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Five o’clock arrived and the autograph session ended. Security escorted all five men to a private room in the back of the record shop and instructed them to wait there until the second bus arrived. The entire store was cleared out and the doors were locked.
The manager came into the room to thank them once again for appearing in his store.
“Thank you for inviting us. It was a lot of fun.” Brian answered and shook the man’s hand. “Is everyone gone?”
“Yes, the store is empty.” The manager replied. “That decoy bus trick really worked.”
Nick let out a low chuckle. “Gets them every time.”
Mitch returned to the room just then to let them know that the other bus would arrive within the next ten minutes and that it was safe to at least leave the cramped room and go out in to the store.
Ellena was sure that the store would be closed by now. It was fifteen minutes past five. She checked her watch again and then banged on the glass door at the outside entrance. “Honestly Lacey, I don’t know how you didn’t notice that you only had one shoe on.”
Lacey held onto Ellena’s neck a little tighter and whimpered. “Sorry Lala.”
Ellena patted her head and sighed. “I know you didn’t mean to. If I had been paying attention, I would have noticed before we left.” She pounded on the door again when she saw a figure move in the back of the store. A huge man in a black t-shirt that read ‘security’ walked to the front of the door and pointed to the ‘closed’ sign. Ellena rolled her eyes and shouted. “I just need to get back in for a few minutes.”
He looked her over three times and checked the parking lot in the distance for any other people. When he was satisfied that she was alone, he unlocked the door and let her in. “Thanks so much. I just need to look for my girl’s shoe. She lost it in the play area.”
She rolled her eyes again when she realized that the man wasn’t listening. He crossed his arms over his chest and grunted. “You’ve got five minutes Lady.”
Ellena smiled sweetly and patted his arm. “Well aren’t you just a sweet heart!” The security guard scowled at her sarcasm. “I’ll be out of here in three.” She turned on her heel and headed towards the kid’s area to the side of the store. “Okay munchkin, you stay here and I’ll go find your shoe.” Ellena turned her back to the table that the Backstreet Boys had been sitting at earlier and Lacey slid off her back to sit on the top of it. She turned around, set her wallet on the table beside her, and shook her finger at Lacey. “Don’t go anywhere.” She warned and went into the kid zone.
AJ emerged from the back room first and immediately spotted Lacey perched upon the table. “Who is that?” he asked the store manager. Kevin recognized Lacey from that afternoon and made his way over to talk with her. Lacey was running her finger over the embroidery patterns on her jeans and singing the alphabet to herself.
“Hello there.” He said when he got close enough for her to hear him. Lacey’s head shot up and she eyed him wearily. When she recognized him from her CD cover, she smiled.
“Hi! You’re Kevin right?”
“Yes I am. You must be Lacey.” Kevin sat on the edge of the table beside her.
“How did you know my name?” Lacey peered up at him.
“I met your mom today.”
Lacey’s eyes grew wide as saucers. “You saw my Mom?”
Kevin chuckled to himself. “Yes, but not as much of her as I would have liked.”
Ellena emerged from the play area holding up a small shoe. “Hey Cinderella, look what I found.” Lacey giggled as Ellena crouched down to help her get her shoe back on.
“Cinderella! My name is Lacey!”
Ellena smoothed the hair out of Ellena’s face. “Well you lost a shoe, didn’t you?”
Kevin watched Ellena’s face as she smiled at the child. The love that she had for the little girl radiated out of her. It was too apparent to ignore. Kevin stood in wonderment at the bond between mother and child. He could only hope that his children would have a bond like that with their mother. Her delicate figure straightened and she stood up.
“Oh! Hello again.” Ellena smiled at Kevin as if noticing his presence for the first time. “Kevin right?” She held out a slender hand that he quickly took in his.
“Yes that’s right. And you are…?”
“Ellena.” She pulled her hand away. It gave Kevin a chill as her fingers slid across the sensitive skin on his wrist.
“Your husband is a very lucky man to have two beautiful ladies to come home to.” Ellena laughed at his forwardness.
“Honey, there is no husband to come home to us. It’s just me and her.” Ellena raised her head from Lacey and caught her breath when her gaze was met with deep green eyes. “But I can see why you have so many fans with the way you can sweet talk.”
Kevin laughed as Ellena gave him the same smirk she had given him that afternoon. “Do you always speak your mind?” He asked.
“Always.” Ellena smiled shyly.
“Don’t you ever worry what other people will think?” Kevin asked, his interest piqued.
“With the life that I lead, I can’t worry about it. If I worried about what other people thought, I wouldn’t be able to take care of the important things.” Kevin thought about her response for a moment and opened his mouth to question what she had meant by it. Before he had a chance to speak, Ellena looked down at Lacey still sitting on the table. She brushed some curls off Lacey’s face and lifted her into her arms. She noticed a strangeness in Lacey’s expression.
“What’s wrong girlfriend?” Ellena asked, suddenly concerned.
“He said he knows my mom.” Lacey pointed at Kevin. Ellena’s expression immediately changed. She narrowed her eyes to glare at Kevin and hugged Lacey tighter to her body.
“What are you talking about?” She asked the girl in a stern voice. Kevin became confused as the girl shrugged and started to play with the gold chain around Ellena’s neck. She was avoiding eye contact with her. “Lacey, look at me.” Ellena placed her finger under Lacey’s chin and lifted her face till their eyes met.
“He says she was here today. Do you think we can find her?” A glint of hope shone in Lacey’s eyes that nearly broke Ellena’s heart. Ellena looked accusingly at Kevin.
“What did you tell her?” Kevin, becoming more confused by the second, shrugged his shoulders and took a step back. He had no idea what he had said that had brought about Ellena’s sudden change in demeanor.
“No Lacey, Mommy wasn’t here today.”
“But he said ““
“No. He was wrong.” Ellena replied sternly. Lacey’s chin began to tremble and tears formed in her blue eyes. Ellena’s expression softened. “Let’s go home sweetheart.” Lacey was crying now. She put her arms around Ellena’s neck and sobbed into her shoulder. Ellena could feel Lacey’s tears fall onto her skin at the neck of her t-shirt.
“I’d better get out of here before the security ogre comes to throw me out.” She gave Kevin one, last, hard look and headed towards the door. Kevin stared after her in shock. He couldn’t think of anything that he had said that would have deserved that reaction out of Ellena. He finally looked away from her when she closed the door behind her and disappeared into the evening.
Letting out a sigh, Kevin leaned back against the table. “Ouch!” He jumped back up and looked to see what he had sat on. He picked up a black, leather wallet and studied it. He didn’t recognize it as being one of the guy’s so he opened it. Staring back at him from the license photo inside were Ellena’s gray eyes. Squinting, he read the name and address on the card. “Well, Ellena O’Ryan, at least I’ll be able to apologize in person for what ever I did to upset you.” He closed the wallet and put it into his jacket pocket. He smiled at the newfound opportunity. To say the least, he was intrigued.