Jane's Harmony (Jane's Melody #2) (25 page)

“That color’s perfect against your skin,” the saleswoman said, appearing seemingly out of thin air. “Are you expecting?”

Jane blushed and said, “Yes. No. Maybe.”

“Well, let’s try a few on you and see how it feels.”

Before Jane could protest, the saleswoman had taken two or three other blouses and a dress from the maternity rack and was leading Jane by the hand toward a changing room.

“Go ahead and take your blouse off,” she said before disappearing into another room.

Jane considered making a dash for the door, but something about the lavender smell and the cool air in the shop made her want to stay. She took off her shirt and looked at herself in the mirror. She had lost weight these past few weeks, and she silently scolded herself for not eating better. She was examining her belly and trying to remember what it had been like when the saleswoman returned. She stood behind Jane and wrapped a stuffed pregnancy cushion around her midsection, then secured it with Velcro behind her back.

“This is about seven months,” she said. “It should be perfect for that blouse.” Then she left Jane alone in front of the mirror.

Jane took the blouse from the hanger, slipped it on, and pulled it down over the belly bump. Then she placed her hands
on her hips and looked at her reflection. She turned for a side view. Now she remembered. Pain in her knees, swelling in her feet, bloating everywhere else. But she also remembered the soft kick against her palm, the slow turning in the night of that little life. The soft purple fabric did look good against her skin, as if maybe she were already glowing in that special way only a pregnant woman could. Maybe with Caleb’s help and a lot of love, just maybe, she could do this again.

The saleswoman appeared, holding a glass of champagne for Jane, and asked, “What do you think?”

“You know what?” Jane said. “I really think I like it.”

She took the blouse off and stood there wearing only her bra and belly bump, and read the tag dangling from the sleeve.

“Wowza!” she exclaimed, louder than she had intended to. “Who can afford to pay this much for something they’ll only wear for a few months?”

“Most of our customers update their wardrobes that often anyway,” the saleswoman said, offering the champagne glass to Jane. “Why don’t you put on one of the others and I’ll go grab some matching slacks?”

Jane shook her head and held out the blouse for her. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think so. A person would have to have seventeen children to get enough wear out of that blouse to justify the price.”

The saleswoman huffed and walked off, carrying away the blouse and the champagne. But Jane didn’t care. Besides, she thought, what kind of person would offer champagne to a pregnant woman anyway?

When she had shed the belly bump and dressed in her own shirt again, she thanked the saleswoman and left the shop. Back out on the star-studded Beverly Hills street, Jane hopped a bus for Hollywood to find a consignment store and a dress she could afford.

It was five minutes to eight and Jane was just beginning to worry when Caleb strode into the hotel room wearing a tuxedo. She was so floored by how he looked, she couldn’t say a word. Fortunately, he still had the power of speech.

“Wow!” he said, stopping to run his gaze up and down her new dress. “You look absolutely stunning.”

“You think so?” she asked, turning for him to see.

“Think so? I know so. And if we weren’t late, I’d strip off this suit and prove it.”

“Thanks. You wouldn’t believe it, but I got this dress for twenty-two dollars and the matching bangles for five bucks. But look at you. I like your hair slicked back like that. And this tuxedo you’re wearing . . . so hot! I feel like I’m being escorted to a ball by James Bond. Maybe I should tuck my gun in my garter before we go.”

“Are you really wearing a garter?”

“Oh, sure. I tell you I have a gun and all you care about is the garter. No, I don’t really have either. I’m wearing Hanes pantyhose from Walgreens, if you must know. And I already can’t wait to get them off.”

Caleb stepped up and took her in his arms, then bent her back and kissed her. He looked into her eyes and smiled. “How about I take them off for you, right after dinner?”

He led her from the room to the elevator and down to the third floor, where tabletop bouquets of fresh flowers and silver balloons decorated the area outside the banquet hall. They stopped at the reception table and checked in.

“Plus one?” the woman asked Caleb, glancing at Jane as she handed him a bid card and an auction brochure.

“Yes,” Caleb said, smiling at Jane. “Plus the only one.”

They went inside and found their table, right up near the stage. Most of the guests were already seated, each table centered with an outrageous blown-glass arrangement, covered by white linen sprinkled with gold and silver glitter.

“So, what is all this for?” Jane asked, taking the seat that Caleb pulled out for her.

“It’s an auction benefiting music programs for inner-city kids,” Caleb answered, quickly adding, “Although I suspect its real purpose is to make the show look good.”

Jane nodded to his bid card. “Are you bidding on something, big shot?”

“I’m supposed to bid on a vacation package, but I don’t really have to buy it.”

“Do you get to go on the vacation, though?”

“That’s a good question, but I don’t think so.”

“Well, if you don’t have to pay for it, and if you don’t even get to go anywhere, what are you actually bidding on?”

“I don’t know, babe. The producers put it in the auction just for show.”

“Like a carnival shill or something?”

“I’m not sure what a shill even is,” Caleb said. “And what do you know about carnivals?”

“You mean I never told you about the year I spent with Barnum and Bailey?”

He grinned. “No, what did you do for the circus?”

“I was a tiger.”

“You mean you trained tigers?”

“No”—Jane clawed the air with her nails—“I was a tiger.” Then she leaned over and kissed him gently and whispered, “And if you make a cougar joke right now, I’ll hurt you.”

A waiter came by with a tray of white and red wine and asked Jane which she would prefer. She turned her empty glass
over on the table and told him neither but thanked him anyway. Then she noticed that there were two other seats at the table and she wondered who would be joining them. She had half of her answer a minute later when Jordyn walked in.

Her hair was swept up and pinned, and she was wearing a blue-sequined dress that would have given her the appearance of a mermaid princess if it didn’t have a slit up the side that showed off her leg. Almost every eye in the place followed her to the table, male and female alike. Caleb was probably the only person who seemed not to notice Jordyn’s entrance, and Jane couldn’t help but wonder why. When Jordyn reached the table, she stood next to the chair on Caleb’s other side.

“Aren’t you going to pull out my chair for me?” she asked.

Without much more than a glance, Caleb reached over and yanked her chair away from the table. She gathered up her dress and lowered herself gracefully into the seat.

“Usually a man stands up when a woman approaches the table. And it’s not a bad idea to compliment her dress either.”

Caleb cast a curt smile her way. “Nice dress,” he said tersely.

“Thank you, honey,” she purred, equally sarcastic. “I just love your suit.”

Caleb leaned back so she could have a clear view of Jane. “Jordyn, this is my fiancée, Jane.”

Jordyn’s face lit up into a smile. “Oh my God,” she said. “All this time we’re supposed to be rehearsing, and all Caleb ever does is talk and talk and talk about you. And I can see why. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Jane said. “You’re even more gorgeous in person than you are on YouTube.”

Jordyn blushed, although Jane suspected that she could do it on command. “You’re very sweet,” she said, “but I’ll confess I’d give up a month’s worth of royalties for that dress you’re wearing.”

“Thanks. I got it at a consignment shop today.”

“You’re kidding. Which one?”

“Classy Closet on Fairfax.”

Caleb’s head turned back and forth as they talked, like some tuxedoed spectator following a tennis volley.

“You know what, darling?” Jordyn said, placing a hand on Caleb’s shoulder and standing. “I’m going to go and sit next to your fiancée. No offense, but you and I’ve seen enough of each other, and she just seems so much more interesting.”

She crossed behind Caleb and took the empty seat on Jane’s other side. Jane wasn’t sure what kind of perfume she was wearing, but it smelled divine.

“Thank you for lending me your man,” Jordyn said. “He’s been such a gentleman, really, and I just know I’d never have made it this far in the competition on my own.”

“No need to thank me,” Jane replied. She glanced over at Caleb, who appeared to be reading his auction brochure, but she knew he was really eavesdropping. “It’s just good to see him chasing his dream.”

“He’s a real talent, that one,” Jordyn said. “He’s got the voice, the looks, and the heart.”

“Yes,” Jane answered with a smile, “he sure does.”

Then Jordyn leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “Hey, listen, I hope you’re not upset about how these producers are making things look between us. You know, not just as a duo, but as a couple. Because it’s all just for show.”

“Oh, I know,” Jane said. “It’s fine. Really. It is.”

“Good. Because you should know that there’s nothing at all going on with Caleb and me.”

At this, Jane pulled back a little and looked at her. Jordyn seemed to have genuine concern in her expectant expression, but Jane didn’t need a pronouncement of Caleb’s fidelity from her.

“Honestly, Jordyn, I would never have even assumed there was something going on. And it’s a little presumptuous of you to feel the need to offer me a denial. Especially when you seem to be tweeting and posting daily about how in love you two are. I’m not jealous, but I do have an Internet connection. So perhaps you’re the one who needs to be reassured that there’s nothing going on between you and my fiancé, and never will be.”

Jordyn seemed more than a little shocked by Jane’s candor, but before she could respond, a waiter appeared at her other elbow and asked if she wanted chicken or beef. She told him neither, that she’d made arrangements for a vegetarian meal. The waiter nodded, then tendered the same question to Jane.

“I’ll have the beef, please,” she answered. “And Caleb will have the same, won’t you, babe?”

Caleb smiled and took her hand in his on top of the table. Jane cast one last glance at Jordyn and turned her attention to the stage. Minutes later, the MC came out and introduced the auctioneer, and the auctioneer introduced the first item: an old Martin guitar signed by Don McLean. He began the auction chant and the room erupted into a frenzy of raised bid cards.

When Jane looked back to the table, Panda, the young girl she recognized from Caleb’s audition, was seated in the chair vacated by Jordyn when she moved. Panda seemed entirely out of place in a red dress with a yellow smiley-face T-shirt peeking out through the lace. She had a fresh streak of pink in her hair and a rainbow of bracelets tied on her wrists. She smiled at Jane and half waved, but the bidding was too loud to make a proper introduction. Then another girl in a BeDazzled denim dress rushed up to the table, obviously late. She had a head of curly blond locks and a vacant expression on her face as she searched the table for someplace to sit. But all four seats were taken. There was a pause in the bidding, and the new girl hooked her hands on her hips and huffed.

“Where am I supposed to sit?” she asked.

“Maybe you could take off your wig and sit on it, Carrie Ann,” Jordyn suggested. “You’ve used enough hairspray, I’m sure it would hold you.”

Panda’s hand leaped to her mouth to contain a giggle, and Jane didn’t know whether to cringe or laugh as well. She had had no idea there was such rivalry between the contestants.

“I see Garth over there,” Caleb said. “You want me to ask him to get us another chair?”

“I’ll ask myself,” Carrie Ann said before she turned and marched off toward the producer.

The auctioneer started up again, this time hustling front-row tickets to the
Singer-Songwriter Superstar
finale. Jane noticed that there wasn’t nearly as much enthusiasm from the bidders as there had been for the signed guitar.

“Well, now,” Jane heard a deep voice say. “Who’s this we have here with you?”

She turned and saw the producer smiling down at her and Caleb. Carrie Ann stood behind him with her arms crossed.

“This is Jane,” Caleb said. “My fiancée.”

The producer looked from Jane to Jordyn, then to Caleb. “But the cameras are here tonight.”

“Yeah, so what?” Caleb asked with a shrug. “When aren’t the cameras around?”

“Caleb, could I speak with you alone for a moment?”

The producer indicated with a slight tilt of his head a spot beside the stage. Caleb cast an apologetic glance toward Jane and rose to follow the producer away. As soon as they were gone, Carrie Ann plopped down into Caleb’s empty seat. Her curls hadn’t even stopped bouncing before she was pouring herself a glass of wine from the bottle the waiter had left at the table.