DASHED DREAMS (14 page)

With Mrs. Crawford listening and watching Jillian’s every movement, Jillian couldn’t respond as she would have if she’d been alone, “You know, I’ll give it some thought and get back to you. I’ll be at the house all the rest of today. Talk to you soon.” She slipped the phone back into her lab coat pocket, Jillian thought: I’m sure he’ll be really mad now. I just gave him some of his own medicine.

“Dear, would you ask Mr. Montgomery for us? You know it’s for a good cause.”

“I will and I’ll let you know. I really have to go now.” She slipped away from the lady’s clutches and hurriedly walked towards her office.

“I’ll call you in a few days, dear, to see what his answer is!” Mrs. Crawford shouted across the street.

Jillian spent the rest of the afternoon working on chores around the house. She felt uneasy, as the phone was unusually quiet. She needed to call RJ back and let him know that she wouldn’t be joining him. One of the last chores on her mental list was to clean her office. Finishing up, she picked up the phone to call him. Questions and thoughts crowded her mind: Why do I feel so uneasy, almost afraid to call? She shook her head.
Hey, I’m me and I’m not afraid of anyone or anything…well maybe snakes!

“Hello, may I help you?” Jillie was taken back by a strange voice on RJ’s phone; usually he picked up his own cell calls.

“May I speak to Robert?”

“And who’s calling?”

“Dr. James.”

“Oh, hold on.”

Jillian waited what seemed like several minutes. While waiting, she looked at his tour schedule, noting this weekend was Houston.

“Hello, doc.”

The voice made Jillian go weak in the knees. She’d listened to his music for years, but his voice was different now.

“Hi, hope I didn’t interrupt you?”

“Just doing a sound check for tonight’s show.”

She felt the chill in his voice and stammered, “Robert, I won’t be joining you this weekend. Next weekend, the girls and I are going my parents’ home.”

“What day are you going and how long are you going to be there?”

“
We leave on Thursday morning and we’ll there until Sunday of that next week…eight days.”

“Honey, hey, you’ll be there for my concert.” RJ’s voice tone completely changed, and he was his usual self.

Jillian looked at the schedule and big as life, Ft. Worth was listed as their next stop. Playing dumb she asked, “And where will that be?”

“I miss you, too.” Jillian added. “You know, RJ, you were pretty impatient with what I was going through today at the hospital…”

He interrupted her. “Jillie, I’m so sorry. My feelings were hurt, that you were devoting all your attention to someone else but me. Forgive me. It won’t happen again. I love you.”

Again, her knees when limp. She wanted to respond but no words came out of her mouth.

“Hey listen, they’re waiting for me to finish rehearsal and time’s money. TCB, as Elvis use to say. I’ll call you later this evening after the show and we’ll set our plans.”

Chapter 18

At 5:30, knowing everyone was still sleeping, Jillian showered, dressed. Sock footed and carrying her boots, she came downstairs to the kitchen. She started the coffee and sat down at her grandmother’s table. Rubbing her hand over the surface, she said,
“Granny, what would you do? I’m so confused. I’m a grown woman, but my feelings are like those of a teenager…all giggly and mixed up!”
Jillian listened to the sounds of morning, the old house creaking, the coffeepot sputtering, and an upstairs shower starting.

The sun peered through the kitchen window box, it’s rays shining on the table. Jillian has always liked this time of the day, when everything was fresh and starting anew. She looked around the kitchen. How beautiful the remodeling had turned out. With her cup of creamed coffee, Jillian picked up her boots and headed for the porch rocking chairs. Her boots clunked as she dropped them. She took a sip of coffee, thinking: There’s nothing better than the first taste of coffee in the morning.

“Hey, good morning, Corks,” Jillian whispered. She reached down and scratched the tail-wagging beagle. Jillian looked to the barns. The large door of the indoor riding arena was open. Ian and Miquel were busy turning out the horses to pasture. Her dad’s horse, Two Bars, and her horse, Sugar, pranced out. Sugar looked up towards the house whinnied, kicked up her feet, and galloped off towards the high grass. Jillian chuckled and said to herself: What a clown she is! The kitchen door opened. Her dad came out carrying his boots and a cup of coffee. He placed his boots alongside the rocker and sat down. Sipping his coffee, he looked to Jillian.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well? How was the old room? Any monsters in the closet?” He smiled, knowing he’d often chased the monsters away when Jillian was little. She placed her hand on his and squeezed.

“Good morning, Daddy. I was watching Sugar clown around with Two Bars.”

“You know, she looks this way every morning …looking for you.”

“I really miss her. I have to look for a place, as I’d like to have her with me.”

“But she’d miss all this and her pals.”

Jillian was rocking, holding her cup of coffee close to her chest. She felt like she was again 16 years old and sitting talking with her Dad.

“Jillian, your mother’s upset that you haven’t talked to her about what’s going on in your life.”

“Dad, you really mean she wants to know about RJ? I don’t know how to explain what’s going on to me, so how can I tell her?”

“
Honey, all we want is for you to be happy and safe. Your mother and I love you and concerned how you are. Anything that affects you in turn affects us.”

“Daddy, I feel like I’m a 13-year-old-girl with a first love. I’m so mixed up. I guess that if he wasn’t who he is, I could handle our relationship. It’s been three months and in ways, it seems like we’ve been together for years.” Her voice trailed off, voice becoming thoughts,
if only he could realize there are others around.

“
Honey.” Her father’s voice jerked her back to reality. “Please remember that when relationships go bad, it’s private when only two are involved. But when the whole world’s watching, it becomes a major article. Your life can quickly become a media nightmare. There…that’s my philosophy for the week.” They both laughed. “Just take a few minutes to have a heart-to-heart with your mother.”

“I will, Daddy. You and Mother needn’t worry. Since we’re having dinner tonight, you can makeup your own minds. You’ll fall in love with him, just a I have.”

“Well, there’s a horse sale at the stockyards. I thought you might enjoy going to see what’s for sale. Starts at eight and should be over by one or so. What do you think?”

“Oh, hey, that’d be fun. Daddy, are you horse shopping?”

“Honey, I’m always shopping. Your mother thinks we have enough, but you know, one can never have too many horses.”

Jillian rocked in her chair and sipped her coffee. She smiled, thinking that tonight her parents were going to meet her singing star.

Robert John Montgomery’s concert tour was promoting his new CD,
“Texas Charm,”
and covered 22 US cities, coast to coast. The
Charm Tour
started in Bangor, Maine and they’d so far played in about 10 cities, to end up in San Diego. Most of the concerts were sold out. The Mexico concert was a work-in, after the President of Mexico invited Robert John Montgomery; he and his wife had seen one of RJ’s concerts last year.

They traveled by bus and plane. The backstage support guys traveled by bus with all the equipment. RJ and a couple of his key people travel by private jet. The jet was a Gulfstream G200, purchased through RJ’s corporation,
Country Heart Entertainment Corporation.
The pilot and co-pilot were corporate employees.

The flight up from Houston to Ft. Worth only took a few minutes. As they touched down and to taxied over to the private terminal, RJ called Jillian. She answered on the second ring.

“Good morning, Doc.”

“Hi, you. Where are you?”

“Well, the
“Charm Tour”
just landed. We’re taxing over to the terminal. You?”

“Well, we’re at the Fort Worth stockyards at a horse show.”

“Buying anything?”

“No, but Daddy just bought a couple of mares with colts alongside. I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight and my parents are looking forward to meeting you.”

RJ punched off the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. “Gary, there isn’t anything going on until this afternoon’s rehearsal, right?”

“Nope, we have to be over at the Civic Center at noon for sound check. We have a couple of free hours. Why?”

“I wanted to relax before, that’s all.”

Arriving at a new airport was almost always the same. There was usually a limo waiting for RJ and the group traveling with him. A few airport personnel wanted autographs, and pictures taken with him. And this arrival was nothing out of the ordinary. RJ shook hands, gave autographs, and posed for pictures with the few fans waiting there. They arrived at the hotel and were whisked up to their rooms.

RJ unpacked and stretched out on the bed for a quick nap. He thought to himself: Tonight’s the night. I’m going to meet her parents. I feel like a schoolboy who’s taking his girlfriend to the movies with her parents driving them.

He fell asleep, dreaming of he and Jillian making love. The alarm wakened him before he could finish his dream. He slapped the snooze button, but by then he was awake, the dream still with him.

Rehearsal and the sound check finished at one. Four of the guys decided to get something to eat, as breakfast had been many hours ago. They’d been sipping on drinks throughout the day, and all felt tipsy with still a lot of hours left in the day. It was raining. Leaves clogging the storm drains caused gutters to overflow into some streets. The rental car splashed water, as they made their way to the Cracker Barrel.

The four included RJ and Gary in the front seat and in the back seat, Mark, the lighting director and Charles, their British technical coordinator.

RJ was driving. As they approached the corner, Mark shouted from the backseat, “Hey, RJ, don’t splash him, he’s old.”

“Yeah, man, not the ol’ bugger,” Charles said with his heavy English accent.

They were talking about an elderly man making his way to the corner to cross the street. He was about five feet from the corner; RJ chuckled and aimed the car towards a large puddle, hit it and splashed the man - - CLUNK! then FLAP! FLAP! FLAP!

“Oh, great now we have a flat tire. Must’ve been a pothole under the water!” RJ looked in the rear-view mirror. The wet old man was cursing, shaking his fist at them. Suddenly, soberness overtook the tipsiness and shame overtook the joy of splashing the elderly man.

They drove on the flat tire down the block and turned onto a residential side street. Gary contacted the rental car company who agreed to send another car, but had no idea of the time involved. Gary called the hotel and they immediately dispatched a car to their location. He then called back the rental car company and informed them their car would be locked and the keys locked in the glove box. The company wasn’t pleased, but advised they’d pick up the car later. He saw RJ talking to Mark and Charles, he saw RJ reach into his wallet and hand the two some money, all the while talking to them both as if he was telling them what to say. Mark and Charles started walking, backtracking their previous route.

“Okay, all’s set. We have a car coming to pick us up. Hey, where are Mark and Charles going? On foot no less. Don’t think I’ve seen those two walk anywhere.”

“I sent them back to the old man.” RJ was rubbing his forehead, “I don’t know what came over me.”

“That was pretty stupid! RJ, you know, sometimes you amaze me. Here you go and ruin a man’s day and then you offer him money to make it better! You think money solves anything!”

“Who in hell do you think you are? What gives YOU a right to talk to ME like that?”

“What gives me the right is that you pay me to keep you straight. I’m your manager and you’re best friend. RJ, you and I both know alcohol was driving.”