Above Rubies (Rockland Ranch)

by Jaclyn Hawkes

  ****

  When she and Joey walked in the next morning a few minutes before class time, he came over to her and looked at her and then asked Joey, “Is she doing any better today than she was last night?”

  Kit smiled self-consciously and Joey laughed and said, “Yes, she is.”

  He smiled. “Good, ‘cause she’s a wimpy martial artist when she bawls!” At that Kit came at him and actually kicked him pretty good before he rounded on her and threw her to the matt. Then he collapsed next to her to look her in the eye. “You look better. You okay?”

  “Yes, thanks to you. Thanks for walking with me. It really helped.”

  He stood up and pulled her to her feet. “You're welcome. Anytime.”

  The Karate class was turning out to be awesome and both Kit and Joey loved it. Matt had arranged to hold an extra class every weekday morning at eight and they both went almost every day. When Kit began working out on Monday and Thursday afternoons with him too, Joey started to tease her. Kit only smiled and said, “Rossen wants me to date, and I want to learn Karate. It’s a two birds with one stone thing. Plus, Matt's really fun.” Kit was getting good fast and Joey had to work to keep up with her.

  Her academic advisor had arranged for her to take a series of CLEP tests to effectively test out of classes. They staggered them so Kit wouldn’t be overwhelmed, and she started with a basic English class the next week out. Kit was surprised that it seemed simple to her. She’d expected it to be much more difficult.

  That Thursday morning, she left the Rocklands’ knowing she wouldn’t see them again for six days. Even though she was getting tougher about her goodbyes, that seemed like a long, long time.

  Chapter 14

  She and Joey boarded the plane with mixed emotions. It was the first time flying for Kit and Joey knew she was a little nervous about the whole thing, so she was trying to look out for her. At the same time, they were both excited to be on an adventure. When they arrived, Dr. Mitchell and his wife ushered them into a waiting limo and Joey laughed as Kit swallowed a huge lump in her throat. She was suddenly beginning to wonder just what she'd gotten them into.

  They stopped at their hotel and dropped their bags, then got back in the limo and went to meet whomever it was that they would be working with, for lunch. The car stopped in front of a trendy restaurant and the door was opened and they were led inside. Dr. Mitchell leaned over and apologized for the marked attention they received as they climbed out of the long limousine. “Try not to let it bother you. You’ll soon get used to it and it’s nice to always be picked up and dropped off.”

  By the time they were seated, Kit had decided she either had to quit worrying that she was going to do something socially incorrect, or she couldn’t even consider doing this again. She knew she wanted to try to play here, so she let the worry go and tried to remember that she was the same person here as at home.

  They were in a relatively private dining area and Dr. Mitchell took a phone call and then reported, “Nick's going to be late, so let’s go ahead and eat. If he doesn’t make it here, we’ll meet him at the studio.”

  They ordered and were served and it was a good thing Kit wasn’t terribly hungry. The portions were miniscule and even though they were colorful and unique, they weren’t very tempting. She forced herself to eat, wishing for Naomi‘s home cooking. She was losing weight fast at school and didn’t have a whole lot to spare.

  They were just finishing when Kit heard Joey say, “Holy Moly,” under her breath. Kit looked at her to see what was up and followed her eyes to see three men walking toward their table. The one in the lead was rock star Nick Sartori. Kit had played his song for Dr. Mitchell just a couple of weeks before. Kit didn’t recognize the next two, but they stopped as they walked by a table to talk to someone else who looked familiar. Nick spoke to him and gave him a handshake of sorts as they walked by. She was grateful she'd brought Joey as she thought to herself, He told me some of the biggest music stars in the business.

  Nick continued on to their table. As he looked from the Mitchells to Joey and Kit, he raised his eyebrows appreciatively. “Which one is the guitarist?” Dr. Mitchell indicated Kit, and Nick took her hand in both of his to shake it. “You said she was good. You didn’t say she was gorgeous.” He smiled at Kit as he released her hand and turned to Joey.

  “Please tell me you’re a musician, too.”

  Joey laughed as she deftly removed her hand from his. “The closest I come to being a musician is singing in the church choir when they're truly desperate.”

  He didn’t look like he believed her and said, “You’re her agent then?”

  “Actually, I’m a mechanic. Kit is my sister.”

  Nick looked Joey up and down, and then looked from her fair hair to Kit’s all but black hair. He chuckled. “A mechanic and her sister. Right.” He acted like she was making a joke and they both let it go, but neither of them smiled. He looked at them again. “You’re serious?”

  At that, they both laughed and Joey said, “I’m serious. Kit is sort of adopted.”

  “I see.” He looked somewhat skeptical as he pulled out a chair and sat down. He waved the waitress away and turned to Dr. Mitchell, surprisingly all business. “We‘re too late to eat. And we really need to get going. We’ll send out for something later.”

  On the way back out of the restaurant, he stopped at the table of the other man again, and Kit remembered where she’d seen him. He was Bryan Cole, a country music singer who had recently received an award for his music. Kit remembered Joey had been disappointed at the time because she thought his lyrics were crude and demeaning to women and marriage. She'd turned him off in disgust. Kit turned to look at Joey, who was watching it all with a bland look on her face, and wondered what she was thinking under that innocent façade.

  Nick was telling Bryan that they’d be recording for the next few days and concluded with, “We’ll be ready for you on Saturday. Be there about eight.”

  Bryan nodded, watching the girls as he did and said, “I’ll see you then.”

  Back in the limo on the way to the studio, Nick and Dr. Mitchell had an in-depth conversation about what they would be doing. As they drove, Kit quietly watched Nick. He was not what she would have expected from a rock star who specialized in loud, rowdy, hard rock. He was obviously a serious musician who appeared to be an astute businessman, too. Kit understood they were going to be working on songs he was recording personally, as well as a movie score and several commercials this week end.

  She studied Nick as they talked. He was dark and very good looking. Flashily dressed, he wore chains at his neck and a huge diamond stud in one ear. His hair was a tousled mess that must have taken hours to achieve with the help of a lot of hair product. Probably just over six feet, he had a distinctive air about him. He was confident almost to the point of cockiness, but not obnoxious. Kit was frankly floored by his level of diplomacy. The two other men were apparently members of his band and he handled everyone with an air of respect that she hadn’t anticipated. The tabloids and press had painted a spoiled and selfish image of most stars and Nick was a pleasant surprise.

  As she checked out this mega rock star, she couldn’t help but mentally compare him to the long legged, jean clad man back home who quietly did his engineering with her baby at his feet. Her mind was seven hundred miles away in Wyoming when she realized Nick was studying her as well. At first she wished she'd worn something fancier than her jeans and heeled boots with a cropped jean jacket, but then decided she'd worn just what she felt like that day and it was a good idea to be who she was, regardless of where she was. Nick must have thought so, too. His gaze held open appreciation.

  He took a phone call as they rode and it soon became apparent that whoever was calling had seen him with Kit and Joey and had called to ask him about them. He grinned at the girls as he talked openly about them to the person on the other end of the line. Whoever it was wanted to know about Joey, especially.

  Ending the cal
l, he smiled at them and said, “You’ve already turned heads in LA. We’ll have to guard you from the paparazzi! I’m getting calls about you and you’ve only been here an hour. He'll die if he ever finds out you were sitting right here.” He laughed out loud and it was an infectious sound.

  At the studio, Kit was surprised at the level of security they had to go through to get into the building. There was a cluster of people outside the main doors waiting to get a glimpse of whomever would be recording that day, and Kit and Joey were almost overwhelmed by the jostling they received when their group tried to walk through. Nick smiled at the fans as they pushed through with the help of two security guards, but the smile never quite reached his eyes. Cameras popping in her face left her nearly blind momentarily and Nick took her elbow and put up a protective arm as one of the others helped Joey get through the crush. When they were finally safely inside, they were greeted by yet another set of locked doors guarded by armed men. This time they were escorted through without the physical mobbing.

  As they emerged into the safety of the interior of the building, Nick apologized, “Sorry about that. We usually just drive into the underground parking, and no one can bother us inside the car, but they're doing some kind of maintenance on the concrete and we’re stuck going in the front doors for awhile. The press is having a good time with it.”

  Nick was still jovial, but it was obvious that the hassle had been frustrating and once inside, he wanted to get right to business. Dr. Mitchell settled Joey in a booth with a man named Ian who wore a headset and sat in front of ten thousand lighted buttons. Then he took Kit into the actual studio and fitted her with her own headset and electric guitar. They were off to one side and he quickly went through the music they were going to be playing that morning. Kit tried to just focus on the music and ignore her nerves.

  Shortly, the other musicians and a backup singer came in and got set up. There was Nick on the guitar, as well as Kit and Dr. Mitchell, and Mrs. Mitchell on keyboards. One of the two men who had come in with Nick was his drummer, Shane, and the other was a singer named Joss who played a number of instruments. Before the day was out he played six different things ranging from the mandolin to the alto sax. Shane was about half kooky, with a perpetual smile and enough energy for ten people. Kit liked him instantly and enjoyed his nutty enthusiasm as he mixed a passion for music with a screwball sense of humor. As they worked, it became apparent that he both tempered the work atmosphere and kept up the intensity at the same time.

  Joss was so mellow she almost wondered if he was on something, except there was no way he could have been drugged and so utterly with it musically, at the same time. Kit didn’t hear him make a mistake the whole day. He was a machine, just a very low key one.

  As they began Kit was sickeningly uptight, but within just a few minutes, as she became confident she could do everything they needed, she loosened up. She decided being a part of a band was much more fun than just playing alone. There was something about working together to create the music. The complexity and depth were immensely satisfying. The all-encompassing sound and the rhythm and passion of the musicians fed an emotion that was almost a physical high. She soon found herself immersed in the music and was dancing and playing along with Nick as they worked.

  She knew he’d been watching her. She would have expected nothing less from any boss. And when he came and stood beside her, she looked to him for suggestions and instruction just like the others did. Once in a while, if he got too close, she would back away from him, and a time or two she saw something in his eyes she wasn’t completely comfortable with. When that happened, she dropped her own eyes to focus on her instrument for a moment.

  They played consistently through three different songs, working until they were near perfect enough for Ian, the sound guy in the booth with Joey. It took a few times through, but Kit was surprised that they could polish a song in such an amazingly short time. Her respect for the musicians around her grew as the hours passed.

  They began to have trouble on the fourth song, but it was with the back-up singer, not the instrumentalists. Kit could sense that Nick and the others were frustrated with the woman, who became more and more put out as they asked her over and over to sing it the way they wanted. Kit couldn’t even read music, but she understood what they were asking long before the finicky vocalist. Finally, Nick raked his hand through his messy do and asked Kit quietly, “You don’t by any chance sing do you?”

  Kit glanced at the woman who was now glaring at her as she replied, “A little.”

  “Do you understand what we’re after here?” Kit wordlessly nodded her head. “Okay. Let’s try it with Kit singing and see if we can get past this. From the top. One, two, three, four.”

  Kit began to sing the part, her clear voice a perfect blend with Nick’s and Joss’s, and the piece came together on the very first run. Nick gave Joss a silent glance that held some meaning Kit didn’t understand, and spoke over his headset to Ian. The pouty backup singer snarled something unintelligible, glared at Kit and left, leaving Kit as slightly unsure of herself as she had been at first. Nick gave her a reassuring smile, struck a chord and they continued on as before. Kit didn’t figure out until that night when she and Joey had a chance to talk, that the singer had been sacked and sent home. And, it was a day or more later, before she understood that they intended to keep her singing if she would.

  They played until six-thirty California time, when they decided to call it a night. As they pushed through the crowd at the doors and climbed into the limo for the ride back to the hotel, Kit suddenly realized she was tired to the bone. The intensity of the work, coupled with her initial nerves, had worn her out and as she settled into the plush seat of the luxury car, she felt her weariness kick in.

  Nick and the guys asked them all if they wanted to go to dinner together, and then out to a club after. The four of them said yes to dinner, but declined the night on the town later. Kit was tired enough as they pushed through another bunch of cameras and fans to get into the restaurant, where they were rescued discreetly by the staff and led to an out of the way table, that she wished she would have declined dinner and gone back to the hotel hungry.

  Nick and Joey realized she was tired and kept the conversation going on around her at dinner without a lull, content to let her eat and watch in relative silence. She still had little appetite and struggled to eat even a minimal meal.

  Walking back out to the limo with both a superstar and his entourage of fans, Kit marveled at how far away this morning in Wyoming felt, and even how normal the crush of onlookers had become. This time as she was seated next to Nick in the limousine, the brush of his shoulder and thigh against hers didn’t even seem out of place. She'd come a long way in one day.

  Nick helped them out of the car himself at the hotel with a tired smile. “See you at eight.” His and Kit’s eyes held for a brief moment and then she turned to walk away into the revolving door. She made it to their room, showered, prayed, and talked to Joey for a few minutes before nodding off with thoughts of Rossen and Mimi in her head.

  ****

  A good night’s rest did wonders and the next day she was excited to get started when they arrived unscathed in the sound room of the studio. She soon understood they were going to work on the soundtrack of a movie for the day. She wasn’t even unduly concerned that Dr. Mitchell and his wife would be working in another part of the building, except for worrying about when she’d have to admit to Nick that she didn’t read music fast enough yet.

  She quietly got her headset on and made sure her guitar was tuned. When Nick came to her and discreetly went over what she would be playing that day, she realized Dr. Mitchell had talked to him about her needing to play the music through once. She looked into Nick’s eyes as he helped her and didn’t see impatience or frustration, so she grew to trust him even more. He was not what she would have expected of Nick Sartori at all.

  They got started playing right away and Kit was stunned to real
ize that although today’s music did include some rather intense rock music, the bulk of it was, in fact, beautiful, almost wistful instrumentals for the love scenes in the movie. Kit was just beginning to understand what was involved in studio music, and the fact that this group of rockers were also talented classical musicians, wasn’t all that surprising after all.

  As they played, Nick would come and talk to her, helping her to understand what they were working toward. He ended up standing behind her left shoulder for most of the morning. They each slipped one ear of their headsets off, and as often as not, it was Nick’s low voice she heard in her ear instead of Ian’s, helping her to blend smoothly into the mix. She'd come to know Ian called a lot of the shots, but Nick didn’t hesitate to overrule him if he thought differently about what sound he was after.

  Sometimes when Nick watched her, there was an almost tender look in his eyes that made her glad she had her back to him most of the time. It was something of the same thing she saw in Rossen’s eyes at times, and it could be disconcerting. When she noticed it more toward lunch, she passed it off as the talented body language of a man used to millions of women being attracted to him. She was sure a guy in his position had a girl in every port, so to speak, and she figured his interest was simply a matter of habit and didn’t really give it another moment’s thought.

  As they played and sang from one song to the next, Kit wondered if they were progressing faster or slower than usual with her help. She was encouraged that they all seemed to be pleased with the headway they were making.

  When noon rolled around, they ordered in lunch and sat around the lobby eating and laughing with Joey blending in like just another one of the guys. They really didn’t believe she was a mechanic until mid-afternoon when one of their complicated machines went on the fritz. The technicians had no idea what was going on and had resorted to calling in a repair man, which was completely throwing off the schedules of both humans and the studio.