Kristi Gold - Hotel Marchand 04 (15 page)

Following another round of embraces, Pete stood by as the family disappeared through the doors leading to the Jetway. Knowing his own flight would be boarding in a matter of minutes, he had to go to his own gate. Had to move forward with his life, without Adam, and possibly without Renee.

After checking the departure screen to verify his gate and the on-time status, he elbowed his way past the travelers heading in different directions. Every little boy, every happy couple only served to remind him of what he didn’t have. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt so damn alone before. So damn lost.

He could create a three-hour epic worthy of acclaim. He could direct a cast of hundreds, sometimes thousands, without missing a beat. He could pick a winning script and make it even better. But he couldn’t control his own life, or convince the woman he loved that he was in it for the long haul.

Or maybe he could.

He wasn’t prone to random acts of spontaneity, but it was high time that changed. With a few phone calls, and a few hours, he could come up with a way to prove to Renee he wasn’t going down without a fight. And she was definitely worth fighting for.

R
ENEE LEFT THE RESTROOM
where she’d spent several minutes trying to avoid a severe crying jag. Pete’s prediction had come true—she missed him terribly, and he’d only been gone for seven hours. And that was more than enough time for him to have arrived in California and picked up the phone to call her, which he hadn’t, the same as he hadn’t before when he’d left her. But she had to take part of the blame this time. Maybe if she’d told him she loved him, too, he might have decided to call.

She wavered between worrying something had happened to him and suspecting he’d done exactly what she’d expected—decided on the plane ride that she wasn’t worth the trouble. Or maybe he’d been lying when he’d said he loved her. But why would he say it if he hadn’t meant it?

If she didn’t snap out of this funk, she’d be headed down a path of total worthlessness, and that wouldn’t be fair to her family, who counted on her to maintain the hotel’s reputation. And if not careful, she could spend more wasted time wondering what might have been if she’d only told Pete how she felt.

Right now she needed to return to the office, go over the Mardis Gras ad copy one more time, and then go home to the apartment to mourn her loss. Alone. As always.

When she rounded the corner and walked into the office, she pulled up short from the shocking sight of her grandmother, who rarely visited the hotel. Dressed in an elegant lavender silk suit, not a silver hair out of place in her somewhat outdated French roll, Celeste sat in the chair that normally faced the desk but had been turned to face the door. She looked every bit the queen, from the haughty lift of her narrow chin to the severe gaze that she leveled on Renee.

“I was beginning to wonder if you’d left the building,” she said, as always her tone hinting at disapproval.

Renee did not want or need an altercation with her grandmother. Especially not tonight. She folded her arms tightly against her middle and remained close to the door, should she find the need to exit quickly. “To what do I owe this surprise visit,
Grand-mére?”

“Because you’ve been avoiding me since your return to New Orleans, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands.” She gestured toward the desk. “Now sit.”

“I prefer to stand. In fact, I was just on my way home.”

“Stand if you wish, but you are not leaving until you hear me out.”

Knee-jerk obedience, mixed with a certain amount of trepidation, sent Renee across the room like a reprimanded child.

While Celeste stood and turned her chair around, Renee sat behind her desk and folded her hands into a white-knuckle grip. “All right,
Grand-mére
. You have my undivided attention.”

Celeste’s thin frame remained rigid. “It’s my understanding that you allowed your young man to fly off into the sunset.”

Oh, good grief. “First of all, I didn’t allow Pete to do anything. He didn’t ask my permission, nor did I expect him to. Secondly, as I’ve told Mother, he is not my
young man.
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m no longer a teenager. I’m an adult. And you can’t intimidate me the way you tried to do when I decided to attend college in California.”

“I was not trying to intimidate you. I was simply trying to encourage you.”

Of all the ridiculous things Renee had heard in her lifetime, that had to top the list. “Encourage me by telling me I’d never make it in L.A.?”

“I told you that because I knew you would be determined to prove me wrong, and you did.”

“Actually, I proved you right,
Grand-mére
. I did fail to make a go of it in Hollywood. Are you happy now?”

“I will never be happy unless I know that you are happy.” Celeste leaned forward and laid a careworn hand on Renee’s forearm. “
Chère,
my genes are far too superior to produce failures. For twenty years, you were quite the success in California, and I suspect in the end, the victim of circumstances beyond your control.”

At times Renee had resented her grandmother, yet Celeste’s intuition had never failed to amaze her. “You’re right. A larger studio took over the one I worked for and I got the axe. But I didn’t pursue any other avenues when I had the opportunity. I didn’t try hard enough to succeed.”

“Instead, you chose to come home to be with your
mére
, and that is admirable. However, you do have one significant fault.”

And there it was, the criticism that always followed the compliment. “I have many faults,
Grand-mère
, in spite of your superior genes.”

“But this one is easily corrected. You have always been one to hold a grudge. You’re reluctant to forgive and forget. I know this because we are much the same.”

Renee had never considered that she was anything like her grandmother, but come to think of it, in many ways she was. She’d always been determined, stubborn to a fault, driven to succeed and yes, at times unforgiving. Except she had forgiven Pete, and she saw no reason not to forgive her grandmother. “All right,
Grand-mére
, I agree. I sometimes lack benevolence. And I’m willing to go the extra step and forgive you for being so hard on me twenty years ago.”

“And I am willing to forgive you for being a fool and not being more tenacious in the pursuit of the director.”

Renee’s mouth dropped open before she snapped it shut. “Have you considered that maybe he doesn’t want to be pursued?”

“That is not the case, according to your mother. She is convinced that Mr. Traynor is very interested in having a future with you.”

“Mother is engaging in wishful thinking.”

Celeste smiled as if she knew a secret, one she didn’t intend to reveal. “I suppose things will work out as they should, without our interference.”

Renee had to hand it to her grandmother—she’d finally learned to butt out. “You’re absolutely right. Now is there anything else you’d like to say to me?”

“Only this. I have always loved you and your sisters to a fault. Perhaps I have spoiled you too much, but I did so because of that love. And that still remains true, Renee. You have always been a gift.”

Renee tried to swallow the painful lump forming in her throat, tried to blink back the rush of tears, but she wasn’t successful. With amazing speed, Celeste rounded the desk and leaned to embrace her. “It will be all right,
bébé
. You’ll see.”

In the arms of the person Renee had believed to be the least likely to provide solace, she finally cried. Cried until she felt as if she had no tears left in reserve. But she knew that was only temporary.

When Renee straightened and sniffed, Celeste let her go, grabbed a tissue from the holder on the corner of the desk and offered it to her. “Feel better?”

Renee dabbed at her cheeks. “Yes, but now you have mascara on your suit.”

Celeste waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “That is why they invented dry cleaners.” She smoothed a damp strand of hair away from Renee’s cheek. “And you must promise me that you’ll have faith everything will work out with the director in due time.”

Renee blew her nose. “I don’t know,
Grand-mére.
I think I’ve really screwed it up this time.”

“Then we’ll have to come up with a plan to unscrew it, won’t we?”

Renee shrugged. “I’m all out of ideas, so be my guest.”

Celeste picked up Renee’s purse from the shelf behind the desk and handed it to her. “Comb your hair and freshen up your makeup, then we’ll retire to the bar and I’ll have Leo mix you a nice martini. That will clear your head.”

“I’m so exhausted, it could make me drunk.”

“Not if you only have one,
chère,
as I do every night.”

Renee wondered how many more surprising tidbits she would learn from her grandmother tonight. “Every night?”

“Oh, yes. I’ve had a drink every night for many years, but only one. People have often commented on the clearness of my skin and my lack of wrinkles. Now you know my secret.” She grinned. “I’m pickled.”

Renee laughed then, a robust laugh that buoyed her spirits. “
Grand-mére
, you are definitely one of a kind.”

Celeste lifted her chin. “Yes, I am. And you’d do well to remember that.”

As Renee followed her grandmother out the door, she recognized that at least something good had come from this stressful day—she’d finally made amends with her grandmother. Now if only she would be lucky enough to eventually make amends with Pete. But that could be too much to hope for.

L
EO’S SPECIAL MARTINI
had been potent, but not so strong that it would cause Renee to hallucinate. Still, she couldn’t help but think that the masculine mirage with the phenomenal build and thick dark hair, one shoulder leaned against the wall next to her apartment door, looked an awful lot like Pete. She was definitely hallucinating.

But as she moved closer in an almost surreal haze, Renee discovered that he wasn’t the product of an alcohol-induced stupor. He was as real—and as beautiful—as the sunset over Lake Pontchartrain.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, recovering from her momentary muteness.

He pushed away from the wall and tapped the newspaper curled in one hand. “I have something to show you. Several things, in fact.”

None of this made any sense to Renee, and it had nothing to do with alcohol. “But you were supposed to—”

“Fly back to California. I changed my plans. And if you’ll let me in your apartment, I’ll let you in on those plans.”

Renee turned the key in record time, driven by curiosity, by her excitement over seeing him when she’d thought that might not ever happen again. He followed her through the foyer and into the living room, where she turned to face him, still not quite believing he was actually there.

“Thought you might find this interesting,” he said as he handed her the newspaper tube.

She unfolded it to find a photograph of her, Pete and Adam, obviously taken the night of the wedding when they’d returned to the hotel, splashed across the tabloid’s front page. As disturbing as that was, the headline was much more unsettling.

“‘Director and Former Producer’s Love Child?’” She tossed the paper onto the coffee table. “Where did you get that piece of trash?”

“Actually, I saw it at a newsstand when I was out today. I decided to show it to you, before you heard about it from someone else.”

Exhausted and disappointed that a rag magazine story had brought him back, Renee collapsed onto the couch. “My family knows this isn’t true, and that’s all that matters.”

Pete took the chair opposite the sofa. “Yeah, well I’ve had to put out a few fires over it. But my people are handling it.”

Renee rubbed her forehead with her fingertips before looking at him. “Fine. We’re covered. It really wasn’t necessary for you to cancel your flight to deliver this news in person. A phone call would have sufficed.”

“I didn’t want to settle for a phone call. I wanted to see you.”

“Okay, you’ve seen me. What now?”

Pete pushed out of the chair and walked to the fireplace, keeping his back to her. “I think this mantel’s long enough to hold them.”

The man was making no sense whatsoever. “Hold what?”

“My awards.”

She straightened on the sofa, her feet planted firmly on the ground, but her mind felt as if it were in another dimension. “You’re going to give me your awards?”

“Only if I accompany them.”

Renee refused to acknowledge the sudden swell of hope. “You’re confusing me, Pete.”

He turned, his expression solemn. “You’re smart enough to figure it out, Renee. But I have no problem saying it. I don’t want to walk away this time. I don’t want years to pass before I see you again. I don’t want even a day to pass. In fact, I don’t want to ever be without you again.”

“Then you’re saying—”

“That I want to be with you from this point forward. That’s why I walked out of the airport.” He pointed at the discarded paper. “Not that.”

While Renee tried to assimilate the information in a brain that was admittedly muddled, her hands gripping the chairs arms, he crossed the room and stood above her. “I got all the way to the gate, and I realized several things. I’ve had a decent life, a good career, a lot of freedom. But after I spent the past few years taking care of Adam, I realized something was missing. And after coming here, I knew that something was you. I decided I couldn’t leave you again, and I’m not going to leave you unless you convince me that you don’t want the same thing.”

She looked up at him through eyes blurred with the threat of tears. “What about your movie?”

“I put my attorney on notice this afternoon. I told him I’m considering bowing out.”

“You can’t do that, Pete. Breaking a contract twice in three years will ruin your reputation.”

He crouched before her and took her hands. “If I have to choose between a damn movie and you, I choose you.”

A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek as she prepared to admit something she rarely admitted to anyone, even to herself. “I’m scared, Pete.”

“I know exactly what you mean.” He squeezed her hands. “Remember when I told you that I didn’t call you during those three years because I was afraid I might hurt you? That was a lie. The truth is, I was afraid of my feelings for you. Afraid that you would never feel anything for me but contempt. I didn’t want to deal with it and thought my feelings for you would go away. But they didn’t. They never will.”

She had resented him, but not enough to erase the memories of one of the best years she’d ever had, getting to know him, learning to love him. “You know, if you had called me after you decided not to make our movie, I’m not sure what I would have done.”

He straightened and tugged her up into his arms. “It’s that timing thing again. Back then, neither of us were ready to accept what we’d found with each other. But I’m ready to accept it now. Are you?”

Renee thought she was ready. She knew she was. “Yes, I am.”

“Do you love me?”

How could she not? “Yes, Pete, I love you. As much as I did three years ago. Probably more.”

“Thank God.” He kissed her then, a soft, heartfelt kiss that seemed to seal this new phase of their life together.

After they parted, she posed one very pivotal question. “What are we going to do about this?”

Keeping one arm around her, he fished through his coat pocket, withdrew a black velvet box and held it out to her. “Marry me, Renee.”

Her eyes went wide as she eyed the box. “Are you serious?”

“I hope so, otherwise I just blew several thousand dollars on one helluva joke.”

When she reached for the box, he pulled his hand behind his back. “Not until you say yes.”

She smiled. “And I’m not going to say yes until you promise me you’ll make that movie. I have to know which sister gets the man.”

He returned her smile. “I promise. And I also promise that after I make this movie, I’m going to take a break. Maybe even open a production company here in New Orleans. You can produce, I’ll direct. An equal partnership.”

Renee had waited decades to hear a man say that he considered her his equal. “What do you plan for us to produce?”

“How about a few kids?”

Another first, and something she’d always wanted and thought she would never have. “We could start with one and go from there.”

“Now that that’s settled, you need to give me your answer.”

She hesitated, but only to draw out the suspense. “I suppose I could say yes to all those terms. Could I possibly have the ring now?”

“Always the negotiator.” He brought the box around from behind his back. “By the way, how do you know it’s a ring?”

“It better be.” She snatched it from his palm and opened the lid to find a brilliant emerald-cut diamond solitaire, the same one she’d admired not long ago in a local jewelry store while she’d been out window-shopping with Charlotte in the Quarter. Her gaze snapped from the ring to him. “How did you know this was exactly what I wanted?”

He took the ring, slid it onto her left finger, then pocketed the box again. “I had some help with the selection process, and that reminds me…” Following a quick kiss, he released her and started toward the entry.

“Where are you going, Pete?” she called after him. When she heard him say, “You ladies may come in now,” she froze in place, wondering exactly what was going on, although she had her suspicions. And her suspicions were confirmed when her mother, grandmother, Charlotte and Melanie streamed into the room sporting devilish smiles.

While Renee could only gape, Pete came back to her and circled his arm around her waist. “She said yes.”

Charlotte laid a dramatic hand on her heart. “Thank heavens. I’m so glad to know you’re going to give your love child a name.”

After a round of laughter, Renee was mobbed by her sisters and mother, who all doled out hugs, kisses and congratulations. Celeste stood nearby, clutching a high-quality bottle of champagne, which she handed off to Melanie. “Open this,
bébé,
” she said before she engaged Renee in a long embrace, followed by a whispered, “Did I not tell you things would all work out?”

Renee pulled back and stared at her. “You were in on this the whole time, weren’t you?”

“Perhaps.”

“And you just let me sit there in the bar, pouring out my heart, while all along you knew what was going to happen.”

“Of course.” Celeste let her go and feigned a frown. “You should know by now that
Grand-mére
has been graced with great wisdom, and a knack for intrigue.”

After Melanie returned from the kitchen with glasses and poured the champagne, Anne offered a toast. An unorthodox one. “Two daughters down, two to go.”

Charlotte scowled as she held up her glass. “To Pete and Renee, and to the hope that in the future, our mother realizes that her matchmaking won’t work on everyone.”

Melanie lifted her flute. “I’ll drink to that.”

For the next hour, Renee had to endure a few barbs about her faults, delivered by her siblings and directed at Pete as a warning. They laughed a lot, and grew somber when Anne mentioned how much her husband would have loved his future son-in-law.

When the room fell suddenly silent, Anne offered, “Any idea when you’re going to marry?”

Renee exchanged a brief look with Pete. “We’ve barely been engaged for an hour, Mother. I think we’ll need a little more time to plan.”

Anne set her glass on the table. “I’m not concerned so much about the date as I am the location. I’m thinking the hotel courtyard would be a nice place to have it. Melanie could see to the catering. We’d only invite a few select guests, maybe have Holly Carlyle sing—”

“Loudly so she can drown out the sounds of the helicopters,” Renee said. “You’re forgetting that Pete comes with a huge amount of notoriety, and that involves the press.”

Anne nibbled at her bottom lip. “I hadn’t considered that.”

“You can consider it later.” Celeste rose from her chair and clapped her hands. “Come on,
bébés.
We should leave the newly engaged couple alone now so they can plan, or do whatever newly engaged couples normally do. And that requires privacy.”

Pete laughed. “I owe you one, Celeste.”

Celeste presented a wily grin. “You owe me several, my dear.”

“And she’ll definitely try to collect,” Melanie said as she stood. “Do you have a part in your movie for an eightysomething woman who can, let’s say, wrestle an alligator?”

Everyone laughed then, except Celeste, who headed without formality to the door. After they all engaged in parting hugs, Renee’s family thankfully left, leaving her alone with the future groom, who wasted no time in kissing her soundly.

“I guess we should probably decide when and where we’re going to do this,” she told him while he went on an all-out mouth assault on her neck.

“I vote for two minutes, in your bedroom.”

“I meant the wedding.”

“Tomorrow would be fine. At the courthouse.”

“You heard my mother. She wants some kind of wedding, and frankly, so do I. What about the end of summer, or early fall?”

“That’s a long time from now.”

“That should give you time to get the details finalized on your movie. But I do know where we can honeymoon.”

“Where?”

“Japan.”

“That’s one more reason why I love you,” he said, followed by another kiss. “But I don’t like the fact that we won’t be able to see each other a lot in the next few months, unless you plan to come to California to stay with me until I can relocate.”

“That’s possible at some point in time, but not before Mardis Gras.”

“Then I’ll have to fly in every weekend from now until then.” He grinned. “And I’ll definitely be here during Mardis Gras, armed with a few beads so you can flash me.”

She wriggled against him. “You don’t need any beads, honey.”

“Mind if we go into your bedroom so you can practice?”

She patted his cheek. “Have a little patience. First, we have one more thing to discuss.”

“What’s that?”

“If we get married—”

“When we get married,” he corrected.

“Okay,
when
we get married, you realize you’ll be signing a contract.”

“And I promise you that’s one contract I’ll never break.”

Pete looked at Renee with a love she’d never believed she would find with any man, and she knew he spoke the truth. She also recognized that saying no to her fears and yes to their future was the best decision she’d made in a very long time.

Just when Renee Marchand had thought she’d left Hollywood behind, Hollywood had returned to her. And this time he was staying for good.