Chapter 34

After a while, Jon dialed Katie's home phone, leaving a similar message there. If he didn't hear from her, he figured he would try later in the week maybe after she had some time to cool off. He knew her well enough to know she would be angry for a while, even though this was his first taste of her getting really mad.

Katie's plane landed and she drove home, the tears still coming when she let her mind go back to the events of the morning. She was thankful that the kids were at their dad's until Friday. Parking her SUV, she unlocked the door, leaving her suitcase on the front porch.

Becca had decided to go in to do a little work over the weekend and just so happened to drive past Katie's house right then. She looked over as she passed it, knowing Kat would still be in Nashville. But she noticed a red suitcase that looked a lot like Kat's sitting on the porch. Slowing down she backed up and turned into the driveway. As she got closer to the house she saw it was indeed Kat's suitcase. She noticed the door was open, and walked in quietly. She thought something must have happened for her to be back so early.

Walking through the house she called, "Kat?" She didn't hear an answer, so went out to the back porch. There she found Kat on the porch swing with her head in her hands, bawling her eyes out.

She sat down next to Kat, and put her arms around her, "Hey. Sweetie. What on earth is wrong?" Katie looked up at her, her eyes red and swollen with tears. She cried harder, not able to talk.

"Are the kids ok?" Becca asked, figuring she would get the most important thing out of the way.

Katie nodded, and kept crying. Becca rubbed her back, "OK then, just let it out." She had a feeling this had something to do with Jon. She went into the kitchen to get some tissues for Katie, noticing the answering machine blinking with a message. She checked the caller ID, seeing it was Jon's number. She played the message, hearing Jon's voice. "Kat, please, baby. I'm so sorry. Please call me."

Not knowing what he had done, but knowing he had obviously done something to hurt her friend deeply by the amount of tears Katie was crying, she vowed to get in touch with him herself. She went back out to the porch and sat with Katie, handing her tissues, the whole time rubbing her back.

Finally the stream seemed to slow down, and Katie was more hiccuping than crying. She looked up at Becca and let out a long, deep sigh, then blew her nose. Becca stroked her hair, "Can you tell me what happened?"

Katie nodded, "Its over. Done. You were right. You said be careful. I should have listened. He got mad because I couldn't rearrange my schedule to see him when he wanted me to. It all blew up and I walked out." She shrugged.

"Oh, sweetie. I'm so sorry. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding?" She knew her friend could get hot headed and stubborn at times. After meeting Jon, she couldn't imagine him being that demanding.

Katie shook her head. "No, there was no misunderstanding. It was made very clear." she looked down. "But, better I found out now than later, right? I mean what if I would fallen in love with him or something? That would have been much worse." She looked up at her dear friend, happy at least to have the support.

Becca nodded slowly, still not sure she knew the whole story. But she didn't think it was the time to dig any further. Her friend needed support, not interrogation.

"Well, what do you say we get cleaned up and get out of here?" Becca suggested. "Try and get your mind off of this for at least a bit?"

Katie nodded, letting Becca lead her into the guest bath. Katie washed her face and put her hair in a ponytail. "So, Kat, what would you like to do right now?"

"Lets go for a ride." Katie said, looking through red rimmed eyes.

"Alright, lets go." They walked down to the stable and saddled up the horses, taking off at a fast gallop. The wind against her face, made Katie feel a bit better. Finally slowing Honey down, not wanting to run her too hard, Katie looked over at Becca with a limp smile.

Becca slowed Spirit down, rubbing his neck. Keeping the horses together they talked a bit more about what happened. After hearing the whole story, of course from Kat's point of view, Becca thought it sounded like Jon had a good old male temper tantrum. Even normal men were prone to those, she thought. But she could also see that Katie was angrier than she has been in a long time, maybe since she found out about Kevin's affair. She knew better than to try and convince Katie of anything right now, but she made a mental note to call Jon later in the week. Katie had given Becca his cell number in case she couldn't get through on hers when she as in Nashville. After they got back to the stable and brushed the horses down, Becca suggest they grab a pizza and a movie. Katie figure why not and ended up feeling a bit better, even laughing a bit at the comedy Becca picked out.

Back at her house that night she took a long hot shower, and crawled into bed. A few more tears slipped out as she realized she wouldn't hear his voice before she went to sleep anymore. Eventually she drifted off into a fitful slumber.


Back in Nashville Jon couldn't sleep so spent the better part of the night flipping through the TV, finally falling asleep around 3 a.m. His phone rang at 8 a.m. causing him to wake up abruptly in case it was Katie.

"Hey?" he said without checking the number.

"Hey, Bro! Watcha doing in bed? You sound like you got hit by a mac truck. Did Katie keep you up all night?" Richie said, way too chipper for Jon's liking.

"Oh, God. Rich, no. Well, yeah, but not in the way you think." Jon sat up in bed, resting his forehead in his free hand.

He could hear something in his friend's voice, "Hey, Kid. What's up? Everything cool?"

"Nah, man. Not cool. She's gone." He couldn't put any more thought into it than that, even though he knew Richie was going to dig.

"What do you mean, she's gone?"

"I mean GONE, Rich. As in left. Finished. DONE!" Jon snapped into the phone.

"Aw, Jon. Really? What happened, man?" Richie asked, surprised.

"I was a jerk. I got too demanding and was a jerk. She called me on it and walked out." Jon sounded completely wrecked, Richie thought.

"Wow, what the hell did you do? Katie seems pretty level headed. It must have been big to tick her off that bad."

Jon let out a deep sigh. He wasn't really in the mood to rehash the whole thing, "I wanted her to fly up to New York this month, but she said she was booked solid. I don't know what got into me, but I told her to cancel some clients and come anyway, cause I was too busy to fly down to Boston."

"Oh, I see. You played the rock star card. Her obligations weren't as important as yours, eh?" Richie pegged it.

"Like I said, man, I was a jerk. This is why you never had to worry about her being after me for my fame or money. She has no interest in WHO I am. And she plainly told me that yesterday. And now she is gone." Jon said sadly.

"That sucks, Kid. Really sucks. Yeah, you were jerk. Did you call her?"

"Yeah. She won't take my calls." Jon muttered.

"Ah. Well, give it a few days. Maybe she will cool off." Richie said, trying to sound positive.

"I don't know, Rich. I really hurt her. Bad." Jon said sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Ok, yeah, it was a jerky thing to do. But if she doesn't get over, there are more fish in the sea." Richie tried to make light of the situation. After all, he thought, they had only been seeing each other for a couple of months. Jon would get over it.

"You don't get it, man. This wasn't a fling. I love her." Jon admitted to his friend.

"Whoa, Jon. Slow down, Bro. You've only been with her a couple of months. Did you ever think that maybe your...."

"What, Rich? Looking for someone to replace Dot? Looking for a distraction? Not over the divorce yet?" Jon yelled into the phone. "No. I wasn't doing any of that. None. This was all a huge surprise to me. Believe me. I am more sure about this than I have been about anything in a very long time."

"Ok. Alright." Richie was trying to make sense of it all. He knew Jon was really into Katie. It was obvious to anyone that saw them together. But in no way had he thought his friend had fallen in love with her. Not so soon. "What do you say I fly down and we get you finished up down there? What you got left? A couple of weeks?" Richie offered, figuring he didn't have anything on his plate at the moment. He was still taking it easy and getting himself on a more even keel after the last couple of years.

"I could do it in a week or so, I guess. I want to finish the final recording up north anyway. Yeah, that would be cool. Thanks, man." Jon said, thinking maybe Richie could help after all. Then he could get back to New York and round the guys up a bit early to finish the greatest hits album. After hanging up with Richie, he called David and Tico, telling them he wanted to get to work next week. They were all on board. Good thing, Jon thought. He needed to bury himself in work right now. He figured he would call Katie in a day or so, let the dust settle a little bit. But in the mean time, he couldn't sit around with her vision in his head, tormenting him all day and night. He also thought briefly about calling Becca and seeing if she knew anything or could suggest anything, but thought twice about it since he knew she was wary of him in the first place. He figured she must be telling Katie I told you so.

Jon grabbed a shower after working out in the hotel gym. After he shaved and dressed, he sat down on the sofa in the living room of the suite, picked up his guitar and started to strum.

Misery likes company, I like the way that sounds 
I've been trying to find the meaning, so I can write it down 
Staring out the window, it's such a long way down 
I'd like to jump, but I'm afraid to hit the ground 

I can't write a love song the way I feel today 
I can't sing no song of hope, I got nothing to say 
Life is feeling kind of strange, since you went away 
I send this song to you wherever you are, 
As my guitar lies bleeding in my arms

He hung his head down for a moment, thinking. He vowed to do whatever he could to get her back. Funny, he thought, how life can shock us. And how blind we can be. God, how selfish he had been, he thought. All the years he had been married to Dot, she sort of just held down the fort while he did his thing. He had taken that for granted. But Katie had her own life. She had not grown into his. He realized, if he truly loved her, and wanted her in his life, he was going to have to do whatever he could to embrace her life as well. It wasn't that he didn't want to do that, just that it had never been something he had to do before, he thought. It was a non issue with Dot. But with Katie, it was going to be the whole issue if he wanted this. Hell, if she even gave him another chance. Sighing, he decided to go to a movie or something until Richie flew in later that afternoon.

Chapter 35