Only The Beginning (Rockin' Country)

by Briscoe, Laramie

  “You probably wanna grab an extra shirt, your mom wants to play tourist before I have to get ready for the show tonight,” she told him as she took her bowl of fruit with her to the bedroom and set it on the dresser.

  He watched as she took a brush to her hair and pulled it all to the side, then used her fingers to plait it. It was interesting to watch her, he had no idea how women did these types of things. “My hair would be in such a knot,” he told her as she secured the end with a hair tie.

  “What’s funny is if I don’t do this, my hair will probably be in a knot.”

  “I need you to do something for me,” he told her as he turned his back to her.

  “Okay.” She stood there, unsure of what he wanted her to do.

  “Be honest, do I have scratches on my back? I don’t want my mom to see that. We’re open, but seriously, I wanna keep that between us. It’s kinda private.” He turned his head around so that she could see him. His cheeks were a little pink as he pulled the shirt over his head.

  “You’re gonna have to bend down, I can’t see,” she stood on her tip toes as he bent down towards her. “You do, but it’s not too bad. I’m so sorry.” She bit her thumbnail. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

  “No,” he told her. “I’m glad you did. You had a good time, I had a good time, I just don’t know that I want my parents to know how much of a good time we had. You get what I’m sayin’?”

  “I do and I understand, but won’t people question why you’re keeping your shirt on?”

  “Nah, I’m self-conscious too, ya know?”

  “That is the biggest line of bull I have ever heard, but I’ll cover for you if you need me too,” she laughed, as she put her shirt and shorts on.

  She went over to where her bag was and put another pair of shoes in it, along with a brush, some makeup, her wallet, sunscreen, and another shirt just in case. “I’m ready when you are,” she told him as she put the bag on her shoulder.

  “You mind putting my wallet in there?” he asked as they walked to the living area.

  She disposed of her empty bowl of fruit, and he held out his last bite of his bagel to her. Looking at it, she shrugged and then let him shove it in her mouth. “Sure,” she told him as she took his wallet and put it in her bag. “Shell and I still have that cabana rented.” She held up the key that would allow them to get into it. “So our stuff should be fine.”

  “Sounds good, don’t forget your coffee.” He pointed to her still frosty cup.

  “Not on your life, buddy. This venti will get me through the day.”

  He opened the door for her, holding it open with his back. “And here I thought that I got you through the day.”

  “Ha! You’re thinking way too highly of yourself right now, Garrett Thompson,” she teased, pulling her phone out of her bag. It was buzzing at her. She scrolled through her message. “Jared and Shell are downstairs too, and they’re hanging out with us today.”

  “Awesome,” he nodded. “Wonder if they had a good time last night.”

  “Not as good a time as Shell wanted to have apparently,” Hannah mumbled under her breath.

  “What?” he asked, grabbing her hand. “I didn’t quite hear that.”

  “Apparently Shell was all for a little getting to know you time, and Jared was too busy trying to be a gentleman.”

  Garrett threw his head back with a laugh. “Oh my God, you just wait until I get him alone. The way I’m going to bust his balls is going to be epic.”

  “You be nice. Maybe he was trying to impress her and be good.”

  He leveled his gaze on her, a mocking grin on his face. “Jared Winston is a lot of things, and good has never been one of them. This is going to be great!”

  He was still laughing as they hopped the elevator that would take them down to the pool.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  * * *

  “About time y’all made it down here,” Shell yelled from her place on a lounge chair in the cabana. Obviously, she too had remembered they still had it.

  “We had to eat,” Hannah told her as she set their bag on one of the tables and then went over to greet Marie and Kevin.

  “Yeah,” Garrett grinned down at Jared, speaking a little more softly to him. “Some of us worked up appetites last night.”

  Shell laughed from where she lay on the lounge chair, shooting Garrett a thumbs-up. “You, sir, are a good man.”

  Jared hit Garrett on the back. “Asshole,” he mumbled, throwing his hands up as Garrett moaned.

  “Are you two beating each other up?” Marie asked as she stuck her head around Hannah.

  “Mama Thompson, you think I’m gonna beat your baby boy up in front of you?” Jared pulled a face. “Noooo, never.”

  “You two behave over there.” She pointed at the two of them.

  “We will,” Garrett told her, flipping Jared off before he turned to face his parents.

  “Pussy,” Jared mumbled under his breath.

  Shell laughed at the two of them as she sat up and looked at Hannah. “Come out into the pool with me. There’s a lazy river on the other side.”

  “Anybody wanna come with us?” Hannah asked politely. When they all declined, she shed her clothes and quickly put her sunscreen on before she grabbed her sunglasses. “We’ll be back,” she told them.

  The group waved at them as they made their way out into the general public area of the pool.

  “So, how was your night?” Shell asked as they walked towards the entrance of the lazy river.

  “I should have known you didn’t just want to have a conversation, you were wanting to be nosey.”

  “Like you wouldn’t be if it was me,” Shell smirked.

  Two people vacated their tubes and handed them to Hannah and Shell. Within minutes, they were floating along on the river. “My night was great,” Hannah finally admitted.

  “I won’t embarrass you by asking for details. Obviously, you’re going to remain pretty close lipped about it, but just tell me this. Was it better than with Ashton?”

  Hannah snickered. “Ashton who?”

  Shell held her hand up for a high five. “That’s what I’m talking about. I’m so excited for you. Now you’ll understand what other women are talking about when they rave about their sexual experiences. I always felt sorry for you about that.”

  “I felt a little sorry for myself,” Hannah admitted as she took a drink of the coffee she had brought with her.

  Turning herself around in her tube, Shell faced Hannah. “I’m just gonna come right out and say how excited and happy I am for you. I really hope this works out for you. You deserve the best, and I’ve seen a change in you—for the better. You don’t look so tense; you seem to be a little more comfortable in your skin. It looks good on you.”

  “It hasn’t taken long has it?” she asked, realizing she and Garrett had only been involved for a little over a month.

  “It never does when it only takes one person to bring it out of you. I was just waiting on that person to meet you. I’ve been hoping for it for a while.”

  “What the world are you talking about, Shell?” Hannah asked, confusion apparent on her face.

  “Ashton took a lot more from you than I think even you realize. You haven’t been the same. I love you because you’re my best friend, you’re the sister I never had, but you got scared. You were no longer that girl who decided to jump before you asked how high. You didn’t take those risks anymore that left us laughing and asking how we didn’t get arrested. There was no more of that,” Shell explained.

  “I’m sorry,” Hannah started to apologize.

  “No, please don’t apologize. That’s not at all why I’m saying this to you; I’m not trying to make you feel bad at all. All I’m trying to do is to tell you how excited I am to see you coming back. To see that you’re still in there and Ashton didn’t snuff out the fire that makes you Hannah.”

  Hannah was quiet for a full minute, and Shell got a sinking feeling in her
stomach. Maybe she shouldn’t have opened her mouth. It was then that Hannah rubbed her eyes.

  “Are you crying? Please don’t cry.”

  Hannah shook her head “I’m crying, but not in the way you think. I’m crying because you are so right. I did lose a piece of myself, and I finally feel like I can breathe again. But right when I feel like I can breathe, I still can’t let go of Ashton.”

  “What the fuck does that mean, Hannah? And you better be honest with me.”

  “He texted me the other day.”

  “Erase it. Erase it and block his damn number, do you hear me? He can see that you’re happy—hell; anyone looking at you can see that you’re happy. He wants to ruin that because he’s not happy and because he’s not involved with it. I’m telling you, just let him be his normal self and you keep being who you are with Garrett.

  “I’ll admit, I was worried about Garrett when you first told me about him. I mean, it was cute that you liked him and he liked you. But seeing the two of you together and meeting his family—you’ve got a keeper, and you’ve got someone who really likes you for you. Don’t let that go. He’s the type of man you’ve been searching for—whether you knew it or not. I’ll be damned if I let that sleazy little rat ruin this for you.”

  “I’ll delete it,” she told Shell. “I promise.”

  “Did you tell Garrett?”

  “No, I was worried to. Garrett hates Ashton, with a passion. I didn’t want to make it any tenser than it already was.”

  Shell started to say something, but they had floated back around to the beginning, and the rest of their party stood there waiting on them.

  “Hey y’all,” Shell called out.

  “The ’rents want to go walking on the strip, is that good for you two?” Garrett asked as he stepped into the water and helped Hannah put her tube up.

  “Sounds good,” she smiled up at him.

  Something about the tone of her voice didn’t sit well with him. “Hey, you okay?” he asked, pushing his sunglasses up so that she could see his eyes.

  “I’m great.” She reached up and hugged him around the neck.

  “You sure?”

  “I’m good,” she told him again as she grabbed his hand. “We got to catch up with the rest of them.”

  * * *

  “Garrett, that looks like you when you were little,” Marie pointed to a child running on the opposite side of the road wearing a Pantera t-shirt. It was too big for him, and he was holding it up to keep from getting his legs tripped up.

  Garrett laughed, a thoughtful grin covering his face. “Jared too. We were all the time trying to find something that would freak you out more. Remember when we wore the eye liner and black fingernail polish? We were hardcore.”

  “That was the absolute worst.” Marie rolled her eyes, looking at the two women. “Black nail polish is okay for women, I see you’re wearing some today.” She pointed at both Shell and Hannah. “But when you’re son comes home wearing it, along with black eyeliner, you wonder just where in the world you went wrong.”

  “What did you think, dad?” Garrett asked, letting go of Hannah’s hand and slinging his arm around his father’s shoulders.

  “I was just wondering if I was going to have to bail you out of jail.”

  The boys all shared a look. “There have been a couple times,” Jared smirked.

  “What about your parents?” Hannah asked Jared. “Did they ever have to bail you out?”

  Jared ducked his head. “My parents weren’t exactly…how should I put this…supportive of anything we did. Luckily, these two took me under their wing, and they’ve been my surrogate parents ever since.”

  “Look at this face.” Marie cupped his chin and kissed Jared on the cheek. “How can you not love him?”

  Hannah and Shell exchanged a look. It was obvious there was more to it than what they had said, but neither wanted to press the issue since they were having a great time together.

  “Resistance is futile, it’s true, you can’t help but love him.” Garrett cuffed him on the back of the head.

  “When did you two start playing music together?” Shell asked. It was a question she had been wondering for a while, but it never seemed to be a good time to bring it up when she and Jared were alone.

  “We’ve known each other since second grade,” Garrett told them. “But in eighth grade, I started my first band, and I asked him to play lead guitar for me. You know what this bastard said to me?”

  They all waited, knowing it would be good the way the two men smiled at each other. “I told him that I was too good for his damn band. We could be friends, but I didn’t think I could lower myself to play with him.”

  “Ouch,” Shell laughed. “That’s pretty harsh, even for an eighth grader.”

  “Yeah, talk about screwing with somebody’s self-esteem,” Garrett said. “But I’m persistent, and I kept at it until he agreed to play. Best decision this fucker’s ever made.”

  “Is that true?” Hannah asked, side eyeing Jared.

  “I guess so,” he sighed. “I mean I don’t know that I could be touring the world and making hundreds of thousands of dollars with anyone else. So I guess if I have to do it with someone—it might as well be with him and the rest of the group.”

  “Gee thanks, man.”

  “Somebody’s gotta keep your big-ass head under control.”

  Hannah interjected. “How did you two put up with these two?” she asked Kevin and Marie.

  Kevin slipped his finger into his ear and pulled out a piece of something. “Ear plugs. I wear them a lot when they’re all together. I’ve gotten pretty good at reading lips. So I know when I really need to discreetly take it out and listen.”

  There was a moment of silence throughout the group before they all busted out laughing.

  “Dad, man, what the fuck? How long have you been doing that?”

  Kevin grinned. “Long enough.”

  “I never had any idea, at all. You are one slick badass, I hope I can be like you when I grow up.” Jared clapped his hand on Kevin’s back. “You need to teach me that trick, it gets annoying listening to Garrett and Hannah on FaceTime at night on the bus.”

  “Whatever, dude. You just wish you had somebody to FaceTime with.” Garrett slung his arm around Hannah’s shoulder, hitching his chin up in acknowledgement of Jared’s words.

  “He does now,” Shell piped up.

  “Well there ya go then. Now I’m gonna need a pair of those earplugs too.”

  “Reaper, Harmony!!”

  The group stopped and turned to face the person yelling.

  “Oh hell,” Garrett mumbled as he saw a group of girls running towards them. Some of them wore Harmony Stewart t-shirts, some wore Black Friday t-shirts.

  “Hey,” Hannah waved at the group. “How are you ladies doin’?” she asked, as they came to a stop, all heaving.

  “Good,” they answered.

  “Where did you all run from?” Garrett asked as they each tried to get their breath.

  “From way up there.” One of them pointed almost a mile down the road. In the distance, he could see two parents trying to make their way through the crowded streets.

  “Are those your parents?” he asked, squinting in the bright sun, even with his sunglasses on.

  “Yeah, Mom is gonna kick our asses, but we really wanted to get a picture with the two of you. We like both of you,” one of the girls said.

  “Don’t you ever run away from us like that again,” the lady, who they assumed was the mother, screamed as she and the man finally caught up with the girls.

  “Sorry, Mom, but do you see who this is?”

  The girl wore a Harmony shirt, so Hannah smiled warmly, putting her hand out. “I’m Harmony. I am so sorry they scared you like that. It’s not the smartest thing to take off running in Vegas, but I would have done the same thing if my favorite artist was walking down the street, so I can understand.”

  The woman shook Hannah’s hand and then
took a good look at Garrett. “I can see why they did,” she said on a low breath. “Would you mind if they got pictures with you?”

  “Not a problem,” Garrett grinned, putting his arms around the two girls with Black Friday shirts on.

  Hannah smirked as the girls smiled so wide she thought their cheeks were going to break. He seemed to have that effect on any woman, young or old.

  Fifteen minutes later, the girls had autographs, pictures, and a story to tell their friends when they got home. They had even been introduced to Kevin and Marie. Garrett saw the time on his phone and turned to Hannah.

  “It’s going on three, do you need to go?”

  “I should. There’s a few things I need to do, and I need to be at the Hard Rock for sound check at five. The show starts at eight, so make sure you’re all there on time. I have no opening act.”

  “We’ll be there with bells on, honey,” Marie assured her.

  Shell and Hannah broke off from the group and went back to the hotel while the rest of them continued on their tourist adventure.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  * * *

  “She’s amazing on stage, isn’t she?”

  Garrett smiled, not turning away from where he watched Hannah to answer his mom. “She is. I wish we could be the way she is on stage. Her crowd isn’t as angry as ours, if that makes sense. I know that has to do with the kind of music that we do, but it would be nice every once in a while if it wasn’t so hardcore.”

  “I can see where you’re coming from, but that is who you are. You’re passionate and you aren’t soft. Your voice is strong and your sound is loud and aggressive. It really wouldn’t be you,” Marie told him.

  “You’re so damn smart.” Garrett put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her to him. “You wanna take a picture, Momma?”

  “I would love to,” she beamed at him.

  He pulled his phone from his pocket and stuck his arm out, turning them around so that Hannah was in the background. He quickly took the picture, kissing his mom on the cheek, allowing her to hug him just a little bit longer than he normally did. “Love you, Mom.”