Chapter Twenty-Two
Chance
I finally made it home after a busy day at the radio station. I was tired, but there was still a lot I needed to do. Andy needed help with the stables, so I spent an hour down there fixing a few things up. By the time that was done, it was already dark, and I trudged back up to the house. Luckily, my housekeeper was in, so dinner had already been made for myself and Cassie. She was waiting at the table for me with a sweet smile on her angelic lil' face, and that made all the weariness of my day okay.
“Well, hey there, lil' princess!” I said. “How my girl?”
“I'm good, Daddy! Why are you so late?”
“Oh, I've just had a lot of stuff to do. Real busy day today.”
“Daddy, can I ask you a question?” she asked.
“Sure you can, pumpkin. Fire away.”
“Where's Mackenzie? When's she gonna come here again? I miss her.”
I sighed. I missed Mackenzie too, even though she'd only been gone a matter of hours.
“Well, she was just here this morning! And she stayed over last night, you guys had a great time together, and she made you that real nice breakfast this morning! How can you be missing her already? It's only been a day, pumpkin!”
“It feels like longer. She said she was going to Austin. Where's Austin?” she questioned.
“It's far away, sugar.”
“Like, an hour if we drive in your truck? That kinda far?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “A lot longer than that, Angel.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. “Longer than that? How much longer? Two hours? Three hours?!”
“Try twelve hours.”
“Twelve! That's like... that's like the other side of the world!” she insisted.
I couldn't help but laugh at her innocence. “It kinda feels like that, doesn't it? Don't worry too much about Mackenzie; she'll come back and see you real soon. Come on now, eat your mashed potatoes.”
“How soon, Daddy? Tomorrow?”
I sighed. “Maybe not that soon, sugar; maybe not that soon.”
We finished up dinner around half an hour later, and then I let Cassie watch some television while I went out to the porch to give Mackenzie a call.
“Hey there, beautiful,” I said as she answered her phone. “How's Austin?”
“Well hello yourself, handsome,” she replied. The sound of her voice like music in my ears.
“So, how's it going?”
“This place is great! There are music bars left right and center, so it does remind me of Nashville a lot, but there's a lot more variety here. I mean, hell, country music is my heart and soul, but it sure is nice to see something different for a change. I just walked past some guys playing jazz on the sidewalk – a trumpeter, a guy with an upright bass and a guy on a drum kit – and now, just around the corner, there are some guys playing what sounds like African tribal music on conga and bongo drums. Oh, and now I'm walking past a bar that sounds like it has some sort of death metal band inside! Crazy!”
I chuckled. “Yeah, it's a great place if you're after variety, that's for sure. How about the place you're playing tonight, what's that like?”
“Oh my God, it’s huge! Great stage, and it looks like it'll hold a big crowd. We'll see how many actually come out tonight.”
“I bet you'll have a good crowd. After all, you're almost famous! I think your YouTube video has almost seven hundred thousand views now.”
“I still can't believe it! All of this is happening so fast. And that YouTube video is what kicked everything off... and I have you to thank for that, for organizing that surprise with James Masters. You really are an amazing human being, Mr. Lawson. I'm so lucky to have you, I really am.”
“And I'm lucky to have you, Mackenzie. I'm so excited for you!”
“Oh, hey, I gotta go. I'll call you later though, all right?”
“All right. Talk to you soon, beautiful, hope you have a killer show later.”
“Thank you, Chance. Chat later.”
I sat in silence on the porch for a while. I had to admit that a part of me kinda regretted doing the whole James Masters thing for her. That was what was taking her away from me – well, what had started everything that was taking her away from me. I knew it was terrible and selfish to feel like that. This was amazing for her career, and yes, most of me was happy for her in that regard. But there was a small part of me that kinda wished I hadn't done it. If I hadn't, she'd still be by my side with no plans to move to another state, with no—
“No, Chance, stop this. You can't think like this. It ain't right, and it's downright selfish,” I said to myself out aloud.
I resolved to be happy for her, instead, even though there was a good chance that this whole record deal might tear us apart permanently. Even so, her dreams took precedence here. I loved music myself, hell, so much that I'd bought a radio station, and I sure as hell had no right to interfere with someone else's musical dreams.
With these thoughts running around my head, I headed inside to go relax with my Cassie, and to try not to think about Mackenzie too much.
***
“Happy birthday, you beautiful bastard!” I said to Terry as I handed him his gift.
“What's this?” he said with a grin as he took the gift from me.
“Well, there's only one way to find out, ain't there? Go on and open it up!” I insisted.
He eagerly ripped open the wrapping, and then beamed as he saw what was inside – a vintage Johnny Cash LP, autographed by the man himself.
“Dang, Chance, you always get me the best gifts!”
“Happy birthday, Terry,” I said with a grin. “I knew you'd love it.”
Tina handed him a gift as well. “Here you go, a gift for my favorite co-DJ. Is that even a word?”
Terry laughed as he took the gift from her. “It is now! Now, let's see what this is.”
It turned out to be a book, an anthology of country music.
“Well, ain't that right up my alley!” Terry exclaimed. “This has been a great haul this year, I feel seriously spoiled!”
“The best gifts for the best guy in the station,” I said, giving him a quick, tight bear hug.
“All right, well now that we're all finished and that new guy is on the air, how about we go out and celebrate with a drink?” Terry suggested. “After all, this only happens to me once a year!”
“Sounds good, man; where do you wanna go?” I asked.
“Well, it's nice and hot out, and there's still two or three hours of daylight. I was thinkin' somewhere outdoors would be great to have a couple sundowners.”
Tina pitched in her opinion as well. “I agree. And somewhere by water would be even better.”
“Well, that settles it,” Terry said, “ya’ll are gonna come to my family’s ranch. We've got that nice lil' dam there with the creek, and that's a perfect spot for sundowners. I've got some deck chairs we can take out there, and plenty of spare beds if ya’ll have a few too many drinks. We can throw something on the barbecue, maybe do some shootin' too. I gotta show you my new rifle anyway, Chance.”
I nodded. “Sounds great, Terry. You've got some wife, buying you a rifle like that for a birthday gift. You're a lucky guy!”
“She's a better shot than I am! But you know that. I wonder if she's a better shot than you too though, Chance?”
I laughed. “Set up some tin cans at two hundred yards and we'll see about that.”
“I might just do that. Perfect way to break in the new rifle, I think,” he added.
“All right, well let's head out of here. We'll stop by the liquor store on the way to pick up some party supplies. I've already got plenty a' meat in the freezer for a barbecue, so we don't have to worry about that.”
“Let's go,” I said.
***
Two hours later, I was leaned back in my deck chair, watching the red sun as it hovered just above the distant mountains. I drank a long swig of ice-cold beer and then sighed. It really was a beautiful afternoon, and would have been perfect if Mackenzie could have been with me. But she was still in Austin. I had spoken to her on the phone earlier, but she had seemed busy, so it hadn't been a long conversation. I wondered what she was doing right then. I was tempted to call her, but I didn't want to be anti-social.
Just then, Terry came up to me with a bottle of tequila.
“All right, son, it's my birthday, and I make the rules just for today. And the rules here are that you have to have three quick shots of this, right now!”
“Three!? Come on Terry, I've already had two beers. What are you trying to do here?”
“Trying to have a kick-ass birthday celebration, man! What else? Now, I won't have any protests from you. You gotta have these shots. It's my birthday!”
“How am I gonna drive home later?”
“I told you, you can stay here.”
“My kid, Terry.”
“Aw, c'mon, can't you just ask Andy to take care of her tonight? Seriously, we hardly ever get to do this. How long have we been friends?”
He was right. Terry was one of my best friends, and we hardly ever got to do this.
“All right,” I said, giving in. “I'll call Andy and see if he can help me out tonight; if he can, then I’ll take the shots.”
I called Andy and made arrangements. He was happy to take care of Cassie for the night, and I knew she'd be safe with him. She loved hanging out with Andy.
“All right,” I said. “It's all been sorted out. C'mon then, man, let's have these damn tequila shots,” I said.
“You know why I'm only makin' it three, right?” Terry asked. “Because they say...”
“One tequila two tequila three tequila floor!” I replied with a laugh.
“That's right!” He poured three shots for me, and then three shots for himself. We knocked them back quickly, and it didn't take long for me to feel the burn of the liquid as it traveled down my throat.
“Whew!” he exclaimed, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Damn!”
“Hardcore stuff, man, hardcore stuff!” I winced.
“Mexico's finest. Hey, you gotta take another shot though?”
I rolled my eyes. “Why is that?”
“Cause you beat my wife in the rifle shootin' contest earlier. Didn't I tell you? First prize was a free shot a' tequila!” he said with a grin.
“Oh hell. Go on then, bring it on.”
He poured one more shot for me, and I knocked it back quickly. I was starting to feel my head swim a little; I wasn't drunk, but had definitely entered the tipsy stage.
Tina and Terry's wife, Belinda, came waltzing over to us.
“Well, hey now, what's this tequila shootin' that's going on? You boys think you can leave us out?” Tina asked.
“You don't have to ask twice,” Terry remarked with a grin. “We just did three shots—”
“Four!” I interjected.
“Well, he did four, I did three,” continued Terry.
“We'll do four then,” Tina said eagerly. “Right, Belinda?”
Belinda chuckled. “We ain’t lettin’ men out-drink us. That means you gotta do an extra one, hubby, otherwise you're gonna be left behind!”
“All right, all right! Here we go, four shots each for the ladies!”
He poured the shots, and they each knocked them back. He then poured one more for himself, and shot it fast as well.
“Yee-haw!” he shouted. “Now this is a party! Let's have some music!”
He turned up the portable stereo he'd brought outside, and we all got to drinking more and talking and laughing. We were all starting to feel pretty drunk as well, and it was starting to show.
“Shit,” Terry exclaimed, “we ain't had nothing to eat yet!”
“We been too busy drinking!” Belinda reminded him. “Well, we'd better get the barbecue going before we have too much more and no one is in any shape to tend it. Come on, you come up to the house with me to get the meat and whip up the salads. Chance and Tina, you two can stay here. Chance, can you get the barbecue fired up and ready? Terry and I will be up there maybe half an hour, forty-five minutes. You two don't mind waiting for a short while, do you?” Belinda asked.
“That's fine,” I said.
Terry and Belinda headed back up to the house, leaving me alone with Tina by the water. As soon as they had gone, she sidled up to me.
“How about another shot of tequila?” she asked. “C'mon, it's not like we have to drive anywhere.”
“I think I'm gonna stick with beer from here on out,” I stated.
“Well, I'm having another one. Don't you feel a little... inadequate? As a man, being out-drunk by a girl?”
It was clearly a challenge, and I wasn't one to pass up a challenge, especially when I was already a little on the inebriated side of things.
“No offense, but there ain't no way you can out-drink me. I may have passed my party days a few years ago, but I've still got it.”
“Do you? Let's see then,” she challenged.
She poured a shot for me and a shot for her. We knocked them back, and I felt some discomfort growing inside me – but I wasn't about to let a girl show me up.
“Well, I feel just fine!” I exclaimed. “How about you, Tina?”
“I feel great. But it's so hot still... and what I really feel like doing is swimming. The water looks so cool and inviting.”
“It does, but I didn't bring my trunks.”
“Who needs trunks?” she said, a flirtatious gleam entering her eye and a devilish grin spreading across her pretty face.
And with that, she pulled her dress over her head, unclipped her bra, stepped out of her panties, and stood totally nude in front of me.