Lost in Texas Ch. 05

"Hey gorgeous," Laurie said at last. "You're not sulking for some odd reason, are you?"

"No," Heather said, holding Laurie close. "Just trying to absorb it all. That was us out there tonight. I wasn't dreaming, was I?"

"You weren't dreaming, sweetie. You were just making dreams come true."

"Hmm," Heather hummed as she and Laurie exchanged another kiss. "A philosopher and a poet," she said. "How did I get so lucky?"

Laurie giggled and blushed. "It wasn't entirely luck," she said, nuzzling noses with Heather. "Part of it was your fantastic ass!"

"Is that all you think about? Sex?" Heather and Laurie exchanged a laugh. Except when they had fought or had gone separate places on the holidays, the two of them probably hadn't gone for more than three days without engaging in some kind of sexual activity. And Heather was just as guilty of being amorous as her girlfriend.

"So," started Heather, "ready to conquer the world?" she asked, pointed her chin in the direction of the assembled mob.

"Where you go, I follow," Laurie said. "Mostly because I want to stare at your ass."

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The epilogue: Twelve years later . . .

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Heather was sitting on her couch, waiting for the camera crew to get set up. There was a time she never thought anyone would want to interview her, but she found herself doing quite a number of them. For the sake of her convenience, the crew and the nice man conducting the interview had driven all the way out to the sprawling ranch house that she and Laurie had shared for almost a decade. They had lived together in an apartment until the house was built, as it had been a custom job. 'Twelve years,' she thought. 'Has it really been that long?'

How much had happened in the decade plus since the band had played that Eagles show? To say that the band had met with some success would be an understatement of tremendous degree. They had produced four multi-platinum albums in the prior decade and were planning their fifth. They had been labeled by Rolling Stone magazine and the Grammy Awards committee as the Band of the Decade, and were one of the best selling bands in recent American history. They had pulled off three successful tours as headliners, two of which went international. CNN had decided to do a weeklong special on the group. They had talked to all the members of the band and their "supporting cast." That included the members of the band, Laurie's father, Mr. Price, Liz, Alice, Jane, Michelle and Freddie. What a decade they had all had!

Freddie, Michelle and Jane were still running the Ghost Town Bed and Breakfast, which was only a twenty-minute drive from Laurie and Heather's house. The business was quite successful for them. They had a staff of about ten people besides themselves, and the place had been listed as "the perfect family getaway" in People magazine's review of that type of business. Jane's health had held up over the years, as had her relationship with Freddie and Michelle.

Jenny and Mike had broken up within a year of the concert, but they had done so as friends. After a whirlwind romance that included a lot of threesomes, the two had realized that there were long-term issues that would have made marriage difficult. Mike wanted to settle down and start a family right away, while Jenny loved the life of a rock star. Mike met a nice girl and had invited the entire band to the wedding. Jenny had a couple of relationships after Mike, until finally marrying a guy named David Johnson, the group's tour manager.

Mary had taken an interest in the business aspect of the music industry, and actually helped produce some albums for some up-and-coming bands during her free time. Strangely, the girl who had dated a different guy each week BEFORE being in a member of a successful band had needed to become a rock'n'roll star before she settled down. Her friends had all made fun of her for being the only person to mellow out when she was on tour. She had started dating the lead singer of one of the hot boy-bands at the time, and the two were still together. Mary had to bow out early of the group's second tour so she could give birth to the first of her two children. She had hired a full-time nanny to accompany her and her children whenever they went on tour. This was an idea that would influence some of her band-mates later on.

The strangest change the band underwent was when Alice left the group after their first tour. Her primary love had become songwriting, and that first tour had taken her away from Liz for longer than she wanted. The two women were still together and still playing their sex games. Alice was still considered a member of the band and was given her props on all their albums. This was also due to the fact that Alice wrote about eighty-five percent of Lost in Texas's material. She did do some dates with them when the band's tour came nearby, and she was instrumental in finding her own replacement. They had been listening to some demos by applicants when they found a girl who could apparently play almost any musical instrument. The girl's name was Audrey Barker, a twenty-three-year-old from a small farming town in Nebraska. She had been born mute, but had so much love for music that she had learned every instrument she could. She was a thin girl with short brown hair who was as shy as could be when she got called up to meet the band and audition. The members of the band loved her the moment they met her, and they couldn't imagine a better replacement for Alice. It was good, because she had been the only person they had bothered to call. After Heather had helped put a little bit of muscle on the girl's frame, she had started leaving a trail of broken hearts behind her. Mary was happy because it meant she wasn't the only completely heterosexual member of the band anymore.

And then there was Heather and Laurie. The two were just as in love as they had been that first summer down on the ranch. The decision to build this house and live together had been easy. Five years after they had met, the Supreme Court of the United States had declared that the Defense of Marriage Act violated the Constitution, allowing a lawsuit filed by a number of gay couples to go forward. Soon thereafter, gay marriages (or "civil unions") were allowed. The band had been playing in Madrid, Spain at the time. Heather had told Jane to call her as soon as the final decision was handed down. When that call came, Heather had proposed to Laurie on stage in front of about thirty thousand people. To no one's surprise, Laurie said "yes" with tears of joy in her eyes. Afterwards, Heather had taken Laurie's last name. She wanted to leave her own name behind.

Several years later, the group had decided to take some time off from touring and spend a bit longer putting their next album together. The entire crew had all bought houses in the same area, except for Alice. She and Liz had to live about two hours away due to the proximity to Liz's new workplace. But Alice still made the trip out to visit her friends at least once a week while the group was in town, and she talked to someone from the group at least once on day on the phone. Each member of the group was working on their own projects, though each of them made it clear that NONE of them had any desire to go solo. Their personal projects were only going forward if they didn't interfere with band activity. Heather was working on an album with consisted of cover tunes that she had always wanted to sing. From Harry Chapin's "Mr. Tanner" to Warren Zevon's "Lawyers, Guns and Money," she was able to pay some tribute to the artists that had influenced her. And she even included Don McLean's "Babylon." It was almost two decades since she had run crying from a high school gymnasium stage, but she was finally able to sing that song. And like Johnny Cash had done over a decade earlier, the album was just her and a guitar. The CD was going to be released that Christmas season, and all proceeds were going to Heather's favorite charity. The charity in question was a Dallas based group that raised awareness for and provided support to the victims of domestic violence.

Sitting around and watching Mary's children playing at the groups numerous recording sessions had a tremendous impact on Laurie and Heather. They had actually begun discussing adoption, much to everyone's surprise. Heather was surprised herself. Laurie had always wanted to be a mom, but doctors had told her that, due to some strange anatomical anomaly, that carrying a child to term could actually be dangerous for her. Laurie had been understandably disappointed, but the idea of adoption was on the table. What surprised people was Heather's willingness to go through with it. Even she was shocked at how badly she wanted a family. It wasn't that she would have been unhappy if the only other member of her family had been Laurie, but Heather wanted to be a mother. Laurie had lovingly reminded her of their conversation on the trip back from her mother's funeral. Heather had always fantasized about being part of a family. Suddenly, she had a chance to make that fantasy a reality. They had gone ahead with their plans to adopt, but Heather had dropped another bombshell. She wanted to have a child of her own. Laurie had been overjoyed, and the two had found a cousin of Laurie's that was willing to donate the sperm. This way, the child would be biologically related to both of his or her mothers. After the miracle of artificial insemination and the passing of nine months, Heather had given birth to twin boys.

Their names were Mark and Matthew, and they were precious beyond words. Of course, the birth itself had been a circus of almost epic proportions. Laurie had wanted to be in the room during labor, but had passed out early in the event. Mary, having endured this process herself, was coaching a very distressed Heather who wanted nothing more than to be doped up and awoken when it was all over. When that request was denied, she had let loose with a stream of expletives that would make a sailor blush with shame. The young, the old and a number of people in between had gone running for cover to escape the verbal tirade. Michelle, one of the only people who didn't seem to be "grossed out" by the whole process, had later told Heather that it had been some of the most original swearing that she had ever heard in her life. Coming from a muscular cowgirl who had spent some time on the rodeo circuit, that was high praise indeed.

But then came "the moment." It was that point in time that Heather held both her sons in her arms for the first time. Their looks of innocence were mirrored in Heather's own face. Her eyes were opened wide as she looked down at those little faces. Laurie had come around and had moved to the bedside. Heather looked at her wife with total wonder on her face. "Did I do this?" she asked.

"Yes," Laurie had said, love emanating from her every pore. "Yes, you did." Heather had handed Laurie one of THEIR sons. Laurie was just as captivated as Heather had been. She simply hadn't sweated as much.

The years since that moment had been the happiest of the two girls' lives. Doctors had been able to help Laurie induce lactation so that both women could breast feed, helping her and Heather establish a greater sense of equal participation in their relationship. They also had adopted a little blonde-haired girl named Margaret who had been three years old at the time. Like Mary, they had hired a full-time nanny to help with the children, particularly when they were on the road. The lady they hired was the granddaughter of Amelia, the woman who had been Laurie's nanny when she was younger. Their little family had gotten a little larger. And having people willing to baby-sit wasn't going to be a problem. At least one of their band-mates or one of the women at the ranch was over almost every day when Laurie and Heather were home. Margaret, now six years old, absolutely ADORED her Aunt Freddie, Aunt Michelle and Aunt Jane. The boys had grown up around these women and were fairly comfortable around them, though they did tend to cling to the legs of one mother or the other from time to time.

At that moment, both her sons and her daughter were sitting on another couch with Laurie, who had her hands full trying to keep their mob sitting still for Heather's interview. Watching the little rascals interact with the still somewhat childlike Laurie brought a smile to Heather's face. Mark was trying to crawl over the back of the couch, but Yesenia, their nanny, was there to stop him from falling off the back. Laurie smiled at the sweet woman before she went back to trying to clean a food stain off Matthew's shirt. But finally, it was time to start the interview.

The interviewer sat down in a chair next to the camera array and smiled. Margaret had peppered him with questions of her own about what kind of questions he was going to ask her mother. Then she had shown her favorite doll to every member of the camera crew. Now she was sitting over next to Laurie, waving wildly at one of the cameramen who was trying very hard not to be distracted by the young girl's overwhelming "cuteness."

"So," started the man conducting the interview with a smile on his face. The two of them were temporarily distracted again when Matthew got loose from Laurie and came running over to hug one of Heather's legs. She picked him up and nuzzled noses with him until he started giggling and wrapped his tiny arms around Heather's neck. She patted him on the back a couple of times, then put him back on the ground.

"Go sit next to Momma Laurie while Momma Heather talks to this nice man. If we don't finish this up, we might not have time to go over to Aunt Jane's and play with the doggies." Matthew's eyes opened wide and he scurried over to Laurie and climbed into her lap next to his brother. Jane and her partners had recently gotten a couple of new puppies, and the boys were obsessed with them. Laurie wrapped her arms around both boys and hugged them, smiling at Heather all the while. "Sorry," the blonde woman said. "They're slippery little rascals," she finished as she tussled the boys' hair.

"So," said Heather with a grin, turning her attention back to the interviewer. The man had been getting a chuckle out of seeing the two young women try and wrangle their little pack of devils.

"I guess the best place to begin," the man said, "is at the beginning. We've already told the world about how successful this group has been and the influence they've had on new artists, particularly women. So how, in your own words, did all this come about?"

Heather was still smiling. "I guess you could say it all started when we got lost in Texas . . ."

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The End