Above Rubies (Rockland Ranch)

by Jaclyn Hawkes

  She shook her head again with a wry smile. “Never.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  He was shaking his head and mumbling to himself. Finally he said, “Well Kit, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

  “A mom. And a sculptor. Why?”

  He smiled and shook his head some more. “Guitar isn’t your burning passion?”

  She had no idea what was going on. “Well, I love to play, and even sing, but I wouldn’t call it a passion.”

  At that, he asked, “How are you paying for school? Do you mind if I ask?”

  “I got some scholarships. Why are you asking me all this?”

  He acted like he wasn’t sure what to say to her. “I guess I’m asking because I’m curious. You know every couple of years I get a student through here who’s really good. A natural. A prodigy if you will, but I’ve never seen anything like you.” He was shaking his head again. “Well, you’re taking my class; I assume you want to learn to read music, right?”

  “Yes, very much.”

  “I guess I don’t have to ask if you’re a quick study. Let me show you something.” He went to a marker board and talked to her for a minute about the base and treble clefs and timing and different notes. Then he walked into his office and came out with a book. “This is the guitar basics book my level one class will be using. The first section is devoted to reading music and how notes correspond to the guitar. I’ll give you this one in the interest of time because the book store is already closed for the day. You can pay me later. Are you driving or did you walk or ride the bus?”

  He'd seemed normal through most of the class, but now she was beginning to wonder. “I drove. My car is in the student lot out back.”

  “Perfect, because I want you to take this electric guitar and amp home with you tonight. Bring it back to class with you tomorrow; you can pull right up to this back door tonight and again tomorrow to unload it. If you get a ticket, I’ll take care of it. Take it home, fiddle around with it and we’ll talk again tomorrow. You can tell me what you think. Oh, here, you’d better take these.” He handed her a set of head phones. “They’ll keep the early birds happy. You plug them into the amp. Just leave your guitar in my office and I‘ll lock it up. It‘s a beautiful guitar by the way, one of the top makes. Where did you get it?”

  “It was a gift."

  He smiled down at her kindly. “The guitar is nice, but your talent is the gift. It’s a shame it isn’t your passion.”

  She pulled her car around and he helped her load in and she went to their apartment. She was tired, but she felt like her first day of college had gone well overall.

  Joey and Treyne met her at the door as she struggled in with her pack and the new guitar. Treyne asked, “What in the world are you doing, girl? What’s with the new guitar?” He took it in and immediately plugged it in and began to mess around with it.

  Joey told him to quit. “You’re hurting my brain and today's the first day. I can’t spare any.”

  Kit got out the headphones and handed them to him and said, “Don‘t break anything,” as she wandered to the kitchen in search of food.

  She was starting to eat an apple when Joey grabbed it. “No! We’re going to a ward Family Home Evening dinner in ten minutes. Didn’t you read the flyer on the door?”

  Kit had no idea what a ward Family Home Evening group was and she wasn’t sure she was up to it, anyway. She was tired and she missed Mimi terribly. Just thinking of her made her milk start to let down and Joey grabbed a dish towel with an “Oh my,” that sounded identical to Naomi. Kit went to change her shirt, telling herself it would get easier with time.

  Their Family Home Evening group was fun and several of them came home with them. As soon as Kit came in, she went into her and Joey’s room with her books and the new guitar and shut the door. She put on the head phones and plugged the guitar in to experiment with it like she’d been told. It was actually a blast and within a half hour or so she'd figured out how to make a lot of the sounds she heard on the radio. The wailing guitar in her ears helped to keep her mind off of home for a while, but eventually she wasn’t in the mood and sat at her desk to see if studying would occupy her head. She had the Spanish down and was working on reading her music when there was a knock on her door.

  It was one of the guys from their group. “Hey, Kit. We’re just heading out. I was wondering if you have plans for Friday night. There’s a pep rally and hello dance and I was hoping you’d come with me.”

  She smiled up at him. “I would love to, Nate, if I were going to be here, but I’m planning to go home after my last afternoon class that day. But ask me again, okay?”

  He gave her a disappointed, “Sure,” and left and she went back in and got ready for bed.

  When Joey came in an hour later, Kit was asleep, but there were still tears on her eyelashes and every once in awhile, she breathed with a little sob.

  Day two was a lot like day one except it seemed to drag along because she was so focused on being able to leave to go home after her last class. She and Ethan sat together again in Spanish and in Karate she got up the nerve to yell when she attempted to kick Joey. By the end of class she'd begun to wonder if she and Joey weren’t getting the lion's share of Matt‘s attention. It was turning out to be a fun class. Art was interesting. The professor had them listen to a short lecture before letting them get started on an animal of their choice. Kit chose a dragon and was satisfied that she was finished and set it to dry in less than an hour.

  She was in her guitar classroom forty-five minutes early and was quietly studying when Dr. Mitchell came in and asked her how she’d done with the new guitar. She picked it up to show him the licks she’d figured out and he nodded his approval. “How about understanding reading music?”

  Kit shrugged. “I understand the concepts, but I’m sure it takes a while to be able to see the music and have your brain tell your fingers at the same time. I can hardly imagine playing as fast as you played yesterday from a sheet of music.”

  He answered, “It’ll all come in time.” He changed the subject. “How many credits are you carrying this semester?”

  “Twenty one, why?”

  His answer was animated, “Unlike you, guitar is my passion!” His eyes lit up. “I like to play it, I like to teach it, and more than anything I like to play with others to whom it's a passion too. Once or twice a month I fly out to LA to sit in as a studio musician. The planes and the city are a hassle, but the music and the money are great! I get to play with some of the most talented musicians in the country and they pay me seventeen hundred bucks a day.”

  Kit’s eyes grew wide. “No way!”

  “I was hoping you'd perk up when I said that. You see, they need me about three times more than I want to go. I have my family here, and although it’s fun and exciting, it’s too much with my work at the university too. Now, rarely would I ever recommend a student. In fact, you’re the first I’ve ever even approached, but with your ability to pick things up so fast, you would be very good at this. They need someone who can pick up music quickly so they can record as fast as possible. They record just regular albums of their own and sit in on others’, and also do things like movie scores and commercials and stuff like that.”

  She was puzzled. “But I don’t even read music.”

  “That’s true. And eventually you’ll have to learn. But I have no doubt you’ll have it down in no time. In the interim, if you think you could make it out there, either I'll play it through quickly for you or I’ll find someone else to. Sometimes they’ll even email the scores out so we can get a look at them beforehand. That way, even if you had to take your time learning it, you would have it memorized when we got there.“

  It was a wild idea. For just a moment or two she wondered if her professor was interested in more than guitar music, but then he continued, “Think about it. The next time I’ll be going is over Labor Day weekend. My wife almost always comes with me. She’s
a pianist and backup singer. We’ll fly out that Thursday and be back Monday night in time to teach Tuesday. Think about it. If you're nervous about it, bring a friend to check it out. At the least you could say no, but it might be a really fun, part time way to make some good college money. I was telling one of the main guys I work for about you last night and he’s willing to bring you in and give you a try.”

  The fact that his wife would be there was reassuring to her. The thought of time away from her family, she was forcing herself to think of them as that, rather than Mimi and Rossen, would be a struggle. But if she only did it a couple of times a month and it would help her support herself even after she stopped her guitar class, it might be a good thing. Maybe they could even come with sometimes.

  “Can I think about it for a day or two, or do you need to know right now?”

  He waved a hand at her. “Take your time to think about it. I can let them know any time before I leave.”

  Her mind was buzzing during the whole class and when she got back to the apartment she was disappointed that Joey wasn’t there. She’d decided she’d go home and talk to Rossen and if he thought it was okay, she’d see if Joey would go with her to check it out. She threw a few things into her car, left a note and headed out. She sang along to the radio as she drove, wishing that home wasn’t so far away.

  Chapter 13

  When she pulled in, she couldn’t believe how good it felt to come home. She knew she’d only been gone two days, but it felt much longer. She went inside and looked around for everybody. She didn’t see Naomi or Rob or Sean, but she found Rossen working in his office with Mimi laying on a blanket at his feet, happily playing with the toys hanging from a mobile he'd set up over her.

  She walked in and hugged him without even hesitating, then picked up the baby at his feet. Her milk immediately began to stream and she was embarrassed, but she hardly even cared. She knew he'd understand. She took Mimi into the other room, hoping she’d be hungry when they got there. She was settled with her nursing, when he came in a moment later, a tentative smile on his face.

  “To what do we owe this surprise visit? I thought you wouldn’t be home until Saturday.” He leaned against the nearby counter as he spoke.

  She wasn’t sure how much to tell him. She didn’t think she should come right out and say that she planned to come home every Tuesday night if she could. She just smiled and answered, “It’s been a little harder to quit nursing cold turkey than I thought. I should have listened to your mom and stopped as soon as I knew I was going to be leaving her here. And I only have one Spanish class on Wednesday. I was hoping you could help me brush up on my els and ellas while I’m here.”

  They talked for an hour, still sitting there. Mimi was long since fed and burped and fed and had fallen asleep against Kit's shoulder. She felt like heaven there. Kit told him all about her classes and being moved up in art and about the proposal to go to LA. She asked him what he thought and he said go for it, and that taking Joey was probably a great idea and she’d love it. She didn’t want to hurt feelings, but she wanted him to know she was honestly trying so she told him about Ethan in her class who she was going out with the next day, and how Nate had asked her except she’d already be on her way home.

  Rossen put out his hand to interrupt her. “Whoa, right there. You’re planning to come home the first Friday of the year, even when you’ve been asked out? Kit, this first week or two of the year is when they do all kinds of fun stuff to help everybody get to know each other. You need to be there to enjoy it.”

  She looked at him, floored. “No way, buddy! You think I can just leave and stay away? I would never have agreed to that, and you know it. The deal was I could come home when I needed to. I accepted one date and took a rain check on the second one. What more do you want me to do?”

  “I want you to stay there Friday night and go to the pep rally and the dance, and come home early Saturday morning. That way you can do both.”

  She was disgusted. “You’re changing the deal mid-game. And why do I have to date regularly, when you aren’t even trying to get out? If I have to, you have to.”

  Rossen looked at her in surprise. He should have stopped when he was ahead. She was right and she knew it, much as she hated to encourage he see other girls. He probably ought to be moving on as well. He sighed. “Okay, okay. Fair’s fair. I’ll go out.”

  She looked him in the eye “Thursday and Friday?” She was feeling pretty seriously defiant.

  “Kit!”

  She shook her head. “Nope! Fair’s fair.”

  Naomi and Rob were just coming in from the garage during this last exchange. They stopped dead still listening and when Kit demanded that Rossen date too, they gave each other a silent high five and Rob whispered, “Serves him right, big bully.” They pretended to come in again and made a lot of noise, so Rossen and Kit wouldn’t know they’d been overheard.

  This time when Kit left, it wasn’t quite as bad as the first time. She was concerned about being on time to class so she had to just leave and she didn’t want to look like she’d been crying for two hours, so she tried not to.

  She called Joey to see if she knew Nate’s phone number so she could attempt to fix her Friday night plans. He hadn’t asked someone else yet and she was glad she called. If he’d seen her there he would have thought she’d lied.

  When she talked to Joey, she asked about going to LA and Joey was stoked, so they arranged to miss that week's Thursday’s classes and made plane reservations. Dr. Mitchell was thrilled and insisted they stay at the same hotel as he and his wife and even said he’d get his musician friends to pay for it.

  Saturday morning Kit, Joey, and Treyne, all three, came home for Cooper’s talk in church the next day and they had a mob of family and friends over to the house to eat Sunday afternoon. Kit was still concerned about gossip and she put Mimi in her pack and took her for a walk around the ranch. They ended up at the pond where Kit let her play in a few inches of water at the pond's edge and Mimi thought it was great. She’d splash and then startle when the water hit her in the face and it made Kit laugh.

  ****

  Rossen found them there, late in the afternoon. He watched them for a few minutes as he skipped rocks. He knew why she was out here and it frustrated him to death. It wasn’t fair for her to feel like she had to fade into the woodwork around their neighbors and friends, but she felt like she should. And the sad truth of the matter was that there probably were those out there who did talk, even though Kit and the baby, and even he were not at fault. Slade and Isabel came around the pond holding hands and even that frustrated him. What would he have given to be able to take Kit’s hand, instead of having to watch from a distance and be only a friend?

  At length she came over to him and said, “So I told you how my dates went. How were yours?”

  That’s probably why he was so irritable. He'd been miserable both nights. And to make matters worse, both of the girls he'd taken had texted him several times. At least they'd had a good time.

  To Kit he said, “They were fine.” She laughed at him and he knew she was reading him like a book again.

  Kit had to leave on Sunday evening with the others this time. They'd all come in the same car and Treyne had an early Monday morning class, so she had no choice. When she kissed Mimi Star goodbye in his arms again, he knew it was far too hard. When Treyne turned on the radio as they got in, Rossen knew Kit turned her head to the window to cry.

  ****

  On Wednesday morning the college bunch drove to Salt Lake where they met the rest of the family and drove to Provo to take Cooper to the MTC. When they returned and split up again, Kit had never felt so lonely in her life. Cooper gone for two years, on top of being away from her baby and home, seemed like more than she could stand. When they pulled into their house in Logan, Treyne asked, “Kit, are you gonna be okay?” She nodded and he added, “Maybe you should just do this for one semester. You don’t seem very happy.”

  Sh
e hugged him as she went past him up the steps. “I have to do this, Treyne. Otherwise Rossen will feel like I missed a whole season of my life and he’ll never forgive himself. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in a way, but it’s something I have to do. But you’re right. I’m a one semester flash in the pan. Just don’t tell him that. I don’t want to argue about it until I have to.” She gave him a watery smile and went in and picked up her guitar.

  Later that night when Matt came by and asked if she wanted to go workout, she went with him gladly. She worked until her breath was coming in gasps and Matt finally took her hand and led her outside. He walked beside her for more than half an hour before he finally asked, “You ever gonna tell me what’s wrong, or am I just going to have to keep trying to come up with ideas on my own.?”

  She started to cry and he turned and pulled her into a hug. She finally admitted that she was homesick and told him part of the story. She told him about Cooper leaving and how much she'd come to love him as a younger brother. She told him about Mimi and the Rocklands and that she didn’t really feel strongly about college, but felt she needed to be here for a while to put the missing this season thing to rest.

  He took her hand and started walking again. Eventually, he asked, “Does he know you love him?”

  She turned to look at him in the dark. “Who?”

  “Whoever it is who has your heart in Wyoming. Have you ever told him?”

  Kit sniffled. “I‘m sure he knows. It’s just something we can’t talk about because I’m only eighteen.”

  They walked for a while longer and when he took her back to her door, he hugged her again and whispered into her hair, “It’s all going to be okay, Kit. You’re a strong woman and you can do whatever it takes. I know that about you.” He kissed the top of her head. “See you in the morning.”