All in the Game (11 page)

“She does not!” protested Shannen.

“Whether she does or doesn't, I'm betting those merry pranksters decided to see what would happen when they sent Mr. Adventure Guide to
your
door.”

“Jed couldn't have used my sister. I'd have known somehow, I know I would. But that ‘baby' garbage of his is making me sick.” Shannen was seething. “He has the unmitigated gall to think that Lauren would let him into her room and—”

“He seems
convinced
Lauren would let him in,” Ty amended. “Otherwise, he wouldn't have come up here in the first place, would he?”

“I'm going to find out right now. Jed!” Her voice went velvety smooth, the anger magically disappearing from her tone but not from her glittering blue eyes. “Give me a minute. I have to get dressed.”

“No need for that, babe,” Jed called back.

A murderous expression crossed her face. Shannen whipped on her dress.

“Shannen, no! Whatever you're thinking of doing, don't do it.” Ty pulled on his khaki shorts and T-shirt, dressing as swiftly as Shannen.

“Hide,” Shannen ordered. “In the closet or the shower. Or out on the balcony. I'll close the curtains so he can't see you out there.”

“Hide?” Ty was appalled. “You're joking, right?”

“No. I'm going to have a little talk with Jed and—”

“You don't want any witnesses?” Ty grimaced. “As for me hiding, forget it. I am not going to hide anywhere. People only do that in soap operas or wacky sitcoms. We're doing a reality show here.”

“This is not any show at all, it's our life,” Shannen said darkly. “And if Jed, that lawsuit-happy creep, sees you here, you could very well find yourself getting sued by him.
Or even fired by Clark Garrett for getting sued. You can't lose your job, Ty. You're no longer rich, remember? You work for a living, and take it from someone who always has, that means staying employed. Now, hide!”

She gave him a push toward the balcony and stalked to the door to the hall, flinging it open.

“Hello, Jed.”

“Hi, baby.” A tousled, wrinkled Jed leaned against the doorjamb. “Surprised to see me?”

“More than you'll ever know.” Shannen extended her arm. “Come in.”

“Oh, yeah, babe.” Jed ambled into the room. “Let's just—”

There was a loud rattle, and the door to the balcony was opened and shut with a bang. Shannen and Jed simultaneously turned to see Ty rushing toward them.

“Thank God I made it in time.” Ty pretended to pant, as if he were out of breath from running and catapulting onto the balcony and bursting into the room. “The guys told me what they'd done. Jed, this isn't Lauren, it's Shannen, and she isn't very pleased with what's been going on.”

Jed's jaw dropped. His eyes flew to Shannen's face, which was a mask of sheer rage. “Ah, man!” he gasped, and headed for the door.

“You're not going anywhere until you tell me why you came skulking up here looking for my sister!” Shannen caught a handful of Jed's shirt.

He was drunk and off guard and she was pumped with rage, which rendered her surprisingly strong. She gave his shirt a forceful pull, and he stumbled and hit his head on the door frame.

“Ow! You hit me! I didn't do anything wrong!” Jed wailed. “Your sister said she—”

“I didn't hit you, you tripped, you clod! And don't you dare say my sister's name!” Shannen grabbed the knob and swung it back, almost clipping him with it.

“He didn't say it, Shannen,” Ty pointed out calmly. Swiftly, he caught her around the waist with one arm and pried her hand from the knob.

“You'd better get out of here now,” he warned Jed. “Can't you tell just by looking at her that she has homicide in her heart?”

“I-I'm going. I'm gone!” Jed ran down the hall, disappearing from sight as he turned a corner.

Shannen was so furious, she kicked the door shut. “That jerk, that creep, that—”

“Calm down,” ordered Ty, “or else I'll put you in the shower and turn on the cold water. That'll cool you off.”

“Oh, just try it!” cried Shannen. “I dare you to try it.”

Her eyes were flashing, her face flushed with fury. Ty started to laugh; he couldn't help himself. “You're a fierce one, Shannen. No wonder Jed ran out of here like a spooked horse. You scared him silly.”

“You did your part, pretending to crash onto the balcony like…like Zorro. And telling him I had ‘homicide in my heart'? Where did that come from?” Shannen gulped back a giggle. Her anger was fast morphing into pure giddiness.

“It was a line from one of the soaps I worked on. I stored it away for future use, but this was the first time I ever thought it might apply.” A slow grin crossed Ty's face. “It's a line that requires a certain kind of overblown situation like, uh, this one.”

“It's true, scenes like this don't come along every day,” agreed Shannen.

“For that, we can only be thankful,” Ty said dryly.

Shannen smiled with satisfaction. “I really did scare the rat, didn't I?”

“You scared him.” There was a teasing glint in Ty's dark eyes. “I'm curious as to what you planned to do with him, though.”

She shrugged. “I didn't have any real plan—I thought I'd improvise as I went along. I just wanted him to know
he'd made a major mistake trying to…to seduce my sister, and to make sure he wouldn't try it again.”

“Shannen, what if Jed had every reason to believe that Lauren would welcome him?”

“I just don't believe that, Tynan. Obviously, Jed thinks he's irresistible, and after a few drinks he decided to try his charm on my sister, the newcomer to the hotel. Except he had the bad luck of finding me here instead.”

“He'd probably agree with you on the bad luck part, Shannen. But keep in mind, you had the element of surprise going for you at first. It wouldn't have been long before he recovered himself, and even with him drunk, you would've been in big trouble.”

“I guess so. I know how strong he is from all those stupid contests.”

“I'd like to hear you admit that my appearance was most timely, Shannen. Even if my entrance was…shall we say Zorroesque?” Ty wrapped her in his arms.

“I admit it. Your appearance was most timely, Tynan.” She put her arms around him and leaned into him. “And if you'd rather, I could liken it to Batman instead of Zorro.”

“You're still not taking the risk seriously, and I can't stand the thought of you getting hurt. If Jed had tried, I would've—” Ty paused, considering.

“Beaten him up?” Shannen suggested, cuddling closer. “You're so strong, you could take him easily.”

“Appealing to my inner Neanderthal?” He kissed the top of her head. “I didn't know I had one until tonight.”

They stood together for a few quiet moments, holding each other as the tension from the encounter with Jed drained away. And then, a distinct rumble came from the vicinity of her abdomen.

Her stomach was growling! “Ohhhh!” Embarrassed, Shannen tried to draw back. “Sorry.”

Ty held her firm. “Nothing to be sorry about. When was
the last time you had a decent meal, anyway? Call room service right now and order something.”

“On the network's tab,” they chorused together, laughing.

“I know exactly what I want.” She headed for the phone beside the bed. “A turkey sandwich with cheese, lettuce and tomato with honey mustard. I've been dying for one of those.”

The food arrived shortly after she called, and Shannen carried it to the table on the balcony. Ty joined her out there while she ate.

“Did I tell you how much I admire your ethics in turning down the food that night on the beach?” he asked, watching her enjoy every bite of the sandwich.

“Sort of. You sounded more like you were questioning my sanity than admiring my ethics, though,” she teased.

He shook his head. “No, I was awestruck. I truly admire your sense of fair play and your willpower, too, Shannen. Keep in mind that I come from a family that's severely deficient in both those qualities.”

“But those qualities aren't deficient in you, Ty,” Shannen said softly. “Every family has somebody who's deficient in something. It doesn't mean the whole gene pool is tainted. You have to give yourself a break. You're different from…the others,” she summarized, because to individually cite his father, brother, sister, cousin and uncle seemed rather excessive.

Ty said nothing.

“I can tell by your expression that you don't think I understand what you've faced, but I do, Ty. I have. In a less public way, of course.” Shannen finished her sandwich and sipped her iced tea. “When you called me white trash—”

“Shannen, please believe me when I tell you that I didn't mean it. They were just words I used to drive you away
from me because I had to make sure you'd go.” Ty was emphatic.

“They were words that hit home because there was truth in them,” Shannen continued calmly. “My mother was a wild teen herself and had my older brother, Evan, when she was just sixteen. His father was ten years older than she was, and they'd kept their relationship a secret. When you said what you did, it made me face that I was on the verge of repeating her mistakes. My grandmother had tried so hard to keep my sisters and me from turning out like Mom, and there I was, headed down the same road, anyway.”

“I didn't know, Shannen. If I had—

“You would've found some other words to drive me away?” she suggested with a ghost of a smile. “They probably wouldn't have been as effective. I'd seen how my mother had messed up her life—she's still doing it—and what you said was exactly what I needed to knock some sense into me, as Gramma would say.”

“Your grandmother has a lot to say,” said Ty, covering her hand with his.

“She raised our sister, Jordan, and Lauren and me. My mother married our father—he was her age and in the army—and had Jordan when they were both just twenty-one. Thirteen months later Lauren and I were born. Obviously, she wasn't thrilled to have twins at that time. Or at any time, really.”

Ty winced. “It's too bad she kept telling you so. How did you end up being raised by your grandmother?”

“When Lauren and I were three, our dad was killed in a military training accident and Mom brought us back to West Falls to live with Gramma. Our brother bounced between us and his father. Mom came and went as she pleased.”

Shannen paused, thinking back on that less-than-idyllic time. “Poor Gramma! She'd worked hard her whole life running the diner and raising a family, and then we de
scended on her and stayed till we were all grown up. How someone like Mom and someone like Gramma can be mother and daughter is a mystery, but then I wonder how Mom and my sisters and I can be…” Her voice trailed off.

“Seems like your mother is the ‘mystery.' There are a number of those in the Howe family, too.” Ty laced his fingers with hers.

“Mom's been married three times and has had so many boyfriends not even
she
can remember them all. She goes to bars and gets drunk and into fights. She's written bad checks and shoplifted and has been in and out of jail. Evan is exactly like her. Gramma ended up using the money saved for improvements to the diner to bail Mom and Evan out of jail.”

“So that's why you and Lauren decided to try out for
Victorious?
For the prize money?” He appraised her thoughtfully. “I never did believe your cast bio claiming you tried out for the show as a lark.”

“I don't do anything for a lark,” Shannen said flatly. “I didn't even use those words—the show's publicist came up with them. She said it sounded ‘more fun' than admitting we were in the game strictly to win money.”

“The truth is rarely fun for media spinners.”

“But needing money is the only reason why we tried to
win
once we were in the game. If we hadn't thought it was our best shot at staying on the island, we never would've forged an alliance with Jed and Keri and Lucy, who we didn't like from the beginning. Or with Konrad, who made us kind of uneasy.”

“I think you can drop the ‘we' and use ‘I,' Shannen. Lauren's feelings toward Jed, at least, are different from yours,” Ty reminded her.

“That's only crew gossip,” she reminded him.

“Oh, yeah? Then what do you call his arrival at what he thought was Lauren's door tonight? And him calling her baby and—”

“That was all Jed's gargantuan ego.” Shannen shuddered. “What would Lauren—or Lucy or Keri for that matter—see in a jerk like Jed?”

“Aside from his boyish good looks? And what about his brawny biceps and polished pecs and the rest of his manly physique? Don't forget his adventure-guide résumé, either. Just quoting from the Internet discussion boards, Shannen,” Ty added, laughing at her expression of disgust.

“Oh, ugh! As if he isn't already vain enough!”

“He's also already rich enough not to need the million-dollar prize money,” Ty remarked, watching her. “Remember him mentioning his family's winter and summer vacation homes, his beloved silver Lexus and all the other things? You asked what a woman would see in Jed—well, at the very least, there is his money. Wealth can make even a toad appealing.”

“You know, you're actually lucky you lost all your money, Ty,” Shannen said bluntly. “Because having it made you doubt your own appeal.”

“It's not uncommon to wonder if you're valued for yourself or your fortune, Shannen.”

“Jed obviously doesn't have such doubts,” retorted Shannen. “And now that you're desperate for money like most of us in the world, you're free to feel valued for yourself. Lucky man!”

“Are you so very desperate for money, Shannen?” he probed.