I sighed. Had I not known the song as well as I did, learning it because it was one of Daddy’s favorites, I would never have had the balls to attempt it onstage in front of a prominent producer. And looking into those pleading brown eyes, there was really nothing I would have denied her. “Fine. You win.”
We started rehearsing by two o’clock. Since Ariel was bringing her own feature act, we were allowed the entire afternoon to perfect a three-song set. We stuck with three songs that were familiar, to save us some time. I was impressed by how in control she was of her set, how she wanted it to look and to sound. She wasn’t just some pretty face behind the microphone. Despite what Gay thought, Lacy was in complete control over her “brand.”
I followed where she led. It was easy to do, considering I had no stake in finding success for myself. I never wanted to be some guitar god. Music was intimate to me, almost too intimate to share.
It made every note we rehearsed that day subtle foreplay. And I knew that Gay had picked up on it when she suddenly decided I needed to stand apart from the band, closer to Lacy on stage.
Lacy didn’t look too happy about it, but she didn’t put up a fight. Maybe she saw exactly what Gaynell had seen… and it scared her.
I wasn’t being brought upstage just because I filled out a tight pair of jeans. We were good together. It was clear.
That wasn’t to say that Gay didn’t use my looks to her advantage. At seven o’clock she dragged me backstage to dress me for the show. She replaced my club T-shirt with a sleeveless black shirt that fit like a second skin. I was instructed to tuck it into my snug jeans, which already met with Gaynell’s approval. She dabbed some product in her hands before raking her fingers through my short hair, to give it some body. “Should I shave?” I asked her through the mirror as we both studied the stubble that had grown during the day.
“Don’t you dare,” she commanded at once. “Personally I think you’d look better with a beard. Rugged and manly.” She stood back, hands on her hips, as she appraised me thoughtfully. “Are you sure you can’t sing?”
My instant refusal died in my throat. “Not today,” I finally said. She clapped her hands together with a triumphant cry.
“I knew it! Can I sniff out talent or what?”
I held up my hand. “I’m not auditioning for another job, Gay.”
“Well, think about it,” she instructed. “As a performer I can pay you double what I pay you now, and you’d only have to work four nights a week.”
She clapped me on the back before she left me alone in the dressing room. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. What the fuck was happening with my life? In two months I’d gone from being some farm boy to being on the stage? How did this even happen?
Lacy opened the door behind me. I met her gaze in the reflection of the mirror. “Looking good, Ace,” she said as she approached. “Cursing me yet?”
“Ever since last night,” I said softly.
“Jonah,” she started, but I shook my head.
“Call me Ace. Hell, call me asshole. Call me every name in the book. But if you say my name like that again, I won’t be able to stop myself from taking you into my arms. I don’t care who else is in the picture.”
She said nothing as she stared into my eyes. “I’m sorry I wasn’t clearer in the beginning.”
I chuckled. “Nothing quite as clear as that ‘Fuck-Off’ sign you wear on your face.”
She laughed too. “It usually works.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I corrected softly. “You make a horde of men fall in lust with you every single night you perform. I’ve watched it happen.”
She chuckled as she dismissed my comment with a wave of a hand. “Wait till the groupies get a load of you. All the girls want the guitarist,” she added with a grin. “Especially when he wears a pair of jeans like you do.”
I cocked my eyebrow with a smirk. “So you’ve noticed,” I drawled.
She arched her own eyebrow. “Wasn’t that the point?”
“Touché,” I grinned. I stood from the chair. I knew she needed to change for the show. Impulsively I held out my arms. “Hug for luck?” She hesitated, so I added, in a low voice, “Just between friends?”
She fought herself every second it took for her to reach her arms around my neck. I molded her tiny frame to my body. Every curve fit just like a glove. I held it a beat longer than proper before I let her go. We stood in the broken circle of our embrace without saying anything. Finally I had to walk away before I picked her up and carried her over to the inviting sofa along the wall, violating every single thing I knew about right and wrong by taking another man’s woman.
She opted for another dress with a mid-thigh hem. It was as red as her hair and cinched with a black, rhinestone-studded leather belt. Her black cowboy boots were shiny and new, matching the black leather cuffs she wore on both wrists. The dress was completely backless and dipped low in the front, leaving no illusion that all that separated us from her sensuous body was a thin layer of cotton.
I was glad I had notes and chords to think of otherwise I would have been a horny mess during my stage debut. We started with “Undo It”, which was the first song I had ever heard her sing. God, she was sexy when she owned that stage with her unique brand of sultry power. She was like a beautiful snake one was too afraid to handle. I could see from her vantage point how the men reacted. They practically drooled the closer she got to edge of the stage. We launched into Song Two, another Pink song that got both sexes excited, especially when she started to sing to me so that she wouldn’t be forced to sing to her new crop of admirers in the audience.
We ended with the Bon Jovi tune, winning over the pop crowd with our blend of Southern hospitality, a little country with a rock edge. Everyone left that stage on a high note, knowing we had nailed it. Lacy practically jumped into my arms and I swung her around. I might have mustered the nerve, and the audacity, to kiss her once I placed her feet back on the ground, but Gaynell had rushed backstage to tell us the great news. Jasper Carrington had seen it all and he was really impressed.
“With everyone,” she added when she looked at me.
Lacy squeezed my arm with a big smile of her own.
“So what happens now?” I asked, since I was the one who was completely clueless.
“He’s going to keep his eye on the numbers,” she told us. “If we can win over Austin with this new lineup, he’s willing to come back in a few months and talk.”
Lacy’s brow furrowed. “Why a few months? Why not now?”
She took a deep breath as she looked from Lacy to me and back to Lacy again. “Because he wants to test-drive the new talent.”
“I’m not new,” she said. “I’ve been doing this since grade school. I could perform in my sleep.”
I had no illusions about that. This was what she had been born to do.
That was when Gaynell delivered the final blow. “True. But he wants the both of you.”
Lacy’s face fell. “What?”
“He’s got a single female act already. He wants a band that can appeal to both sexes. Blaze is it.”
“’Blaze’ is not a band,” Lacy argued. “Blaze is me. He hadn’t even been on stage until today.”
I glanced at her, surprised that she would speak about me as if I weren’t standing right beside her.
“That’s why he needs a few months to see if…,” Gay hesitated. “To see if you both can be molded into a product he can sell.”
Lacy spun away and slammed out of the dressing area. Gaynell sighed as she glanced up at me. “I was afraid of that.”
“I don’t understand. Why doesn’t he want her by herself?”
Gay took a deep breath. “She’s a hard sell, Jonah.”
“Bullshit,” I protested. “Did you see that crowd? They were going crazy for her. They always go crazy for her.”
Gaynell shook her head. “Guys go crazy because she’s a sexy woman in a short dress. The women in that audience were screa
ming for you. You soften her edges, Jonah. You make her accessible for an audience that will do more than just download her pics online. Jasper has to make sure you’re a band that can sell records.”
“But I’m not part of the band,” I reiterated.
“For the next six weeks you are.” She handed me a piece of paper and I opened it. My eyes bulged at the number. “Four nights a week, Jonah. Thursday, Friday and Sunday, six to midnight. Saturday, noon to midnight.”
“I can’t work Sundays. I told you that.”
“That was when you were a full-time factory worker,” she reminded. She tapped the paper in my hand. “With this, you can stay at home during the weekdays with your sister.”
I stumbled backward until I landed in the makeup chair. That was some dirty pool, leveraging my sister like that. “I’m not a guitarist, Gay.”
She shrugged. “Could have fooled me,” she said. She walked up behind the chair and spun it around to look into the mirror. She met my eyes through the glass. “Isn’t it time you stopped fooling yourself?”
I stared at my reflection. I didn’t even know the scruffy guy staring back at me. “I need some time to think it over,” I said.
“Of course,” she said as she patted my shoulders with both hands. “You have till six o’clock tomorrow.”
With that she left me alone in the dressing room.
8: Flirtin’ With Disaster
Lacy had avoided me like the plague, waiting until I had changed before she slipped inside to do the same. When she left, she employed the assistance of another bouncer to see her safely to her car. From the crowd of females that had gathered around the backstage door, I considered doing likewise. I barely made it through the line of faceless hands that grabbed at me from every direction as they tried their best to get my attention. Jacinda rescued me, offering me a bottle of beer as she escorted me through the club away from my new admirers.
“Like I told you,” she said into my neck. “Always the last to know.”
I shook my head. This was craziness. “I gotta get out of here,” I told her and she nodded.
She escorted me to the door and took back my untouched beer. “Need a ride, cowboy?” she asked with a familiar glint in her eye.
I shook my head. “I’ve got it from here.”
She glanced me over, head to toe. Finally she grabbed my hand and scribbled her number onto my palm with a pen from her shirt pocket. “Call me if that ever changes.”
I practically ran to my truck. I drove straight to the hospital.
Mama was dozing in the cot next to my sister when I walked in. She stretched and rubbed her eyes as she yawned. “How’d it go?”
I glanced down at Leah, who slept peacefully like an angel in her hospital bed. I motioned for Mama to follow me from the room. We didn’t stop until we got to the cafeteria downstairs, where we sat drinking weak coffee. I showed her the slip of paper and she nearly did a spit-take.
“Per week?” she asked.
I nodded. “For six weeks at least, till the other guy recovers. After that, who knows?”
“Oh, Jonah,” she breathed. “This is a godsend. With this hospital stay, I was afraid I would have to take another job just to get ahead of the bills.” She smiled as she studied my face. “And it’s something you love to do. Even better.”
“But not for money,” I said. “I do it for you and for Leah. This isn’t me.”
“Maybe it is,” she said. She covered my hand with hers. “Life has a way of aligning you with destiny. You can fight the changing tide or you can let it sweep you away to where it wants you to go. Who knows? Maybe you’ll end up in a place you couldn’t even dare to imagine.”
I pulled away to drop my face into my hands. “I don’t know what to do.”
“All I can tell you is that there is always going to be a factory job somewhere. Chances like this? They don’t come along every day, baby.”
My eyes met hers. She grew even more serious. “And we could really use the money, Jonah. Not to mention someone at home with her 24 hours a day. That’s not cheap.” I nodded. I knew. “So you’re there in the day. I’m there at night. And on the weekends?” she said as she stroked my hair, “you become the super star I always knew you were.”
I scooted my chair out so that I could round the table and take her into a big hug. “I love you, Mama,” I said.
“I love you, too, baby,” she said as she held me tight. Just the weakened way she hugged me was enough to put factory work in the rearview mirror. She needed a break and at long last I could provide her one.
That was worth anything.
I called Gay before I even left the hospital, to accept my new job as a guitarist for her house band. She told me to come in early the following day so I could fill out the necessary contracts to perform.
I got there by noon. I barely understood the legal jargon I read, so Gay went over it with me, telling me it was a standard contract. I was part of the Southern Nights band, which meant that I was still her employee, but she also represented me like an agent. She retained control over my image and my performances, to fit the needs of her club. Everything had to meet with her final approval, from the songs we played to the clothes we wore. “One year?” I said. “I thought this was a six-week gig.”
“Standard contract terms,” she shrugged, as if it was no big deal. “We’ll see where we are in six weeks. Just do me a big favor. Don’t move any furniture.”
I laughed.
She, however, remained on task. She held up a check, which was more money than I had ever seen printed on that one line. “This is the headlining artists’ take of the door. You pack my club, you get paid. I told you, I take care of my own.” Her eyes bore into mine. “Tell me truly, Jonah. Your family could use something like this, right?”
I silently nodded. With money like that, Mama wouldn’t even have to work anymore.
“Jasper Carrington is right. You and Lacy together are magic. You could be headlining this club in a matter of months. You both just need to get out of my way when I give you the advice you need to make it. Do you trust me, Jonah?”
“Of course,” I said. At this point, there was no other choice.
“Then learn a few songs. Do some duets. Make that magic happen again next weekend, and I’ll bump y’all up to the feature act within a month.”
I sat, speechless. She was asking me to steal Lacy’s thunder. And I most certainly didn’t want to do that. But when I raised the objection, she pointed at my signed contract.
“My house, my rules. Make it happen, Jonah.”
I headed back to the stage, where I fiddled around with the guitar and the huge, dog-eared songbook. No one was paying attention, so I gently launched into an old Poco tune. People who milled nearby stopped to listen to me pick and sing, while the other musicians in the band took their place and filled in the missing accompaniment. I saw that Gay was watching me from her upstairs office, so I didn’t shy away from the falsetto, which made a few club employees hoot and clap.
The only thing that could make me stop was catching that flash of red hair as I spied Lacy in the corner of the club, listening to me with her mouth dropped open in shock. When she darted backstage, I dropped everything to follow her. She tried to slam the door shut on me but I shoved my foot in the door and forced it open.
“Lacy, listen, we need to talk.”
“Fuck you, we need to talk,” she spat. “You sing? Was this the plan all along?”
I shook my head as I shut the door behind us, securing us in the privacy of the dressing room. “I didn’t want to sing. I didn’t even want to play. You’re the one who signed me up for that, remember?”
“Convenient,” she sneered as she spun on me. “So… what? You’re going to take my place?”
I shook my head. “That’s not what I want at all.” I just want a paycheck that can support my family… doing something I can be near you. “It’s just a gig.”
“To you!” she said. “This i
s my life. This is my dream!”
“Who says it can’t be both?” I asked. “We work well together. Let’s get something out of it.”
“And because I won’t sleep with you, I have to share my stage with you?”
I stared at her. “Is that really what you think?”
“I don’t know what to think,” she shot back. “You appear out of nowhere two weeks ago and suddenly I went from a solo act to a duet. You tell me.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“I’ve wanted to do this since I was twelve fucking years old. I’ve done my time in every dive bar in Austin. You don’t get to just come in off the farm and walk into a contract. That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”
“Then how come it is?” I challenged softly.
Her eyes narrowed as she stared at me. “Are you screwing Gaynell?”
My blood began to boil. “Is that what kind of man you think I am?”
“I don’t know what kind of man you are.”
I stalked over to where she stood and grabbed her into my arms. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she didn’t stop me. My hold tightened. Before I could think twice about it, I lowered my head and branded her with my kiss across her slightly parted lips. I felt her gasp before she relented ever so slightly in my embrace. I parted her lips with my tongue, capturing her soft moan in my mouth as my hands slid down her back to cup her shapely ass in both hands, lifting her up against me as I kissed her hard. Every part of me reached for her in pure desperation. I needed her more than I needed my next breath.
Her arms locked momentarily around my neck before she finally got control of her senses. She pushed me away, breathless and visibly aroused. “Don’t you ever do that again,” she hissed. “I told you I can’t belong to you.”
Despite her bluster, I called her bluff. “But you want to. And that’s why you’re so pissed.”
She spun away from me to collect herself. I slowly closed the gap between us, touching her long, colorful hair with my fingers. I leaned close, my breath against her neck.
Southern Rocker Boy (Southern Rockers Book 1) Page 8
