REPRESENTED (34 page)

             
“How in the world did you ever learn to play beer pong?” Cassie asked when they had a moment alone.  They watched as some of the hands got a fire going in the fire pit.

             
“Cassie, I was young once too you know.  I haven’t always lived in New York or worn designer clothes.  You’ve known me for a year and a half and you will never know everything there is to know about me.”  She took a swig of her beer; Cassie had made sure they had a case of Corona in the house which she knew Karin preferred.

             
“Yes but some things I think I should know” Cassie began.

             
“Like beer pong?” Karin laughed and drew her into her arms to hold her.  It was nice and relaxed and no one seemed to mind their easy affection.

             
“Yes, like beer pong” Cassie replied as she leaned in for a kiss.

             
One of the hands began to play the guitar and they called Cassie to join him.  She had brought one of hers with her and began singing one of her ballads.  This one was one Karin hadn’t heard before and she soon realized it was because Cassie was singing it directly to her.  It told of the love a country girl had for a Phoenix, how it always seemed beyond her grasp, how she was afraid to touch it because she might get burned but how happy it made her with its beauty how it made her feel born again.  Gus looked from his daughter to Karin several times as she sang the song to her girlfriend, he couldn’t have been prouder of his daughter at that moment.  Karin had tears in her eyes when Cassie finished.  Another of the hands brought out a violin and started playing so everyone could dance.  Cassie pulled Karin protesting out onto the grass to dance with her.

             
“What’s going on?” another cowboy walked up as Gus watched how happy that city gal made his daughter.

             
“Well hello Wally, where the hell you been?” Gus looked at his son.

             
“Had to go up to Nebraska for a horse Molly wanted” he told his daddy as he looked to see what was going on.  He spotted his sister dancing with another woman and looked around to see people’s reactions.  Everyone was having a good time.

             
“Did you bring Molly and the girls?” Gus asked looking behind him.

             
“Naw, she was tired and put them to bed.  I’ll bring them by tomorrow.  I wanted to see Cassie.  Who’s that dancing with her?” he asked as if he didn’t know.  He had heard a lot about the gal from New York City as relayed by his daddy and from Cassie.

             
“That’s the gal” Gus said knowingly.  He didn’t have to name names.  They had known about her for a long time and how happy she made Cassie.  Cassie had bragged endlessly about the deals Karin had gotten for her.

             
“She don’t look like much” he saw her in her jeans, cowboy boots, and camisole.

             
“You shoulda seen her up on Fish today” Gus said with a smile.  He was still impressed by that.

             
“Why, what happened?”

             
“He gave her a lively ride.  She stuck by him too.  He shoulda been called Fishtail the way he bucked and swung trying to get her off him.  She rode clear out until he was done.”

             
“What caused him to do that?” Wally asked surprised.

             
“She’s got one of them contraptions cell phones and it went off when she was riding him.  He didn’t like the sound of it and tried to get her off.  He didn’t and she brought ‘im back herself.”

             
“She upset?”

             
“Didn’t even turn a hair, she fell in the paddock too, got herself all mucked up and didn’t even let it bother her.”  He was bragging now and Wally could hear how impressed he was.

             
He looked at her speculatively now wondering what his sister saw in her.  He had been prepared to be impressed by her New York ways but he didn’t see much.  She was having a delightful time dancing with his sister.

             
Cassie saw her brother standing over by her daddy and she pulled Karin with her to introduce her.  Karin was wearing no makeup and her hair was a mess from having it down all day and dancing.  “Wally!  I want you to meet Karin, Karin this is my disreputable older brother Wally.”

             
“Disreputable eh?” he grinned as he gave his sister a hug and then shook Karin’s hand.  He looked hard but couldn’t see the attraction in the woman and what his sister saw in her.  He thought perhaps she had been stretchin’ the truth a might in what this woman had done for her.

             
“Well, if I told tales...” she began.

             
“Don’t you dare!” he grinned.

             
They bantered back and forth for a while and Karin held Cassie’s hand the entire time watching them appreciatively.  She herself didn’t have such a good relationship with her own brothers so it was interesting to watch the two siblings.

             
Later Karin was drinking her third and final Corona.  Her muscles were letting her know that today had been a little too much.  She had popped some ibuprofen but suspected she was going to be in agony the following morning.  She watched Cassie play her guitar with the violin player and the other guitar player.  Her eyes were sparkling and she was enjoying herself as she sat around the bonfire.  Wally came over to sit with her. 

             
“Enjoying your stay?” he asked.

             
Karin nodded “yes, I’ve had a real pleasant time.”

             
“Heard about you riding Fish today” he mentioned casually.

             
“Fish?” she wondered if she had missed something.

             
“The Appy that Daddy had you up today” he drawled.

             
Karin started to laugh “his name is Fish?”

             
Wally started to smile “yep, we get to runnin’ out of names sometimes.”

             
“Yeah, he gave me a bit of a ride” Karin grinned at the understatement.

             
Wally chuckled knowingly.

              That night Karin was asleep before Cassie even got into bed.  She lay there a while with the light on watching her.  She was astounding.  She was willing to try almost anything and was usually good at it.  She kept surprising her and Cassie was captivated by her.  She loved her so much it almost hurt her heart it was squeezing her so mightily.  She thought about that amazing ride today and how well Karin had done, she could have fallen or been killed!  She was amazing and exciting and she could feel her arousal from the way Karin had looked that day, she tamped it down though as she let Karin sleep.  She thought about her relationship with Karin and how she got along with everyone she had met.  She was pleased that Karin got along so well with her Daddy and Wally, two of the most important people in her life.

              The next day Karin was very stiff but that didn’t keep her from going along when they went into town.  They had lunch at a diner and everyone knew everyone else.  She got introduced and reintroduced to people.  She recognized people from the other night and was able to even call some of them by name which impressed and surprised them.  Cassie was proud of the way everyone welcomed her in.

              As Cassie and Karin took off in the private jet she thought about the few days they had managed to squeeze in together.  Karin had fit in with her family so well.  She wondered if she would fit in with Karin’s boys.  They were close by their phone calls and the fact that Karin saw them at least once a month or so when she went to Milwaukee but in all the time they had been together Cassie had never met them and this for some reason bothered her.  She trusted Karin but she knew with her abilities to make things happen that for some reason this meeting wasn’t happening.  She wondered why.

              Cassie became impossibly busy by the schedule Karin and her teams worked out.  Between appearances on talk shows, promotions for her new album, talks she gave for Glaad and the GLBT as well as concerts she was in a constant state.  Karin saw her maybe once or twice a month with her own busy schedule and she was getting a little tense about it.  “Can’t you come to the fairgrounds?” she asked as she was appearing at the Minnesota State Fair in Minneapolis.

             
“I’m sorry babe, I can’t.  I got so many things to juggle right now.  I miss you too but I just can’t.”  She was in Vancouver with another client and couldn’t drop everything for a booty call or for an attack of stage fright or whatever Cassie needed.  She tried, she tried very hard to be there for her when it mattered but Cassie was becoming more demanding these days.  They had abandoned the bus for a while and she was flying everywhere by jet.  Karin had started another division of Cassie Summers Enterprises after reading that Reba McIntire had her own jet company.  Karin had copied it and it was already doing well.  She hired the best people she could find who were ambitious and didn’t require constant supervision, they just wanted the opportunity.  The return on Cassie’s investment was very good and it provided her with the means to fly from one venue to another easier than driving and a whole lot less time consuming.  She spent more time in Nashville but still not enough time with Karin who was equally busy.

             
“Karin, I want you to move in with me in Nashville, at least then you don’t have to be going to Milwaukee to visit your house there, you can bring your things, your plants, your pets to Nashville.  At least then we would have a chance at seeing more of each other.”

             
Karin loved the sound of that, her heart melted at the offer she also knew it wasn’t feasible at this point in their relationship.  She and her teams had worked hard to get Cassie to this point.  The Grammy’s were in four months, a lot could happen between now and then.  The contract ended with Cassie winning a Grammy.  Karin was amazed that Elliott had allowed that to be a stipulation of the contract.  Otherwise the contract ran out three years after the Grammy’s.  Three years that could take a lot out of the performer and the people who had put her there.  Karin thought Cassie had a better than good chance to win one this year.  Her latest album called ‘Transitions’ had gone Platinum and was rapidly heading towards Double Platinum and they were all excited.  Elliott was thrilled with the amount of money their contract had generated and the new clients it had brought in.  “Baby, that sounds like a great offer...”

             
“But...?” Cassie said firmly.

             
“I can’t, I’m sorry, I just can’t, not now, can you be a little patient?”

             
“Dammit Karin!  We’ve been together for over eighteen months, I barely see you, and we’re out on the road all the time.  I’m not asking you to give up your apartment in New York, just the house in Milwaukee.  I want to see you sometimes!”  She was feeling frustrated and she knew she was sounding like a spoiled brat.  Karin had done so much for her in the last year plus and she was grateful but she wanted Karin too.

             
“Cassie, STOP IT!” she said firmly.  “We will discuss this another time and not NOW.  I’m half the country away from you and I just can’t discuss this now!” she hated that there was nothing she could do about this situation.  They had to ride it out.  She had set in motion something that they had to just deal with as it came.

             
“Will we talk about it though?” Cassie wondered aloud.

             
Karin sighed “Yes, we will talk about it.  Maybe we should talk about getting a house together?”

             
“What’s wrong with the house I have now?” Cassie said defensively.

             
“There is nothing wrong with your house but it is
your
house.  If Nashville is where we are going to live and I understand you want to be where Country music is strongest maybe we should get a house together.”

             
Cassie had to concede that perhaps Karin was right.  After seeing Karin’s tastes in New York though she didn’t want all glass and chrome and straight lines.  She wondered what kind of house Karin had in mind.  She couldn’t live in something boring, cold, and ultra-modern like the apartment, but it all wasn’t like that she thought remembering the warm office that Karin had at the apartment.  “I’ll think about it” she gave her.

             
Karin smiled, now Cassie had something else to worry about.  “Maybe we should think about a whole ‘nother state.  Maybe California?”

             
“California?  Why there?”

             
“It’s warm; the sun shines most of the year.  I kind of like it.  It’s where I met you....” she knew that would warm Cassie’s heart.

             
“If you want warm and sunny, how about Phoenix instead” she smiled feeling the love of remembrance.