Whap! “You're not taking me seriously, you bozo!” she said.
Whap! “You never take me seriously," she said, trying not to laugh.
Whapwhap! “Why don't you ever want to take me seriously?”
Bruce attempted to talk to her about her playful assertions, but had a hard time doing that and defending himself from the foam pillow onslaught that Suzi was raining down on him.
From a protective position with his arms over his head, Bruce said, “I do, baby. Maybe someday we will play at the Coliseum. Maybe we'll play in both of them. Right now, though, why don't you scoot over here and I'll play with you.”
Suzi put her pillow down and folded herself into his arms.
“Game on,” she said as she caressed him under the covers that he had managed to pull back over himself.
“Game on,” he answered into her waiting kiss, his desire for sleep overtaken by his desire for his little stadium rocker to be.
***
Brandee herself was only too ready for the show that night. Anxious to put what she considered to be a really bad night in Elko behind her, she was happy to see the Wasatch Range loom up in the windshield of the Sprinter. She was ready to show the Greater Salt Lake City area that there was a new girl in town and that girl was Brandee Evans. She hadn't slept a wink in the car that day, so excited was she for the show that night.
The USANA Amphitheater draws some big acts from around the country. Kenny Chesney was scheduled there in June followed by Tim McGraw and Sugarland in July. It was only because of a fortuitous cancellation that they had an opening for an as-yet-unknown act from Northern California. Brandee didn't like to wish ill on others (unless it really REALLY would be helpful to her), but she found herself a tiny bit grateful that the members of Rascall Flats had developed strep throat at just the right time.
Brandee was first on the card tonight. That meant that all of the pre-show prep work was moved up over 2 hours from the previous night. They would take the stage at 6:00 sharp.
Brandee herself always paid close attention to where she was on the card. It gave her, she felt, an indication of how she was perceived by the ownership of that particular venue. The other members of the group didn't care as much as she did where they were billed or whether there was a poster of their faces outside the entrance.
Actually, Diane secretly liked being first on the card. It told her exactly when she would need to be onstage and ready to clap her sticks together, which was always how the act opened. At 51 years old, Diane had developed a routine that kept her body in top shape.
She watched her diet carefully. While the others were chowing down after the show on pretty much anything (the greasier the better, according to Bruce) Diane monitored her intake. She kept an eye on her fat consumption as well as her carbohydrate count. She had recently been diagnosed with a mild form of Type 2 diabetes, which for her meant being more careful. She checked her glucose count before and after their shows, usually discovering that her number was a little low after Brandee played. The diabetes situation played into why she liked being first on a given card. It provided her the opportunity to warm up, getting her body slightly lathered up before they took the stage, without having to cool down when another group ran long with their set. She was determined that neither being older nor being diabetic was going to cause her to slow the group down.
Nothing slowed the group down that night. Brandee had never been in better voice. She had gargled her salt water and lemon combination a little closer to the time she took the stage than she normally did, to allow for the fact that they were performing at 4200 feet above sea level. The rest of the group was on its game too. Bruce had added a few tricks to his repertoire. When he had studied with Ormond Brown, he had perfected some parlor tricks with the keyboard. On this night, he used a couple of them to the delight of the crowd.
For all of the quality effort Brandee gave the crowd on this night, the crowd itself was not as responsive as the group would have hoped. It was a late arriving crowd for one thing. The 20,000-seat amphitheater was only about 40% full when Brandee took the stage. By the time they were finished, the crowd had filled in some, but still the group's dreams of playing in front of 20,000 screaming, adoring people was not to be realized on this late spring night.
The applause at the end was only a bit more than polite, and the group was not asked back onstage for an encore. Only Bruce had gotten any kind of a truly enthusiastic response, a fact that was not lost on Brandee as she removed her makeup after the show. There was a reason, she thought, that the group was named after her. She was supposed to draw the bulk of the applause. If there was going to be anyone's name chanted (and, she had to admit, not even Bruce had accomplished that with his piano tricks) it was supposed to be hers. For the first time since this tour had been conceived, Brandee began to doubt herself.
***
Later that night, at Denny's, she opened up to the group. “I'm a little down tonight, guys" she said.
This came as no surprise to the group. Brandee's was the mood that set the tone at their post-show meals. Usually she was an ebullient whirlwind. Tonight, she had been subdued.
Jake put his arm tighter around her shoulder, hoping that she would lean against him. She did, but almost imperceptibly. Suzi spoke up.
“I thought you sounded great tonight, Brandee," she said. “You were right on as far as I could tell.”
Bruce nodded. “You sounded like an angel, kid. The crowd was flat tonight. It wasn't you.”
Brandee shook her head impatiently, her blonde hair swishing back and forth in front of her worried face.
“I'm not fishing for compliments. I'm just wondering if maybe we're not as good as we think we are. Maybe we're kidding ourselves.”
Bruce looked at her with a serious expression on his face and said, “Do you know what I'm worried about?”
He lowered his voice and leaned in so only the members of the group could hear what he said next. The others leaned in too. If Bruce Jackson, who was happy-go-lucky 90% of the time, was worried about something, maybe they should be as well.
“I'm worried about the check not clearing. I didn't see anyone take an offering at that church service tonight.”
That cracked the table open. Even Brandee laughed. Bruce patted her hand.
“It wasn't anything that we did wrong tonight, kid. Sometimes a group is hot, sometimes it's cold.”
Brandee nodded, the memory of Elko only too fresh in her mind.
Bruce went on, “Sometimes a crowd is hot, and sometimes it's cold. We were hot tonight but the Utahans were cold. It happens. Just keep rocking. There's magic in the air next time out. I can feel it in my bones.”
Diane raised her glass of iced tea. “I propose a toast," she said. “to saying goodbye to Utah and hello to the great state of Wyoming. Maybe I'll meet a hot cowboy in a cool pair of chaps, and”, she paused for maximum effect. “Long may we buck.”
The members of Brandee laughed and clinked their glasses together. They had tomorrow off so there was no need to get back to the hotel anytime soon. They called for another round of Bruce's favorite appetizer, breaded mozzarella sticks with ranch dressing, and settled in for some bonding.
***
The next day, the two couples and Diane all had different plans about how best to spend their day off. They were staying at The Marriott, which was connected to one of the largest malls in the western half of the United States. Diane had been waiting for this day for quite some time. She loved to shop, so this would be a great opportunity for her to indulge herself in some retail therapy. She believed that a day away from Brandee might do her some good as well. She liked the little songstress okay, but she thought that it would be a pleasure being apart from Brandee's preening ways.
Diane also had another reason to go off on her own. She had spotted a Dippin' Dots machine in the Salt Lake City Mall. Diane was a fanatic for the super- cooled ice cream pellets that make up a bowl of Dippin' Dots. The way that they
froze her tongue and slowly melted into the taste of a banana split (her favorite flavor in the world) brought a smile to the drummer's face, and she was determined to have some of that today. She also knew that the others would worry about her diabetes if they were around. She had been good for a long time. Her numbers were fine. “Dippin' Dots, here comes Diane Hoover.”
***
Bruce and Suzi were miles away from Diane and her Dots, but they were shopping, too. They were at Schober and Taylor's Harley-Davidson dealership in Ogden. Bruce and Suzi had found a mutual passion that they shared beside music. They were both into bikes. The bigger the bike and the louder the sound, the better they liked it. Suzi owned a Honda CBR600RR that she had purchased about two years earlier. Bruce had owned a Kawasaki Ninja 650R before his latest time in rehab. He had sold the bike to pay for the treatment and hadn't owned one since. He and Suzi were ready to ride.
At the very moment that Diane was enjoying her first bite of frozen bliss, Bruce and Suzi were working out a deal with salesperson Karina Kimem for 2 2011 V-Rod Muscle Bikes. They were going to celebrate their budding relationship by purchasing matching bikes. Neither of them had ever owned a Harley. They wanted a biker's bike, and intended to get a couple of them. At just over 1000 cc's, it would be the fastest things either of them had been on. They had done their due diligence in terms of research and were ready to take possession. They would arrange to have the bikes shipped back home so that it would be waiting for them when the tour was over. First though, they had something that they needed to do.
The Bonneville Salt Flats was a desolate area that began about 88 miles west of Salt Lake City. Flat, barren, and remote, it had long been a mecca for people who wanted to bring their vehicles out just to see how fast they could go, flat out. Years ago, the Land Speed events were held at Bonneville before speeds in excess of 350 miles an hour proved too fast even for The Flats. This was where Bruce and Suzi were going to bring their bikes before setting them up for shipping. By midafternoon, they had arrived. The nearly 100 miles from Ogden had gotten the musical couple used to their new bikes. They were ready to open them up.
They took off together, each of them accelerating smoothly away from the starting point, the throaty roar of the new engines sounding a clarion call of speed and power. After about a minute, Bruce and Suzi looked at each other and nodded. Each of them cranked the accelerator on the new Harleys and away they went. The speedometers quickly passed 90 then 100 miles per hour. The engine note rose through the scale of the signature sound of a Harley-Davidson. Suzi's bike edged ahead as the couple passed 110 mph. The alkaline sand was just a blur before her eyes.
Bruce's bike found a reservoir of boost as the couple got to about 122 mph. He surged in front of Suzi by about a quarter of a bike length. She glanced to her left and smiled. She knew that his lead wasn't going to last.
Suzi only weighed about 104 pounds. Bruce wasn't fat (an amazing fact given how much he ate) but he was a solid 190 pounds. This weight disadvantage was destined to cause him to lose this little impromptu race as long as Suzi was able to handle the big bike at top speed.
Suzi was more than equal to the task. When the machines topped out, she had outdistanced her boyfriend by almost 50 yards. Her top end had been 134 mph. Bruce's bike had topped out at 132.
“I wasn't beaten by a better bike. I was beaten by a midget rider,” he said later.
The couple went back to Ogden and meticulously cleaned the salt off of their bikes before returning them to the dealership for shipping.
***
Jake and Brandee weren't actually very far from Diane and her Dippin' Dots. They had decided to just laze around the room and relax on their day off. They slept late and were watching a pay-per-view movie, having just enjoyed a room service lunch. Jake was holding Brandee, watching the movie a little but more interested in the neck of his wife.
Brandee moved her head to the left so Jake could have better access to that neck. He kissed her under her ear and let his lips trace the line between her ear and her neck. She purred a little in pleasure. Jake enfolded her in his arms and drew her back a little farther in the bed.
She looked at him and said with a smile, “What’s up, buttercup?”
Jake kissed her, first tenderly and then with rising passion. Her lips parted eagerly for him and his tongue caressed hers. Brandee's arms went around his back, her hand against his neck pulling his kiss deeper. She moaned a little into his mouth.
Jake's right hand moved over her alabaster shoulders and down over her shoulder blades, gliding smoothly, feeling her warming skin against his hand. He pulled her against him by applying pressure to her back and again with pressure to her hip, helping her to know, as if there was any doubt, just what was up.
Brandee gasped a little at how hard Jake was. She knew that he found her attractive but never ceased to be pleased at how much being with her made him physically excited. She kissed him again, this time with flaming passion, and he returned her ardor with abandon. She began to move against him in a steady rhythm. Jake could feel the heat coming from her body.
Jake broke their kiss and moved slightly away from her.
“I love you so much, Brandee," he said looking deeply into her eyes.
Her lips parted with desire.
“Make love to me, Jake.”
He found her beautiful breasts with his lips and caressed them, before running his tongue lightly in the crevasse between. Then he nuzzled, first her left breast and then her right one, kissing and caressing them with his warm lips. He knew that her nipples were very sensitive, so he teased them with his tongue, feeling them swell under his attentions.
She put her hand on the back of his head and pulled gently. He responded by taking her breast into his mouth, rolling his tongue around her soft pliant areola, causing her to gasp with pleasure.
He worked his way quickly back up, kissing her in mid-gasp. He caressed the inside of her right thigh with his right hand and felt her body turn toward his touch. She arched her body, asking to be touched more profoundly.
Jake responded as she knew he would, his familiar touch cupping her moist mound. He lightly squeezed her and her hips thrust herself deeper into his hand. He teased her a bit with his finger, moving it in a counter-clockwise fashion around her vagina.
Suddenly, he was where she craved him to be right then. He had found her clitoral button and was massaging it tenderly. With his every stroke, she cried out in approval.
“Oh Jake. Oh my man. Oh my love.” she gasped.
The gasp rose in volume and intensity until she was shrieking his name.
“Jake! Oh baby! Oh Jake!”
Jake buried her last shriek in his kiss, his mouth finding hers with an ardor almost violent in its intensity. Their mouths and tongues fought each other for supremacy as Brandee's hips bucked wildly against Jake's probing finger. He was playing the inside of her hot pussy like a violinist plays a Stradivarius and she loved every minute of it. Slowly he pulled out of her. She clawed at his hip, needing him to take the next step.
Jake climbed between her well-toned thighs, looking at the sweat sheen on her face. He noticed anew the golden flecks in her eyes as he tapped her once, twice, three times with his raging erection. Finally, with the anticipation that was coursing through both of them completely unbearable, he entered her.
They quickly found the rhythm that they both knew so well. She rose to meet his thrusts as he dove to find her depths. The pace, first slow, then with increasing speed was familiar to them both. Brandee's cries increased in pitch and volume. She tossed her head, first to the left and then to the right in response to his lovemaking, achieving one shrieking orgasm after another. He felt the tide inside himself start to rise.
She felt it too. She knew that she was about to be given the gift of his seed.
With one final orgasmic howl she screamed, “FUCK ME JAKE! FUCK ME HARD!”
Jake exploded inside her soaked pussy, their juices intermingling in a mia
sma of spent passion. His own orgasm seemed to go on and on. He throbbed for minutes on end as he held her in his arms, rocking her to sleep in a post-coital nap.
Jake lay awake afterward, listening to her deep and even breaths. He knew this woman's body so well. He couldn't wait to grow older and more in love with her as the years went by. He was blissfully and completely happy.
Wyoming Sunrise
The next day was another early morning for the members of the group. They had about 350 miles ahead of them to get to their next performance. Brandee was scheduled to appear at Arena Auditorium on the campus of The University of Wyoming in Laramie.
Brandee was going to be the opening act again, but their lead singer's disappointment was slightly mitigated by two things. First, they weren't being followed by a yodeler, whose presence at the last concert was still under Brandee's skin. Second, tonight was a little bit of a reunion. They were to be followed this evening by Nora Denice and Lizzie, the metal band that Brandee had played before in Ukiah, California at their first ever event as a group.
FAME and GLORY Page 6