Part 141
Kevin looked at his watch to see that it was well after midnight. Howie was asleep on the couch and Sarah was looking over the revisions they had made. He looked at her now as her hair hung in her face and he could tell she was tired. She had been the one who insisted on continuing when Howie had suggested they call it quits almost three hours ago.
Kevin moved to stand behind her and put his hands on her shoulders massaging them for her. She leaned back against him enjoying the feel of his hands on her shoulders.
"Baby, you’re tired. Let’s pack it in for the night."
Yawning, Sarah asked, "We made progress, right?"
"Yeah, baby. You’re gonna be awesome."
"Are you coming with us?"
Kevin looked down at Sarah as he continued rubbing her shoulders. She had no clue how much her request was tearing his heart apart but he knew what he had to do. "Baby, I’d REALLY love to join you but I made Vanessa a promise, no more putting you first over her and we’ve got plans for Tuesday. She’s flying in that morning."
"That’s cool, Boo." Sarah put her hands on Kevin’s and pulled his arms around her. "I’m glad you two are working things out. You deserve to be happy."
"Thanks, baby."
Sarah heard the touch of sadness in his voice and turned in his arms to look up
at him. She caressed his cheek as she said softly, "We’d have never
worked, Kevin. You’d have felt guilty because you’d have thought you’d
taken me away from D. Then there are our tempers. We’d have ended up hurting
each other."
Kevin laughed, "You’ve got a point."
"And the FIRST thing we’d fight about is these DAMN corn rows. I hated them when Howie had them and I hate them on you."
Kevin laughed, "But it’s so easy and it keeps it out of my face while we’re performing."
Sarcastically, Sarah said, "Then CUT it."
"I thought you liked my hair long," pouted Kevin.
"I do but NOT if you’re gonna corn row it."
"Well, baby…I’ll take them down just for you."
Sarah smiled, "Thank you."
Kevin looked over at Howie. "You need to wake sleeping beauty before he
starts snoring again."
Sarah laughed, "If he’s not snoring, he’s not asleep. Get up, D."
"Bout time you two decided to call it quits," he yawned opening his eyes. "What time is it?"
Sarah moved to him laying on top of him and purred, "Time to take your wife to bed and make ‘Sweet D’ love to her."
Howie put his hands in her hair kissing her sweetly. "Sounds good to me."
As they headed out, Kevin said, "D, I’ve set Sarah up to perform at a local club here in town August 21st."
"Where will we be in the tour then?"
"Not back out yet. Alex needs an extra week so management rescheduled and we go back August 24th. We’re gonna go ahead and do the video for ‘Drowning’ before we go back out. This will give Sarah some more experience."
The two men talked all the way to Kevin’s house about the tour, the upcoming video, and Kevin’s visit with Alex.
At Kevin’s, they were still talking business so Sarah went up alone, stripped down, and climbed into bed. She was exhausted and had no energy to bother with finding her nightshirt. She was sound asleep when Howie joined her only fifteen minutes later.
The next morning, Sarah woke before Howie and decided to go for a swim. She didn’t bother with a suit since they were at Kevin’s but she did grab a towel, which she wrapped around herself as she went down to the pool.
She’d been there for half an hour and was making her final lap when Howie found her. He sat at the end of the pool with his feet dangling in the water watching as she moved gracefully through the water. He marveled at her strength and laughed to himself as he thought about how hard it had been to beat her in Hawaii. She truly was a strong swimmer and gave him competition.
As Sarah reached the wall, he moved so that she grabbed him rather than the wall. She stood up. "What are you doing up?"
"There was a cold spot in the bed," he said as he pulled her to stand between his legs. "You were asleep before I could get to bed last night."
Sarah put her arms around him. "I’m sorry, D. You could have woken me up."
Kissing her tenderly, he said, "Nah….you looked so sweet and peaceful. Now this is the wife I know...NO MODESTY."
Sarah grinned. "It’s just Kevin. Besides, I was planning to be showered and back in bed before he ever got up."
Howie pulled her closer to him. "God…you look so…"
"HOT," smirked Kevin from the door. "I set the alarm so we could
get an early start at the studio. Baby, from the looks of it, you’ve forgotten
completely what a bathing suit is."
Sarah laughed, "Not really. We spent a couple days at a private beach
where I could go without."
"Sounds like fun. D, you’ll have to tell me about this place."
"Get Billy to tell you about it."
"Cool. I’m going to fix us some breakfast so we can get to the studio. What time is your flight to Baton Rouge?"
Howie answered, "Midnight."
"Cool. Gives us time to polish what we did yesterday plus a couple other songs."
Howie, Sarah, and Kevin spent the rest of the day in the studio just like the day before. They only stopped to eat and let Sarah throw up. By the time they knocked off at ten, they had half a dozen songs ready for Sarah to perform Tuesday night.
Saying their good-byes, Kevin wished Sarah luck and made her promise to call him when she came off the stage. He watched as the couple walked arm in arm through the gate and disappear in the crowd before heading home himself.