The band’s first gig after Rose and Daffodil joined was a success. People loved listening to Rose’s voice, untrained though it was, and even applauded Daffodil, who made up for her lack of musical talent by hamming it up and singing softly in chorus with the others.
After several more performances at various places in Portland, they moved on again. Tim was needed in Texas for his sister’s wedding, and for lack of anything better to do, the rest of the band went with him, enduring a three-day trip in the un-air conditioned van from Oregon to a small town in southern Texas, near the Mexico border.
Tim usually invited Rose to sit next to him as he drove, telling the others that she was the most entertaining one, which didn’t sit well with the other members of the band, stuck in the sweltering back. Rose accepted at first, but when Tim began to try to flirt with her, she reminded him of Daffodil’s warning and sat in the back.
Tim was nice enough, Rose thought, and good-looking as well, but she wasn’t ready for a new relationship. Jack had only been dead for four months, and the memory of Cal was still at the front of her mind. Tim wasn’t much like either one, but Rose had no intention of getting involved with anyone until she was ready. It wouldn’t have been fair to Tim, either, for her to get involved with him, since it would have been a rebound relationship, not the most stable kind, and her mind was still dwelling on someone else.
Once they arrived in Texas, everyone scattered to their old homes, except for Rose and Daffodil, who shared a cheap motel room on the outskirts of town. They didn’t make a lot of money with the band, but it was enough for food and shelter, and they weren’t particularly interested in acquiring more things that they would have to drag around with them.
In the small-town environment, everyone was known except Rose, who was soon accepted because of her association with the others. Things were different there from on the road—Rose observed that Jim and Angel gave no indication of their relationship, and Tim, who had still not stopped flirting with her, became more circumspect.
Underneath it all, though, they were still the unruly pack of drifters who had been brought together by a mutual love of music. Although there were creative differences, they still managed to function as a team, and spent several evenings performing in the town’s one bar, which attracted a large portion of the town’s population. There was very little entertainment available—the town didn’t even have a movie theater—so the presence of a band mostly from the town itself was a major draw.
Hard Times also performed at the wedding, with Rose and Tim singing a duet in the church before the ceremony and the whole band playing at the reception. There was a piano available, and Rose, who had taken piano lessons as a child, soon remembered what to do. Her playing wasn’t on a professional level, but she did well enough, especially when she sang along with her music.
The day after the wedding, Tim announced that he had managed to book them for several gigs in small towns near the border, and the band was off again, piling into the van and heading for their next engagement.