Falcon Song: A love story (20 page)

                                          ***

She walked out the door of the elegant steak and ribs restaurant and didn’t look back and Cody began to swear as her heels clicked away on the sidewalk. Jason was going to kill him. And then Jason was going to lose it when he told him she was married. And he’d have to. There was no way he couldn’t. They were too good of friends to keep something like that from him.

Cody stepped back to the door and hit his number one speed dial. Jason picked up on the second ring and Cody asked, “Where are you, man?”

“I’m almost there. I’m on highway two-forty-four headed your way. I’ll be to the restaurant in like six minutes.”

“Jason, without you getting in a wreck, I want you to take the next exit and then get back on and go to the airport. I just ran into Kate and that’s where she’s headed. She just left and said she had to speed to get her rental car back and make her plane. I’m sorry, I don’t know what airline.”

For just a second there was dead silence on the other end of the line and then Jason must have pushed end. Cody stood there for another few seconds and then began to pray silently to himself as he turned to go back inside the restaurant. He’d been doing a lot of that the last eight or nine months. What a coincidence.

                                          ***

Jason seriously considered driving down through the median to reach the other side of the freeway, but then an exit appeared just up ahead. He drove like a madman and at the airport nearly slid his car sideways as he headed into the rental car return. He drove all the way to the other end without seeing her and then gave up and parked and headed into the terminal at a run.

He stopped at one of the TVs that listed the incoming and outgoing flights and tried to figure out which gate she’d be heading to from the flights leaving in the next while. It had to be Jacksonville, San Antonio or Detroit. Taking a chance, he headed for the terminal with the flight into San Antonio. Texas had usually worked for her in the past. Usually. There was that one time that had been disastrous for them both. He started to run. He had to catch her before she made it past security.

He’d been literally running when he sighted her just placing her small brief case and a carry on on the tray to go through the x-ray machine. He could never catch her in time. He thought about yelling, but then looked at all the armed guards working right there and decided against it. That’s all he needed today was to be arrested by Homeland Security in front of Kate.

Still rushing forward, he tried to find her again in the crowd that was making its way through the check point. There! She walked out of the throng and he felt all the blood rush to his heart and whispered, “Kate. Just turn around. Just wonder if Cody called me and if I’ve rushed here to find you. Just turn around, baby. Give me two minutes. Just two.”

As if she’d been listening, she did. She turned and looked back as if someone had called her and he knew exactly when she saw him standing there as close as he could get to the divider. She froze as she looked at him for a long, slow thirty seconds and then even from a distance he could tell she started to cry, and then obviously reluctantly, she slowly turned and walked up the ramp.

With tears starting in his own eyes, he swore bitterly and watched her until she disappeared toward a gate on the right, he couldn’t tell which. He turned and began making his way back to his car. At least he’d seen she definitely wasn’t indifferent to him. She still hurt enough to cry the second she saw him. He couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing and prayed as he walked, “God, watch over her, wherever she’s headed. And talk her into coming home soon. I need her. You know that. You know how much I need her.”

Chapter 18

Kate struggled not to cry during the entire two hour flight back to San Antonio and for the most part it was a rout and she landed with red swollen eyes and a tired heart. She got her car out of long term parking and made her way out of the airport, wondering why seeing him standing there after so many months could still hurt so badly.

She’d known she would never get over him. That she would love him to the day she died, but she’d been so hoping that at least the pain would dull and she could get on with her life without this heartache.

On the way home, she stopped and got groceries and picked up the dry cleaning, hoping the extra time would erase the signs of her deep sadness, and then stopped and got take out Chinese. She really wasn’t up to cooking tonight. At least walking into John’s house from the garage was a comfort. Even though John was going down hill fast, this home had always been a haven for her.

                                          ***

The band was long gone from the restaurant when Jason got there, but he needed to talk to the manager anyway. He needed to find out who Kate was working for and find a way to contact her.

When he was ushered into the manager’s office amidst a great deal of whispering, he tried to explain what he wanted and the manager looked at him strangely when he asked, “There was a girl here earlier today. Tall, with short, dark, curly hair. Her name is Kate. Kate Birch. Could you tell me the company she works for? I believe she’s a consultant of some sort. I need to get in touch with her. It’s very important.”

Shaking his head, the manager said, “The only Kate that was here I know of who fits that description is Kate Garland and she’s not a consultant. She and her husband own the place. Y’all must be mistaken. I’m sorry. We have a Kathy, but she’s short and red. Are you sure you have the right restaurant?”

Jason froze for a moment in shock. Kate married. He couldn’t even begin to process it. She would never marry someone else. She couldn’t. It just wasn’t possible. She knew that no matter what had happened, Jason loved her forever. Didn’t she? She would never go back on the pinky promise they’d made that day at the lake. He knew she wouldn’t. That promise had been the biggest deal of their lives. It had meant forever. More than forever.

Then he remembered that they’d also promised to stay pure until they were married and then that night with the champagne they’d ruined it all and his heart felt like it imploded.

He didn’t even hear the manager ask, “Is there something else I could help you with?” He just walked out the door in a shocked silence. Kate was married. His Kate. The other half of his soul was married to someone else. No wonder she had cried and then turned and walked away. How could she do this to him? He’d thought she’d cared too much to ever marry someone else. Especially after only nine months.

When he got back to the hotel, he went straight to Cody’s room instead of to his own. When Cody opened the door, he took one look at Jason and pulled him inside with a sigh. “I guess I shouldn’t have even told you. I guess it would have been better to just not have mentioned seeing her. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I just knew you’d been looking so long. I’m sorry man.”

Jason sat down in a chair and leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “No. I needed to know.” There was silence in the room for several minutes and then Jason asked without sitting up and opening his eyes. “I didn’t ever get to see her up close. Is she okay? How did she look?”

Cody thought about that for a moment. “She looked good, Jason. She’s a beautiful girl. You know that. She looked older. Maybe a little more mature. I’m not sure how to describe it.”

“Did she look happy, Rawlings? She’s married to the guy who owns the restaurant. Apparently she’s been that way for a while. Is she happy?”

When Cody didn’t answer right away, Jason opened his eyes to look at him and said tiredly. “You can be honest. Just give it to me straight. The time’s past for sugar coating it.”

Cody shook his head and walked over to look out the window. His voice was tired too as he admitted, “No, Jason. She didn’t look the least bit happy. The sparkle she’s had since she was born was completely missing. She was sharp. She was poised. She was in control. She wasn’t happy.” He turned back to Jason. “But it doesn’t really matter anymore does it? Married is married.” He sighed. “She made her decision, but y’all are both going to have to live with it.”

Jason made a sound of disgust. “Do you think I don’t know that? Hell, Cody, I’m in love with her but I’m not going to try to break up her marriage. You know me better than that.”

“Sorry.”

Jason got up and went to the door. As he walked out, he said over his shoulder, “I’m sorry too, Cody. See you in a couple hours.”

Still standing beside the window, Cody listened to the door latch click behind him and wondered just how Jason was going to react to this. This could either make him the most driven performer on the planet. Or shut their whole band right down and he swore under his breath and said, “Kate, I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

Jason was fine through the concert that night. He was a bit in a zone, but Cody was able to compensate for Jason’s lack of energy and Jason did their slow, sad stuff better than Cody ever remembered him doing it. It was when they got back home the next day that things began to unravel. For two days Cody didn’t see Jason. Not for a minute. And he wasn’t answering his door or his phone.

Just when Cody was going to call out the National Guard and literally break down his door if he had to, Jason showed up at Cody’s house. He looked like hell and hadn’t shaved and Cody wasn’t even sure if he’d changed clothes. He certainly hadn’t slept much. That was obvious.

He walked in and handed Cody a folder of music and Cody began to look through it and wasn’t really paying attention to what Jason was doing until he heard a cupboard door slam. The new songs looked awesome and then he glanced up to see Jason with a fifth of Jack Daniels on the counter and throwing back a tumbler full of it.

Cody cursed and dropped the music. He raced across the room and grabbed the glass away, spilling whiskey all over both of them in the process. “What the hell are you doing, Falcon?” Jason shoved him away and reached for the bottle again and they got into a scuffle with Cody ultimately winning because he punched Jason with absolutely all he had to try to knock some sense into him.

Jason went flying backwards and stumbled over a chair and he and it both went flying. He landed with his back against Cody’s wall and put his hand up to his eye in surprise. “You hit me! You actually hit me!”

Cody put the lid back on the whiskey and put it in the cupboard with a resounding slam. “Yes, and I’m going to do it again properly if y’all ever pull something this asinine again! What’s gotten in to you?”

“Nothing.” Jason stood up and picked up the chair that now sported only three working legs and gingerly touched a spot on his cheekbone. “Nothing’s gotten into me. It’s getting something out of me that’s the problem. Give me something to drink. I’ve gotta be able to sleep or I’m going to go crazy.”

“Then take a Tylenol PM, Falcon, not a fifth of whiskey! Get a grip! Even the end of the world isn’t going to look better through a glass of Jack Daniels.”

“It might.”

“It won’t! It’ll look like more mistakes piled onto the first ones.”

“That’s easy for you to say, Mr. use and abuse ‘em. You have no idea what I’m dealing with.”

“Oh, knock it off! I have more idea than anyone else on the planet and y’all know it! Just because I’ve never found anyone I could see forever with, doesn’t mean I don’t understand that what you and Kate had was amazing.” He went back over and began to pick up the scattered pages of music and tried to figure out which page went where. “It only means I’ve been lonely as hell for a lot of years, wishing I could find my own Kate! You’re so busy feeling sorry for yourself you don’t even realize you’ve already been blessed by her more than nine tenths of this world put together. So shut up!”

Cody looked back at the papers in his hand and then sniffed his shirt. “Go bring me another shirt and find one for yourself while you’re at it. We smell like a Tennessee still. Geez, you’re an idiot!”

Jason began to take his shirt off. “Why, because I did once what y’all do every week of your life? Come off it!”

Cody dropped the papers again and turned on him. “You’re wrong, Jason! I have
never
done what you just did. Never! You were using alcohol as a drug! A place to bury yourself. And I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, but she’ll be just as married when you sober up, but then your head will hurt as bad as your heart and you’ll be ashamed of yourself to boot! I’m sure Kate would be thoroughly impressed. It’s one thing to be a worthless partier who has nothing better in life to do than drink and play around. I’m shallow and flaky and all the rest of it. But not you! You’re going somewhere! The sky’s the limit for you, Jason. And I’ll be damned if you’re going to screw that up in my kitchen! Not on my watch!” He paused and looked at his hand for a moment and then growled, “Go change your shirt.”

Jason walked into Cody’s bedroom and Cody crossed to the cupboard where he’d just put the whiskey and yanked it back open. When Jason came back in, he was just finishing dumping the last of his entire supply of alcohol down the drain. As Jason came up beside him, he tossed the last glass bottle into the now overflowing garbage can and went to the sink and began to rinse his hands as Jason asked, “What the hell are you doing, Rawlings?”