The Dance

*33*

Prince ate his last bite of cake, stood up, took a couple of steps, and crumpled to the ground, crying out and clutching his hip. Emma went running to his side, terrified.

'Emma, stop,' Prince ground the words out of his mouth. 'Just give me a minute, I'll be okay.'

'Does this happen often?' Emma, still concerned, knelt next to Prince.

'Not often, but happening at all is too much. I'll be heading back to my doctor to see what can be done. I'll get it set up for when we get back.'

'Can you perform like this?'

'Not like this right now, but once I get started my joints loosen up, I get lost in the music, and it's all good. I'll be okay, sugar. Don't worry.'

With that, Prince got up, waited for his joints to settle, and walked away without another word. Emma, very worried, held her tongue.

After a couple of days in Minnesota, they all boarded the plane again and headed for Connecticut. It was while they were in the air that Marti and Mya announced their plan to take the train to New York so they could do some sightseeing. Emma had to talk Prince down, since he wanted to send a bodyguard with them.

'Prince, New York is full of people far more famous than me or the girls. I think they'll be okay. If they aren't, they're smart enough to know how to hole up until we can get them out of there. Let's let them have a little adventure. We used to be that young, but it's been a minute.'

'Okay, I do get a little over protective. Girls, just expect a lot of texts from your mom, and send lots of selfies so we'll know where you are and what you're doing.'

Mya protested, 'Mom, I realized you were getting a husband, but I didn't know we were going to have to deal with another daddy-type person getting worried about us all the time!'

Prince frowned, and said, 'I know how many games I was running, and how many women I was running them with back in the day. I don't want you taken advantage of, because I feel like you're partially my responsibility now. I'm happy to have that responsibility, in fact I feel privileged. This is as close as I'm going to get to being a dad for anyone, so I'm going to have to figure out how to make it work, and you'll have to help me figure it out.'

'Well, , Big Daddy, that's really sweet, but when you were my age, you were getting chicken bones thrown at you in LA. What we're proposing isn't nearly as much of a challenge as what you were doing.'

'Fair enough. I"m going to sound sexist, and I don't care. You are young women, and there are definitely ways you can get taken advantage of. There, I've said it. I'm going to prepare for the onslaught..." Prince crossed his ams in front of his face, and peeked over them at Mya, waggling his eyebrows.

'Okay, I give!' Mya said, laughing out loud. 'We'll be careful, I promise. Right, Marti?'

'Cross our hearts and hope to-'

'Spit.' Prince interrupted. 'Don't ever say you hope to die. That's too much negativity to speak into the universe.'

'Okay, spit. We'll be careful, we promise.'

'Let Kirk know when you need a ride to the train station, and when you want to be picked up. Make sure you have his cell number. He's a good guy to have in your back pocket.'

Mya and Marti shared a mischievous look. 'Yes, Big Daddy Prince,' they chorused, sounding like little girls. Prince just grinned.

'You sound so innocent when you say things like that. I bet you were the cutest things ever when you were little.'

'Oh, we were. We definitely were.' Marti nodded very seriously.

Prince laughed out loud. 'Well, I'm sure you aren't that innocent now, just don't do anything too stupid.'