When You Come Back To Me Again - 1. When You Come Back To Me Again

The weird events of the previous spring were nearly forgotten as the fun of summer was on everyone’s mind in Pleasant View as June, 2014 was drawing to a close. Well, everything except, of course, for the major traffic headache caused by the bridge being out downtown. The state and federal government had promised to build a new U.S. 25 Bridge as quickly as possible, and in fact work was already well underway on the new span. Meanwhile, getting from one side of downtown to the other meant backtracking three or four miles in either direction, then taking the interstate to cross the Shawnee River, then backtracking a couple of miles back into town from the other exit.

Barney Finkster-Smith was working his queeny fingers to the bone, as his flower shop and wedding planning business was in its peak season. Still, he found time to walk over to the Ramblin’ Rose and meet his hunky husband, Billy Jack Smith, for lunch on that Wednesday afternoon. “Hi babe!” Barney exclaimed as Billy Jack plopped his tall, stocky frame onto a bar stool next to Barney’s lithe, smaller body.

“Hey darlin’” Billy Jack grinned back. “Shew, I’m burning up, air is out in that damn delivery truck and I’ll be ‘til 6:00 the best I can do getting everything delivered.”

“Mmm but when you come home all hot and sweaty, we can take a shower together and I can get you ALL soapy and clean!” Barney rasped, feeling his dick twitch in his khaki cargo shorts at the thought.

“You are the two horniest old bastards I’ve ever seen in my life!” Destiny Rose Jenkins, the tall, beautiful 26-year old African American waitress, said with a grin as she brought Billy Jack and Barney their lunch. Just enough makeup perfectly accented her beautiful complexion which was the color of light mocha, and her long, beautiful ebony hair was neatly braided and pulled back.

“Oh, honey, I just know that one of these days we are going to be saying ‘we knew you when’,” Barney replied, returning Destiny Rose’s smile.

“Would sure as hell beat working all day here,” Destiny Rose admitted. “Even though I have to admit I do enjoy this. We’ll see what happens, I guess,” she added wistfully.

After Destiny Rose walked away, Billy Jack said to Barney, “You know, I think she really does have a shot in this thing. She sings like an angel, and it is way the hell past time the country music business finally had a major female African American star.”

“So true,” Barney agreed. “If there is any justice, she’ll win the whole damn thing here and go on to Nashville for sure.”

The guys were referring to the fact that in addition to juggling her waitress job and college classes, Destiny Rose (she just used her first and middle names for her budding singing career) was now one of the top ten finalists in the Kentucky Country Music Highway Showdown, the winner of which would compete in a nationally-televised contest at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville later that summer. The winner out of that one-off live show would get a recording contract with a major label, and at least theoretically be on the path to country music stardom that so many Kentuckians, from Loretta Lynn to the Judds, had taken before them.

Barney turned a bit wistful now himself, “You know, I can’t help but wonder where Jenny Faye wound up. She got one hell of an awful raw deal back then, the girl should have been the female Charley Pride, but hell, it is a wonder that Charley Pride himself didn’t get done the same damn way. People were crazy as hell back then – some of them still are.”

Jenny Faye Smith, Barney recalled, had been a similar young, up and coming African American country singer from these parts, four and a half decades earlier. She made records for a tiny little regional label up in Rosemont, and they were the kinds of records that remarkably got both country and R&B airplay and appealed to both white and black listeners. Her fame was soon becoming known outside of just Eastern and Southern Kentucky and the surrounding areas.

“When You Come Back to Me Again,” a smooth, soulful ballad that seemed to seamlessly blend the mountain roots of bluegrass music with the Muscle Shoals sound of soul that was so popular back then in the late ‘60s, managed, even without a major label’s A&R department to promote it, to reach the 70-something positions on the Billboard country singles chart, and it barely cracked the Top 50 on the R&B chart as well.

Just when she was poised to get a major Nashville recording contract with the help of Tom T. Hall, some local redneck assholes had grabbed her, then raped her and cut her face one night as she was leaving a show in a local honky-tonk, in what was one of the most horrible incidents of the Civil Rights era to occur as far north as Pleasant View. Governor Bert T. Combs himself had sent Jenny Faye flowers, and the physical and emotional scars both healed better than they would have on a less strong lady, but Jenny Faye soon left Kentucky – and the music business – both behind for good, seemingly never to be heard from again.

“Yeah,” Billy Jack agreed, “She was a hell of a singer too, and those sons of bitches should rot in hell for what they did to her back then.” Billy Jack remembered hearing some of Jenny Faye’s regional recordings, especially “When You Come Back to Me Again,” before he had left Kentucky for California a few years after the attack on Jenny Faye. She really had been a great singer back then, just as Destiny Rose was now.

Fortunately, most people in that part of Kentucky were no longer blatant racists, and even for the minority who still were, violence against those of a different skin color was very uncommon. Major progress had also been made on gay rights, and while the bigots were still somewhat more vocal at times in their opposition to LGBTQ folk these days, physical violence based on a person’s sexuality would fortunately be considered unusual were it to occur nowadays.

Soon, their lunch ended and Billy Jack and Barney parted ways, both saying their goodbyes to Destiny Rose. Barney thought that even Billy Jack would be surprised to learn the secret that Destiny Rose had confided to Barney only a few months before. Quite a coincidence, Destiny Rose choosing to confide a secret to Barney, just as Jenny Faye had once confided a secret of her own.

As Barney crossed Main Street that hot afternoon, he thought how many people in this damn town would be surprised to know the kinds of secrets he had kept for different ones of them through the years. Hell, a lot of them would be surprised to know that there was actually way more to Barney at all than just a limp-wristed, stereotypical persona and the best damn flower arranging skills in the tri-state area.

By seven that night, Billy Jack and Barney were both home in their cute, comfortable ranch house which was located in a nice neighborhood, and just a few streets over from the inn which Brad and Jack lived in and operated. Within a few minutes of Billy Jack getting home, the two lovers were naked in the shower together, Barney relishing washing every inch of his tall, stocky, furry bear, and Billy Jack returning the favor.

Soon they had rinsed and were making out passionately in the warmth of the water that was running all over their naked bodies. Age was just a number to them both, and they were both still as horny and virile in their early ‘60s as they had been in their ‘20s. Barney only wished they had known each other all those years before, but being together the last few years had been heaven, though.

Barney was soon bent over gripping the chrome railing in the shower as Billy Jack gave him a royal ass rimming, his wet ‘stache and goatee brushing against Barney’s cheeks as his tongue probed. Soon Barney could stand no more. “Oh, GAWD!” He rasped, “I need you inside me NOW, baby!”

Billy Jack did not have to be asked twice. He soon plunged his bare, wet, rock hard, exceptionally fat dick deep inside his husband and began fucking the lean, smaller man with much passion and force. As they were both moaning and cumming together there in their shower, a few streets over Brad and Jack were sitting out on the back porch of what had once been their first house together with a friend.

Trooper Gunnar Donaldson had become a very close friend, as well as a fairly frequent light three-way play partner with Brad and Jack over the past couple of months. This had all happened quickly once Gunnar had leased and moved into the small house Brad and Jack had first lived together in, which was located diagonally across the street from the sprawling antebellum inn where they lived now.

Just as Jack had done at around the same point in his life, Gunnar had recently realized that he was gay. He had lost interest in sex with women, and lately really only fooled around with Brad and Jack. Maybe that was because they were nice and conveniently located nearby. And, maybe it was because he knew they didn’t judge him for deciding what he had about his sexuality, or for not being quite ready to go “all the way” with a man yet. As much as he loved the jack off and oral play he occasionally engaged in with Brad and Jack just as fun among friends, he felt like he wanted his first full-blown sex to be with a special man of his own, somehow.

“We know,” Brad agreed as Gunnar was clumsily trying to discuss all of this with Brad and Jack. “Look, Gunnar, you are a nice guy, and so totally fucking built and hot. We love fooling around with you, obviously and are fine with not going any further. And I think you will eventually find a great guy of your own.”

By this point, the three friends had each did basically everything sexual with one another a few times, except for anal, and enjoyed it all tremendously. However, Brad and Jack only did bareback now if they were going to fuck, and currently that meant that they only did anal at all with just one another and their best friends Justin and Eric.

“Fuck all this heavy talk,” Gunnar finally said, standing up then, “Let’s go swimmin’, y’all!”

Just like that, the Greek-statuesque trooper pulled his wife beater over his head, dropped his shorts, and as he was going commando, soon bounded buck naked across the yard, up the ladder and into the big above ground backyard pool. In seconds, Jack and Brad both laughingly stripped one another and soon the three friends were all splashing and laughing like overgrown children in the cool pool, all totally bare-assed naked. Jack and Brad loved how this had all worked out; it was fun to fool around in their old pool and their old house with Gunnar. And they had both missed their skinny dipping sessions in this same pool; they couldn’t very well do that in the inn’s much larger and nicer swimming pool with guests seemingly always around!

If anyone could have seen the scene in the fenced-in back yard, it would have been a something-for-everyone gay wet dream. There was Jack, the black-haired, blue eyed, tall, stocky, hairy police chief with an exceptionally thick cock just like his dad's and those big bull balls.

There was Brad, the tall and chubby, somewhat nerdy guy with a very thick dick of his own, and then there was Gunnar, who was simply stunning, blonde hair, blue eyes, and a totally ripped body, dusted perfectly with blonde fur which looked really fucking good all wet at that moment.

And Gunnar had a huge, veiny, porn-worthy nine inch dick, as well. For the past few months, ever since an impromptu four way jackoff session with the local UPS guy in the back of Jack’s truck one night, Gunnar had become increasingly close to Brad and Jack, especially since becoming their tenant and neighbor.

Their other hot friend, Ronnie the UPS Guy, would potentially be someone good for Gunnar to get to know, Brad and Jack thought, but he had seemingly disappeared. The UPS office just said he was on an extended leave of absence, and no one seemed to be able to reach him.

Before long, Gunnar, Brad, and Jack were all rock hard as they horse-played together there in the backyard pool. “Brad tells me this is where you two first made out and jacked each other off when you first got together,” Gunnar said with a wicked grin.

“Bradley,” Jack said, play-scolding with a big grin, “Must you tell all our dirty secrets?”

“Yep!” Brad said grinning. “Truth is, Gunnar, that first time I was here, this one actually jacked off all over your sliding kitchen doors while he was watching me jack off out here without me knowing it, and didn’t tell me until later. Not, that is, until after we had already gotten really hot together on the deck by this pool.

“I think I need a reenactment!” Gunnar said, laughing. He kept on until the guys laughingly agreed.

Soon Brad and Jack were seated next to one another on the deck that surrounded the pool, their legs dangling in the water, stroking each other’s cocks as they kissed hotly, both remembering the electricity that had passed between them back when they had that first sexual contact right here on this spot, and best of all, still feeling it now.

“FUCK!” Gunnar exclaimed, as he stood naked in the middle of the pool, stroking his own huge rod as he watched Brad and Jack make out and jack each other with true passion.

“Then we did THIS,” Jack said, completely turned on by having Gunnar watch their little show.

Soon Brad was sitting on Jack’s thighs there on the poolside deck, both of them still dripping wet and blissfully buck naked, with his legs wrapped around the hot police chief, and they continued to jack each other, to the point that they were both groaning between their kisses soon. Their cocks were pressed against one another as were their balls; Jack was squeezing both of their dicks in his big hand, jacking them furiously now.

They were oblivious, until he plopped down beside them, that Gunnar had even gotten out of the pool. The hot trooper stuck his head in between them, and before they could even react, he began to suck Brad and Jack’s cocks together at the same time, gagging occasionally but bobbing his head in pleasure as he continued stroking his own throbbing dick.

“Oh FUCK, Gunnar!” Jack moaned.

“God, YEAH!” Brad groaned in agreement. “I’m gonna fuckin’ cum!!!”

“I – UGH! – Am too!” Jack grunted.

In a swift motion, Gunnar plopped his head off Jack and Brad’s cocks just as they both hit the point of no return, and hopped up to a kneeling position just as he too began to blow an enormous, hot , sticky load, moaning and yelling in pure pleasure as he did so. They all moaned and groaned as their cum flew out simultaneously, and in this position, they all came all over each other. They collapsed together there on the deck.

“God, that was amazing!” Gunnar said after a long moment.

“Yes it was!” Jack agreed, as Brad only nodded and smiled in total contentment next to them both.

“Let’s go get cleaned up, guys!” Gunnar suggested.

Soon, the three of them were all in the bathroom together. The big shower Jack had installed when he and Brad first got together was big enough for them all to squeeze into, and the wet closeness just served to get the three friends horny as hell all over again as they showered. Soon they were dried off, and Brad and Jack were about to head back out to retrieve their clothes.

Jack told Gunnar, “Well, we’ve got to get over to the house and get changed if we are going to get to the singing contest on time this evening.”

“Oh hell,” Gunnar agreed, “I completely forgot about that!”

A short time later, Brad, Jack, Gunnar, Justin and Eric were all piled into Eric’s spacious SUV, heading over to the outskirts of Smithville for the Kentucky Country Music Highway Showdown. Billy Jack and Barney were meeting the younger men there, and they all had good reserved seats together for the contest, which was being held in the historic theater at the Rentiss Hollow Hoedown complex, which was the venerable 75-year-old local country music tourist trap.

Jack’s mother, Alice, had driven down for the contest as well from her home further up in Eastern Kentucky, and she hugged Brad and Jack both warmly, and greeted her ex-husband and Barney and all of the guys’ other friends all warmly as well before they all went inside the theater. As they got seated Brad looked around for a minute, remembering 20 years before when he had worked here as an awkward, self-denying teenager. Damn how times have changed he thought.

Midway into the show, it was Destiny Rose’s turn to sing two songs. She breezed through an enthusiastic and well-received cover of Loretta’s “You’re Lookin’ at Country” first. She then thanked the cheering crowd, and spoke. “Y’all all know Miss Loretta, who wrote and sung that song I just sang,” she said. “Now, I’m gonna sing one that was written and sung by another Kentucky girl back around that same time. Some of y’all might just remember Jenny Faye Smith, and this great old song,” Destiny Rose concluded.

The lights dropped, and a blue spotlight perfectly illuminated Destiny Rose’s sexy, low-cut blue dress with sequins around the bust, as the downbeat combination of bass, organ, and steel guitar that provided the unique country/blues kickoff for the old song began. Destiny Rose didn’t know it, but one of the guys in the house band had actually played on the original recording of this one, and like everyone else he wondered what had ever happened to Jenny Faye Smith.

Destiny Rose began to slowly sing the song’s chorus.

"The flowers will be blooming, just like they used to do

Darlin’ I know the moon will be just a little bit brighter too

And tonight I just live and hope for that sweet time then,

When you come back to me again."

Destiny stretched out the word ‘flowers’ and the word ‘then,’ and put a tear in her voice on the title line, all just exactly like Jenny Faye had done decades before, and by the time she finished the soul/country ballad, the entire theater was on its feet, cheering enthusiastically. The other contests all took their turns, but by the end of the show there was no doubt who would win.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said the Rentiss Hollow Hoedown’s emcee, “It is now my honor to introduce a member of the Kentucky Country Music Hall of Fame, as well as the Country Music Hall of Fame, and Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in Nashville. The pride of Olive Hill, Kentucky and Fox Hollow, Tennessee, here’s the ol’ storyteller, Mr. Tom T. Hall!”

The crowd gave Hall a long and genuine standing ovation as he walked to the center mic. His gait was slower now, his face more wrinkled, his gray hair thinning. But, the same twinkle was in Tom T.’s eye that probably had been there back when he wrote “Harper Valley P.T.A.”, “I Love,” and all those other great tunes for other artists and himself.

“Y’all know I’m retired now,” Tom T. said, “and it takes a lot to get me on a stage these days. But, when they asked me to announce the winner who will represent my native state in Nashville for this big televised contest, I just couldn’t say no. Especially when they told me I’d get to sing one with’em!”

The crowd chuckled warmly, and then Hall continued. A beautiful young lady handed him an envelope, he opened it, and read: “Ladies and Gentlemen, the 2014 winner of the Kentucky Country Music Highway Showdown is…Miss Destiny Rose!”

No one in the theater was cheering any louder than Brad, Jack and their friends at that moment. It was amazing that their favorite hometown waitress was going to be representing the state in this major televised talent show in Nashville in just a few weeks. The guys all truly loved Destiny Rose, and the Ramblin’ Rose might not be named after her, but it might as well be, as she was the heart of the favorite local hangout ever since she had been working there.

Soon Destiny Rose was singing “Harper Valley P.T.A.” as a duet with Tom T. Hall, and as she and the country music legend hugged warmly at the end of the song, as the crowd launched into yet another standing-O, Tom T. said what everyone was thinking at that magical moment. “Y’all are going to hear a LOT more from this little lady, I guarantee it!”

He then caused Destiny Rose to burst into more happy tears, and the crowd to cheer even more when he added. “This young lady IS going to win in Nashville,” Tom T. continued, “and I want to promise her – and all of you – something right here tonight. I’ll write her a song for her first album when she wins and gets that record deal!”

As they drove home that night, behind the SUV in which Brad, Jack and their friends were riding, Barney and Billy Jack each squeezed a hand of Destiny Rose, who sat on the seat of Billy Jack’s new Chevy pickup between them. “I knew you could do it,” Barney said sincerely. “You don’t let nothing stop you or get you down now, sugar.” Destiny Rose returned Barney’s smile, but a knowing glance passed between them too, unseen by Billy Jack there in the dark. They both knew the secret that Destiny Rose carried with her, and Barney just hoped it wouldn’t stand in the way of what was hopefully to come for the young singer.