“Tonight they’re in Albuquerque, and then Tucson, and Friday Phoenix and then over into California Saturday. San Diego I believe. I was thinking of flying into either Phoenix or San Diego. There are tons of cheap flights and I’m not supposed to be on call. Even if we don’t know where their rooms are, which honestly I’m fine with. I’d just as soon they not know we’re doing this. Unless we find something ugly, I’d rather keep it all under the radar. Even without knowing where their rooms are, maybe we could try to get close enough to them to get a feel for how he is.”
Kate smiled. “You are so much wiser than I was. I was only going to talk to Jason, I didn’t realize at the time that I needed to investigate like this. As much as that night has hurt for so long, and even after it all, I’m so glad I found out what I did, when I did. Figure out when you want to go for sure and I’ll make arrangements for flights and hotels and for Kennen. This might actually turn out to be a really fun girl’s road trip.”
With a sigh, Jennika replied, “I hope so, Kate. I’ve never known anyone like Cody. I really want this to work out.”
“There’s definitely not anyone like Cody on the planet. Hope for the best. Hope and pray for the best. God has a way of helping everything to work out in the end.”
Chapter 26
Kate couldn’t believe how much nicer it was to fly across the country with a friend. It made a world of difference in both the stress level and her being able to actually enjoy this. And Jennika was fast becoming a good friend. She was the perfect combination of competence and entertainment. She had a hilarious off the cuff sense of humor that left Kate knowing just why Cody enjoyed her.
After thinking about it for a couple of days, Kate wondered if the band still stayed in the same hotels they had preferred a couple of years ago. If they did, she could probably guess which hotel they would use, and maybe even where they would eat at around three o’clock in the afternoon before the night’s concert.
At a few minutes before two, she checked Jennika and herself into the Phoenix Marriot and forty minutes later, they were discretely sitting in the hot tub where they had a narrow view of the front lobby through the wall of windows of the pool house. If she was correct and this was the right hotel, the guys would probably be leaving the hotel shortly to go have a late lunch and she and Jennika would be able to see them.
She was beginning to wonder if this had been such a good idea after all because of the way her heart was pounding as they waited there. The tightly wound posture of Jennika made her aware that Jennika was thinking the same thing. Being caught here probably wouldn’t be a good thing.
The band must have replaced a couple of their guys, because at first Kate didn’t recognize the laughing group of young men who exited an elevator and started across the lobby. When she finally recognized one of the roadies, she immediately looked back at the elevators to see if there was another one coming down behind that one. It could be a completely wrong assumption, but there was a possibility they’d even be able to figure out what floor the band was on if more of them walked off the other elevator just now descending from the sixth floor.
When Jason and Cody and a couple of others did indeed step out, both she and Jennika began to hold their breath. One of the men with them was dressed in swim trunks and had a towel draped around his neck. He peeled off from the rest of the group and reached for the pool house door and almost simultaneously, Kate and Jennika slid further down in the water of the hot tub and Jennika turned her back on the lobby in front of Kate’s unmistakable dark curls.
Kate whispered, “Do you know him?”
“No.” Jennika shook her head and Kate’s mind raced to figure out a way to slip away without this man seeing them closely enough to be able to recognize them later. Without even consulting each other, when he dove into the pool and began to swim across, they both got up and hustled out of the closest door without even picking up their cover ups and towels. They arrived back at their rooms five minutes later, thoroughly chilled from not drying off before rushing through the air conditioned halls in just their dripping suits.
Once inside, Kate leaned against the back of the door and started to giggle, while Jennika went straight for a hot shower with a laugh of her own. Man, they were pathetic. They’d done exactly what they’d set out to do and had almost given themselves a coronary in the process. At least there hadn’t been a sign of a lovesick groupie with Cody or Jason on their way to lunch.
While Jennika tried to avoid hypothermia in the shower, Kate had another brainstorm and arranged for another room on the sixth floor, just off of the elevator. Maybe she and Jennika could leave the door of that room cracked tonight and see if anyone accompanied Cody back here after the concert. When Jennika emerged from the shower, they hurried to move their things before any of the band got back and then spent a nervous half hour laughing at themselves for their less than graceful sleuthing.
They put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door handle, but then left the door itself ajar so they could hear better what was going on in the hall and when they finally did hear voices they recognized and Jennika looked out the peep hole, she turned back around to Kate with a smiling shake of her head and whispered, “You’re not going to believe this, but I think Jason’s room is just across the hall and Cody’s is the next one down. At least that’s what it looked and sounded like.”
Kate felt her eyes get big and she whispered back, “You’re kidding! Dang, we’re good! Almost too good. We’re gonna get so busted if we don’t be careful.”
A few minutes later when her cell phone rang and it was Jason, she tried to keep the smile out of her voice as she shut the door so if he happened out into the hall, he wouldn’t hear her on the other end of the line with him. He mentioned how much he missed her and that they were just returning to their hotels to try and catch a power nap after having gone to lunch.
After telling her he loved her, he rang off and Kate gave Jennika a thumbs up as she heard Jennika telling Cody goodbye on her own cell phone and said softly, “So far so good, girl. Except we’re going to have to order room service and not hang out around the stadium tonight after the concert. And I wish I knew what time they are flying out to California tomorrow. Let’s ask them when we talk to them so we don’t get surprised in the hall before they’re gone.”
Kate tried to take a power nap as well, knowing it might be a long and even stressful night, but every time she closed her eyes, she struggled not to picture that horrible scene of Jason with the beer and the redhead. She’d open them back up and remind herself that they had survived the aftermath of that night and moved on, but there was still a less than festive mood in the room that afternoon and evening as they both tried to gear up for the night ahead of them.
There wasn’t a sound out of Jason’s or Cody’s rooms until nearly six o’clock when they left with the rest of their band members and both Kate and Jennika breathed a veritable sigh of relief that they hadn’t been discovered so far.
It wasn’t a whole lot later that the two of them headed out as well. They were going to go to dinner after all and then get to the stadium early to watch just as Kate had the last time. Here again, the memories were sobering although Kate tried not to convey that to Jennika. She tried to be upbeat and positive. If they got some kind of an ugly wake up call, there would be time enough to deal with it then. Unless that truly happened, Kate was going to trust in the guys right up until something happened to change that. At least that was the theory. It was the only way to deal with this situation positively and she knew Jennika needed her calm and trusting example to ever be able to make peace with this life.
For the most part, trusting and thinking positively was working, at least that was what Kate kept telling herself. There had been a few bumps, but that was to be expected. The stadium was filled with thousands and thousands of loud and adoring fans and once again, most of them were female, but she and Jennika did their best to deal with them all.
Fans were the name of the
game in this business. The very life blood of this whole industry and after all, she and Jennika did want their men to be successful at what they did. And once they could try to tune out the hubbub, it was exciting to be sitting here waiting for them to come out. Kate decided she should try to attend their concerts more often and see if she could get more used to all of this. Perhaps in time it would become old hat to her.
She was incredibly grateful that Jennika was here with her. She was even grateful that she had to keep a smile plastered on her face; because she’d had no idea when she had agreed to do this it was going to be so reminiscent of the last concert she went to. The memories threatened to consume her and even the smell of the stadium made her a little nauseous, in spite of the fact that she certainly wasn’t pregnant this time.
The opening band was good. They helped Kate to loosen up enough that by the time Jason and Cody and the others came on stage with a huge surge from the screaming fans, she was able to look over at Jennika’s big eyes and smile and give her arm a squeeze and laugh. Jennika obviously hadn’t been expecting the magnitude of this crowd or that reaction to Cody simply walking up onto the stage.
Between watching Jason weave his spell and watching Jennika try to take it all in, Kate was much more at ease this concert than she had been the last, even with everyone around them standing and dancing and continuing to scream. Kate was a good six inches taller than Jennika and it had to have been as intimidating to the diminutive surgeon as it had been to Kate at first. At least this concert didn’t feel as hot and stuffy as she’d felt in Lubbock.
Slowly, Jennika appeared to be relaxing and Kate began to focus on Jason, dancing and singing to the world about how lonely it was to have a love gone bad. She hadn’t heard half of these songs, but the lyrics of what must have been hits if the audience’s reaction said anything, certainly weren’t terribly happy and hopeful. Is this how Jason had reacted to her disappearance from his life? The tone of their music had markedly changed in the last two years.
Still, the music was incredibly evocative and Kate found herself in tears as she watched him, knowing what it would have taken to tame his passion like this. As dynamic as ever, he was a different singer out there than he’d been before. He still sang and danced to the crowd and he was still obviously charming them out of their seats, but there was none of the over the top suggestiveness that had so saddened her that night, which was good, but there was also something missing of his smile. Some deep feeling that wasn’t coming through the way it used to. Somehow, whether it was him or her, someone had indeed been tempered into a more mature entertainer and entertained than she and Jason had been then.
The interference of the crowd wasn’t so numbing and for the first time in a concert setting, even downcast, it felt like when Jason sang to her when they were alone. It was unbelievably sweet, but she still felt a gentle sadness for the exuberant young man who was gone.
When she glanced over at Jennika to see she’d finally begun to smile and enjoy herself, Kate relaxed completely. She let Jason’s mellow sexy voice lull her into loosening up the hold the past had on her, and she simply enjoyed watching Jason unleash his magic and take this crowd with him wherever he wanted to go. He was still absolutely gifted as an entertainer.
In the moment between songs, Jennika looked over at Kate and smiled and knowing that this trip had comforted her gave Kate a lift. She hoped she had been able to help in easing Jennika over some of the hurdles that had so tripped her up with Jason. She breathed a quick prayer that tonight after the concert would go as smoothly as well.
Her attention was drawn back to the front of the stage where Jason was standing as the crowd got quiet, waiting. He looked all around and then said, “This next song is a new one. We’ve never performed it before for anyone so you all will be the first. I’d like to dedicate this song to a friend of mine. She’s not here tonight, but I wish she was. And she’s never even heard it yet, but she inspired it. So, here’s to Kate, the love of my life.”
Kate put a hand to her chest as her heart began to pound and she felt Jennika’s gaze as Jason’s guitar began a sweet, enchanting melody in the dead quiet of the stadium. After a second, the rest of the band slowly came in and then Jason began to sing. Tears pooled in Kate’s eyes as he spun a haunting, evocative tale of a lost bird with a broken wing that had found it’s way back to its home in the sky and the mate who was the other half of its soul that healed it. The tears rolled down her cheeks as the music picked up and she could hear the energy and passion and happiness back in his voice.
This was the Jason she knew. This was the man she had come to know and love as a child and still worshipped as a woman grown. The sweet, enchanting melody finished wiping the last of the heartache of the past two lonely and troubled years from the deepest corners of her spirit and she finally felt it fly free with his across the expanse of the huge stadium.
Until this moment, as she felt her heart set free, she hadn’t even understood how much heartache she’d been harboring. She’d thought she was fine, but realized now she hadn’t been truly. What she’d thought had been that tempering, that maturity, had, in fact, been settling for what she’d believed was reality, and wasn’t necessarily like the dreams she’d hoped for. What she was hearing now brought back those dreams of forever in all their shining brightness. Finding they had survived the weathering entirely intact brought almost overwhelming emotion. Singing and playing down there, he had healed her very essence and had no idea what he had done. What’s more, she hadn’t even known she needed healing.
Jason finished the song and for just a second or two, the stadium was silent and then the crowd went crazy as Kate quietly sat down in her seat and let the tears run down her face. The time away from him had been hell, but it was going to be all right. She finally knew without a doubt that everything was going to be all right. She’d thought she’d been sure a few nights ago, but it wasn’t until that last shred of doubt wafted away into the smoky colors of the spotlights up in the rafters that she realized she had still been afraid of trusting. Still been afraid of this life and truly giving her heart with no strings attached. She sat there in the deafening crowd that didn’t even realize she was there and cried and let the heartache go. It was all going to be all right.
Finally, Jason hit a chord on his guitar and the crowd screamed again when they recognized it and then started to settle down and Kate’s tears distilled into even more emotion as he began her song. The song he had sung for her that night at the lake after that tender pinky promise that had channeled her life since she was sixteen years old. The song that spoke of forever and friendship stronger than this life and a love deeper than eternity.
The energy was in his voice again. The passion that was Jason to the core, and she could hear the emotion ring all the way through the stadium as he sang of his feelings for her. Of commitment and devotion and hope. All of the things she and Jason had spoken of that night when he’d told her the first time that Falcons mate for life.
Then it had been sweet and warm and reassuring. Later, when her world had fallen apart, it had been heart wrenching. Tonight it was life giving and grounding and intimate. He had indeed been set free and had come back to her and was hers. This Falcon truly had become one with her for life. She had no doubt of that now.
The song finally ended, but Kate continued to sit, lost in the crowd and in her own thoughts and feelings as the concert throbbed on around her. The noise and heat and commotion that had been such a distraction the last time almost seemed like insulation tonight. It was like the direct line of communication from his music to her heart was cushioned by the deafening roar and pulse of the masses and she was here cocooned inside her own small world of tender, treasured feeling.
As the next song commenced, she knew Jennika was watching her almost warily and she was embarrassed that she couldn’t seem to get a handle on the tears. The delicate almost exquisite emotion was so overwhelming and so close to the surface that she was unable t
o stop it. It was as if the dam she had so painstakingly constructed over the weeks and months and years against being so vulnerable to her feelings for Jason had given away and the sweetness of his love had rushed to almost drown her in it’s depths and her defenses had washed away in the flood.
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes and took several long breaths and tried to focus on the music. Yet another song had begun with a rollicking back beat and she soon recognized that Cody was singing the lead. She sniffed and wiped at her eyes as she tried to focus on the lyrics. Jason hadn’t written this one. It had to have been Cody and she glanced up at Jennika to see her transfixed as she watched Cody dancing and cutting up there on stage. Standing to be able to see better, Kate began to understand that in his own way, Cody was singing to Jennika as well. This was a song about being happy. About finally figuring it all out and how it made him smile. About how when it was all said and done, love was the fun part worth going through all the rest for.
Jennika glanced over and gave Kate a hesitant smile and then looked back at the man singing on that stage, and Kate hoped she understood that light hearted admission. Kate truly had never seen Cody this ready to face forever before.
The last three songs were classic Aerie pieces that had rocking back beats and those never to be forgotten melodies and the crowd sang with the band as they brought the concert to its height and then did two encores to a close. As the crowd clapped and screamed and then realized they weren’t coming back on stage, the house lights slowly came up and their fans began to get up and start heading up the stairways to the exits and Kate sat back down. There was no sense in fighting this crowd and she’d only feel stupid if she started to tear up again anyway.
Falcon Song: A love story Page 29