplomb for someone who had to ride the bus from school to get to work, have an older employee sign for the liquor shipments and then finish her homework after the place shut down at night. All in all, Kate ended up being a business and managerial whiz and had been invaluable in managing things for their up and coming band.
    She had been too young to go to most of their concerts. She still was for some of them. And after going along a few times when they’d just been starting out, she’d been content to stay at home, where she claimed her roots were, and let Jason “fly” without her. Sometimes too content. Jason knew that the popularity and the huge amount of press were intimidating to her and now he knew why.
    Still, Kate had an uncanny handle on the fact that a major portion of the band’s success hinged on that very glitz and she’d been incredibly effective at arranging PR events to promote them. They now had a part time manager, Scotty, and they both had agents, but Kate still managed the manager so to speak and Jason was incredibly proud of how well she handled everything. She was indeed amazing.
    She usually just dropped them at the curb where they’d both pile out and meet the other members of the band and their techs and roadies, and then she’d take Jason’s car home so she could come back and pick them up again when they returned, but this time, they dropped Cody and their gear and he stayed with her for a few minutes.
    He pulled ahead away from Cody so they had some privacy and then stopped the car and looked over at her; ridiculously loathe to leave her this time. There was the same sadness in her face that he was feeling, but there was also that slightly uncomfortable shadow of worry she’d begun to carry around with her, and he wished he had about an hour to sit and talk to her and hold her and tell her goodbye.
    He didn’t, and they both knew it and it made telling each other goodbye under the circumstances worse than it had ever been.
    After they looked at each with their hearts in their eyes, he reached over and took her hand without saying anything. He knew she was struggling not to cry and it was incredibly troubling. She had cried more in the last ten days than she’d cried in the last year. He hated what that one stupid, mistake filled night had done to her normally perpetual enthusiasm. That next day she’d said she was wiser, but realistically that computed to quieter and less prone to smile and it killed him.
    He didn’t know what to say to fix this, but he had to catch a plane and finally, he leaned across and pulled her closer until her face was only inches from his. Trying to smile, he said, “I’m going to spread my wings now, Kate. Kiss me and kick me out of this car. Would ya?”
    She gave him a halfhearted smile back as she leaned toward him and snuggled against his chest