A Kiss Upon A Star

by Tamara Ferguson

  Besides what did she care? She wasn’t about to get all teary eyed again. When he’d sent her that final email out of the blue, saying he wouldn’t have time to write her anymore because he was just too busy, she’d taken it to mean he was seeing someone else. Aunt Trish had said he’d never married. But he’d broken her heart once already.

  No way would she ever let him get close to her again.

  At that moment, Chloe stepped up to her and barked sharply.

  Before she knew what she was doing, Emily was bending down and scratching Chloe behind the ears. She nearly smiled when the dog began rubbing her head hard against Emily’s hand.

  And then Emily stood up suddenly. No, she couldn’t—she wouldn’t—go back there again. She’d always been too trusting and gullible and she needed to take control of her life. Spending time alone without any distractions or interference was the only way to move on.

  “Nice to see you again,” she said, clearly dismissing them.

  Tim looked puzzled but headed toward the door. Turning back momentarily, he held her gaze and cleared his throat. “Trish has my number under a magnet on the fridge if you have any trouble or need something from town.”

  He clicked his tongue.

  Chloe cocked her head and looked at Emily one last time, much like Tim just had, and then rushed through the doorway ahead of Tim.

  “Goodbye,” Emily said softly, as the door closed behind them.

  * * *

  Just like Tim had predicted, she’d become a big star. And he’d been strangely upset when he’d learned about her engagement four years after they’d quit emailing each other. He wasn’t sure what had been going on his mind all those years afterward. He’d assumed when she’d sent him that final email telling him she intended to concentrate on her career, that someday she would still get back in touch with him. In fact, the thought of reuniting with Emily had been what’d kept him sane while he’d been serving in Iraq. Maybe, in his mind, he’d built up the enchantment of their romance to an unbelievable degree? But those two days that he’d spent with her during the weekend of Gabe and Lucy’s wedding had been the most magical time of his entire life.

  Emily Richardson was such a huge name in the music industry, the news of her engagement had reached Tim overseas. The devastation he’d felt had definitely added to the doom and gloom of those last few days before he’d lost his friends.

  He’d returned home, not feeling certain about anything anymore. Maybe he just had a habit of falling for unobtainable women?

  But no. It wasn’t that he didn’t have his chances to date. There’d been a few girls in Texas, although there had never been anyone special after Em.

  When Tim fell, it was really hard, he’d finally realized. He was a one-woman guy.

  He snorted. What kind of convoluted logic was that when he didn’t even have a woman?

  He would keep his distance. It’d been unrealistic thinking that he and Em would ever get together in the first place. She was a star and he was a...

  What, he puzzled. What was he? Thanks to the psychologist at the wounded warrior facility here in town, Tim wasn’t going to call himself a nobody anymore at least.

  Cause the last thing he needed was to have Emily Richardson break his heart again.

  Chapter Ten

  A few days later, Emily decided she was going stir crazy. She was so used to hiding out when she was home or touring, it’d become a routine for her to stay inside. Yesterday, the drive had caught up with her, so she’d spent most of the day dozing on the couch.

  Today she was listening to music with all the windows thrown open. Her aunt had reminded her there was a piano here, but Emily was surprised to find the original baby grand with all the instruments Trish used to play besides. But then again, Emily remembered that her aunt had also said since she and Jack spent much of the summer and holidays on the road, she was listening to more music these days as opposed to playing.

  Apparently, Trish had given music lessons during the years she and Emily lost touch. During that time, she’d become friends with Jack Atkinson but they’d taken it very slow since Tim was still living at home.

  Emily would get back to jogging again, she decided. Aunt Trish had a nice little workout studio downstairs, so she could take advantage of that at night, but fresh air was what Emily really needed. After spending some time outside, she would begin some serious work at the piano and start writing again. At least she’d managed to bring along some of the arrangements she’d been working on for several years. She was excited to take a look through her compositions again. From what she recalled, a few of the songs she’d written years ago had been pretty good.

  Emily frowned. Although her mother had never thought so. Emily had been singing country music for so long, she wondered sometimes if she’d be able to remember how to sing anything else.

  Fifteen minutes later, Emily was outside on the sand jogging along the beach. Even though this section of the beach was mostly private for the subdivision, she’d shoved on some sunglasses and a ballcap just to be sure she wasn’t recognized.

  She was halfway around the inlet when, wouldn’t you know, she ran into him jogging along the beach with Chloe at his heels.

  “Good morning,” Tim said, halting with a smile on his face.

  She jogged right by him, nodding her head.

  When Tim turned around and began jogging beside her, she got grouchy. “What are you doing? Following me?”

  He grinned, not seeming deterred by her tone of voice. “I live in this subdivision too. I run every morning. It helps clear my mind.”

  Continuing on her way, she grunted while Chloe ran full speed ahead of them.

  “How long are you going to be in Crystal Rock?” he asked.

  She halted and glared.

  Tim stopped too, holding up his hand. “Alright, already. I’m just being friendly.”

  For a moment, Emily thought Tim might really be irritated with her as she began jogging again. She was taking a break from men, for sure. But did she really want to be completely alone for the next two months? It was something she wasn’t used to and she was already feeling a little bit lonely.

  Out of curiosity, she finally turned around to see where Tim was headed.

  Tim had obviously been standing there, waiting for her to look back. He gave her a great big smile.

  How had he known?

  She rolled her eyes upward, still running in place.

  He was laughing hard by the time she turned around again and was on her way.

  When Chloe chose to abandon Tim and began running beside her, Emily wore a reluctant smile on her face.

  * * *

  She was lonely and isolated, and confused about what she wanted to do with her life. Connie Richardson had never encouraged Emily to have real friendships either, so there were very few people she could turn to. Talking to Trish last night on the phone, Tim had also been told Emily had taken the news of her fiancée’s cheating very hard. Tim suspected Trish and his dad were trying to do a little matchmaking between him and Emily while they were at it.

  For some reason, his conversation with Trish had made Tim feel much better. He could understand and sympathize with what Emily was going through.

  Cause he was awfully lonely himself. He couldn’t get into hanging out with old friends. They just didn’t understand, and the questions they had for him were painful sometimes, not to mention insensitive to boot.

  He’d made some friends with his group of wounded warriors. But even though he spent most of the day working at the shelter, he needed a distraction in his personal life.

  And maybe trying to break down Emily’s barriers by making her smile again was it.

  Chapter Eleven

  The lake was calm and clear when Tim returned home at dusk after dedicating his day to training the dogs. Hearing the lilting tones of music echoing through the air, he decided to take Chloe along the beach for a walk. Usually he’d wait a little later in the evening to
make his way around the inlet. But Emily’s voice was like a siren’s song, and it kept drawing him nearer to the cottage.

  Observing the cottage windows opened wide, Tim dropped down on the sandy beach near the water’s edge so Emily wouldn’t realize he was listening.

  The song she was singing was beautiful yet haunting, Tim noticed right away, and unlike anything he’d ever heard from her before. Was she writing new music? Maybe this was one of the reasons why she’d finally found the courage to stand up to her mother.

  Closing his eyes, Tim just sat there and listened. But after she was finished, she suddenly broke out into a lively rendition of one of her country songs. She still had that twangy thing going on with her voice, he noticed. After listening to Emily’s music for over six years, Tim had discovered that unfortunately it was part of her repertoire.

  Her ears perking up, Chloe stopped jogging along the beach and rushed over to sit beside Tim. Suddenly, Chloe lifted her nose into the air and began to howl, loudly and repeatedly.

  After a while, Tim grinned. The howling hadn’t distracted Emily...yet. After each line of the song, Chloe would lift her head and wail. This wasn’t the first time he’d heard Chloe do this. Sometimes it happened when Tim was listening to Emily’s music on CD or MP3.

  Tim couldn’t stop laughing.

  A few moments later, the music stopped abruptly. Tim had a feeling Emily was peering outside through the window trying to figure out where all the commotion was coming from.

  Soon, Emily began singing again, but this time it was a jazzy song she sang along with the piano, and her voice carried through the air like a soulful breeze.

  And Tim wasn’t the only one listening. The music had apparently drawn the attention of an older man who was walking along the bike trail that ran beside the beach. Seeming to be completely captivated, he sat down on a bench nearby and closed his eyes.

  Getting caught up in the mood of the song, Tim stopped laughing and watched Chloe return to exploring the beach.

  Each time Emily began singing a country song, Tim had to grin. Chloe quit romping on the beach, apparently guarding Tim from whatever strange creature she thought was on the prowl. The length of each howl became longer and increasingly louder as if she were in excruciating pain.

  Finally, Emily cut short her concert and Tim saw the lights in the cottage go out. Most likely she was still worn out from her cross-country drive as well as the stress of worrying about what would be happening next between her and her mom.

  “Ready girl?” Tim called out glancing across the beach.

  Chloe had befriended the man who was strangely still sitting on the bench, and she was wagging her tail back and forth while he patted her on the head.

  She answered with a sharp yip and came scampering across the sand toward Tim.

  The man raised his hand as he stood up from the bench, and Tim waved back, watching him make his way along the trail. He must’ve been a guest at the inn because he appeared to be heading towards Dragonfly Pointe.

  Walking along the edge of the beach beside Chloe a few minutes later, Tim suddenly came up with a plan that might help break down the barrier of reserve Emily had built around herself.

  He was certain she still loved animals. Undoubtedly, she’d never been able to talk her mom into having a pet, because he couldn’t see Emily abandoning a friend, even to go on vacation.

  When Tim reached his house, he rushed inside and grabbed the keys for his truck.

  Quickly returning outside, he looked at Chloe, who was waiting on the back porch. “Want to go for a ride?”

  Standing up on her feet, Chloe followed behind Tim, wagging her tail like crazy. As soon as Tim opened the door of the truck, she jumped onto the passenger seat.

  Once they were on their way, Tim grinned glancing at Chloe, who staring hard through the window. She’d always been good at figuring out where they were going, and she gave an excited yip when they pulled into the driveway of the animal shelter fifteen minutes later.

  Tim oversaw the running of the shelter now. He had two volunteers working through the weekend and another full-time employee named Laura who kept the records and paperwork in order.

  The proposal for the animal shelter had originated with Danielle Loughlin, who’d been able to gather enough donations to have it built. Tim’s idea about training some of the strays as service dogs had been brilliant, she’d claimed when he’d built up the courage to approach her with his plan. Since Tim had needed a job, he was more than welcome to run the place too since she’d depended on volunteers and part time employees on a daily basis. The Loughlins still hosted annual charity events to keep operations running, but having a plan of action for some of the animals would draw a lot more interest in the shelter, especially since Tim would be training the dogs for such a worthwhile cause.

  The donations had tripled in the last nine months and Danielle had insisted on paying a much higher wage to Tim than he would’ve asked for. But she was really stoked about his plan and claimed he deserved a salary matching his qualifications.

  Tim loved what he was doing so it didn’t seem like work. How many people could say that about their job?

  Laura was gone for the night, Tim noticed, unlocking the front door. She’d been updating the file system these last few months since Tim had finally branched into the training. There were different expenses for the tools Tim used for his work, and donations needed to be distributed appropriately.

  A new addition had been built in the kennel by the Loughlins, and Tim had tagged their contribution as the training room. There was a huge open arena in the center of the kennel, enabling Tim to work with the dogs every season of the year. Since the dogs would be living inside with their owners, each of the twenty individual cells had a nice indoor space and doggie door opening to a grassy area outside so Tim could work on their housebreaking first.

  So far, he’d only selected six dogs, and all of them stood up wagging their tails when Tim arrived. It looked like five of the six dogs remembered they needed to go outside to relieve themselves. But Tim had only added Delilah, a black lab mix, the week before. Sometimes it was as easy as having one dog share their space with another for a day or two. They were all good natured with good dispositions, otherwise Tim would’ve never designated each of them as a potential service dog in the first place.

  “Hmm,” Tim said, glancing at them all. “I’m going to take turns bringing each of you home with me for a night or two and see how you do.”

  Tim had also tried to select dogs that didn’t bark as much. Although there were collars he could use to discourage the barking, he’d rather work with dogs that weren’t so easily excitable for now.

  “What do you say, Rex?”

  Cocking his head, the cream and black border collie mix stood quietly but his tail was thumping back and forth nonstop.

  Tim grinned, unhooking the gate and attaching a leash to Rex’s collar before guiding him onto the walkway. “It looks like one of the kids gave you a good brushing today. Huh?”

  Once Tim got the program going full force, he hoped to be able to have a few of the older kids from Crystal Visions volunteer for some of the easier tasks that needed to be done at the shelter. Right now the students were visiting monthly on field trips. But the Crystal Visions administrators were in the process of adding some new jobs for the handicapped kids onto their program schedule.

  “See you all tomorrow,” Tim called out, turning down the lights.

  Music filtered through the speakers overhead. Laura had laughed when Tim had installed piped in music to supposedly relax the dogs. He’d read somewhere that it was a helpful training tool and better prepared the dogs for human contact. And since some of the shelter dogs came from dubious origins, Tim had decided to try out the idea for himself.

  Since he’d installed speakers throughout the entire shelter, even the dogs waiting for adoption were more relaxed, Tim had noticed, and they didn’t seem to bark as much either.

&n
bsp; Locking up behind him, Tim walked Rex outside toward the truck.

  Chloe peeked out through the open window from where she was sitting in the front seat, and her tail was wagging madly when Tim opened the back door for Rex.

  After Rex climbed inside, Chloe laid her head along the back of the seat where her nose met Rex’s in greeting.

  Tim revved up the truck and soon they were on their way.

  Chapter Twelve

  The next morning Emily was sitting near the window with coffee in hand trying to get motivated to go outside. After taking time off from her regular workout routine in California so she could follow through with her plan to leave Los Angeles, not to mention the time she’d spent on the road driving cross country, she was a little bit stiff today.

  But the best solution for that was to get out there and run.

  When Emily finished her coffee and stood up to return the cup to the kitchen, her attention was diverted by what she saw through the window.

  She had to smile. A black and cream colored dog was running beside Chloe today and they seemed be moving in perfect sync.

  Wearing his usual sweats and T-shirt, Tim was jogging along the beach behind them. Emily noticed he still had the grungy beard and longish hair.

  What was up with that, she wondered?

  Soon Emily was jogging along the sand, going in the opposite direction from Tim. Her earphones were in and she was listening to a recording she’d made of some of her new music, so she could critique herself today.

  An hour later, Emily was returning to the cottage, surprised that Tim hadn’t attempted to seek her out. It was actually irritating her a little. He’d been making a nuisance of himself every day since she’d arrived. Why not today?

  It seemed to affect her mood for the rest of the afternoon. But when Emily looked outside at dusk, Chloe and Tim were sitting near the edge of the water again. Did he really think she couldn’t see them there?