Free Star by Danielle Steel

too many people here … it’s not like in church …”
    “It won’t make any difference. You’ll forget them once you start.” He loved to listen to her voice as they rode over the hills, her voice had the same awesome, explosive quality as a brilliant sunrise, and he never tired of her singing. “Some of the men brought their guitars. Just a song or two, to liven up the party.” His eyes pleaded with her, and she could never refuse him, although it embarrassed her to think of singing in front of Spencer. He would probably think she was stupid. But he added his voice to Tad’s, urging her, and when their eyes met, there was a long moment of silence between them, a moment that said everything neither of them dared to say. And for a minute, she thought that it might be her gift to him, something he could remember her by. She nodded quietly, and followed her father slowly back to the others. Spencer went back to Boyd and Hiroko then, and she glanced over her shoulder once and saw that he was watching her, and even from the distance, she could feel the love in his eyes for her. The love that neither of them understood, that had been conceived a year before, and carried for a whole year until they met again. It was alove that would not go anywhere, but at least they had that to take with them when he left her.
    She took a guitar from one of the men’s hands, and sat down on a bench as two others joined her and smiled at her in admiration. Olivia was watching her from the porch, annoyed as always that Tad had singled her out to make a spectacle of herself. But she also knew that people liked to hear Crystal sing. Even some of the women relented when they heard her sing in church. And when she sang “Amazing Grace,” it brought tears to their eyes. But this time, she sang her father’s favorite ballads, the ones they sang together when they rode out in the early mornings, and within minutes the crowd had gathered around her and no one said a word as they listened to her strong, sure voice cast its magical spell on them. Her voice was as unforgettable as her face, and Spencer closed his eyes and let himself drift in the pure, sweet beauty of it, as the sheer power of her voice held him spellbound. She sang four songs, and the last strains seemed to soar into the summer sky like angels flying toward the heavens. There was a long silence when she stopped as everyone stared at her in fresh amazement. They had heard her sing a hundred times before and yet when they heard her again, it always moved them. There was an explosion of applause, and Tad wiped his eyes, as he always did, and in a few minutes the crowd dispersed, and they went back to their conversations and their drinking, but for a moment she had made each of them fall in love with her. And Spencer couldn’t bring himself to speak to anyone for a long moment after he’d heard her. He wanted to talk to her again, but she had gone off somewhere with her father, and he didn’t see her again until it was time to go, and she was standing near her parents, shaking people’s hands as they thanked them for lunch and gathered up their children.
    Spencer thanked her parents dutifully as well, but then suddenly he had her hand in his own, and he was terrified that the moment between them was too fleeting. He might never see her again, and he couldn’t bear the thought as he looked into her eyes and wanted to hold on to her forever.
    “You didn’t tell me you could sing like that.” His voice was whisper soft as his eyes caressed her. But she laughed, looking young again, and embarrassed at the unexpected compliment. She had sung the songs for him, and she wondered if he knew that. “You might get to Hollywood after all.”
    She laughed again, the sound as musical as her singing had been. “I don’t think so, Mr. Hill … I don’t really think so.”
    “I hope we meet again one day.” Their eyes grew serious and she nodded.
    “So do I.” But they both knew it