The Colonel's Daughter [Elvis]

Chapter 6 - Children and Elvis Presley

The children and their families were all occupying the set. It was a crazy party with the crew, actors and extras. Some of the parents of the kids would be the extras from what I heard.

Elvis's friends stood near him as he stood there, ready for the stampede. In only a few seconds of everyone arriving did they all see Elvis and clamored to meet him. Regardless that I was a little upset with him for revealing my secret, I smiled as he greeted his fans, talked with them, signed autographs and gave hugs. He knelt down to talk with one little blonde girl, and I heard the lady who was most likely her mother say, "She wants to give you a kiss on the cheek."

The little girl's cheeks flushed as Elvis said, pointing to his cheek, "Go right ahead, honey."

I put my hand to my heart as I saw the girl give Elvis a little peck on the cheek, and he smiled as she was doing it. I didn't think I had seen anything sweeter. He was so great with them, with those kids. I got choked up just watching him with them.

"Oh, boy..." I enthused and took a breath. Now, it was really hard to be upset with him, not when he was being so sweet with those two-dozen kids under the age of fifteen, most of them under ten. He was also giving them smiles and talking to them like they were his own siblings.

"He has a way with kids," I heard next to me, and I saw Red there. He had escaped the hoard. "They love him."

"I can see that. It's hard to believe that he's an only child. You would think that he knows how to act around them since he has a bunch of siblings, but he doesn't."

Red sighed, an air of melancholy about him. "Yeah... he almost had a twin. You knew that, right?"

Everyone knew that. Elvis's whole life has been printed in newspapers and magazines, as well as heard on the radio and TV. "I did. It's so terrible."

"He's told me once that he loves kids because one, he wants to be a father someday; and two, he likes to imaging that all the children fans are his younger siblings. Plus, he's just a genuinely good person. Those kinds of people are usually great with kids."

I turned my attention back to Elvis and those kids. He really did seem like he was in his element.

Elvis caught my eye for a moment, and the broad smile he had on his face turned to a gentle smirk, and his gaze softened. My heart flip-flopped, and I looked away from him. A guy hadn't looked at me like that since...

No, I really couldn't let that guy get to me. It was clear he was interested in me, but working together on this film would be the farthest we would go, aside from me telling him eventually that someone else should run his professional life. I had a mission, and it wasn't to fall for and be involved with a superstar. The first of those was unfortunately already done, though.

A man called on a megaphone that all the children and other extras needed to be placed in the set. That was when Elvis was finally set free of the excited young people. He stood up fully in that uniform. I could very much relate to women who say, "I love a man in uniform." It was just so attractive. That was why I wanted to stay away from areas near the army bases in Germany just so I could keep my head about me.

Now... I really couldn't blame women for falling for him. He was so steamy here.

"Yeesh, he should just go back into the army and stay there," I muttered. Then I would go back and finish school. Yes, best he just stayed here.

I had to get to work in coaching the man speaking German to pronounce things correctly. I was there with him near the puppet stand and the instruments as the kids and adult extras were being placed. Elvis and Juliet were in the bunch. I tried to not look in their direction. I did catch Juliet's eye, though, and we gave each other smiles and waves. While being on the set this past week, she and I had become good friends. She, Brenda and I even had dinner together three nights ago at an exquisite Italian restaurant. Anita would've gone, too, but she was busy with work.