Second Chance at Love

Kara is married with three children who loves country western music. They want to go to an upcoming concert where the tickets were sold out in hours. The singer is a local boy who made it good.
Then there is a contest to win back stage passes to the concert with tickets and Kara's son 12yrs old won them. There are only two of them. Kara tells Kyle to invite his best friend. She has no desire to see Tyler Kirckland.
One night after graduation the two had a fling and Tyler left for Nashville and his dream. Kara's parents sent her to her aunt's to live for two years while she got a degree on line. She returned and married a man with two children who's wife died. It was a marriage of convenience. He loved his wife but needed a mother for his children. Kara needed respectibility and a home to raise her son Kyle.
Here was Tyler back in town.



"MOM! I'm going to get the mail!" Sandy yelled as she ran out the door letting the screen door slam back into place.
Kara buried her read hands back into the hot, soapy dishwater and scrubbed the pan a little harder. Sandy had helped make dinner last night. She had to work late at the restuarant. She brought food left over home, the one good thing about working the banquet room. She gave a snort and laugh. The banquet room consisted of six tables that were put into two rows or in any configuration to satisfy the guests. The room itself wasn't much bigger than the main eating area. It was used as an over flow if at any time there was a rush of guests and the main dining room tables were filled. She snorted again.
"Like that ever happened."
"What ever happened?" Kyle, her twelve year old going on thirty asked as he buried his head in the refrigerator.
"Oh, nothing something I was thinking just popped out of my mouth. Now get out of there. We just ate dinner and you can't be hungry."
"I am. I'm a growing boy and my legs are hollow." He shut the door and leaned against it.
Kara sucked in her breath. Leaning like that, arms folded over his chest and the half smile showin dimples, he looked just like his father, Tyler Kirkland, the country western star.
He wasn't a star when Kara knew him.
"Mom!" Sandy yelled as she burst into the house and slid to a stop in front of her mother.
"What?" Kara grabbed a towel and dried her hands
"Kyle got mail. How come I didn't get mail?" She waved the envelop in the air toward Kyle and pulled it back, teasing him like she did her other younger siblings. Kyle knew not to play. He was smart. He just stood there as she danced a little closer, her brown braids bouncing on her pink tee- shirt covered shoulders. The ribbons Kara had tied to them were long gone and she sighed.
"Give Kyle his mail."
Sandy whined, Why can't I get mail?"
"You don't write to anyone." Kyle took the opportunity to grab the bent envelope from his sister's hand while she faced their mother.
"Mom! He grabbed it out of my hand. He didn't even ask." The wail began and Kara mad a chopping motion in the air with her hand.
"Sandy stop! It was his mail and you didn't give it to him. That's against the law and you could be punished. but I'll give you a break. You stop the whining, go out and play. It'll be time for bed in a couple of hours."
Sandy gave one last humph and handed her mother the rest of the mail before heading back outside.
"MOM!" This was a different tone. One of surprise. Kara slid the knife under the edge of the bill and opened the bill. "I won tickets to the Tyler Kirkland concert!"
Kara froze. "Are you sure? Did it say You might have won if you buy our product? Or your name is in the drawing if you fill out this questionare?"
"No, Mom Here's the tickets," he waved the narrow slips of card stock at her. There is a letter here that says me and three friends will be picked up by a limo and brought to concert. There are backstage passes!" he held up the lanyards clipped to a holder with the words printed in bold black letters. I wish Daniel was still here. Her soul cried.
Daniel was four years older than Kara. He worked at the grocery store as a manager. Kara worked there part time as a cashier. When he found out she was pregnant, he offered to marry Kara and raise her son as his own. He never asked who the father was and she never volunteered the information. Kyle was born and later Sandy and little Davey now three years old. A drunk driver hit and killed Daniel not long after Davey was born. He had no life insurance. They used it for a down payment on a house. After the driver's insurance finally agreed to pay for the funeral costs, the little left went to rent and just living costs. they lost the house and now lived in a small rental near her childhood friend Linda.
She looked closer at the tickets and the letter he waved in front of her face. "You have been chosen to recieve tickets to the concert along the meet and greet passes. The back stage passes can be used after the concert is over." There was some legal mumbo jumbo and a phone number she could call.
The phone rang a number of times and a woman anwered. "Tyler Kirkland, Kin I help yew?"
"Yes, my name is Kara Sanders and my son who is twelve received an envelope with tickets to a concert, backstage passes and passes to a meet and greet for four people. I need to know if these are authorized or is this a prank?" Kyle hopped from one foot to the other. Her heart broke as she tried to find a way to tell him the tickets were a fraud.
"Yes, Ma'am. Kyle Sanders' name is on my list. He got all the promtional passes we give out. I'm sure he'll have fun with the other kids that received them as well."
"Other kids? Who else got them?" Kara wondered how they picked the kids.
"We contacted the schools around the area and the kids signes up to win the tickets. We just drew names at random. Congratulations to your boy." The woman was genuinely happy for Kyle.
"Do the other three tickets to the concert have to be used by kids?"
"What other tickets?" The woman paused then laughed a little too heavily.
OH No Ma'am, they can be used by anyone. You can come too. The children will be chaparoned by either their parents or a teacher."
Oh." Kara wasn't sure but she didn't have any other questions. "Thank you."
She put the phone on the charger and looked at Kyle who stood so close he could have crawled under her t-shirt.
"Looks like its all ligit. You'll need to pick three of your friends to go with you."
"Will you come Mom?"
"Honey, you don't have to drag your old mom with you. This is for kids to go. If you have three of your friends that want to go, you'll have more fun with them then with me. There will be adults there to watch over you," she promised and brushed back the unruly hair that flopped over his forehead. He looked a lot like Tyler. She just hoped no one would notice. Kyle's last name was different.
"Kyle bounced around the house like a super ball. First on the couch then on a chair, he spun on the kitchen floor at her feet when she made dinner. She didn't have to call him twice for school. He was dressed and ready to go. He did his homework without any prodding." Kara told Linda over a cup of coffee on the morning before the concert. "I don't know what he's going to do tomorrow."
"I take it you still aren't going to the concert?" Linda took another sip of coffee and looked at her.
"No. I told you. Kyle has invited three friends and one of his teachers is going as a chapararone. I'm not worried. Its across town not an hour away."
Linda looked acorss the kitchen as if some activity was taking place. After Kara called her name a couple of times she turned her head to look at Kara and laid her hand on Kara's arm.
"I promised I wouldn't tell you. I wouldn't have if you would have acted like you normally do and mother the poor boy to death. I was surprised you let him go to this concert on his own." Linda's voice a softer as if the words strained to get out.
"Linda what are you talking about? Kyle isn't going alone. I told you he's going with friends."
"I know you did, but this is a first for you. Why are you letting him go with out you hovering over him?"
This time Kara looked away. The silence went on until the sound of the clock could be heard. "I didn't want to see Tyler."
Linda frowned, "Ah that sentence leads to a lot of questions."
"Linda, you did't move here until after we graduated. Tyler had already taken of to make his mark in the world and look, that's just what he did."
"What does that have to do with you not seeing him? I had ladies at my work beg me to pay you money for a couple of those tickets. I almost did. The extra money would be worth it. So why don't you want to see him?"
"Your lady friends didn't fill you in on the gossip?" Linda shook her head. "They probably thought you already knew."
"Knew what."
"Tyler was the bad boy in town. His father beat his mother and ended up in prison. Tyler's mother was sent to a home. She lost most of her ablitity to think on her own and couldn't take care of herself let alone Tyler. He ran away from the foster homes and my dad took an interest in him. He lived in the trailer on the back of our farm. He loved to tinker with engines and so did Dad. We had all girls in our family and Tyler was someone who Dad could talk to and Tyler talked to him." Linda got up and brought the coffee pot back to the table, then set a plate of cookies between them.
"So you knew Tyler before he was famous." She nodded as if something that didn't make sense before just made sense.
"He loved to play his guitar and eventually bought a good one and started playing in bars and whereever they would let him play. I liked the songs he wrote. Sometimes he'd come to the back porch and sit with us and play. He said he was trying out his new songs, but after while I realized he like me."
Linda's eyebrows rose almost to her hairline. "I was and am gangly, not pretty like my sisters and very shy. While they were out dating and running around, I stayed home and helped mom cook and clean. I just wanted to be like her. She and dad had such a loving relationship I wanted the same thing. A home, a family and a man to take care of us."
"The dog and the house with the white picket fence." Linda chuckled. "I guess we all wanted that at one time. What we got was snotty nosed kids, husbands that worked long hours just to make enough money to put food on the table." There was no dirision in Linda's voice, just a statement of fact.