Page 81 of Love Song, Take Two

Laughing, he pushed his hair behind an ear. “She’s passionate and determined. There are some things we can try and teach her, but let’s not discourage her yet.”

“Maybe she’ll find something new to get excited about and music is not the thing for her.”

“Maybe. But for now…we’re not giving up on her.”

“Why not?! Save Benson and Nico, that poor kid.”

He smiled and sat in his chair. “Love bug.”

“Fiiiiiiiine,” Micah said, dragging the word out. “In other things…I’m glad we got to meet Erin. She’s not the kind of person I would have picked as your best friend.”

“She’s pretty great. She liked you too.”

“Maybe we’ll run away together one day.” He clenched his jaw and smiled to himself, glad that she couldn’t see him. “Oooh, is this silence you being jealous?”

“Fuck no. Erin’s awesome, but I know you’d never leave me.”

“Is that so?” He could hear the smile in her voice.

“You’re too obsessed with me.”

She gasped and then burst into laughter. “You’re not wrong.”

Smirking, he settled back in his chair. “Love you, Mick.”

“Aw, I love you too. I’ll see you later?”

“Yup. I’ll drop Em off before I head to the Village.”

After another round of ‘I love you’, Fletcher hung up and closed his eyes, letting the chaos of Emery’s drumming wrap around him. He could teach her how to hone those skills. It would take longer than expected. But it would be worth it to see Emery happy.

Fletcher

Have you really loved her forever?

Two days later, it was Emery’s last music lesson and Fletcher was doing final inventory for the year. It was also his last night as Santa and he was ready to spend the rest of the month wrapped around Micah. Because the George women weren’t traveling for the holidays, Emery was the only one of her friends still in town. But that also meant she got to damage his eardrums a little more. Fletcher knew that she wasn’t bad, she was just not the best. Emery enjoyed music and he had caught her dancing and head banging to everything playing through her earphones. But loving music and knowing how to play it were two very different things. And yet, she never gave up.

After his phone call with Micah, the two of them had sat down and talked about it further. Both their families had clearly tried to curb them from doing things they loved, and yet they made it work. His parents didn’t understand his fascination or interest in being a musician and even after The Rescuers went platinum, won Grammys and traveled around the world; they still thought he was going through a phase. He knew that Micah’s parents belittled her life decisions too. And in that vein, he never wanted to make anybody feel like their hopes and dreams were not worth it. Even when they weren’t good at something.

He was going to give Emery one more shot, teach her as much as he could and then if it still felt like she wasn’t able to play music, he’d ask her to give it up. It would hurt like hell, but he knew that lying to the kid wasn’t a good idea. Same way, discouraging her was also pretty harmful.

“I don’t want other kids to tease her about it,” Micah had said as they sat on the couch in her living room the night before.

“Nobody else knows about this.”

“Yet. I know how awful teenagers can be, my poor baby doesn’t need to suffer that.”

He kissed the side of her head and smiled. “Okay, how about this. We’ve got one more lesson tomorrow and then I’ll talk to her.”

“Are you sure that I shouldn’t be the one talking to her?”

“You can, but as her music teacher maybe I should do it first.”

Micah nodded and tilted her head back to smile at him. “You know you’re not only her music teacher, right?”

“I know, Mick.” He tightened his arm around her, lips brushing against her hair. “But seriously, your kid is a badass and won’t let anyone take her down.”

That morning, she had very politely reminded him about their conversation before she left to go read with Mrs. Hershey. Safe to say, he was nervous about having that conversation with Emery. His whole career as a musician, someone else had done the ‘serious talks’ with people who were fired or otherwise. He’d never had to deal with confrontation or tears. And while he believed that Emery would be understanding, he was still pretty worried.

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