Blessed Fate (Blessed Tragedy)

by HB Heinzer

  Following the show, we broke the news to Rain that, whether she liked it or not, we would be going back to Lexington with her. I had a long talk with her dad, where he told me he felt it was for the best if she had us by her side. To hear him tell it, he knew how wrong his and his wife's actions were, but once damaged, they had no clue how to fix their actions. I didn't fully understand that, but I respected him for recognizing the problem and trying to fix it, even when most people would feel it was too little, too late. The most touching moment in our talk was when he thanked me for being there for her through everything.

  Jon and Travis piled into her brother's minivan, and Rain and I followed on the Harley. I could tell she was worried about having us home with her. She was normally one of the most relaxed riders I had ever had behind me, but the tension in her body made it feel like I had a weighted mannequin behind me. After about thirty minutes, I felt her body beginning to relax. We had to make an unscheduled stop on the way home because the day's events were catching up with her, and she needed a quick wake-up. We sat on the curb while she drank her coffee, neither of us saying a word.

  Her dad's house was nothing like I expected. I had imagined her coming from a middle-class family, living in a modest home in an older neighborhood, so the two-story home with a circular drive and perfectly groomed lawn overlooking the golf course was a surprise. I laughed as we walked through the front door and heard Jon, Travis and her brothers in the basement talking baseball and shooting a game of pool. "Sounds like they're getting along just fine," I whispered into her ear.

  "Guess so." She laced her fingers with mine as we walked to the basement. I didn't want to read too much into the gesture, but I couldn't help the feeling that there was a shift occurring in our relationship. It didn't take long before Rain excused herself to the seating area on the opposite end of the basement from where everyone was talking. I could only hope that meant she was finally going to sleep.

  I looked from the guys playing pool to Rain curled on the couch, trying to decide where to go. The only place I wanted to be was next to her on the leather sectional, stroking her hair, but I didn't want her brothers to make any assumptions that could cause her stress. I joined the guys for a heated debate over which bands deserved to be called classics.

  "Come on, sleeping beauty. Let's get you into your bed," I whispered as I scooped her into my arms. I figured it was the perfect time for us to escape since everyone else had gone outside. She might be an adult, perfectly capable of making her own decisions, but that didn't mean her brothers were going to be okay with me sleeping in the same bed as her, which is exactly where I planned on sleeping.

  Matt and Mike, her two oldest brothers, came inside before we could get up the stairs. They stopped us, asking to talk to her for a minute. From what I understood, these two had been the least supportive of her over the years, so I was cautious about leaving her alone with them. When they stuttered and stammered, trying to come up with the right words to tell her they were proud of her, I had to hold back a laugh.

  Walking through her bedroom door was like walking into a Barbie Dream House. Everything in the room was pink, the one color I could never picture Rain liking. The only thing I could see that wasn't pink was the furniture, which was bright white, including the four-poster canopy bed.

  As she dug through her drawers for something to wear to bed, I reached for the back of my collar, pulling off my black t-shirt. She looked stunned when I reached for the button of my jeans. "What?" I asked, continuing to get ready for bed.

  "You know they'll have your balls if you sleep with me tonight, right?"

  "What do you want, Rain?" I couldn't care less what her brothers thought at that point. She led me to her room, which led me to believe she didn't want to sleep in separate rooms any more than I did.

  "I don't want you to go, but I don't want to explain your untimely death to five thousand fans on Sunday night either."

  I climbed into the bed, patting the mattress next to me. "We can deal with them in the morning. If you want me here tonight, that's where I'll be."

  "Thank you." I pulled her tight against my chest, taking in the scent of her hair as we drifted off to sleep. Every night before this, we had shared the bed, sometimes even draping an arm around one another, but this was definitely different. Every curve of her soft body fit perfectly with the firmer contours of my own like pieces of a puzzle.

  Sleep didn't come for me until shortly before dawn, and even then, it wasn't restful sleep. I laid there in the dark, watching her sleep, allowing my fingers to trace her arms, her sides, her hips and her legs. As the sky began to lighten and the sun started creeping towards the horizon, I knew what I had to do.

  If not for the scent of freshly brewed coffee wafting through the house, I would have thought I was the first person awake. Granted, I had only slept for about an hour, so I wasn't sure that counted as having slept at all, but I was up for the day. As I rounded the bottom of the massive staircase towards the kitchen, I saw Matt, Mike, and their dad sitting around the table in the breakfast nook.

  "Good morning, Colton. Would you like some coffee?" Matt asked as he stood from his chair.

  I motioned for him to sit. "If you tell me where the mugs are, I can grab it. Thanks." I filled my own cup and then brought the carafe to the table to top off theirs. I figured it couldn't hurt to go out of my way to help them since there was a high likelihood they were pissed at me for sleeping in Maddie's room.

  "How did you sleep?" Mike asked, eying me carefully. I could only imagine what he was thinking we had done under his father's roof, days after their mother died. If I were in his shoes, I would have wanted to kill someone.

  "Not much at all," I admitted. "Your sister's having a pretty rough time, so I spent most of the night rubbing her back and trying to get her back to sleep when the tears woke her."

  For the first time since I had sat at the table, Maddie's dad looked up from the steaming coffee in front of him. "Thank you, Colton. You're a good man to take care of her that way." He patted me on the back, and I wondered how these could be the same people Rain always told me were judgmental and unwelcoming.

  "Thank you, sir." I felt my cheeks getting warm. Taking care of her wasn't something that should embarrass me, but I didn't like being called out on it. "I'm just doing what good friends do."

  Matt snorted, still glaring at me. "Yeah, friends. Is that what you're calling it? Does that take away the need to stop sleeping around?"

  "Matthew," Mr. Neumann scolded, "you will behave yourself. What your sister does or doesn't do is none of your business. If they have an unconventional relationship, that's between—"

  No matter how entertaining it was to watch Matt slink further under the table as their father ripped into him, I had to set the record straight. I narrowed my eyes on Matt, who was directly across the table from me. "Matt, I have never had sex with your sister. We are friends, nothing more. If it was up to me, yes, I would be one-hundred percent committed to her and only her, but that's not what she wants. So last night, I was in her room as a friend, taking care of her like I have for the past five years. You can believe that or not, but there it is."

  I excused myself from the table. While they weren't completely evil, nothing would ever put me in the mood to sit and listen to any of Maddie's family cut her down. Jon and Travis were just coming up the stairs as I passed the basement door.

  "Hey man, everything okay?" Jon asked, probably seeing the way my jaw was twitching.

  "Yep. Great." I lied. "I'm going to wake up Rain. There's hot coffee out there."

  When I got back upstairs, I couldn't bring myself to wake her. I laid down in the bed next to her, once again watching her sleep. She twitched and inhaled sharply as my fingers lightly grazed the side of her ribs. "You okay?"

  "Yeah, I'm good," she sighed. It wasn't a sigh of 'I wish he'd stop doing that', it was a sigh that told me my touch was affecting her. "We should go find Jon and Trav."

  She r
olled to get out of the bed, and I pulled her back to me. As long as we were safely behind her bedroom door, no one could question my intentions, and she didn't have to face the cold reality that lay ahead of her for the day. "They're having coffee with your brothers. They're fine. I smoothed things over with your brothers and dad. I think they understand."

  She turned to me, eyes wide with panic. "What did you tell them?"

  "Relax. I told them that you didn't want to be alone last night, and I stayed with you." I left out the rest of the tense conversation, not wanting to be the reason she started her day stressed out. I began leaving a trail of kisses against her shoulders, testing to see how she would react. I fully expected her to pull away from me, but instead she nestled harder against my chest. It took everything I had to keep me from telling her exactly how I felt right then. "You just lost your mom. You had your entire world flipped on end yesterday. It'd be a lot for anyone to take in, even a badass like you."

  My cock stirred beneath the thin fabric of my cotton lounge pants when she shifted to face me causing her breasts to brush against my chest. She pressed her forehead against mine. It was one of the few times I had seen her without her colored contacts in; the eyes staring into mine weren't emerald green like normal, they were the color of dark honey. They were perfectly unique, just like Rain.

  We cuddled together, drifting in and out of sleep a bit longer before getting dressed to join her family in the kitchen. In another attempt to test the changing comfort level we had with one another, I wrapped my arms around her waist from behind as we walked down the hall.

  "You know, you keep holding onto me like that and no one's going to believe there's nothing going on," she laughed. It was a beautiful sound I wasn't sure if I would hear again anytime soon. "And then we're back to me having to explain your death, and I'm pretty sure your little groupies would kick my ass then. It'd just be bad."

  "Okay." I released her, holding my hands out to my sides. "You win. But only because I don't want your brothers to kick my ass. They're really not as bad as you make them out to be, you know. Sure, Matt's an asshole, but still nothing you can't handle."

  "Well, let's just say they're not as bad as they used to be. Trust me, the loving family you see right now has only been in existence for about twenty-four hours."

  Jon and I decided to go for a run after breakfast, wanting to give the family a little space. I knew they were trying to be accepting of us, but it didn't change the fact that we were outsiders, and they had enough going on without making sure they were good hosts to us. Rain was hitting the bottom of the staircase as we walked in the front door.

  "Hey Colt, can I ask you a huge favor?" The way she was wringing her hands told me she was nervous about something. I motioned for her to lead the way to the basement, which we had taken over as our little corner of the house where we didn't feel like an imposition.

  "I already told you I'm here for whatever you need. If I didn't want to help you out, I'd be on the bus in Wichita or holed up with some honey in a hotel room." She looked at me and laughed, exactly the reaction I was going for. While I had made some piss-poor judgment calls when it came to sleeping with Tanya, screwing groupies was something I had never done and had no desire to do. Even without the complication known as Rain, I wasn't much into sleeping with random women who would be teasing the cock of another musician as soon as the opportunity came around.

  She started to say something but stopped abruptly when she heard Travis playing around on my acoustic guitar. I watched her watching him play Dust in the Wind, completely mesmerized by the sounds. Travis was the quietest one in the group, more than happy to play his bass guitar, fill in on back-up vocals when needed and go about his day. The fact that he had amazing pitch and knew how to play just about any instrument he picked up wasn't common knowledge.

  I reached out for Rain when I saw her starting to cry. This wasn't the ugly crying from the other night, simply tears spilling down her cheeks. "Good job man, you made Rain cry," I called out to Travis.

  Travis hurried over to apologize to her. She wiped away the tears and got a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I'll be right back. You guys stay here, okay?" She ran up the basement stairs as if the house was on fire, leaving us to wonder what we had missed.

  "You have any clue?" Jon asked, pointing to the already empty stairwell.

  "Nope." I picked up the guitar and started playing the same song Travis had been minutes before. As much as I hated to admit it, it was one of the few songs he knew better than I did, a fact Jon had no problem pointing out to me.

  Rain came running back down the stairs after a while and asked us to come over to the sitting area on the far end of the basement.

  "Okay, so my dad asked me last night if I'll sing at Mom's funeral tomorrow." She looked around as if gauging our reactions. I squeezed her shoulder, urging her to continue. "You guys were right the other night on the bus. I need you. You're my rocks. I don't want to sing without you."

  That was totally unexpected. We had gone from her not wanting us here to her wanting us to perform as a group in just over twenty-four hours. I kissed her forehead, allowing my lips to linger a moment longer than normal. Despite how hard she tried to fight it, she was finally letting us in, accepting our help.

  We all got to work, trying to figure out how to arrange Dust in the Wind to fit our group and the instruments we had on hand. By early in the afternoon, she had returned from the high school with a set of bongos Jon wanted to round out the sound. She then informed us there was a catch to her acquisition; the band director asked if we would be willing to make a quick appearance during the last hour of the school day.

  "So, uh, how much do you guys love me?" She asked as she handed the bongos to Jon.

  "Well, Jon and I like you an awful lot, but I think Colton's the only one here that loves you." Travis laughed. I glared at him. Even if it was true, he didn't need to blurt it out like that. My gaze shifted to her, waiting to hear her response. Luckily, she ignored his comment.

  "Mike might have told the band director we'd go up there for eighth period today." She was avoiding eye contact with us again. I hated the way she did that, hated even more that she did it when she expected us to balk at what she had to say.

  Garrett Dietrich, the high school band director, was the exact opposite of what I pictured. If he was as old as we were, I would have been shocked. I assumed he was a local boy by the overly friendly greeting he gave Rain. Seeing his arms wrapped around her as he said something only loud enough for her ears, I felt a tinge of jealousy building inside.

  "Garret, this is Jon, Travis and Colton. Guys, this is Garrett Dietrich." We took turns shaking his hand, and I tried to mask the fact that I didn't care for him. I had no doubt he was a decent guy but I couldn't shake the feeling there was a story behind his familiarity with Rain.

  For the next forty-five minutes, give or take, we sat on hard metal stools at the front of the room answering questions on everything from how we got into music to what it was like to have hot girls wanting to sleep with us. I snickered at the question, coughing to hide my laughter at Garrett's attempt to chastise the teen who had stones enough to ask such a question.

  Jon grabbed my shoulder while we waited for Rain to finish saying goodbye to Garrett. "Easy there, killer. They probably went to school together or some shit. You're not in the city anymore; everyone knows everyone in these podunk towns."

  "No, there's something else there," I grumbled. "I don't know what it is yet, but they're more than former classmates..."

  I expected the worst part of the visitation to be sitting in a room filled with complete strangers, many of whom were narrow-minded and judgmental. As the three of us huddled together trying to ignore the comments floating in our direction, I realized there was something worse…not being there next to the woman I loved because she couldn't open her heart to me.

  Rain was having a rough time listening to everyone tell stories about her mom as they shook hands a
nd offered their condolences. Making it worse, I heard more than a few people tell her how proud Mrs. Neumann was of Rain's success.

  After two hours of watching, listening, and trying to keep my distance, my patience was wearing thin. I needed to get out of there before I did something I would regret, like grabbing Rain's hand and dragging her out of there before one more person could twist the knife in her heart.

  "Hey, we're going to head back to the house. Jon said something about grabbing some food for whoever comes over later." She looked confused by the fact that we wanted to do this for her family, but when Jon mentioned it, I agreed that it was about the only thing we could do, and it would get us out of there.

  "Thank you," she whispered before kissing my cheek.

  "Don't mention it. You'd do the same for me." I leaned down so our foreheads were touching. "I meant it when I told you we'd do anything we could to help." I leaned in closer, catching myself less than an inch away from kissing her soft lips and diverted to place a kiss on her cheek.

  Watching Jon and Travis try to guess how much food we needed to buy to feed an unknown number of mourners was funny. By the time we made it to the checkout, I was sure we had enough to feed at least fifty people.

  "Hey, aren't you the guys from Blessed Tragedy?" The cashier asked, apparently forgetting how to do his job as he stared at us with a bag of lunchmeat clenched in his hand.

  "Uh, yeah," Jon answered gruffly. He was usually the one reminding us that we would be nowhere without our fans, but after someone recognized us a few times at the visitation and deflecting autograph requests to Tanya's office, he was tired of being the mouthpiece. It's probably good that he was there because I'm not sure I would have been as professional under the circumstances. "We're kind of in a hurry here, thanks."