Free to Love

Chapter 29

Shawn

"Students, families, and friends, thank you for coming out tonight. We're closing the kindergarten holiday program with Miss Finlay's class tonight. A special guest will be accompanying the children on guitar."

I stood off stage and listened for my cue. I then walked out on the small stage, my acoustic guitar slung over my back. The crowd cheered, so I gave them a small wave as I tried not to take the spotlight from the kids. Taking a seat on the stool that was placed to the left of the children, I waited for Miss Finlay to nod at me, which was my signal to start playing.

I played along to the four holiday songs that the class performed. Occasionally I'd catch myself singing quietly, but I'd stop immediately. No one was there to hear me. This was all about the children.

When it was over, Miss Finlay smiled over to me and I took a small bow. She found me backstage a few minutes later.

"Thank you again!" she said. "That was really great! I'm so glad you came out of retirement for the class!"

"It was really fun. The kids did so well tonight, even better than they did in the rehearsals."

I'd joined the class several times over the last few weeks to work on the songs. It had been a blast. There's nothing like a bunch of singing five year olds to lift your spirits.

"There are refreshments in the library. I'll see you there," she said before walking away.

I was reluctant to go socialize with the other parents and hoped we could just go home.

Grace ran up to me, and I picked her up in my arms. "I could hear your voice, Gracie. You sounded great!"

"Thank you. I sang loud and clear like you said to. You did a good job, too."

"Well thanks," I said as I set her down.

"You're famous," she said, and I realized that perhaps she never really understood that. I'd quit music when she was only three.

"I used to be."

"Brittany said her mom thinks you are cute. She saw you in concert a long time ago."

I made a mental note to avoid Brittany's mom.

"Let's find Grandma and Grandpa and Aaliyah and Nolan and go get cookies in the library!" she said as she grabbed my hand and pulled me to the stage exit.

"Okay, if that's what you want to do," I said resignedly.

The library was packed full of children and their families. My family walked in and all eyes were on us. Fuck. I didn't want this attention.

After we'd gotten refreshments, my mom turned to me. "I sent Parker and Jean the video of the class. I sent it to you, too."

"It's not like you needed to," Aaliyah said. "It's going to be all over YouTube tonight. It probably already is."

We weren't going to stay long, but a parent asked for a picture with her child. This snowballed into every child getting a pic with me. This was exactly why I'd wanted to skip this part of the night. My parents took Grace and Nolan home after the 20th photo.

As I was leaving, Miss Finlay stopped me in the hall.

"Oh god, I'm really sorry about that. You're so kind to take all those photos."

"It's fine. I'm kind of accustomed to it, though the circumstances used to be different. I used to take a lot of photos with teen girls. The kindergartners and their moms was a change."