'I didn't say that.'
'So you love me, too?'
'I didn't say that either. Good night, Kenny.'
'Good night, Tess.'
She was smiling as she hung up. And, actually, she was pretty sure she loved him.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The second day's session went the way Tess expected. Casey's voice blended with the others so well that there was never a question she was the right choice. When they all sang together it clicked. Tess could tell by catching the eyes of Diane and Estelle that they, too, liked what they heard. When the song ended Diane said with engaging sassiness, 'Whoa, you cook, girl!'
With the approval of Jack and Ralph, Tess asked Casey right there in the studio if she wanted to go on tour, starting at the end of June, it was fun watching her face suffuse with shock.
'You're kidding,' she said. 'Me?'.'Yes, you.'
'But… but why?'
'Because you know my music. Because your voice blends. And because you're easy to get along with.'
Casey dropped onto a chair, and whispered, 'Holy shit.'
And so began one of the busiest months of Tess's life. June was traditionally a wild month in Nashville anyway, kicking off with the Summer Lights festival-a three-day street fair down by the capitol-and a celebrity Softball tournament at Greer Stadium. Then came the TNN
There were times during Fan Fair when Tess did nine or ten radio interviews a day, plus a three-hour stint at her own booth and sometimes another at the label's booth. There were also newspaper and TV interviews, autograph-ings at record stores and, of course, some performing. She lost track of how many times a DJ with a tape recorder stuck a microphone in her face, and asked her to say 'Hi everyone! This is Tess McPhail coming to you from KMPS, Seattle!' Or perhaps he was from Tulsa, or Albuquerque or Sweetwater, Oklahoma. Wherever the DJs were from, during Fan Fair, when they asked you to give them a recorded message to take back home to your fans, you did it. There were meetings with fan club leaders from all over America, even special awards for some of them, dinners with disk jockeys, and special get-togethers with managers of record shops.
It was a grueling week, but Casey stayed beside Tess through its entirety, and Tess was grateful to have her there. She ran errands, brought cold Cokes, sold T-shirts, made phone calls, took snapshots with the cameras the fans handed her so they could have their picture taken with Tess. But most importantly, she smiled through it all and brought along her boundless energy to lift Tess's spirits when, at the end of an eighteen-hour day, the overworked star wanted nothing so badly as to cry with weariness.
For Casey it was novel, exciting. Every new experience was reason for rejoicing: she was getting a firsthand look at the hard work of being a country music star, and deciding it was definitely what she wanted for herself.
When Fan Fair ended, concert rehearsals began.
Mac's stage show was an extravaganza of lights, costumes and equipment requiring a dozen semitrailers to haul it all, and fifty employees to make it work, as well as another twenty local hands in each concert venue. Everybody worked hard preparing for the tour, and Casey was no exception. Since time was tight and workdays long, she continued to live at Tess's house.
She called her father every night, or he called her, and at the end of each conversation he asked to speak to Tess. Often the two of them were on the line longer than he'd been with his own daughter, and it seemed they never lacked for things to talk about.
He told her about his business.
She told him about hers.
He talked about the church choir.
She talked about the concert rehearsals.
He kept his eye on Mary.
She kept her eye on Casey.
He said he'd ordered a new car.
She said she'd ordered her road manager to set aside three tickets in the gold circle for him and Faith and her momma, for the concert in Anaheim, even though Mary hadn't committed yet. Then she asked, 'You're coming, aren't you?'
He paused a telltale beat before answering, 'Yes… I'm coming.'
Her breath seemed in short supply and the one thing she wanted to say was much too significant. She said it anyway.
'What about Faith?'
'I haven't asked Faith.'
'You haven't?'
'No.'
'Why?'
During the long pause before he spoke again, they felt the leap of awareness that signals change. At his end of the wire Kenny leaned back against the kitchen counter, staring down his legs. At her end she was lying on top of her bedspread, staring at her index finger lying motionless in a curl of the phone cord. Both of them were reliving the night of the wedding reception. His voice, when he finally answered, was slightly gruffer, slightly quieter.
'I think you know, Tess,' he said.
A long silence passed, filled with the intimacy of the unspoken. It was the first moment they seemed to run out of things to say.
Finally he said, 'Tess?' as if she might have gone somewhere.
'I'm glad,' she admitted.
Then she heard him release a breath as if he'd been suffocating, too.
Plans began racing through her head. 'I'll get you rooms at the Beverly Wilshire, where Casey and I will be staying. It's an hour's ride in to L.A. from Anaheim, but I want to show you Rodeo Drive and take Momma to lunch at Ivy-if I can get her to say she'll come-and buy you something exquisite at Battaglia. I'll have my road manager take care of everything-limos, tickets, backstage passes, everything. Kenny, I'm so happy.'
'So am I,' he said. 'And I'll work on Mary.'
'Yes, do. Well, listen… it's late.'
'Yeah.'
'I guess we should say good night, shouldn't we?'
'Yes, we should.'
'Well… good night then.'
'Good night.'
'Kenny, wait!'
He waited. 'I'm here.'
'About Faith…' She felt obliged to add, 'Just make sure.'
'I'm sure.'
'All right, then. See you soon.'
'Good night again.'
' 'Night, Kenny.'
At last they hung up, reluctantly, as always.
The days flew between then and the Anaheim concert. Tess spoke to her mother almost daily, trying to
