Playing House Away From Home

Chapter 17

It was exactly how Elvis expected it to be- the most thrown together tour he had ever been on. They were days from performing, in the midst of rehearsal and utterly unprepared. As well as their crews seemed to get along, working together was an adjustment.

"You got the advantage," Elvis said to Loretta, settling himself down for a break, chest heaving as he exhaled heavily.

"How so?"

"You did duets before."

"So did you. In your pictures."

"I wouldn't call them duets. Not the same as what you did with Ernest Tubb. And now you're working with Conway Twitty."

"We done recorded all those duets too." Her tiny hand landed on his chest. "You're real good and you know it too. You do so much at your shows. Moving and dancing. I don't never dance much."

"I'll dance 'round ya," Elvis offered with a crooked smile. "I might go and tease ya on stage. I do that. Ask them." He gestured toward his background singers. The women shook their heads at his antics.

"Oh yeah?" Loretta raised a brow at him. "I might tease you back. I ain't as shy as I used to be on stage."

"Had no idea you were shy at all, honey."

"What I hear is that you used to be."

Loretta's driver, Jim Webb, who was inexplicably present, came up to them and pressed a water bottle in her hand. "Drink," he demanded.

Loretta chuckled softly at him. As soon as Jim was gone, she handed the water to Elvis.

"You need that a lot more than I do," she said, but Elvis declined.

"I can get my own. Or make the Mafia do it."

"I ain't moving," Red bellowed, a cigar stuck in between his lips. Elvis grabbed Loretta's water bottle after all. He unscrewed it and tossed water over Red's lap, causing the man to almost fall backwards. His cigar tumbled from his lips and he yelped, "Goddammit, E!"

"Hey," Elvis snapped. "Women in the room."

"Them?" He pointed at the background singers and snorted. "Or her?" His finger stabbed in Loretta's direction. "They're all used to it, man."

"Does that mean that they're not women anymore?"

"No." Red waved his hand. "Shut up, will you?"

"Get us some more water, Red."

"Kiss my ass, E," Red shot back.

Elvis shrugged, taking a seat beside Loretta once again. "You think we're gonna manage?"

"We've both been doing this long enough to know how to pretend that we planned it all that way when something goes wrong."

"Not always."

"Once, when I was just starting out, I stumbled over my dress and fell flat on my face. Then another time the Wilburns made me wear high heels and I finally had to kick them off so nothin' like that would happen again."

"Fine by me. But you're sure gonna look short beside me."

"Well, I'm short and you're tall and that's just how it is. You sure can tell in the picture too, I'd reckon."

Lamar strode over and planted himself beside Loretta. "Wanna know what happened to Elvis at a concert once?"

"No," Elvis exclaimed while Loretta said, "Yes."

"No," Elvis insisted, "You don't."

"Oh honey, you just make me wanna know more."

"His suit ripped," Lamar burst out, barely able to finish his sentence before laughter took over. "He was bending down and the thing just-"