Cowboy

By Staci Stallings

Chapter 1

"You're never going to believe who's coming to Denver!" Lynn Isley squealed as she streaked into the empty restaurant from the kitchen doors.

Standing at the cash register counting change, Beth McCasland barely even looked up. "Who?"

Lynn dropped her voice conspiratorially although there wasn't a single soul in the place to overhear her anyway. "Ashton Raines!"

"65.82." Beth dumped the pennies back in the register and frowned.

"Ashton Raines? Isn't he that country singer?"

"That country singer?" Lynn asked in disbelief as she tied her blue-and-white Harry's All-Night Diner apron around her waist. "Are you kidding me? Ashton Raines is the country singer. He not only won Male Vocalist of the Year three years in a row, he won Entertainer of the Year last year and Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and... Beth!"

Somewhere just past one of the 'of the Years' Beth had tuned Lynn out.
"What?" She looked up from the drawer innocently, and when she saw the look on Lynn's face, she repeated, "What?"

"Where'd you go?"

"The drawer's ten cents off." Beth looked back at it in consternation. "What do you think we should we do?"

Lynn shook her head. "Who cares?"

"I do." A moment of thought and Beth pulled a dime out of her own pocket and dropped it into the register.

In disbelief, Lynn surveyed her friend, her dark eyes flashing. "What'd you do that for?"

Beth shrugged and slammed the drawer. "It's either that or hear Harry yell for two hours."

"But..." Lynn began just as the bell on the front door sounded.

"Customers," Beth said, indicating the door and signaling that the conversation was over with one word. She tucked a wayward blonde wavy-curl behind her ear, grabbed three menus, and started toward the door without bothering to wait for Lynn to so much as exhale.

"Ashton, what in the world are you doing up there?" Barry Braxton yelled to the stonewashed jean-clad figure leaning perilously over the edge of the top row of bleachers.

"These bleachers have to be up by seven," Ashton yelled back over the din of workers surrounding him without so much as looking down at his manager.

"They will be," Barry called, "but if you fall, we won't be needing them anyway."

Irritation at being treated like a three-year-old crawled through Ashton's chest as he twisted the wrench on the bolt he was working on with three more quick jerks. "I'm not going to fall, Barry."

"Well, why don't you come on down anyway?" Barry set his hands on the rolls of excess weight just beneath his off-brown, button up shirt. "Really. There's no reason for you to be up there. I'm sure the crew can get it."

"Look around you, Bare." Ashton waved the wrench angrily. "We go on in three hours. Does it look like they're going to be ready?"

Barry shook his balding head in disgust. He really couldn't argue with that as much as he obviously wanted to. With the concert set to start in three hours, Ashton knew his manager would've preferred him to be in his dressing room getting ready rather than tightening bolts on the bleachers for their latest venue. However, here he was twisting bolt after bolt tighter and tighter, wrenching his anger and frustration into them as if that would somehow make everything better.

After a full thirty seconds Barry stalked off leaving his golden egg hanging off the edge of a set of bleachers that looked like it might fall any second. Ashton didn't so much as watch him leave. Barry, of all people, knew Ashton's stubborn streak ran a mile deep and just as wide. And the fact that he had acquired a death wish in the last year didn't help matters.

Trying not to think lest the memories swarm him again, he bent his head and body into the work. If he could just keep working, keep moving, keep going, somehow he would find a way past the hurt. If he didn't, Humpty Dumpty would look easy to put back together by comparison.

"So, do you want to go?" Lynn asked as she walked up to the counter where Beth stood during a slight lull in the afternoon lunch chaos.

"Go where?" Beth asked, tallying up three tickets at the same time.
Lynn leaned on the counter. Her freckled arms created a triangle with her waist. "The concert."

Wishing Lynn would leave her alone so she could concentrate, Beth bit the pink lipstick of her bottom lip. "What concert?"

"Hello, Beth...? Is anybody in there?" Lynn waved her hand in the air.

The bells on the front door jingled. Without bothering to uphold her end of the conversation, Beth stepped around the counter. "I'll be right back." She heard Lynn growl in frustration, but there were other things in the world far more important than concerts and having fun. On top of that priority list was eeking out a living. She met the two customers at the door. "Good afternoon. Would you like a booth or a table?"

Ashton heard the familiar music the second it poured down from the enormous speakers three stories above him. The roar of the crowd that followed the music never ceased to amaze him. On the outside he looked ready-calm, cool, professional, but inside he was a disaster waiting to happen. This was the hardest part of every show. Right now she would've been with him, holding his hand right to the stage steps, telling him good luck, and kissing him. What he wouldn't have given for one more kiss.

He could feel her even now, and every part of him wanted nothing more than to walk away from it all-walk away and never come back. Without her, everything had become too hard, too draining, too overwhelming. Just as the pain threatened to take him over the edge, he heard it-the four notes-his cue, and in with one giant shove, he stuffed all the hurt back down and stepped up the stairs and onto the stage as the entire arena exploded in lights, music, and screaming around him. In fact, it was so loud that not one person in the entire arena heard his heart snap right down the middle.

"You going home?" Lynn asked as Beth grabbed her coat from the rack.

She slid her arms into the warmth of the wool, knowing how the early April chill in Colorado could seep into a person despite all their best efforts.

"Yeah, Tori should be here any time now, and I've got to stop at my parents' to get Kenzie."

"How's she doing?" Lynn asked with genuine concern.

"Oh, growing like a weed." Beth laughed softly and pushed the blonde curl that never quite made it into the clip at the back of her head from the edge of her face. No matter how many clips she used, she could never quite get her hair to stay up through a full eight-hour shift. "I can't believe she'll be starting kindergarten in the fall."

"No kidding." Lynn's concern sank on the sigh that went through Beth. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Beth ducked so her friend couldn't see the real answer. "It just hard sometimes." Buttoning the coat was a good excuse not to look up.

"I know, but I'm sure Kevin would be proud of how well she's done."

Beth smiled through the ache, which stabbed viciously into her heart. She grabbed her things from the counter. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, you take care-and drive careful."

"I will."

Lynn watched her friend go. It had to be hard to go home every night with a child and all alone at the same time. Worse, the only places Beth ever went were her parents' house, the diner, and home. The only time she ever went out was when Lynn forced her to, and it had been far too long since their last outing.

The radio behind her crackled. "KGRC, is proud to welcome Ashton

Raines to The Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado on June 12th..."
The concert. Somehow she would find a way to talk her friend into going. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

"Hey, great show, Ashton," Barry said, slapping him on the back the second he descended into backstage after the second encore.

Ashton forced a smile onto his face. "Thanks."

"We've got some people backstage," Barry continued as though Ashton hadn't heard all this a million times before.

"There he is!" someone from down the hall yelled, and in a breath he was crushed by a sea of fans.

Overwhelming numbness took over as he accepted the pieces of paper being shoved in his face. Over and over he signed a name that no longer seemed to even belong to him. It was everywhere. On T-shirts, CD jackets, programs, in lights above the entrance to every auditorium door he walked through.

As he signed the name yet another time, it occurred to him that somehow he had lost everything-not even his own name was his anymore. He wasn't Ashton Raines, and yet if he wasn't Ashton Raines, who was he, and when he had ceased to exist as a real person?

"That's enough!" Barry held his hands up, forcing his way through the crowd to make a path for Ashton to follow. "We appreciate you all coming out! Thank you! Thank you!"

Somehow Ashton followed his manager, somehow his feet worked, somehow... and yet if he had to explain just how, he would never have been able to.

Beth lay on Kenzie's bed, the book in one hand, Kenzie resting on the other arm. "'Open the door,' the prince commanded, and the guards obeyed. When the door opened, there stood Katrina in her dress of rags. 'Hello,' said the prince kindly. 'Hello,' Katrina said. 'May I have this dance?' the prince asked, holding out his hand to her. She took it, and they danced the whole night away. The end."

Beth closed the book and then looked down and smiled. Kenzie. The soft little face. The rosy cheeks. The most beautiful child in the world. Her last precious gift from Kevin. At times it seemed she was almost past the pain, and then at other times, like tonight, the thought of going to a bed devoid of his spirit threatened to fling her into a pit of despair.

Five years. Five long years, and still she missed him, and at that moment, watching their daughter sleep, the soft baby blonde curls fanned out on the pink pillow, she knew she would miss him forever.

"We've got some new material in," Barry said as Ashton put his feet up on the coffee table, leaned his head back against the couch, and closed his eyes. "Meredith thinks one of them is a keeper."

"Hmm."

"Anyway, I thought maybe tomorrow on the way to Atlanta we could give it a once over-just to see what you think," Barry continued, going over his checklist. "The concert in Tucson sold out yesterday in under two hours. They're thinking about adding a second show. What do you think?"

"Fine," Ashton said without ever opening his eyes.

The to-do list went silent. "Ken called. He's wondering how you're doing?"

Ashton was really tired of answering this already age-old question.

"How are you doing?" Barry asked pointedly. "Really?"

Slowly Ashton exhaled-knowing full well that the truth and what Barry wanted to hear were two totally different things. "You know me, Bare." He opened his eyes to a reality he now hated.

"Yes, I do, and I'm not the only one who's worried about you."

Ashton smiled at that. Barry was worried all right-for himself mostly.

"I'm fine." With no small amount of effort, Ashton pulled himself off the couch. "Just a little tired."

Barry followed him up off the couch without taking his gaze off him.

"What time are we pulling out in the morning?" Ashton asked, stretching slowly, the starched shirt he still wore from the concert stuck in weird angles to the dried sweat on his back.

"Ten."

"Then I'd better get my beauty rest." Ashton yawned. "I'd hate to be sick for Atlanta."

"Yeah," Barry said unenthusiastically. "I'll be here to get you around nine-thirty?"

"I'll be ready." Ashton followed Barry to the door. "And I promise we'll go over the new stuff tomorrow."

"That's great."

He held the door open for his manager. "Well, good night, Bare."

"Night," Barry said, but the closing door cut off the word.

Ashton exhaled and let his eyelids fall shut. It was true he was tired, but this tired had nothing to do with his work on stage. This tired was something he had never experienced in his life until now. It had nothing to do with sleep and everything to do with the hole he found every time he looked into his heart. He shook his head to clear it of the disturbing thoughts and went to take a shower.

Chapter 2

"...and the tickets go on sale May 16th," Lynn said, carrying on a one-woman conversation across the booth during their three o'clock break, "which just happens to be my day off, so I was thinking..."

Beth's finger wound its way back out of the ash blonde curl on her temple as she pushed the catalog she was perusing across the table. "How do you think this would look on Kenzie?"

Lynn barely looked. "Cute. Anyway, what do you say I get you a ticket, too..."

"What about this one?" Beth pushed the catalog back across the table.

"That's cute, too," Lynn said. "If I got you a ticket, we could go into Denver..."

"I wish I knew what the weather's going to be like for Memorial Day," Beth said with a frown, "I'd hate to get something and then it be too cold."

"Hello, Beth. Are you listening to me?" Lynn asked in exasperation.

"Yeah," Beth said without a trace of sarcasm. "You think they're both cute."

"That's it!" Lynn swiped the catalog from her friend's hands.

In shock and annoyance Beth followed the magazine out of sight. "Hey! What'd you do that for?"

Lynn sat on the catalog, her chin length black bob swaying with the movement. "So, maybe I can get your attention for more than two seconds."

"What?" Beth asked as though she hadn't heard a word that had come from the other side of the table in the last ten minutes, which in all honesty she hadn't.

"Ashton Raines," Lynn said evenly as she folded her hands on the table in front of her. "Now, I was thinking I could get us both tickets, and we could go see him in Denver." The bob swayed again with the words and the excitement.

"Oh, I don't know, Lynn." The table pulled Beth's gaze down like a magnet. "Those tickets are expensive."

That stopped Lynn for all of two seconds. "Okay. I'll tell you what. Your birthday is the 20th, so just consider the tickets a birthday present-my treat."

"I can't let you do that." Beth caught one ash-blonde lock of hair around her index finger and spun it between her fingers. "You can't afford it either. Besides, what would I do with Kenzie?"

Lynn shrugged. "Take her to your parents' house-or better yet to Kevin's parents'. I'm sure they'd love to have her."

Beth knew the truth of that statement although it made her heart ache.

Kenzie was their one and only grandchild, and Kevin's parents called practically every week offering to take her. But somehow Beth never felt right taking her daughter to Empire-actually, somewhere deep down, she knew it wasn't letting Kenzie stay with them that was the problem. The problem was taking Kenzie to stay with them. That drive always got to her.

"I don't know," she said, winding the hair until the top of her finger turned white. "What about Thomas?"

Lynn grimaced. "Thomas'd rather stick bamboo shoots in his fingernails than to go to an Ashton Raines concert. Besides it'd be more fun to have a girls' night out. I'll tell you what. I'll get the tickets. If you decide you don't want to go, I can always sell them to someone else. I'm sure they won't be hard to get rid of."

Winding her finger all the way to her scalp, Beth sighed. "Well, okay." Somehow in the next two months, she would find a graceful way out of going. It shouldn't be that hard.

"So, what do you think?" Meredith asked, barely containing her excitement as the song finished playing over the bus's sound system. Her petite frame never moved for all the motion of the road.

"Nice," Ashton said not overly enthusiastically.

"I told you he'd like it," Meredith said, poking Barry in the ribs with a bony elbow.

"I didn't say he wouldn't," Barry said with a fake smile that elbowed into Ashton's patience. "Oh, Price called today. They booked the studio for January. Ken thinks we should start recording something for the new album-tracks and stuff after Christmas. What do you think?"

"Sounds good," Ashton said with no excitement at all. The plan had been to keep working and not let his mind wander to the hole inside him, and like it or not that plan was working. "I think I'm going to go catch a few zzz's before we stop in Charlotte." He stood without pretense. "Call me."

"I will," Barry said, watching him walk to the back of the bus and close the door.

Meredith sighed. "I'm worried about him."

"Yeah. So am I."

* * *

"Yes, Ma'am. I'm sorry, Ma'am," Beth repeated as she picked up the plate off the table.

"And I don't want onions either," the lady seated in the middle of the Harry's Diner said.

"Yes, Ma'am, I'll be right back," Beth said, taking a step backward.

"Miss," a man at a table across the diner said, "I need another Coke."

"Yes, Sir."

"Ma'am, could we get some service over here?" another man asked, holding up a menu.

"One minute, Sir." She deftly missed the counter with the tray of repossessed food. "Joe, we need this hamburger redone-it was supposed to be well done, but it's pink. And she doesn't want onions."

"Table seven's ready." Randy pushed a tray of steaming food across the opening.

Beth hoisted the tray onto her shoulder. "Got it."

"Miss," the man said again, "I need some more Coke."

"Just a second," she said, straining to keep her sanity.

"We're ready to order... Miss, where's my hamburger... We need another plate... Can we have our check...? Where are your restrooms…? Are you going to take our order or not?"

"Ashton, 'Glory Ride's' not supposed to be a dirge," Steve said, shaking his head. "Could we pick it up a little?"

"Oh, sure," Ashton said never really hearing anything his drummer said. "No problem."

"Grab your apron," Beth said the second she saw Lynn breeze through the door.

Annoyance crashed onto Lynn's tanned face. "I'm not here to work."

"I don't care," Beth said, fighting to stay calm and sane as six people vied for her attention. "Sage called in sick. Tori's out of town, and Julie's filling in for Nia tonight."

"Oh, good grief." Lynn needed no more updates to head to the back.

Rushing back out front, she tied her apron. "What do you need?"

"Table six needs their order-it's out. I'm getting checks for five, ten, and twelve. Table seven needs bussed."

"Got it."

"And now..." the announcer said as the spotlights swept over the crowd, "Oklahoma City is proud to welcome, the CMA Entertainer of the Year... Ashton... Raines!"

Ashton reached down, deep, deep down, down to the last ounce of energy he had left, and he climbed the stairs and stepped out onto the stage.

"What a day." Lynn collapsed onto one of the counter stools.

"Tell me about it." At the register Beth recounted the change. "Julie should be here any minute. You might as well go on home, but thanks for coming in. I tried calling you, but..."

"Oh my gosh!" Lynn jumped off the chair and dug under her apron. "I almost forgot. Look what I got!"

Beth glanced up from counting and tried to see what Lynn pulled from the pocket of her jeans, but her eyes were too blurry from the fatigue and the grease. She shook her head in utter exhaustion. "What?"

"Tickets!" Lynn said, her eyes shining as she held them up triumphantly.

"Oh, yeah, that was today." Beth refocused on the cash register. "So, you got 'em, huh?"

"Yes, I did! I waited in line 48 hours, but I got 'em, baby."

"Well, good for you," Beth said, resuming her counting.

"No, good for us."

Beth exhaled slowly. "Look, Lynn, I really don't think..."

"I know you don't think, that's why you're going to listen to me," Lynn said commandingly. "Now, you've been slaving away all day long every day at this stupid diner, and for once, you're going to take off and enjoy yourself. You got that?"

"But..."

"No, buts. Now, I want you to call Kevin's parents and book them for the 12th. Like it or not, you're coming with me-even if I have to drag you there myself."

Air whooshed from Beth's lungs. There was no use to argue now. Later she would argue. Right now all she wanted was home and a nice, soft bed.

* * *

"Kelly's on the phone, she wants to know if she should meet us in Tucson to work on cut eight," Meredith said, putting her fingers with the red-polished, perfectly manicured nails, over the cell phone.

"Sure." With his head resting on the bus window, Ashton read the signs outside the window as they flew past-152 miles to Albuquerque. Albuquerque, another stop on this nightmare that had started so long ago he couldn't remember where or when. Some place in him vaguely remembered being at a hospital, and then there was an even vaguer recollection of a funeral, but after that, it was all pretty much a blur.

Cities he couldn't remember, concerts that no longer held the fascination they once had, and above all, miles and miles of road that seemed to lead nowhere. Nowhere he wanted to go anyway.

Chapter 3

"All the roads... lead back to you... every clock... ticks your name..."

"Ashton!" Jimmy yelled from the middle of The Pepsi Center early on the afternoon of June 12th. "Your guitar's not picking up, man. Check the jack."

Ashton looked down, and his hand went automatically to the pickup.

"It's crackling." Jimmy put a hand to his headphone. "Okay, it stopped. Try it again."

"All the roads... lead back to you..."

"It's still not picking up! Try the floor plug."

Ashton stepped on the floor plug and tried to remember a time when this hadn't been work.

"Okay, try it again."

"All the roads... lead back to you..."

Jimmy clamped his hands over his headphones and then gave a thumbs-up sign.

"Every clock ticks your name... All the roads lead back to you. Every road ends the same..."

"We're supposed to be at Kathy's at four, so we'd better get going," Lynn said, grabbing her jacket from the rack as Beth rechecked the register.

"Okay, just let me count this one more time."

"Beth! You've counted that four times already. It's either right or it's not. Now, come on!"

The stranger Ashton found staring back at him from the depths of the dressing room mirror made him stop his headlong rush away from the memories. Who was this person anyway? Who was this man walking around in his body? Who was he, and when had he taken over?

"Ashton, 30 minutes 'til show time," Barry called from the opposite side of the door.

Slowly he closed his eyes to the shadow in the mirror. It was hollow anyway--a ghost.

Barry knocked softly. "Ashton, you in there?"

"Yeah," he called back quietly as he placed the white cowboy hat on his head and stared straight ahead. "I'm here."

"I can't believe we made it!" Lynn bounced in front of Beth like a pogo stick.
Denver and The Pepsi Center. Beth could count the number of times she'd been here on one hand-most of them with Kevin. A thought flitted across her mind-a memory from a different lifetime. She could see them-two ghosts, holding hands. Happy.

It was the last time she could remember being truly happy.

"Where'd you go?" Lynn asked, and her concern was evident.

Beth shook her head to clear the thoughts from her mind.

"I'm here," she said, smiling, but she couldn't shake the melancholy. Even after five years, everything reminded her of Kevin. Everything.

"Okay, Ashton, Mike's filling in for Bev tonight so when you get to the stairs look for him. Everything's set. We've got five songs and then the break we decided on. Remember that. Okay? The band's going to take their normal break after 'Sundown,' but we took out your break after 'Glory Ride.' Don't forget that."

The instructions flew at him and past him, and something in him told him he was supposed to be listening, but he couldn't find the part of his brain that even knew what Barry was talking about. "Yeah, okay."

"Good." Barry put a hand on his back. "You're going to be great. Just go out there, and make 'em glad they came."

Ashton nodded and ambled to the stairs leading up to the stage. For an instant after leaving Barry's side, he wasn't at all sure he had the strength to make it to the stairs much less up them, but something deep down pulled him forward, and like a blind man, he followed it.

"Here's your mic," Karen said, and obediently he took off his hat for her to wrap the plastic around his head.

"Here's your guitar." Mike placed the instrument over Ashton's shoulders. Suddenly once again he stood there-a cowboy in a white hat-poised to take on the world and wanting only to run in the other direction. "Go get 'em, man."

In all of their time together, Beth had never seen Lynn so out-of-control excited. The black bob bounced up and down in time with its owner's anticipation. "This is it! This is it! He's coming! Oh, my gosh! He's coming!"

Their seats were so far back Beth wondered what the point of this was. They could hear his music on the radio just as easily, and listening on the radio would certainly be less crowded and much less noisy.

At that moment the lights snapped off, and the spotlights swept over the crowd. She was sure Lynn was screaming, but then again, so was everyone else, so she couldn't be sure.

"The Pepsi Center of Denver, Colorado, is proud to welcome... CMA Entertainer of the Year. Ashton... Raines!"

At the first notes, the entire arena started to rock, and Beth instinctively put her hands over her ears in a vain attempt to keep from going totally deaf.

On cue, Ashton mounted the steps and walked out onto the stage smiling as though everything in his life was and always had been absolute bliss. As he strode confidently to center stage, he waved happily to the crowd, which went crazy at the gesture. Center stage the lyrics slipped through him without effort.

"It only takes a second to ignite a fire... It only takes a heartbeat to know she's the one. It only takes a moment to pull someone closer, but it takes a lifetime to truly make love..."

The words poured out of his soul without him even willing them to. He didn't have to remember the songs. They were a part of him now. In fact, it felt like they'd been a part of him forever. On the guitar, his hands moved in perfect rhythm with the drumbeat, and his smile came at all the right times-all choreographed to utter perfection.

Such perfection in fact, that he thought as he looked out across the crowd not one person could tell that finishing this song just might kill him.

The entire crowd around Beth was singing, and as she looked around, she knew why. They all had someone. Someone to hold onto. Someone to share this moment with. As she looked at them, it wasn't sadness that crept over her as much as urgency. They didn't know. They didn't understand how utterly precious this moment was, and at that moment all she wanted to do was jump onto her chair and somehow find the words to tell them how priceless these few moments were.

They were here now, but quicker than a tear can fall, they would be gone-and the only thing left would be the memories.

"It only takes a second to ignite a fire... It only takes a heartbeat to know she's the one," he sang, wrenching the words out as his heart broke inside him.

Suddenly through the voices around her, a realization hit her, and Beth's gaze went to the stage. Without a doubt, she knew he was yelling the words she'd been trying to form for herself. The next instant her heart went out to him.

No one had to tell her, she just knew. Ashton Raines was a kindred spirit. He had been there, and he was saying what she had wanted to say for five years. At that realization, a sad smile crossed her lips. She sank back behind the outstretched hands of the people on either side of her and let his words pour over her.

"It only takes a moment to pull someone closer, but it takes a lifetime to truly make love."

What no one can tell you was how short that lifetime could be, she thought as the first tear wound its way down her cheek. And standing in the middle of 20,000 screaming fans, she was sure she was the only one who'd been reduced to tears by the song.

"Thank you, Denver!" Ashton said into the microphone that was with him everywhere. He waved again as the band took their places by his side. "We'll see ya the next time around!"

Lynn was in the throes of an old-fashioned swoon as Beth clapped politely. It was a good concert, but it wasn't that good, she thought wiping the last of the stray tears away and pushing her hair over her ear.

"Ugh. Isn't he dreamy?" Lynn asked as the house lights blinked back on.

They turned to follow the rest of the crowd out.

"How can you tell?" Beth asked with a laugh as she slung her small purse over her shoulder. "We were like two miles away."

"Are you kidding? Did you see that white hat? I thought I was going to die!"

"Well, don't die yet. You're my ride home."

"Ashton! Ashton!" the sea of people he found himself engulfed in the second he stepped off the stage screamed. "One picture! Can you autograph this? Here's mine. Ashton!"

Dutifully he accepted every paper he could reach as the flashbulbs snapped in his face.

"Thanks for coming," he said softly to anyone who could hear, but the place was pandemonium.

"Okay! Okay! Back up! Let the man through!" Barry yelled, shoving his way to the center of the firestorm. "Thank you for coming! Excuse us, please! Back up!"

"Ashton! Ashton! Mr. Raines! One more, please!"

"Oh, man, that was like the best concert ever," Lynn said as they crawled into her beat-up Pinto.

"It was good." Beth glanced out the window and saw the first few flashes of lightning off in the distance over the mountains to the west. They snagged her attention and held it.

"Good? I'll tell you what, give me a cowboy in a white hat any day."

Beth's gaze tripped back to her friend. "What about Thomas?"

"I'd even settle for him in a white cowboy hat, but trust me, that's not going to happen anytime soon."

In spite of the pain in her heart Beth laughed.

"So, where to now?" Lynn asked, pulling carefully through the scramble of cars in the vast parking lot and onto the street.

"I think I just want to go home."

"Oh. Are you sure?"

Beth sighed and yawned-neither of which were total lies. "I'm really beat."

"But Kathy's got Kenzie the whole night. We could go out and get a bite to eat or something."

"I'm not really hungry. Besides, I just want to go home. Please."

"Well, okay." Lynn sighed, surrendering to her friend's wishes as she made the loop and headed out on I-70 West. "If that's what you want, we'll go home."

Barry stood in the center of the room, expertly introducing Ashton to the assembled dignitaries and bigwigs milling about the reception room.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Holden." Ashton smiled and shook the older man's hand.

"It's a pleasure," Mr. Holden said. His faded gray-blue eyes twinkled. "My wife's been a fan of yours for a long time. Now I know why."

"Well, thank you." Willing his feet to stay planted, Ashton forced his legs to keep him upright. "I'm glad you could come."

"Mr. Raines," a young voice said from behind him.

When he turned, Ashton knew the slender blond couldn't have been more than 15.

"Could you sign this for me?" she asked not quite meeting his gaze.

The smile that came to his lips this time was genuine. "Sure."

She handed him the program shyly. "I really enjoyed your concert tonight, Mr. Raines." He smiled at her again. "Please, call me Ashton."

"Oh. Okay, Ashton," she said as her fingers laced and relaced themselves through each other in front of her.

"And who should I make this to?" he asked really enjoying an actual moment with a fan. In the beginning there were many, but they were fewer and much farther in between these days.

"Just make it to Sharon."

In one instant his heart constricted around itself, and he struggled to find the air that had suddenly disappeared from the room. He fought to regain his composure as he signed the page without seeing it. Then he handed it back to her with what he hoped was a smile.

"Thank you, Mr. Raines... Ashton."

"You're welcome, Sharon." The breaking of his heart crashed through his ears as he watched her turn and vanish into the crowd.

"You all right?" Barry asked, appearing at his elbow.

Ashton shook his head and fought to breathe. Sanity had lost its grip. "I've got to get out of here."

"What?" Barry asked in instant dismay.

He was heaving, fighting to find the air, but it wasn't working. His head swum dangerously. "I've got to get out of here." He dug his fingernails into the palms of his hands to keep his fists from lashing out at the first thing he saw.

"Out of here? Ashton...?" Panic ripped through Barry's voice. "What're you talking about?"

"I'm talking about I'm leaving-right now." The pent-up frustration with the whole impossible situation threatened to overwhelm him.

"But, what about all these people?"

"Well, you're the manager, Barry. Manage." He turned and stomped out of the room, knocking into several people in his headlong dash to get anywhere else other than here.

Down the hall he fled, wanting nothing more than to keep running forever. At the last possible second before he got to his dressing room Meredith caught up with him. "Ashton! What do you think you're doing?"

"Leaving." He stalked into the dressing room and slammed the door on the living area as the intoxicating idea of simply walking away inundated every tiny protest his brain could come up with. He yanked off the shirt that felt like plastic and pulled on the oldest T-shirt he could find.

"Well, where're you going?" Meredith called from the other side of the door, and without seeing her, Ashton could hear her hands on her hips.

He yanked off the black jeans and pulled on a pair of raggedy faded ones before stalking back out to where she stood. "I don't know."

"You don't know? Well, I have to know where you're going." Meredith folded her arms across the black Channel suit she wore as if she was scolding a three-year-old.

Without bothering to sit down, Ashton yanked on his tennis shoes that had strings dripping off the fronts.

"Ashton! I have to know where you're going!"

In the split second that followed he was in her face. "Look, Mere, I've been your puppet for seven years. I'm going for a little drive right now. I don't know where I'm going, and I don't know when I'll be back. So, you can just deal with it!" He stepped away from her then and grabbed his ratty baseball cap from the table.

"Deal with it?" she shrieked as her angled features constricted.

Carefully he positioned the cap on his head and checked his reflection in the mirror. Already he felt better. "That's what I said, Mere. Deal with it." He stepped away from the mirror and over to the door.

"You can't just walk out of here! We're leaving for Vegas tomorrow morning for Pete's sake!"

"And your point is?" He turned and looked at her evenly, his hand poised on the knob.

"My point is your butt better be on that bus!"

"And what happens if it isn't, Mere? What then? Huh? We all go home?" The last shred of sanity dropped away from him, and an eerie calm settled into his voice. "Well, I don't have a home to go to anymore, and I don't have a life to go home to either."

Instantly, the anger in her face melted. "Okay, look, Ashton. I'm sorry. Really I am. I know this can't be easy."

He snorted and yanked the door opened. "You don't know anything."

"Ashton." She pulled out her cell phone in desperation. "I can call Keaton. He can take you wherever you want to go."

"I'm a big boy, Mere, I can take care of myself," he said, and with that he walked away from the life he had worked his entire life to build.

"Thanks, Lynn," Beth said as the Pinto stopped by the little house nestled in the grove of trees three miles up the mountain from the Silver Plume turnoff at I-70.

"No problem." Lynn smiled at her friend. "Thanks for going with me."

"Thanks for asking."

"Anytime," Lynn said with a slight nod. "You going to be okay getting in?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Beth reached for the door handle. "I'll see you Monday."

"Okay, take care."

"I will. You, too." In one fluid motion Beth got out, turned, and slammed the door behind her. She walked up the front porch steps, unlocked the door, and turned to wave to Lynn. Once inside she took a real breath. Home. Finally. She tossed her keys onto the dining room table, walked into the kitchen, grabbed a glass, and filled it with water. In the quiet of the house she noticed for the first time that her ears were still ringing. It was amazing to her that people thought concerts were fun. Crowded, noisy, and miserable was more like it.

Bed was going to feel really, really good, she thought as she treaded into the hallway and past the light blinking at her from the answering machine. Kenzie. It was her first thought as it always was. She punched the button and willed the tape to hurry as it rewound, stopped, and started playing.

"Beth," Harry's frazzled voice said from the speaker, "Nia's sick, and Kaylie's little girl broke her arm today. If you get this message before morning, please call. I'll pay you overtime, give you time off. Whatever you want. Please call."

Beth closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, letting tired wash over her. The very last place she wanted to be tonight was back at the diner-on night shift of all things. There had to be a way out of this. She could tell Harry she hadn't gotten the message. She could tell him they didn't get in until morning. A thousand excuses ran through her mind, but she knew even as they did, eventually she would go in to work.

Harry needed her, and she needed the money. It was that simple.

It had taken only a mild amount of effort to hail a cab, to drive to the airport, and to rent a car. In fact, Ashton's mind didn't have to work at all. His body was on autopilot. In what felt like two seconds he was breezing through the Denver streets-not knowing where he was going and not really caring.

"Hey, Harry," Beth said, walking through the door and noticing the figure slumped over the counter.

"Beth!" the gray-haired, pot-bellied man said as he sat up, brightening at the sight of her presence. "Oh, man, I can't tell you how much I appreciate this."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She waved him off. "I'll expect a big bonus."

"Oh, you've got it," he said as she crossed past the counter and grabbed her apron. "Anything. You just name it."

"Beth?" Joe, the cook, said the second he saw her. "Weren't you in here this afternoon?"

She shrugged. "I can't stay away."

"Oh, man. You're a lifesaver." Harry pulled his coat off the rack.

Beth stopped short. "You're leaving?"

"Well, yeah," he said as though that should've been perfectly obvious. "You're here."

At some point the city lights had turned to winding roads, mountains, and trees, but Ashton couldn't clearly remember how or when that had happened. All he could see was freedom. Everywhere he looked was freedom. No guitars, no managers, no people, no buses. Just him and the open road stretched out in front of him. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. He was free.

But it was as though his mind wouldn't allow him to enjoy anything for more than just a moment because just then he heard her voice. "Thank you, Mr. Raines… Ashton."

"You're welcome, Sharon."

And as the first few drops of rain found his windshield, the tears in his heart wrenched free.

He could still see her lying there--a pale ghost in the midst of a mountain of pillows, but even more he could still hear her fading, soft voice. "You take it easy, cowboy."

In his memory he clutched her hand even as his hands gripped the steering wheel in the present. "I can't do this, Sharon. Not now. Not like this."

"Hey, you're the one who's supposed to be the strong one, remember?" she teased, using a line on him he had used on her many times before. Even as his memory wound around the scene, his heart pleaded for her not to give up.

"But I can't do this-not without you." He felt the fragile touch of her other hand on his arm, and once again he looked into her weak hazel eyes. He could hear the rasp of air raking across her failing lungs. She was drifting, and he knew it. He clutched her hand tighter and bent his head over her arm. "I don't want to live without you. Please, Sharon. I don't know how."

"You'll never be without me," she said softly, but her strength waned with each word. "Every time you get up there. Every time you sing, I'll be right there with you... It's going to be okay, cowboy. You've just got to believe…"

"You were wrong!" he screamed so violently that the words seemed to reverberate through the car. Anguish overtook him in a rush. He squeezed his eyes closed to the darkness on the other side of the rain-streaked windshield. The anger and the pain engulfed him in a torrent at the memory of those words. "You were wrong, Sharon. You're not here. You're gone, and I don't want to do this alone anymore. I can't."

For a split second a calming breath came over him as his gaze caught on the concrete slabs flashing four feet away from his window. The rain beat down on the world around him, obscuring everything else. His breathing slowed. It would be easy. An accident in the rain. No one would ever know the difference, and he would be with her again.

"I can't do this anymore," he whispered as everything in his life dropped away. "I can't."

At that moment a pair of headlights cut through his rearview mirror, and his gaze jerked up into them. There, staring back at him from the rearview mirror, he found eyes he hadn't seen in a very, very long time. The eyes of a country kid who only knew how to throw hay bales onto a truck bed.

A weary smile crossed his face at the memory, and as the rain pounded on the top of the car, he realized he didn't want to end it all. He simply wanted to find his life back-he wanted to find the boy he'd grown up being. Timothy. He hadn't thought of that name in years.

Sadness and exhaustion slithered over him, and as the headlights behind him faded out around a corner, Ashton realized if he didn't pull over soon, the whole accident in the rain scenario might very well become a reality. What he really needed was a good night's sleep, but at this point, he'd settle for a good cup of coffee. He didn't read the sign, only saw the Exit arrow. Without questioning it, he pulled onto the exit and followed it down off the Interstate.

Fatigue hit him hard as he pulled up next to the small establishment winking an OPEN sign. For the first ten seconds after he killed the engine, he considered simply calling Meredith and asking her to come get him. But as he sat and the quiet came around him, the thought that he didn't want to have to deal with her-or anyone else ran through him. For a few more minutes, he just wanted to be alone, and this looked like as good a place to do that as any. He glanced out the window to the light shining from the plate glass door out into the darkness. Warm. Somehow it looked so warm, and he felt so very cold.

It took everything he had to get the car door open. His head hurt, his eyes hurt, his body hurt. Everything hurt. Maybe he should call Meredith, he thought as he stepped out and right into the middle of an ice-cold rainwater puddle. With a jerk he yanked his foot out, but the muddy water seeped through the holes in his shoe just the same. Trying not to feel the chill oozing through the fabric of his sock, he pulled himself out of the car, making sure to miss the puddle the second time. Once standing, he started slowly across the puddle-strewn lot for the door. However, the wind whipped the icy droplets of rain seemingly right through him. When they found his all-but unprotected body and his neck, all thoughts other than getting inside vanished. In a dead run, he crossed the lot and stumbled inside.

"Nice night," the waitress at the counter said.

Ashton brushed the cold ice water drops off his shirt and shivered. "I'd hate to see a bad one." He stomped his feet on the ground, sending mud and water scattering in little fans on the mat and across the hard tile floor.

She grabbed a menu. "One?"

It took a moment to process the question as he brushed at his cap and neck. "Oh, uh, yeah," he said, glancing up. "One."

"Right this way."

Without question he followed her across the diner to a corner booth. He reached up and repositioned the cap on his head, cupping the bill of it in one hand.

She stopped at the back booth cornered by a wall and a window. "This okay?"

"Fine." He slid into the seat.

With a smile he barely saw, she laid the menu on the table. "I'll bring you some water."

"All right." When she stepped away, he squeezed his eyes closed to shut out the fatigue flooding over him and shivered again. "Tell you what..."

She stopped short and turned back.

He forced his eyes open as he ran his hands down his now-wet jeans. "Just bring me some coffee."

This smile at least made it to her face. "Coffee it is."

He looked down at the menu under his fingertips. Although it had been several hours since he'd eaten anything, eating right now just didn't seem appealing. He tilted his head to one side and then the other, trying to work out the kinks that were going nowhere.

"Here you go." With a small clink, she set the coffee cup in front of him and filled it.

Gratefully, he glanced up. "Thanks." But before his gaze managed to get to hers, the pain slashed through him again and pulled his gaze down lest she see.

For one second and then two she stood there. "I'll take your order when you're ready. Let me know."

"Oh, okay." His hands found the warmth of the cup. It felt wonderful. He didn't really know how, but he knew she had walked away. Slowly he lifted the cup and took a sip. It was the most wonderful thing he'd ever tasted in his life.

Beth watched him from her perch at the counter. Something about him gripped the middle of her soul. Maybe it was the slump of his shoulders as he bent over the cup, or maybe it was the ache on his face. Whatever it was, her gut told her that he was in trouble. Big trouble.

Sitting in this diner so far away from everything he had come to know was like sitting outside his body and looking in, and for the most part, Ashton didn't like anything he saw. It wasn't the clothes-it was the shell of the man inside them. Being here felt so familiar. He'd been in many all-night diners driving back from gigs in far away towns.

He let his mind drift back to those days when playing for a couple hundred people was a good night, when making enough money to get the band to the next stop was a major accomplishment. Slowly his mind traced back through the band. Greg, James, Evan. All friends he'd somehow lost track of during his climb to the top. All friends he'd sat with in places just like this one, dreaming of living the life he now found himself in. But dreaming about this life now seemed totally absurd. It was more like a nightmare.

"Refill?" she asked, materializing in the front of the table.

He looked up into her smiling face and pushed the cup over to her. "Sure."

She refilled it without ever losing the smile. "You ready to order?"

"Oh umm... I'm not really hungry." He reached down and raked one hand down the side of his jeans. Then he glanced up into her smiling blue eyes, and all motion stopped.

"That's okay," she said softly. "Enjoy your coffee."

"T-thanks," he said, and she retreated back to her seat at the counter.
In a way it was odd, he thought as he dragged his attention back to the coffee cup, sitting here in what could at least pass as being in public-and not being mobbed or even asked for an autograph. Anymore he couldn't go anywhere without constant chaos surrounding him. Everyone wanted autographs. Everyone.

He remembered the first autograph he'd ever signed. It was at one of the broken down bars he'd played so long ago he no longer remembered its name. The young girl had sat in the front row clapping and cheering after every song. After the second set, she'd come up and asked him for his autograph. It had been the first of many. His mind drifted back to that minute as the present ceded control to the past.

"My autograph?" he'd asked in disbelief never seriously thinking anyone would want his name on a piece of paper. "What for?"

Her soft, satiny face framed a smile that melted his heart. "That way when you become a big star, I can say I knew you when."

In the present he smiled at that. He hadn't thought of that conversation in a very long time.

"Oh, well, okay," he had said as professionally as he knew how at the time. "Who should I make this to?"

"Just make it to Sharon."

His heart filled with the memory, and before he could stop them, the tears in his heart were on his lashes. He swallowed and knotted his forehead to keep them from falling. She was so beautiful. He could see her standing there in the dim bar light. Right from the start she'd been his biggest fan-never wavering in her belief in him or his music. She had been with him every step of the way, and now she was gone, and he would never hear her voice or smell her perfume or see her smile or feel her touch again. Like a tidal wave the pain washed over him.

"'Nother refill?" the voice standing above him asked, and he looked at her before he thought better of it.

Beth saw the tears and the crushed, pain-filled look instantly.

"Are you sure I can't get you anything?" she asked as concern for this tattered stranger traced through her. "Maybe there's someone I can call, or..."

But he just shook his head and tried to smile. "No." He looked back down at his empty coffee cup. "I'm all right."

With pursed lips, she refilled his cup and set it down in front of him. "I'll be right back."

And she disappeared again. Ashton squeezed his eyes closed to stop the tears, but there were too many, and they had been held back for too long. Slowly, his head bent over the steaming cup in front of him, and he gave up. How could he ever have known that night as he'd looked at Sharon the first time how quickly it would all end? How could he ever have seen how much the top resembles the bottom when you have no one to share it with?

It was true, he had people around him 24 hours a day, and yet he had never been so lonely in his life. Suddenly the rain-soaked accident scene began to look rather good compared with going back and facing the emptiness his life had become. Barry and his checklists, Meredith and her constant demands. They said they cared, but they really didn't. They would be gone in a flash if anything ever happened to him.

He'd had only one true friend in his life, and now she was gone.

"Here," the waitress said, suddenly standing at the edge of his table again.

When he looked up, confusion overtook everything else. With a twist of the plate in her hand, she set it down in front of him. "I know you said you weren't hungry, but I think it would be good if you just had something to eat."

His gaze fell to it. "But..."

"It's okay," she said with a smile. "Don't worry about it. This one's on me."

"But..." he began again looking through the blur of tears at her and then to the scrambled eggs, sausage and toast now lying before him.

"No, buts. Now, eat." She pointed to the food. "I'll get you some more coffee."

In utter disbelief and confusion, he watched her walk back to the counter.

Beth couldn't explain it exactly, but she wanted to do something for this poor, lost soul who had stumbled in from the rain looking for a warm cup of coffee and a place to cry. She'd been there. Running, climbing the invisible railing between life and death, wanting only for the pain to end. It was no place to be. She smiled when she got back to the table. "Here you go."

He looked at her as if she might disappear if he blinked. "You really don't have to do this, you know."

Her gentle laugh jumped from her heart. "It's okay. You look like you need a good meal… and maybe somebody to talk to?"

He ducked his head as she picked up his cup and refilled it.

"So, there's your meal," she continued never losing the softness in her voice, "and if you need somebody to listen, I'm here."

Carefully she set the cup on the table and looked at him, waiting for some sign that he wanted to come back over the railing, but he didn't move. Then in a breath he looked up from the table and right into her eyes. The deep brown of his eyes held only pools of pure anguish.

Ashton knew the second their gazes met that he should look away or she would know everything, but for some reason he couldn't. His brain scrambled trying to remember the last time anyone had looked at him like that. Offering only and not expecting anything in return.

"Well," she said softly, "I just thought I'd offer."

"Oh." His senses crashed back to him. "I'm… I'm sorry. Where're my manners? Please, have a seat."

She hesitated.

"Please," he repeated, indicating the other side of the booth.

After only a second more, she slid gracefully into the other side and set the coffee pot down between them. "All right."

He watched her intently, knowing in his heart she must be some kind of apparition that was going to disappear if he took his gaze off of her again.

She smiled at him and pointed to the plate he had forgotten. "Your eggs are getting cold."

He looked down to where she was pointing and laughed. "Oh, yeah." He glanced back across the table to make sure she was still there and then picked up his fork and stabbed it into the one mound of eggs. The first three forkfuls were in his mouth before he had a chance to think again. He was starving, and he hadn't even realized it.

"So, you work the graveyard shift?" he asked between bites as she sat on her side folding and unfolding the edge of a napkin between her finger and her thumb.

"No, I'm mostly a day girl," she said off-handedly, "but Harry needed help tonight, so I came in."

"That's nice of you." He stabbed another forkful of eggs. "With the rain and all, I mean."

She shrugged. "Yeah, well we've had a couple of waitresses out this week with this and that, so I fill in when I can."

He nodded as he took a bite of sausage. As he chewed, the air began to return to his lungs.

"So, what brings you out on a night like this?" she asked, treading on each word carefully.

The memory of his flight from the arena played back in his mind, and Ashton forced himself to swallow the sausage. He took a long drink of coffee to wash it down. "I was just out driving." Appetite gone, he stared at the plate in front of him. "I just kinda ended up here."

She nodded, and the wave of a curl at her temple swayed. "I've been there before. Sometimes the best thing to do is get away-to clear your head so you can think straight again."

"Yeah," he said, staring at the eggs without really seeing them.

"You're not from around here. Are you?" she asked, surveying him for mere moments at a time.

"No." He didn't look up. "I'm originally from Montana, but right now…" He stabbed into the eggs just to have something to do. "Well, I'm pretty much here and there these days."

The napkin edge crinkled under her fingers. "You been driving long?"

"Too long," he said, thinking of the hours upon hours he'd spent on that road. City after city until he wasn't even sure which city he was in anymore.

"Must be hard being out there all alone."

He nodded and forced himself to swallow another bite of eggs as she watched. "Yeah. Sometimes it feels like the road's the only home I have anymore," he said as much to himself as to her.

"It can get that way." Her gaze never moved from him. He felt it although his gaze was on the plate in front of him. "When my husband died, all I wanted to do was run."

When he looked up, he found himself staring at the part in her hair. For a moment she let that statement settle, then she looked across the diner and then back at him. The sadness in her gaze washed over him.

She smiled obviously forcing the words out. "And I did for awhile-run, I mean. I ran-just packed up and took off. I wasn't really thinking, you know? All I knew was I had to get away from the pain." Her gaze drifted over to the counter as her face scrunched on the memories. "But the road can be a weird place when you're running from something. The harder I tried to run, the more the pain followed me. It followed me all the way to Miami." She raked in air, then forced it down her throat and held his gaze. "That's where I found myself sitting in a hotel room thinking I'd just be better off if I ended it all right there."

At that moment he knew she was an angel, and he couldn't have torn his gaze from her face if the sky had fallen at his feet.

However, the admission sent her gaze skittering. "I kept telling myself it was the only way, that I just couldn't run anymore. I was tired of running, and I was tired of hurting. In fact, you know... I was just plain tired." The story seemed to lose steam in the memories.

He nodded as he gazed across the table. Tired. It was a feeling he had come to know very well in the past few months.

She reached up and scratched the back of her neck just under the fall of loose curls that started at her head and cascaded down the sides of her face. "I was sitting there getting ready to end it all, and…." Her monologue drifted into silence, and the fight it was taking to get the words out was clear.

He shook his head searching her countenance trying desperately to figure out where this was going.

Then, with the smallest of laughs her gaze found his again. "A maid came in."

"A maid?" he asked as his eyebrows knitted in confusion.

"Yeah." She laughed, louder this time. "She was there to change the sheets or something, but I'll tell you what, she took one look at me and forgot all about those sheets. She didn't know me. We'd never even met before, but I know for a fact she saved my life that day. She showed me that running doesn't help, and neither will killing yourself."

"Yeah?" he asked sarcastically as he repositioned himself in the booth.

"Then what does?"

Her eyes turned to soft orbs of gentleness. "Letting other people help you through it."

The burden of fatigue and heartbreak he'd been carrying for months pulled his gaze to the table just as the bells at the door jingled. Although he never looked up, he heard her slide from the booth.

"Finish your breakfast." She pointed to his plate. "If you need someone to listen, all you have to do is ask."

And with that she left his booth to go help the other customers.

Let others help, he thought sarcastically. Yeah, right.

He couldn't trust anyone with this pain. He couldn't let them in. Besides, they didn't want to listen-not really. They wanted him to say everything was fine and keep going as though nothing in the world had happened. They wanted him to be Ashton Raines, superstar, and as far as what happened to the real Ashton Raines, they couldn't care less.

Loneliness descended on him again, and his whole body slumped toward the table with the weight of it. It was becoming more and more difficult to keep himself upright. All he wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep forever.

If he could just think of one friend. One real person he could call, one real person he could talk to.

"If you need someone to listen, I'm here," he heard her words again in the depths of his soul, and he looked up to see if she was actually standing there. But she was across the restaurant helping someone else.

"I can't tell her." He shook his head and clutched the top of his cap, rolling it down around his face at the absurdity of the very thought. "I don't even know her."

Then his gaze lit on the all-but empty plate in front of him. She had given him a meal and asked for nothing in return. She had shared a piece of her heart with him and expected nothing. It was by far the greatest act of kindness he'd experienced in a long time. He looked down at the empty coffee cup, closed his eyes, and raised it off the table. "Miss, could I get a refill?"

Copyright Staci Stallings, 2006