Page 100 of Share with Me

Chapter Thirty-Two

Classically trained, Ivan had to fall back on his crossover days to pull off his string contributions to the collaboration between SISO and the Savannah City Orchestra, in the holiday pops concert Thursday night at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to fall too far back in time as everything came back to him as if the last six years of detour had never happened. He was back again on the world stage, showing off his range as a concert violinist and ability to play in a large and loud orchestra. He could keep playing the old-time Christmas carols and traditional songs all night long, but alas, the concert was over in two hours.

Tomorrow morning, they’d pack up and go on the next leg of the SISO coastal tour. Up to Charleston for two evenings, then it would be Saturday and time to head home to St. Simon’s Island, where he had left a big piece of his heart in the hands of a lady he had only gotten to know for a week but whom he wanted to love for a lifetime—

What did I just say?

“Yes, what did you just say?” Emmeline’s voice cooed in his ears.

Ivan straightened up and tried to regain his bearings.

Oh yes. Cathedral. Mingling. Meeting fans.

Not. They were waiting for the bus.

The crowd chattered around him in the center aisle and the old wooden pews of the tall cathedral. They might have been talking all this time, but he hadn’t noticed. He wished Brinley were here, next to him. She would feel right at home in this glittery crowd and this old cathedral built on a cornerstone set in the late eighteenth century, probably when the Brooks family had lived in Savannah. Ivan thought that Brinley had an interesting family history.

Instead of Brinley, it was Emmeline O’Hanlon beside him, the harpist in a black clingy gown who had stuck to him like chewing gum on a shoe since he held that elevator door open for her to roll out her harp that Tuesday morning before they left St. Simon’s. If she thought they were going to rekindle whatever it was they didn’t quite have those six months they had been an item, she was sadly mistaken.

“Smile for the camera, Ivan.”

The blinding flashes brought back memories of Jade Strings and their blitz through Europe and Asia. They would have produced another CD if his life hadn’t come to a grinding halt. Now six years trapped in time on an old island he hadn’t expected to return to, six years of lost earnings and opportunities to make something of his career that could put him on the same plateau as Brinley.

Well, not exactly the same plateau, but it would get him into the doors of the rich and famous, that circle that Brinley was in.

Pipe dreams are for kids.

Emmeline was still posing up against him, her thin satin gown slithering up the outside of his left thigh as she leaned her torso against his chest. She looked like a puppy that rubbed its nose against someone’s leg. It would be funny if people from church saw the pic—

Brin!

What if Brinley sees this?

Ivan stiffened up as if to shake off Emmeline. “Excuse me.”

He hurried away before she could pull him back to the camera. Enervated from the two-hour concert, Ivan wanted out of here.

The central door went under the ornate pipes of the cathedral organ. Out there was the foyer and steps to where the bus was supposed to pick up SISO. He was at the door to the men’s restroom when someone approached him.

“Ivan McMillan?” The fifty-something male with a bow tie and a female companion was shorter than Ivan, but he exuded authority.

“Yes, sir?”

“Bradley Whitfield. I spoke with Petrocelli about how much I enjoyed your solos.”

“Thank you, sir.”Ah, another fan.

“Such refreshing clarity. I particularly appreciated the precision of your double-stop trills and left-handed pizzicatos in the Christmas medley.”

Ivan nodded. He wanted to say that any classically trained violinist could do that. Then again, he had a Stradivarius. That might have tipped it in his favor. And he had SISO to thank for it.

And God.

Note to self: Don’t forget to thank God.

“I’ve heard many technical musicians, but these days it’s hard to find up-and-coming violinists who have both mechanics and musicality.”

---