Blood of the Rainbow

by Shelia Chapman

  That night when he made love to her in their bedroom for the first time, he left her breathless and with no doubts in her mind. God, I’ve never felt so alive in my life! What could possibly go wrong? As they were just about to walk in the coliseum, Sara found out. Only one person could ruin her happy disposition.

  Chapter 19

  Sara’s cell vibrated. She glanced at the name on the display, sighed deeply, and accepted the call. She spoke softly in hopes they wouldn’t hear. “Hi Mom.”

  Kaye was fuming. “Oh, so you finally decide to come home. What is it with you Sara? You run off with this stranger to Arizona - of all places. You don’t call. All Lucy would tell me was that you’d gone with Jared - whoever the hell he is - to see his sick grandfather, and that’s the last I hear until now. I’ve tried to call you at least ten times since Lucy said you’d left. What did you do – turn off your damn cell?”

  “Mom, calm down. I’m fine. Jared wouldn’t do anything to hurt me,” Sara managed to get in edgewise.

  “Maybe he would – maybe he wouldn’t. You’ve not known him long enough to be able to answer that truthfully Sara. I don’t understand you. I didn’t raise you to sleep with the first man that gave you the eye.”

  “Mother! I love Jared!”

  “Of course, you do,” Kaye retorted sarcastically.

  Sara was getting furious. Jared walked beside Sara. “Is that your mother?” Sara nodded. He reached out. “Give me the cell – let me talk to her.”

  At that point, Sara didn’t think she had anything to lose. Kaye wasn’t going to accept Jared anyway, so there was no real reason for them to get along. Jared pressed the mute button. “What’s her name?”

  “Katherine. But she goes by Kaye.”

  Jared took a deep breath and smiled. “Hello Kaye. This is Jared Thundercloud. I’m the one that’s been stealing your daughter’s time.”

  Sara imagined her mother ranting on to him.

  “No Ma’am, Sara and I haven’t known each other long. Yes.... I agree…. You’re right, Sara is very young, but I can assure you,” he said, looking directly into Sara’s eyes. “Sara knows exactly what she wants.” Jared listened a few minutes. “Yes, Ma’am, my intentions toward your daughter are nothing but honorable. I take her reputation very seriously. I’d like to meet you and Mr. Foster. Would it be possible for me to bring Sara down for a visit?”

  Oh God, No Jared! Sara started waving her hands and shaking her head.

  Jared smiled and ignored her. “Well, we have the gig for this Saturday. Yes Ma’am, were playing at the HMC…. The Louisiana Hayride Reunion. Yes, she is. Sara is our lead female vocalist. You and Mr. Foster should come up and listen to her sing. She has the voice of an angel.”

  “Yes Ma’am, I’m sure you’re aware of how your daughter sings, which is why I think it would do her good if you came out and supported her. She’s a little nervous about getting up in front of all those people.”

  Sara’s stomach started making buttermilk. She couldn’t take Kaye’s negative attitude.

  Jared grinned at Sara. He could tell she was getting worried. “Why don’t you and Mr. Foster come and stay at my house? I’ll have my cook prepare a meal. I’ll take care of your tickets and transportation to and from the coliseum. That’s right. You don’t have to pay for anything. I’ll even arrange it, so you and Mr. Foster are given backstage passes.”

  Sara was close to tears. She knew, if anyone could ruin this for her, it was Kaye. She would build up Jared’s confidence. Make him think she was an ally, and then fill his head with her thoughts. He would be telling Sara goodbye after five minutes, if her parents came to the performance.

  Jared smiled. “There’s no reason for you to stay at a hotel. Wisteria Hall – yes Mrs. Foster – that’s the name of my home. You and your husband are welcome to stay with me. I have more than enough room.”

  Jared listened a few seconds. “No Mrs. Foster, it’s not that hard to find. Shall I text the directions to your cell? Great, if you’ll just hang on – there, sent. I’m looking forward to meeting you too. Would you like to speak to Sara again? All right, hold on just a second.” He passed Sara her cell.

  Jared smiled innocently, proud of his accomplishments. Sara wanted to strangle him.

  “Hi Mom, it’s me…” Sara was prepared to be yelled at again. Surprisingly, Kaye’s voice was softer.

  “Why didn’t you say you’d be singing in public?”

  “Mom, you don’t normally want to hear anything about my music. I didn’t think you would consider coming.”

  “Sometimes, I think you exclude us deliberately to hurt us because we’re so strict on you.”

  Sara was shocked. Here, was her mother, Kaye, of all people admitting to Sara that she had been too strict on her! Sara could hardly speak. “No, Mom, I honestly wasn’t doing it to hurt you.”

  “Then, you’re all right with us being there – at your performance?”

  Sara was dumbfounded. “Well, yeah, sure,” she said, her tone a little more relaxed and brighter. “Of course I’d love to have you there.” She glanced at Jared.

  “Ok, then, tell your boyfriend, I’ve given the directions to your dad, and I guess we’ll see you at the gig,” Kaye emphasized the word, ‘boyfriend’. “Take care of yourself Sara. We love you,” she said, fighting tears.

  “I love you too Mom.” Sara ended the call. She furrowed her brow and turned. “Jared, what in the hell did you do to my mother?”

  Jared looked innocent. He grinned. “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve just spent about ten minutes on the phone with my mother. You’ve convinced her and Dad to come to the gig and stay with us! Are your eyes the only special things about you?”

  Jared smiled and wrapped his arm around Sara’s waist, guiding her. “Let’s get inside, and get this over with.” Sara frowned and sighed deeply. Jared had said all he was going to say on the matter.

  ------------

  They all walked into the coliseum. Sara still hadn’t convinced all her butterflies to go away, but at least they weren’t all in full flight. While she and Jared walked up to the booth and let management know they were there and ready to rehearse, the rest of ‘Raging Storm’ sat in the waiting area.

  A heavily made-up blonde, with shoulder length hair, dressed in business clothes and carrying a clipboard, quickly took their names and passed out ID tags. She also gave them some bottles of cold water. She introduced herself as Andrea. She said she’d been assigned to ‘Raging Storm’, and would ensure they got everything they needed.

  Andrea told them, while they were in the building; they would need to wear their ID tags at all times. The tags were their ticket to getting back inside the building, if they needed to go out for something to eat, or to their cars. Then Andrea asked them to take a seat with the others. She said she would come get them when it was their turn.

  Jared passed out their ID tags. Sara was so nervous she couldn’t sit still. Jared finally sat her on his lap, and wrapped his arms around her to try and calm her down. It helped a little, but she was still upset.

  Somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes later, Andrea came back and escorted them to the stage.

  Jared and the band all took their places on stage, and after they’d gone through several sound checks, they turned on the overhead spotlights and adjusted them, keeping a record of their settings to be used the night of the gig. Sara was thankful for the light. It practically blinded her and prevented her from seeing how vast the coliseum was. Sara didn’t like to think of all the empty seats that would be filled during the show.

  Jared turned to Sara and smiled. Then he turned to the rest of the band and counted off the lead-in to their first number. They would be opening with an instrumental he, and Lucy had written. After that, the band went straight into Jared and Sara’s duet numbers.

  Steve kept glancing at Lucy. After the news about Jared and Sara’s engagement last night, he could see Lucy was barely holding it together. Lucy
somehow believed, as long as Jared was obsessed with this ‘dreamgirl’, she still stood a chance with him. If things didn’t change – and they didn’t look as if they would be – her niece had turned out to be that ‘dreamgirl’. Now Lucy had two choices. Either be happy for Sara and keep her mouth shut, or finally, tell Jared how she’d felt about him, before it was too late. As far as Steve could tell… it was already too late.

  When Sara was singing with Jared, she was less stressed. Their voices blended as if they’d been singing together for years, instead of weeks.

  Jared seemed satisfied with their audition. Sara was also, but it was hard to see how the people in the control room were receiving it.

  Then it was time for Sara to sing solo. She took a couple sips from her bottled water to moisten her dry throat. Her mouth felt as though it had been filled with half the desert she’d left behind in Arizona. She swallowed hard, silently cleared her throat, and waited for the band to play through her intro.

  Sara closed her eyes, trying to put herself in the right frame of mind. She imagined the beautiful scenery Jared had shown her from Mother’s Mountain, back in Arizona. To her surprise, she started singing on cue and in the right key too. Sara was mentally giving herself a pat on the back when Andrea signaled for them to stop playing. Sara’s heart jumped in her throat. What did I do wrong?

  Andrea stepped in front of them and looked toward the control room. She said something through her headset, and nodded as she walked next to Sara. “You’re doing great Sara, but you need to relax Honey. Could you start her number over?”

  Jared nodded and walked closer to Sara. She was near tears. “Oh God Jared! I’m screwing things up. You should just do this without me. I should never have agreed to this.”

  While the intro was being played again, Jared leaned close to her ear. “Ayor anosh'ni Sara. Now stop!” he whispered. “You can do this. Now sing for me Angel. Just for me,” he breathed against Sara’s neck as he kissed it. Jared walked back to his place.

  That was all Sara needed. The sound of Jared’s soothing voice, and the touch of his lips on her skin zapped every nerve in her body. From that moment on, instead of concentrating on her fear, Sara concentrated on not letting Jared and the rest of the band down. They finished their songs without a hitch.

  Andrea stepped back in line with the control booth, said something else through her headset, and nodded again. She walked over to Sara. Sara’s eyes widened. Now what?

  “Honey, they want you to do your numbers again. You did great, but they want to add some reverb to your microphone. Jared, Sweetheart,” she said, gently moving Jared into place. “They want you to move closer to Sara – right about there. And you,” she said to Lucy, “They want you to move, just a little further to Sara’s left,” she said, gently guiding her. “There… that should do it. Now, let’s try it again. And Sara, this time Sweetheart, put your all in it – let go.” She smiled at Sara and stepped aside.

  Jared gave Sara a reassuring wink, and they went through the numbers again. The people in the control room were satisfied this time. Andrea walked back in front of the band. “That was brilliant,” she said in her mixed American-British accent. “Now, what comes next is the photo shoot. Do you have costumes sorted out?”

  Jared glanced at Sara and then back at Andrea. “We really haven’t had time. Sara and I have been out of town for a few days. My Granddad, down in Arizona passed away suddenly.”

  Andrea’s voice was sympathetic, but still professional. “Oh, I see... Well, if I might make a suggestion. We have some things in the back you could use, or we could give you a day or so to try and get something together yourself. It’s just that, we need to do the poster shoot. It’s better if you’re wearing the same clothes you’re going to perform in. It also gives us a chance to make sure we’ve got the right lighting for the media cameras.”

  Jared quickly glanced at Sara, whose face was already starting to pale.

  Andrea glanced from Jared to Sara, obviously sensing Sara’s discomfort. “I could put the shoot off for a couple of hours. That would give you time to shop, or like I said, you could see if there is anything you can use in the back. You’ll need some separate clothes for the solo’s and maybe the duets too. You and Sara will need to kind of coordinate, if you know what I mean,” she said, waving her hands around.

  Jared nodded. “Yeah, sure. I guess we can have a look at what you’ve got, since we’re already here.”

  Andrea smiled. “Of course, if you can’t find anything, we’ll give you a couple of hours to do some shopping, and then you can come back, and we’ll do the shoot then,” she said in an enthusiastic business-like tone.

  Jared and the band followed Andrea to the back to the costume room. There were racks of some of the most unusual clothes Sara had ever seen. Some that looked as if they could have come straight out of the thirties and some, that looked like Elvis might have worn them at one time.

  Sara scanned through the costumes, and tried on five or six evening gowns, but she honestly didn’t like them, and neither did Jared. Andrea picked out something for Jared, and he flat out refused to wear it. It seemed they weren’t getting anywhere, so Jared decided it was time to go shopping. He told Andrea they would be back in a couple of hours.

  Sara sighed, exasperated. “If Andrea is going to be our fashion designer, I’d rather wear a brown paper bag over my head, than walk out on stage in some of the things she picked out for me!”

  Jared laughed as they walked to his BMW. “I think to keep from laughing in Andrea’s face; we were all chewing on our tongues.”

  Sara watched Lucy and Steve get in the car together. “Steve and Carl aren’t riding together?”

  Jared glanced across at Lucy’s car. “I guess not. Maybe Steve and Carl had another disagreement. Steve did seem a little uptight for some reason. Maybe it’s just Lucy. She seemed a little nervous herself….”

  Sara chuckled. “I didn’t know Luce got nervous.”

  Jared sighed as he started the car, and backed out of his parking space. “She doesn’t… usually. Anyway, let’s grab a quick lunch and get some decent clothes. There’s no way we’re going on stage, looking like a bunch of Elton John rejects.” Jared pulled on the main highway. Steve and Lucy pulled in behind them, and Carl and the rest of the band members behind them. They all headed for Ryan’s Steakhouse.

  When they got to the restaurant, Lucy and Steve sat at a table away from the others. Sara went to the buffet bar. Jared glanced across at Steve and Lucy. “Did something happen between those two while I was gone?”

  Carl turned and glanced over his shoulder. He shrugged. “Jared, he’s my brother. That doesn’t mean I know every move he makes. He and Lucy have been close for a while. Your guess is as good as mine. Does it bother you?”

  Jared scoffed and concentrated on his steak. “No – it doesn’t bother me. It’s just a little odd – that’s all. They didn’t seem any different… until….”

  Carl leaned forward, his interest piqued. “Until what…?”

  Jared shook his head. “Never mind. I was just curious.”

  ------------

  Sara and Jared were laughing and carrying on with Carl. Lucy was watching. A look of despair and longing on her face. She almost seemed as though she was in a trance.

  Steve sighed. “Ok, Luce – out with it.”

  Lucy jumped. “Out with what?”

  “Luce, it’s me – I’ve seen that look before. You think I don’t know how you feel about Jared?”

  “We’re good friends Steve – you know that. I’m… concerned that he might be rushing Sara. I’m afraid he thinks she’s his ‘dreamgirl’. He could be marrying Sara for all the wrong reasons.”

  Steve rolled his eyes. “Luce, why don’t you just admit it? You’re still in love with him.”

  Lucy furrowed her brow. “I most certainly am not! Jared made it quite plain he’s not interested in me. We both decided….”

  “No Lucy – Jared decided th
at.” He laid his hand on hers. “It wasn’t your decision. You can’t kid me. You’ve been feeding this hole in my face for a long time. We’ve had some pretty heavy sessions about you and Jared. Despite how I might – what I mean is - you just need to deal with it. Otherwise, you’re eventually going to feel bitter toward Sara. Love can do some strange things Luce. You might not want to feel this way, but the hurt is there. I can see it.”

  “Jared is engaged to Sara! He loves her, and I know Sara loves him.”

  “Then why are you worried that Jared is pushing her. Carl and I met them in Dallas. It didn’t look to me like Jared was the one doing the pushing.”

  “I know. That’s another thing. Jared gives out mixed signals. I just hope that’s not what he’s doing with Sara. If he decides Sara isn’t this ‘dreamgirl’ he’s so obsessed with….”

  “He’s put a ring on her finger. That seems pretty obvious to me.”

  “It’s not the first time Steve. What about Eve?”

  Steve drew in a deep sigh. God Lucy! Stop creating excuses to hang on to this thing with Jared. Let it go and see what’s in front of you! “Lucy… you know that’s not what’s happening here. Look, you need more time, and we don’t have a lot of time to discuss this right now. Why don’t we go for a drive - when this is over? I don’t like seeing you this way, and right now, it’s not good for the band or Sara. She’s as nervous as a republican in a room full of democrats. There for a while, I thought she was going to lose it. If it hadn’t been for Jared, I think she might have.”

  Lucy sighed. “I know. I wonder what happened. She seemed fine last night.”

  “Who knows… will you do it?”

  Lucy studied his eyes. Finally, she smiled. “Sure.”

  Steve’s eyes lit. He squeezed Lucy’s hand. “Good - It’s a date then. I mean – well anyway. Do you want to change first?”

  Lucy looked at Steve’s hand and slowly drew hers away. “I think I’ll change first.”

  Steve sighed and laid his hand on his knee. “I’ll pick you up at….”