The next morning as they were about to walk into the coliseum, Sara’s phone rang. She glanced at the name and forced her breath out. “Hi, Mother,” she softly said, hoping Jared wouldn’t hear.
“Oh, so now you finally decide to come home,” Kaye said plainly. “What is it with you, Sara? You run off with a stranger to Arizona - of all places. You don’t call. All Lucy would tell me was, you’d gone with Jared, whoever the hell he is, to see his sick grandfather, and that’s the last I hear until now. I’ve called you at least ten times since Lucy said you’d left. What did you do? Turn off your damn phone?”
“Calm down, Mother. I’m fine. Jared wouldn’t do anything to hurt me,” she managed to get in edgewise.
“Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t. You haven’t known him long enough to say, Sara. I don’t understand you. I didn’t raise you to sleep with the first man who gave you the eye.”
“Mother, I love Jared!” Sara winced.
“Of course, you do,” she retorted with sarcasm.
Sara clenched her teeth. Jared stepped beside her. “Is it your mother?” She nodded. “Lemme talk to her.”
Sara shrugged. At this point, what did she have to lose? Kaye wouldn’t accept Jared anyway, so there was no reason for them to get along.
“What’s her name?”
“Katherine, but she goes by Kaye.”
Jared smiled and took a slow breath. “Hi, Kaye. This is Jared Thundercloud. I’m the one who’s been monopolizing your daughter’s time.”
Sara imagined her mother ranting on to him.
“No, ma’am, Sara and I haven’t known each other long. Yes,” he drew out. “I agree. You’re right, Sara is young.” He looked directly into her eyes. “But I can assure you, she knows exactly what she wants.” He paused. “Yes, ma’am, my intentions are honorable. I take her reputation very seriously. I’d like to meet you and Mr. Foster. Would it be possible for me to bring Sara down for a visit?”
She waved her hands and shook her head. Oh, God! No Jared!
He smiled and ignored her. “The name of my band is Raging Storm. Yes, ma’am. We have a gig lined out for this Saturday. Yes, ma’am, were playing at the HMC.” He paused and listened. “The Louisiana Hayride Reunion. Yes, she is. Sara’s our lead female vocalist. You and Mr. Foster should come up and listen to her. She has the voice of an angel.”
He kissed her forehead. “Yes ma’am, I’m sure you’re aware of how your daughter sounds, which is why I think it would do her good if you came out and supported her. She’s a little nervous about getting up in front of all those people.”
Sara’s stomach churned. She couldn’t take Kaye’s negative attitude. Jared smirked. He could tell she was getting worried. “Why don’t you and Mr. Foster come and stay at my house? I’ll have my cook prepare a meal. I’ll take care of your tickets and transportation to and from the coliseum. That’s right. You don’t have to pay for anything. I’ll even arrange it, so you and Mr. Foster have backstage passes.”
Sara was close to tears. If anyone could ruin this for her, it was her mother. Kaye would build up Jared’s confidence, make him think she was an ally and fill his head with her ideas. If her parents came to the performance, Jared would be telling her goodbye after five minutes.
“There’s no reason for you to stay at a hotel,” he smiled. “Wisteria Hall – yes Mrs. Foster – that’s the name of my home. You and your husband are welcome to stay with me. I have more than enough room.”
Jared listened. “No, Mrs. Foster, it’s not hard to find. Shall I text you the directions? Great, if you’ll just hang on – there, sent. I’m looking forward to meeting you too. Would you like to speak to Sara again? Alright, hold on a second.” He passed her the phone and smiled innocently, proud of his accomplishments.
Sara wanted to strangle him. She took a deep breath and prepared for a lecture. “Hi, Mother, it’s me, again.”
“Why didn’t you say you’d be singing in public?” Surprisingly, Kaye’s voice was softer.
“You usually don’t wanna hear about my music. I didn’t think you’d consider coming.”
“Sometimes, I think you deliberately exclude us to hurt us because we’re so strict on you.”
Sara’s lips parted. Here was her mother, Kaye, of all people, admitting she was too strict! Sara could hardly speak. “No, Mother, I honestly wasn’t doing it to hurt you.”
“Then, you won’t mind if we’re at your performance?”
“Well, no, of course not,” she said, dumbfounded. “I’d love to have you there.” She glanced at Jared.
“OK. Tell your boyfriend, I’ve given the directions to your dad, and I guess we’ll see you at the gig,” Kaye emphasized the word, boyfriend. “Take care of yourself, Sara. We love you.”
“I love you too, Mother.” She frowned and turned. “Jared, what in the hell did you do to my mother?”
He grinned innocently. “What do you mean?”
“Five minutes on the phone with her, and, you’ve convinced her and my dad to come to the gig and stay with us! Are your eyes the only special things about you?”
Jared wrapped an arm around her waist. “Let’s get inside, and get this over with.” Sara frowned and sighed deeply. Jared had said all he was going to say on the matter.
------------
Sara’s butterflies hadn’t gone away, but at least they weren’t all in full flight now. While she and Jared let management know they were there to rehearse, the rest of Raging Storm sat in the waiting area.
A heavily made-up blonde, with shoulder length hair, dressed in business clothes and carrying a clipboard, took their names and passed out ID badges. She also gave them some cold bottled water. She introduced herself as Andrea and said she’d been assigned to ensure they got everything they needed.
She told them while they were in the building; they needed to wear their badges at all times. They were their ticket to getting back into the building if they needed to go out for something to eat or to their cars.
Jared passed them out to the other band members. Sara was so nervous she couldn’t sit still. He finally set her on his lap and wrapped his arms around her to calm her down. It helped a little, but she was still unsettled.
~ ~ ~
Somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes later, Andrea came back and escorted them to the stage. Raging Storm took their places. They went through several sound checks. The lighting crew turned on the overhead spotlights and adjusted them. Sara was thankful. They practically blinded her from seeing how vast the coliseum was. She didn’t like thinking about all the empty seats which would be filled during the show.
Jared turned to her and smiled. He turned to the rest of the band and counted off the lead-in to their first number. They opened with an instrumental, he and Lucy had written and went straight into his and Sara’s duets.
Steve kept glancing at Lucy. After the news about Jared and Sara’s engagement, she’d been barely holding it together. She somehow believed, as long as Jared was obsessed with his dream girl, she stood a chance with him. If things didn’t change, it seemed her niece was Jared’s dream girl.
As Steve saw it, she had two choices. Keep her mouth shut and be happy for Sara, or tell Jared how she felt about him before it was too late and risk losing his friendship. To Steve, it was already too late.
Sara was calmer when she sang with Jared. Their voices blended as if they’d been doing it for years, instead of weeks. He seemed satisfied with their audition. Sara was also, but it was hard to determine whether the people in the control room were.
~ ~ ~
It was time for Sara’s solos. She took a couple sips from her water; her mouth felt as if it were filled with half the desert she’d left behind. She swallowed hard, silently cleared her throat and waited while the band played her introduction. She closed her eyes, to put herself in the right frame of mind, and imagined the beautiful scenery Jared had shown her from Mother’s Mountain. To her surprise, she began on cue. Mentally, she patted herself on the back until Andrea signaled for them to stop. Sara’s heart jumped to her throat. Oh no! What did I do wrong?
Andrea stepped in front of them and looked toward the control room. She said something through her headset, nodded and approached Sara. “You’re doing great, Sara, but you need to relax, honey. Could you start her number over?”
Jared nodded and stepped closer to Sara. She was near tears. “Oh, God, Jared! I’m screwing things up. You should just do this without me. I never should’ve agreed to this.”
While the intro was played again, Jared leaned close to her ear. “Ayóó'ánííníshní, Sara. Now stop!” he whispered. “You can do this. Sing for me, angel. Just for me,” he breathed against her neck and kissed it.
That was all she needed. The sound of his soothing voice and the touch of his lips on her skin zapped every nerve ending in her body. Instead of concentrating on her fear, she concentrated on not letting Jared and the band down. They finished their songs without a hitch.
Andrea stepped back in line with the control booth, said something else through her headset, and nodded again. She approached Sara. Her eyes widened. Now what?
“Honey, they want you to do your numbers again. You did great, but they want to add some reverb to your microphone. Jared, sweetheart, they want you to move closer to Sara.” She guided him into place. “Right about there. And you, move a little further to Sara’s left,” she said to Lucy. “There. That should do it. Now, let’s try it again. And Sara, this time, sweetheart, put your all into it. Let go.” She smiled and stepped aside.
Jared gave Sara a reassuring wink, and they went through the numbers again. The technicians in the control room were satisfied this time. Andrea stepped back in front of the band. “That was brilliant,” she said in her American-British accent. “Now, what comes next is the photo shoot. Do you have costumes sorted out?”
He glanced at Sara. “We haven’t had time to shop for stage clothes. Sara and I have been outta town for a few days. My granddad, who lived in Arizona, passed suddenly.”
“Oh, I see,” she nodded. “Well, we have some costumes in the back you could use, or we could give you a day or so to get something together yourself. It’s just that we need to do the poster shoot. It’s better if you’re wearing the same clothes you’ll be performing in. It also gives us a chance to make sure we’ve got the right lighting for the media cameras.”
Jared glanced at Sara, whose face was already starting to pale. Andrea hesitated. “I could put the shoot off for a couple of hours. It would give you time to shop, or like I said, you could see if there’s anything in the back you can use. You’ll need some separate clothes for the solo’s and maybe the duets, as well. You and Sara will need to coordinate if you know what I mean,” she said, waving her hands around.
“Yeah – sure,” he said. “Since we’re here, I guess we could take a look at what you’ve got.”
“Of course, if you can’t find anything, we’ll give you a couple of hours to do some shopping,” Andrea smiled. “When you get back, we’ll do the shoot,” she said in an enthusiastic business-like voice.
~ ~ ~
Jared and the band followed her to the wardrobe room. There were racks of some of the most unusual clothes Sara had ever seen. Some looked as if they came straight out of the thirties while others looked as if Elvis might’ve worn them.
She scanned through the costumes and tried on five or six evening gowns, but she honestly didn’t like any of them, neither did Jared. Andrea picked out something for Jared, and he flat out refused to wear it. It seemed they weren’t getting anywhere. Jared glanced at everyone and sighed. “Looks like it’s time to go shopping,” he said. “We’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
~ ~ ~
He led Sara to his BMW. “If Andrea’s gonna be our fashion designer, I’d rather wear a brown paper bag over my head than walk out on stage in some of the things she picked out for me!”
Jared laughed. “I think we were all biting our tongues. It was either that or laugh in her face.”
Sara watched Steve and Lucy get into the car. “Steve and Carl aren’t riding together?”
He glanced across at Lucy’s car. “I guess not. Maybe Steve and Carl had another disagreement. Steve seemed uptight for some reason. Maybe it’s just Lucy. She seemed a little uptight herself.”
Sara chuckled. “I didn’t think Luce got nervous.”
He sighed and started the car. “She usually doesn’t. Anyway, let’s grab a bite to eat and get some decent clothes. There’s no way we’re going on stage, looking like a bunch of Elton John rejects.” He pulled onto the main highway. Steve and Lucy pulled out; Carl and the rest of the band members followed.