Rumor Has It (Limelight) (10 page)

The doorbell rang interrupting my pity party. My mom and Ralph had one of those god awful doorbells that played an entire melody so loud it startled you every time it rang. It was hard to miss, even in the backyard.

I rose from the lounger and went through the house on my way to the front door. I couldn’t imagine who it would be. I wasn’t expecting anyone and my mom and Ralph had gone golfing.

I swung the front door open to find Mason on the other side. Before I had a moment to react to his presence he started speaking.

“I’m not letting you do this,” he said and stepped past me into the house.

I suddenly felt very naked in my bikini and wished I’d thought to put my cover-up on before getting up to answer the door.

“Mason.” It was all I could say, he’d taken me so unawares.

His eyes roamed my body as if noticing for the first time I had more skin showing than not. His muscles tensed and his gaze heated as he took me in.

I tried to ignore my own body’s reaction to being this close to him with only scraps of fabric covering my most intimate places.

“Did you hear what I said, Ellie? You’re not doing this.”

“Um…why don’t you come in? I was just tanning in the back.” I motioned the direction to go with my hand and waited until he started for the back of the house, being sure to follow him and not the other way around. I did
not
want him following me while I wore what now felt like an entirely too revealing bikini.

Mason was dressed casually in a pair of black basketball shorts, a grey T-shirt that stretched across his biceps and broad shoulders, and a white baseball hat.

By the time we’d reached the back deck I’d recovered from the shock of seeing him on my doorstep and was able to carry on a conversation once again.

“Can I get you something to drink?”

“No thanks. I’m only here for one reason.”

I swallowed past the growing lump in my throat. “What’s that?”

“I’ve already said. Stop playing coy.”

The words alone sounded rude but I could see it wasn’t how he meant them. He was intense. He was looking at me as if he wanted to shake me and ravish me in equal parts. If I’m honest it gave me a bit of a rush to know that I’d elicited such a reaction in him. So sue me. I’m only human.

“Because you’re not going to let me do this…”

“That’s right. I know you’re attracted to me and I get why you don’t want to be in the public eye. Believe me, I fuckin’ get it.”

“My being attracted to you doesn’t change anything.”

“What can I do? What can I do to convince you that we can figure out a way to explore what’s between us without it meaning our business being splashed all over the internet?”

“Unless you can disable every smart phone in the country I can’t think of anything.” I crossed my arms over my chest to show him I meant business but quickly changed tactics after I realized it only pushed my breasts closer to spilling out of my bikini top.

“What if we laid low and stayed out of public?”

“How’d that work for you before?” Obviously not well because he ignored my question.

“If you can look at me and say that you don’t feel the pull between us like I do, I’ll leave and never come back.” He took a step closer.

It was on the tip of my tongue to say just that but something stopped me. I couldn’t do it. It wasn’t the truth.

“That’s what I thought. You’re the most refreshing person I’ve met in years, Ellie. You’re not working an angle, you’re intelligent and you’re so goddamn beautiful in a way that grabs me by the throat and makes it hard to speak. And I sling rhymes for a living so that’s saying something.”

I was speechless. I’d never had anyone describe me quite like that. The descriptors of me in YouTube comments were “cocktease,” “cockblocker” and another “c” word that even I wouldn’t repeat.

The best part was that I could tell he meant every word.

Every. Damn. Word.

The images in my head of the two of us splashed across the front of some tabloid were even more painful with that realization. I opened my mouth to tell him that none of that mattered, I still couldn’t see him, when his phone rang.

He let out a frustrated growl and pulled his phone from the pocket of his shorts and glanced at the screen.

“Damn it,” he nearly yelled, hit a key on his phone and brought it to his ear. “What?” I had no idea who was on the other end but his body language changed almost instantly. His muscles became tense and rigid. There was a tick in his jaw as he clenched his teeth together.

“You’d better be fuckin’ kidding me,” he said into the phone, and his voice rose with anger. “How long has she been in there?” He paused for a second and then, “No…no. I’ll come down there to deal with her. We need to have a conversation.”

His voice was heated and menacing. Call me Miss Obvious but it was clear he was pissed. Beyond that there was a weariness and sadness in his eyes. It pained me to see him like that. Vulnerable almost. It didn’t seem right that someone like Mason could be made to feel like that. It reminded me of every time my mother told me she was getting a divorce growing up. I always knew it was coming, but somehow I still held out hope that maybe that day would never come. This husband would be the one that stuck.

He hung up without saying goodbye and looked over to me, his face drawn.

“Everything okay?” I asked. I didn’t know what else to say. He was intense when he’d arrived here but the phone call had brought him to a whole new level.

“I’ve got to go,” he said and started to walk past me.

I reached for his arm and he stopped at my touch. “Wait. Are you okay?”

“Fine. Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”

“You’re upset.”

He paused, seemingly deciding whether or not to share with me what was bothering him. “My mother’s fallen off the wagon again. Ended up in a holding cell for drunk and disorderly and property damage. I have to fly to Texas to bail her out and deal with her shit. Again.”

I don’t know what possessed me to say it. Maybe it was the look in his eyes that I recognized so well—the disappointment in the one person you’re supposed to be able to rely on, or his little speech about me prior to the phone ringing, but I blurted it out before thinking.

“Do you want some company?”

The surprised look on his face told me that was the last thing he expected to hear. “You’d come?”

“If you think it’d help.”

Twenty minutes later I’d changed, left a note for my mom that I’d be back sometime tomorrow, and was boarding a private plane to Texas. What the hell had I gotten myself into?

CHAPTER TWELVE

I couldn’t believe she’d done it again. I don’t know why I was surprised. My entire life my mom had been delivering one disappointment after another. It shouldn’t even faze me anymore.

My brother and sister didn’t deserve any of this. After all the opportunities I’d given to my mom….FUCK! She’d had access to the best rehabs, the best sober companions, the best counsellors. I’d moved her to a ranch the middle of nowhere in Texas. It had everything she could ever want and yet she still managed to attract every douche bag within a fifty mile radius to drag her down. She was a heat-seeking missile when it came to finding the dregs of society.

The private charter plane I’d hired had landed a half hour ago in Austin. The driver who’d met us on the runway was heading to the police station in Hays County. I’d get the details of what had happened from the lawyer I’d hired when I got there.

I knew how this was going to play out. I should. I’d done it enough times. I’d either be greeted with the apologetic mom who couldn’t tell me enough times how sorry she was, how she’d never do it again…or the angry, beat-down version who lashed out at everything and everybody. I wasn’t sure which was worse. Listening to the empty promises spill from her mouth, or dealing with the insults she hurled my way after all I’d tried to do for her.

“What’re you thinking about?” Ellie asked from the seat beside me.

“Just how sick of my mom’s shit I am.”

“This isn’t the first time this has happened I take it?” she sounded regretful. I wanted
something
from this girl. I hadn’t figured out what, but it definitely wasn’t her pity.

“Far from it. It was a pretty regular occurrence growing up. Back then I didn’t have money to bail her ass out of jail though. Sometimes I waited days for her to show up at home. If I was lucky one of our neighbors would notice she wasn’t around and take care of me while she was locked up or off on a bender.”

Ellie’s hand was over her mouth and unshed tears glistened in the corner of her eyes. She looked stricken by the image I’d painted of my childhood.

Not much I could do. It was all true.

“That’s awful,” she said quietly. She looked down to her lap.

I grabbed one of her hands and gave it a squeeze. “Thanks for coming.”

“You looked like you could use the support. Now I understand why.”

Damn. I couldn’t remember a time in my life when
I’d
had someone to lean on. Growing up there was no one. That hadn’t changed any when I’d become famous.

I gave her hand another squeeze. “How much longer?” I called up to the driver.

“Only a few minutes, sir.”

We pulled up to the police station and I exited the car before it had stopped. The driver flashed me an irritated look but I wanted to get this over with and get back on the plane. The more miles between my mom and me the better. He let Ellie out of her side and she walked around the car to stand beside me.

“Ready?” she asked, her eyes full of sympathy.

I nodded and led the way into the police station. We walked through the double doors; it looked like we’d stepped into a time warp. It was clear not a dime had been spent on the place since the seventies. A balding overweight man in a brown oversized suit approached me holding a briefcase. This must’ve been the attorney I’d hired to handle my mom’s bail.

“Mr. Nash, I’m Gary Smyth,” he said with a slight Southern accent. He held out his hand. “We spoke on the phone.”

“Mr. Smyth, this is Ellie.” I said shaking his hand.

He took Ellie’s hand. “Ellie, pleasure. Your mom is all set. We’ve had the bail hearing. All that’s left to do is for you post bail and she’s free to go.”

“What happened?” I asked with a hard edge to my voice.

“Apparently she and a male friend were at the local watering hole. When the bartender refused to serve them any more drinks they took to throwing some bar stools and other items around.”

“So what happens now?” I rubbed my hand over my face, already weary from the troubles my mom had caused.

“A trial date will be set. We’ll see if we can get her off on community service or rehab.”

“She’s been down that road plenty of times already. It hasn’t worked.” There was steel in my voice as I spoke.

“I don’t want you to worry about your mother, Mr. Nash. I’m sure we can work something out to keep her from serving any time.”

“I’m not worried about my mother. I’m concerned about my siblings. She may be a fuck-up but she’s still their mom and they’d be crushed if she went to prison. You’ll get a phone call from my lawyer in L.A. He’ll work with you to make sure this thing goes away.” Ellie’s hand came to rest on my lower back. I instantly felt some of the tension leave my body.

“Yes, sir.”

“Can I see her?” I asked.

“Of course. Let’s post the bail and then we’ll get you a room where you can speak to her in private.”

After I paid the bond Ellie and I made our way through the rows of desks where several officers milled about. The lone conference room was in the back of the police station. We sat in the hall in a pair of uncomfortable-looking chairs that’d been duct-taped several times to keep the stuffing from spilling out.

Ellie turned to me, seeming concerned. She opened her mouth to say something when her attention was drawn to something behind me.

I turned to see a middle-aged officer with a beard that looked like it belonged on the Unabomber standing behind me. He must have been a detective because he wasn’t in uniform.

“I hate to bother y’all…” I knew what was coming after the first words were out of his mouth, it was always the same. “…but my daughter is a huge fan. Would you be able to sign something for me?”

“Of course.” I tried to give him a smile that said I didn’t mind signing shit for fans while I was waiting for my mom to get released from jail. Really, there was nothing I’d rather do.

He shoved a notebook and pen in front of me.

“What’s her name?” I asked.

“Mary-Beth.”

I wrote a quick note on the sheet thanking Mary-Beth for being such a great fan and returned it to the officer.

“Much obliged. She’s gonna be so excited.”

After he’d left I turned back to Ellie. Before I could ask what she’d wanted to say Gary the lawyer came walking down the hall with my mother in tow.

She looked like hell. Which I suppose was appropriate after spending the night in a cell and waking up hung-over as hell. Her long dark hair was stringy and unbrushed, her clothes crumpled and dirty. I knew by looking at her she wasn’t strung out. At least she’d only hit the hooch last night and not the hard stuff. Small thing to be thankful for in this whole messed up situation, but thankful I was.