13. Kay
Chapter thirteen
Kay
Our next shows were in Albuquerque, then Denver. It wouldn’t be all that long before we took a break for Christmas in Florida. But I missed Saxon already. I slid into the seat next to Donny at the table in the middle of the bus. He was doing something on his laptop. “Stop. I miss Saxon.”
“I have to get this done for work, Kay.” He leaned into me and kissed the side of my face. “Already sent him the Christmas dates.”
“Think he’ll come?”
Donny finally stopped looking at his laptop. “Don’t know. I hope so. Maybe he can stay a couple of days at least.”
I sighed, probably overdramatically. “Me too.”
Donny smiled. “I knew you liked him more than you said.”
“Oh, come on, I like him already.”
He started dancing in his chair and sing-songed, “Kay and Daddy sitting in a tree…”
“Shut up.” I pushed his shoulder, but he only laughed.
“Yes, please stop,” Joe called from the back of the bus. “My stomach is upset from how sickeningly sweet you two are.”
I was unable to stop the snort that came out of me.
Donny leaned over and whispered, “He knows Saxon is our daddy.”
“Then why are you whispering?”
“Because he’s cranky.”
Joe yelled, “I’m not cranky.”
We both cracked up laughing, and Joe actually laughed, too. He made me feel comfortable, and I was pretty happy we got Joe out of everyone else. He was super easy-going and had my back. And didn’t judge us on what we liked.
I tapped the table. “I’m bored.”
“Why don’t you color while I finish working?” Donny was right, I should color. It calmed me and kept my mind occupied.
I pulled the books out from the back, along with colors and picked one that had cars.
It had an old-fashioned truck on one page, so I started in with that.
After a few minutes, Joe came out and took another book, one with animals, and started coloring too.
We spent the majority of the afternoon quietly coloring while Donny worked until we finally pulled into a hotel parking lot in Albuquerque.
I glanced out the window. “Holy shit. This is the Hard Rock.”
“Fuck.” Joe leaned against the window. “Man, we’re playing here.”
I knew we were playing at the pavilion for the Hard Rock, but the dots hadn’t connected in my head that we’d be actually staying in the hotel. “We’re going to be here? Overnight. Are we sharing a room, Donny?”
“Of course,” Donny started packing his laptop away.
“I want a picture of us in front of that giant fucking guitar.”
“Fucking hell, let’s get the whole band,” Joe added, and I nodded furiously in agreement.
We all got off the buses and, in fact, took pictures in front of the guitar. But then security ushered us in, probably frustrated that we were acting like a bunch of kids, but what the fuck, we were on a dream ride here and wanted to remember every bit of it.
We weren’t allowed to eat in the fancy-ass restaurants and had to call for room service.
Someone on the security team said it was because of the reputation of potential food fights that followed Midnight Hunt.
I’d been at Jinx and Miami’s wedding, and the reputation wasn’t wrong.
Their reception had erupted into a free-for-all.
Our room was fucking nice, too. We settled in and ordered food.
We needed an early night, since the sound check was at oh-fuck-my-life-thirty in the morning.
After we ate, I was antsy. All night with nothing to do and confined to the room—ugh!
I wasn’t a hyper dude, but it sucked. And Donny was worse.
“Let’s call Daddy.” It was the only thing I could think of. “On video call.”
“I want to see his face. Great idea, Kay.”
When Saxon picked up, it looked like a big garage behind him. “Hey, guys. Everything alright?”
“Yes, we missed you.” Donny made kissy faces at the screen, making Saxon laugh.
“Cute. Is Kay there?”
“Yes. Here!” I shoved between Donny and the phone and waved.
“Check out our room.” Donny panned the camera around the room, and Daddy wolf-whistled. “Right. We’re in the Hard Rock. Can you believe it?”
“Yes, actually. You deserve that treatment. Kay’s a star.”
“I’m not really. I’m only one part of a great band.” I was humbled. No one had actually called me a star before.
“Same thing, baby-boy.”
“Daddy, are you at work? Is that a garage you’re in?” Donny asked, unable to stick to one thing long unless it was work.
“Yes. This is the bay at the firehouse. This is the truck I’m on.” He panned, showing us a big red firetruck.
“Whoa.” Donny sounded impressed. So was I, but I was quieter about it.
“I’m doing three days on, three days off, so maybe I can work in an extra day and meet you in Florida at Christmas.”
I grabbed the phone because I wanted to see Saxon’s face. “I’d like that a lot. We only have two breaks on this whole tour.”
“When’s the next one?” Saxon asked.
Donny pulled the phone back. “In April for spring break.”
Saxon nodded. “Guys. One step at a time. Right?” He gave a curt nod. “I miss you both.”
Donny made kissy faces again, but I answered, “We miss you too.”
“Donny, no jumping on the bed.” Saxon pointed at the screen as if pointing at Donny. “I mean it. That’s a nice place.”
Donny laughed and rolled around on the bed, so I took the phone. “Too bad you’re at work. Video sex is fun.” I wiggled my eyebrows. It was pretty bold, but I was kind of horny from seeing his handsome face.
“Maybe we’ll find some time when I’m off. Two more days.” He held up two fingers.
“We’ll be calling you again,” Donny called from the floor, where he’d fallen off the bed.
“You’re so goofy.” I grabbed a pillow and tossed it at him, but he only caught it and laughed more.
I loved being a rockstar. But I wasn’t incredibly happy at the moment.
I hadn’t drunk nearly enough coffee, and the sound check didn’t go well.
Pierce had griped and fussed and walked off without seeing the problem fixed.
Thankfully, between me and Rowan, Pierce’s friend and assigned tech, we managed.
“Hey, Kay. He gets too impatient with stuff like this. Don’t mind him.” Rowan waved his hand.
I shrugged. “I get it, but it is part of the job. He needs to tone down the prima donna act. I mean, it wouldn’t hurt.”
“He’s always been that way.”
“How long have you two been friends?”
It wasn’t a secret that Rowan got the job because Pierce insisted, which meant everyone thought they were sleeping together or at least that Rowan had blown him or something.
I didn’t think that at all. I was guessing there was more to it.
“I don’t remember not knowing Pierce. Our families were friends.
Our moms were BFFs and all that. And we played together as kids, but when middle school hit, it changed everything. ”
“So no more friends?”
Rowan shook his head and looked at his feet. “Middle school kids change, grow up, find new identities, figure shit out, new friends, or whatever. They leave behind things they think are unimportant.”
“Hmm…I want to hear more about this, but we need to let them have the stage.” I nodded to the techs and roadies crawling all over the place, getting everything set up for Midnight Hunt’s sound check. “Let’s go get another coffee.”
“Cool.” Rowan smiled. No one had paid much attention to him so far on this tour, likely because of how he got the job, and that included me.
Maybe it was time for a change. No one wanted to work in an unfriendly environment, especially when everyone else around you acted friendly to everyone else but you.
“You must need this job.” The words tripped out of my mouth as we headed back to the hotel.
It was like a fifteen-minute drive between venues, and they had several cars ferrying people back and forth as needed.
We climbed into the back of a big white van with the casino logo on it, which had brought over the rest of the Midnight Hunt techs.
It was taking some of ours back to the hotel, along with us, apparently.
Pierce was not in the van, but Joe, Dave, and Matty were.
“Where’s Randy and Pierce?” I asked, sitting next to Joe.
“They went back in the car before this one, but there wasn’t enough room for all of us,” Joe sniped. “He’s being a regular wanker.”
“You mean Pierce?” I asked to clarify as if Pierce wasn’t normally the one being the wanker.
“No. I mean Randy. Swear he’s kissing Pierce’s ass right now.” Joe rolled his eyes, and the other guys made noises of agreement.
Dave glared at Rowan. “Are you going to be as pissy as him?”
“No.” Rowan’s grimace said it all. He had been nothing but nice to everyone so far, and Dave knew it; he was only blowing off steam.
“He’ll chill out before show time. Don’t get worked up over it.
” I was constantly playing the middleman and waiting for someone to say I only liked Pierce because I didn’t want to be behind the mic.
And while that was true on one level, it wasn’t everything—not the whole story. Maybe Rowan’s story was similar.
When we got back to the hotel, I told the guys I’d catch up with them later and snagged Rowan’s arm. “Come on.”
We went to one of the restaurants that was open and snagged a quiet corner table. I ordered coffee and a breakfast plate, since I was hungry as hell. Rowan got coffee and fruit. “You’re too skinny to only eat fruit.”
“I’ll pick at it and eat a large lunch. It’s too early for real food.”
I glared at him, but it was his life. “Fine. So what happened with Pierce in middle school?”
“I joined the band, and he joined the yearbook. All the cool kids were on yearbook.”
“Huh? That sounds backwards.”
“Right. But that’s what happened.” The coffee arrived, and Rowan dumped three or four sugar packets in his, while I did the same.
“What instrument did you play?”
“Trombone. Thought it was kind of cool. In hindsight, I should have gone for the saxophone.” He shrugged. “More sax in bands. Like rock bands.”
“There are plenty of horn sections, man.”