Only The Beginning (Rockin' Country)

by Briscoe, Laramie

  They were met again with loud screams. “I think they’re good with it,” she told him.

  Train began the opening chords to the tamest song they did. There was nothing hard rock about it, but it was a haunting ballad about leaving a loved one behind. It could be interpreted many ways—whether the being alone was because of touring, a job, or death. Whatever the original cause for writing the song had been, she loved it. Hannah’s voice wasn’t as strong as Garrett’s, but she was a very good harmonizer, and she harmonized perfectly with him as they shared the chorus and alternated on the verses of the song. Everyone in the room probably figured they had sung it with each other before—that was how effortlessly it came across. When they were done, Harmony stood up and took a small bow before waving enthusiastically at the crowd. She thanked the band and turned to Garrett, keeping the microphone down next to her leg so that it wouldn’t pick up what she was saying.

  “Thanks for inviting me out here, it’s been pretty awesome,” she told him, looking back out at the crowd.

  He leaned down; hugging her like he would do with anyone else that had come out to sing with his band. “It was my pleasure. Enjoy the rest of the show, and I’ll see you in a bit.”

  As she went back to where she had been watching the show earlier, she didn’t miss the fluttery feeling in her stomach. It had been a long time since she had felt that way from one little touch from a man. She knew from past experience that this could either be the best thing ever or it could end badly. The last time may have ended badly, but like Shell had said, you never knew until you gave it a try.

  * * *

  The dressing room area for Black Friday was decidedly different than her dressing room area was. Lots of people milled around, many of them women. Most of those women had little to no clothing on, and it made Hannah a little uncomfortable.

  “We haven’t met.”

  Hannah looked up and saw the lead guitarist, Train, standing in front of her. “We haven’t, but I wanted to thank you for the seat out there. I’m Hannah.”

  “Not a problem,” he told her, holding out his hand. “Sorry I’m sweaty. I figure you’re used to it. Jared.”

  “So you’re not really Train, and he’s not really Reaper. If people knew that your real names were so normal, they might not find you so fascinating,” she teased.

  “Like Hannah is so much more exciting.”

  “You got me there,” she laughed. It didn’t escape her that Garrett hadn’t made his way to this room, and she looked behind Jared’s shoulder.

  “He got stopped by the local rock station. He’s giving a quick interview, and he’ll be here in just a few minutes.”

  She blushed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

  “Honey, I don’t think you could ever be purposely rude.”

  “No,” Hannah shook her head. “I can. I don’t like to, but I can. Sometimes you have to protect yourself from people who want to take advantage of you.”

  Jared immediately liked this girl. She had a smart head on her shoulders, but she had a naivety that maybe Garrett needed. Especially since he had expressed boredom with the way their lives were going.

  “You got that right. You have to look out for you. Nobody else in this business is going to do it for you. It took us a long time to realize that.”

  Hands clamped on Jared’s shoulders, and she saw Garrett’s face. “Stop monopolizing her time,” he chided.

  “I’m just keeping her preoccupied while you fuck around with the radio stations. Can’t leave a woman that looks like her alone backstage, somebody will scoop her up if you aren’t careful.”

  Garrett sighed. “Just go drink some whiskey and find a groupie.”

  Jared laughed loudly. “I love getting under your skin.” He turned to Hannah. “It was very nice to meet you. I hope to see you again sometime.”

  “I hope so too. Thanks for my seat and thanks for the talk.”

  After Jared left, the two of them stood in silence. Neither one of them wanted to say anything to break the spell of this night. When Hannah finally felt too awkward, she raised her eyes to meet his. Gone were the sunglasses he performed in, and she was taken aback by how green his eyes were. “Thanks for inviting me,” she spit out lamely.

  “Thanks for coming,” he grabbed her hand on impulse. “We got to load out of here in the next hour. It’s a long drive overnight to Cincinnati.”

  That was something she understood. As an artist, trying to stay relevant and trying to reach as many people as possible kept you busy. “That will be a long drive.”

  He wanted to say something else, to let her know that he had enjoyed their time together today. “Do you mind if I call or text you? Hell, I have Skype. If I get bored or I have insomnia or whatever?” He finished the question in a rush. It seemed like he was worried she would say no.

  “Sure, I’d love that. I’m in Nashville for the next couple of days, but then I leave too. It’ll be nice to have somebody to talk to that understands the craziness of this life.”

  “It’s hard isn’t it?” He rubbed his thumb along her knuckle. “When no one really gets why you’re burned out, tired, or hyped up.”

  “It is,” she agreed, biting her lip. Her heart had kicked up a beat, thumping in time to the cadence of the rubbing of his thumb across her skin. “It’s also hard to explain to people who have no idea what the rush of a crowd can do for you. What it can make you push through or even forget.”

  “Yes. You’re so right.” He finally let go of her hand and rubbed the same hand along his forehead.

  He was sweaty and his skin was still red with the heat of being on stage. This close, she could see every tattoo, every hair, the slight stubble on his cheeks and chin. She liked him like this. Maybe if she played her cards right she would get to see it more often. “Well, I guess I better get going. You obviously need to take a shower before you head out.”

  “I do, but I wish we had a couple more days to spend here,” he told her truthfully.

  “Like you said, it’s our life. At least we understand each other.”

  There was that, they did understand each other. “Let me at least walk you out. You parked in the band lot right?”

  “I did.”

  He grabbed a shirt and put it over his torso, and she almost made a sound of disapproval. Guys like him just didn’t come along in her life that often. Especially not in the circle of friends she had. She wanted to know everything about him and what made him so different compared to everyone else. Why did he get her attention when no one else seemed to be able to?

  “Let’s go,” he told her as he grabbed his pass and motioned to a security guard that he was walking her out.

  Jared saw her leaving and called out a goodbye to her. The rest of them followed suit even though she hadn’t been able to officially meet them. The women who had gathered in the room appeared to breathe a sigh of relief that she was leaving. She wondered—even though she knew she had no right to—if one of them would try to have a good time with Garrett before he got on his bus to ride to the next city. He did need to take a shower, and she had even been propositioned by male groupies in a shower setting before.

  “Don’t worry,” he told her as they walked into the hall. “None of those women back there interest me.”

  She wondered how he knew what she was thinking. Was she that transparent?

  “I’ve seen that look before,” he explained to her. “But to be honest with you, the fact that you’re so different from what I’m used to is what makes me so interested in you. I’ve been bored lately. With everything. You’re like a breath of fresh air.” He opened the door to the parking lot and ushered her outside.

  “So, I’m just an experiment?” She didn’t like that.

  “Not at all,” he said quickly, walking her over to the Range Rover he’d seen her drive earlier in the day. “I’m just explaining that you have nothing to worry about with those other girls in that dressing room. They’re part of what makes me
bored. They’re the same old, same old. I don’t want the same thing that I’ve always had. I want something different.”

  That’s what this all boiled down to. Both of them were looking for something different.

  “I want something different too.” She reached up and kissed him on the cheek.

  “I’m glad,” he grinned as he opened the door to her car and waited for her to get her seat belt fastened. “I’ll call you later.”

  “I’ll do my best to answer,” she teased.

  He chuckled. “I’ll just call until you do. I’m persistent like that.”

  She laughed and shut her door, waving to him as she pulled out of the parking lot and into the flow of traffic leading down Broadway. Her mind was going a million miles a minute, and she wondered just what in the world she’d just gotten herself into.

  Chapter Six

  * * *

  Hannah lay in bed, flipping through late night TV, wondering if Garrett was going to text or call her. Late nights were nothing new for her, and usually this would be the time when she would get most of her songwriting done, but she couldn’t seem to do that in her house. She had to be in a hotel room, lonely, wishing for the type of life that all her friends from high school had. For some reason, she never could get into that mindset when she was in her own bed, in her own house. Just as she was about to give it up and set the sleep timer, her phone beeped.

  You still awake?

  It was a text message from Garrett. The smile that spread across her face couldn’t be helped. She realized quickly it was a good thing that no one could see her. If they could, they would see the giddiness of a new relationship, that feeling of wanting to talk to or be around the other person all the time. It was scary how fast that had happened. Never before had it been like this.

  I am, she texted back.

  In just a few moments, there was a request to FaceTime. Technology was an amazing thing. As soon as she accepted the request, she saw Garrett’s face. It was dark where he was, but she could make out his features.

  “Hey.” She waved and leaned her head back against her pillows.

  “Hey yourself,” he yawned, covering his mouth with his hand.

  “You tired?”

  “Tired, but wired, ya know?”

  She nodded because she did know. It took her a long time to come down from being on stage, even if she was exhausted. “It takes me a few hours.”

  “Me too and I truly hate sleeping on this bus. It’s one of my fears that we’ll be in a wreck and I’ll never know what hit me,” he admitted.

  Hannah laughed. “It’s funny that you mention that. Shell and I had a conversation about that earlier today. Me, I’m better off just not knowing. If it’s gonna happen, I don’t wanna see it coming. Apparently the two of you have something in common.”

  “I like to be in control.”

  His voice was dark and smooth as he said the words. They caused goosebumps to appear on her arms.

  “Some people do and some are willing to let others take control for them in certain aspects of their lives.”

  “Are you the type to let others take control?” he asked, his eyes sparkling with humor.

  “I guess it kinda depends,” she squirmed. “There are some things I don’t want to make decisions on. There’s others, like my career, my personal life, that I really do want to have control over.”

  Garrett wanted to get further into this with her, but their relationship was so new that he didn’t want to scare her off. Instead, he switched topics. “Did you have a good time tonight?”

  She smiled at him. “I did. Your show was awesome.”

  “You’re just saying that because I invited you, and you feel the need to be nice to me,” he scoffed.

  “No…I don’t blow smoke up people’s butts. If I don’t like it, I just say ‘bless your heart’.”

  He laughed loudly. “Which we’ve already discussed as being the equivalent of ‘fuck you’ in southern speak.”

  She frowned and he chuckled again.

  “You hate that word, right?”

  “I seriously do.” She ran her hand through her hair.

  For the first time, she realized she looked a mess. She had taken a shower as soon as she had come home, and then she’d gotten ready for bed. Her hair was a tangled mass, and she knew she had dark circles under her eyes from the breakneck pace she had been keeping over the past few months.

  “You look great,” he told her.

  “How’d you know what I just thought?” His ability to know what she thought before she told him was unnerving to her.

  He ducked his head and then ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “I have a lot of experience with women. Most have the same insecurities. But trust me. When I said you were cute earlier, I meant it. You don’t need to look the way you did when you came to the show for me to think you’re hot.”

  “So you didn’t like it?”

  “No, I’m not saying that at all,” he was quick to protest. “You really did look hot. I’m sorry I didn’t get to tell you that earlier, but things were a little rushed. What I’m saying is that you’re cute with no makeup and tired circles under your eyes. I have the same ones,” he leaned closer to the phone, and she focused in on his eyes. “See, I have the same ones. It comes with the territory.”

  She laughed as she got an up close and personal look at his eyes and pores. “Move the phone back, that’s freaky. It like magnified everything a thousand times.”

  “Awesome,” he grinned. “Let me take my pants off real quick and then I’ll really get to magnifying.”

  “Garrett!” she blushed. “I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

  He laughed, a deep belly laugh. So hard that he had to put the phone down. When he brought it back up, he was brushing his eyes. “You are so easy to rile up. I can’t believe how innocent you’ve been able to stay while in this business.”

  She bit her lip. “I always had people around me that didn’t let me get involved in the sex and drugs side of it.” Should she admit to him her darkest secrets?

  “Really? Do you wish that maybe you had? Some of my best times were in my early twenties. I pretty much screwed anything that walked,” he admitted. “But now that I’m almost thirty, I’m much more selective. It’s not as fun as it used to be.”

  Steering the conversation away from her, she asked him. “What about the drug part?”

  “I experimented just like most young people do. Granted, I probably did it on a larger level because of our position. We did a lot of rock festivals back then where drugs were very easily accessible. I didn’t ever have a problem, but I did become a little too dependent at one time. Luckily, I have family who doesn’t want to see me go down that road. I don’t want to go down that road. So I stopped. I still drink; every once in a while I’ll have a cigarette or smoke some pot, but for the most part I’m through experimenting. That’s not to say other guys in the band aren’t, but I can’t tell them how to live.”

  He was so honest with her and she loved that. “I like that you’re honest with me. My last relationship…The guy wasn’t so honest, and it’s hard for me to trust now.”

  “Well that guy was a dumbass then. I can’t help but be completely honest with you. There’s something about you that makes me want to be honest.”

  She smiled tiredly. “I’m glad, because I want you to be honest with me—even if it’s not the easiest thing—it’s something I appreciate.”

  Garrett yawned again. “I’ll mark that down in my file labeled ‘Hannah’ in my head then.”

  “You have a file?”

  “Oh yeah,” he ticked off facts on his fingers. “You like carnations, anything coconut, and now I can add to that honesty.”

  “Yet, I know almost nothing about you. I don’t even have a file named ‘Garrett’ in my head.”

  His mouth hung open in shock, and he brought his hand up to his chest, holding it over his heart. “Ouch. Damn, girl. You know how to bring
a guy down a few pegs.”

  “Somebody’s gotta keep you on your toes. I have a feeling you get what you want just a little too easily.”

  She did have a point there. He usually did get what he wanted, but not because it was easy. “I work for everything I’ve got and everything I want. If I decide that I want you, trust me. You’re going know it and you’re going say yes.”

  Hannah could hear the promise in his voice. “Then I guess I’m just gonna have to figure out if you want me or not.”

  “If you haven’t guessed by now, then I’m not doing my job right.”

  That warmed a place within her. The last man she had tried to have a relationship with hadn’t worked at it. She had done all the working, all the sacrificing, everything. This time around, she promised herself that it would be equal opportunity and she wouldn’t lay her whole heart on the line without him laying his heart on the line too. “You’re doin’ just fine,” she yawned on the end of her sentence.

  “You’re tired, I’m tired. I’m going to let you go.”

  It was true, she really was tired, but she didn’t want to let him go. “You’ll call me again?” she questioned.

  The smile that spread across his face was bright and wide, showing his dimples. “You bet, but you know you could call me too. I do like getting phone calls from beautiful girls.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Text messages too, nudie pics, whatever,” he grinned to show he was teasing.

  She laughed. “You are way too much.”

  “I like to keep things interesting, what can I say?” He made no excuses.

  “Just say ‘goodnight, Hannah’.”

  “Goodnight, Hannah. Have sweet dreams, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  She waved at him. “Goodnight, Garrett. You too. I am glad I got to go to your show tonight.”

  “I am too.”

  With those words he disconnected the call, and she lay back against the pillow, a smile on her face. That fluttery feeling was back in her stomach. “Hannah, you can’t go into this like you did the last one,” she chastised herself. The last one had almost been the end of her—it had devastated her when it ended. She had a feeling this one would decimate her. Looking up at her ceiling, she whispered. “God, please tell me I’m doing the right thing here.”