California Dreaming: Four Contemporary Romances (111 page)

Mandy frowned. “James said the same thing.”

“It’s always easier for people on the outside to see things clearly. You all knew Rick was the wrong person for me long before I could figure it out. I almost lost Hunter by trying to make something work with Rick that never had a chance. Don’t make the same mistake.”

Sarah unlatched a sleepy Hannah.

“I’ll hold her while you put yourself back together,” Mandy said.

“Thanks.”

Mandy looked down at the bundle in her arms. Her womb ached for a child of her own. “I pushed James away because I thought all he wanted was a fling, and I wanted something more. Now he’s ready.” No matter how long she waited, though, the risk would still be there. If she waited too long she might miss the brass ring of true love.

And she did love James, she realized. He was honest, true, hard-working, and protective. A woman couldn’t ask for more from a husband. Whenever she was around him, the world was brighter, and more things were possible.

She looked up at Sarah. “You’re right. I do love him. I don’t need to wait until Thanksgiving.” Sadness trickled through her. “I hate to leave you in the lurch. And I’ll miss everyone here.”

Sarah waved her hand. “That’s life. Things change. Wait until you have a baby of your own, and you’ll see how little control you have. We’ll manage.” She smiled at Mandy. “The important part is for you to be happy.” She patted Mandy’s arm. “And if for some reason, things don’t work out, you know you’re always welcome back here. I think you’re going to be fine, though. James is a good person.”

“Yes, he is.”

“So?”

“What?”

“Are you going to call him?”

“He’s in a meeting.” Mandy frowned. “With my father.”

Sarah stood. “Don’t let a man you barely know get between you and someone you love.” She smiled at her sleeping baby. “I’m going to put this little one away. Call him, Mandy, before it’s too late.”

After Sarah left the room, Mandy dug out her phone. She finished her tea while she debated whether to leave a message or wait to call later. Before she could choose, the phone rang. Glancing at the display, she groaned.

Her mother.

May as well get it over with.

“Hi, Lola,” she said when the call went through. “How are you?”

“Worried.”

“What are you worried about?”

“You. The last time I saw you, you were embroiled with that Hollywood crew. I saw how that guy—James—was making eyes at you. Then, I never hear from you. Have I been that terrible a mother that you don’t want to come home and see me for the holidays?”

Mandy rolled her eyes. Even if Lola couldn’t see it, the gesture gave her great satisfaction. “I’m fine.”

“Then why won’t you come home? Has Dana poisoned you against me? I know he went to see you.”

“How do you know that?” A spark of anger ignited.

“I have my ways. I still have loyal friends. George Stubbins for one.”

“George Stubbins is a creep. You should keep him out of your life. And you definitely need to keep him away from me.” Mandy got up and started to pace. She was not going to let her mother set her back. “Don’t ever mention his name to me again.”

“He’s an old friend of mine. I’m sure you overreacted. You’ve always been a very confused young woman. I mean, look at you. You moved far away from me and I despair, totally despair, of you ever coming to your senses and returning home. Why can’t you be a normal daughter?”

Because you’re not a normal mother.

She bit back the words. Saying them wouldn’t solve anything. Nor would letting her know what Sally had revealed.

“Look. I’m fine. Please stop worrying. How are you doing? How’s the play?”

She’d said the magic words. Her mother launched into a fifteen minute explanation of her brilliance, the director’s incompetence, and the handsome leading man who was separated from his wife.

Same story, different day.

After her mother’s prattling died off, Mandy murmured false platitudes.

“I’m glad to hear you’re doing well. I’ll call you on Thanksgiving. I’ve got to get dinner going. Talk to you Thursday. Bye, Mom.”

“Oh. Bye.”

Mandy hung up, put the phone on the table, and eyed it as if it was rattler ready to strike. Would Lola call back?

After five minutes of blessed silence, she picked up the phone again. She was directed to voice mail, but wasn’t surprised. “James, this is Mandy. Let’s talk.”

• • •

James pulled into Dana Russell’s parking lot and got out of his car. The low cement structure didn’t announce the importance of its owner. Russell was like that—low key and efficient. His daughter had inherited the ability to be efficient, but low-key wasn’t in her makeup.

His heart ached. What choice would Mandy make?

He pulled open the glass door and walked across the industrial carpeting past the empty receptionist’s desk to the open-doored conference room. Seated around the table along with Russell were the director and a man and a woman who James assumed were production assistants.

Someday he’d be in their shoes.

“Good to see you, Lubbock,” Russell said. “Have a seat.”

The producer got right down to business. Soon James was immersed in logistical details. All four of the others in the room fired questions at him, testing his ability to deliver what they needed. When his phone buzzed, he was barely aware of it.

Two hours later, Russell sat back in his chair. “Thanks, James. I think we’ve learned what we needed. Could you step into the lobby for a moment? I think we can wrap this up today.”

“Sure.” The thud of James’s heart accompanied him out the door which he shut behind him.

He glanced at the chairs, but there was no way he was going to sit. He walked to the lobby doors and stared out at the swaying palm trees that dotted this part of the city. The thrum of traffic seeped through the glass.

What if Russell turned him down?

James reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone.

The conference room door opened. One of the production assistants gestured for him to return. Russell stood right inside the door.

“Welcome aboard, James.”

It was early Sunday evening by the time James got a chance to return Mandy’s phone call. The message she’d left had given him hope, but freeway traffic had delayed his opportunity to call her.

His call went straight to voice mail. After leaving a message, he popped open a beer and sat in front of his laptop. A ton of things had to be done to get ready for the location shoots the director wanted, especially the one in Maui. He’d need an assistant of his own, preferably one already located in Hawaii.

He was deep in the making of lists when his phone rang. He grabbed for it, but it tumbled to the floor, forcing him to scramble after it as it slid under the couch. He launched himself to the floor, snagged the phone, rolled over, and answered it.

Maybe he should try out for a commando position instead of being in the movies.

“Hello?”

“What’s the matter? You sound like you’ve been running a race.” Sally’s voice was gravelly with fatigue.

He sat up. “I thought—I was expecting a call from someone else. Not that I don’t want to talk to you. In fact, you were on my list of people to call.” He got to his feet and returned to his desk.

“You got the job then.”

“Yep.” He smiled. “I’m now working for one of the premier producers in Hollywood.”

“And the father of the girl you’re chasing.”

“There is that.”

“Have you caught her yet?”

James chuckled. “I think I might be close.”

“Ah. That’s who you were expecting. How’s her father going to take it?”

“I hadn’t thought about it. I hope they’ll get closer. Russell’s a good guy, but Lola filled Mandy’s head with a lot of crap.”

“I’d let him know.”

“Probably a good idea.
If
I catch her.” He pulled up the list of locations and dates. “What did you need, Sally?”

“Wanted to know about the girl and the job. You gave me the skinny without my having to ask.”

“You are a nosy old gal, aren’t you?”

“I am when it’s people I care about. So what’s up?”

A wave of affection for his old friend made him smile.

He went over the locations and dates with Sally. She promised to look at her schedule and see who she knew in some of the more remote locales who might be suited to provide food service.

“Mandy’s promised me to think over the partnership,” Sally said when she was finished.

“I know. You told me last week when we spoke, remember? And she talked about it when I saw her this weekend.”

“Do you think she’s going to take it?”

“I don’t know. Working with you, moving here, reestablishing a relationship with her father—it’s all pretty big for her, but she’s seriously thinking about it. All we can do is wait.”

“Well, I can’t wait too long. I need to retire, James. There are things I want to do in my life while I still have the health to do them.”

He laughed. “You’ll outlive us all, Sally.”

“Could be. Just get that girl to hurry up, James. We need her here now.”

After they hung up, he stared at the phone for a few minutes, willing it to ring. When it didn’t, he went back to his lists, part of his mind waiting for his phone to ring again.

Fifteen minutes went by.

A half hour.

An hour.

He shut his computer down and went into his living room to turn on the television.

Another hour passed.

He was brushing his teeth when the phone finally rang.

Of course.

He quickly spit in the sink, wiped his mouth with a towel, and dashed back into living room where he sent the phone skittering off the end table and under the recliner.

This was getting old.

Once more he made the dive to the floor and retrieved the phone before the caller hung up.

“Hello!” he gasped.

“I’m coming to LA.” Mandy’s voice was strong and sure.

He let his head fall back onto the floor. There was a god.

• • •

Mandy talked to James every day since she’d told him she was going to accept his offer to meet his parents. She’d scheduled time to see Sally while she was in LA, but had pushed back at his suggestion to see her father.

“I’m not ready,” she told Dr. Graham during their last appointment the day before Thanksgiving when he asked her about it.

“What will make you ready?”

Mandy plucked at her jeans. She wished the mess her parents had left her would all go away.

“It doesn’t, you know,” Dr. Graham said.

“What?”

“Go away on its own.”

“How did you know that’s what I was thinking?”

He smiled, one of the few he bestowed on her. “It’s most people’s reaction when they have to deal with complicated or painful situations. You’ve done really well, Mandy. You’re willing to explore new possibilities. You already know your mother’s version of events isn’t complete. We have a little more work to do to help you deal with her narcissism, but you’re on your way. I think you’re also ready to talk to your father.”

That was true. “I’ll think about it.”

Dr. Graham cocked his head. “You haven’t answered my question. How will you know you’re ready to meet your father again?”

She looked at the ceiling. What was the worst that could happen? He’d turn out to be what her mother had said he was—a cheat and a liar?

Then she realized what was worse. “What if he turns out to be what James and Sally said—a good guy? What then? I’ll have lost my chance to be his kid. I could have had a happy childhood.” Tears started falling and she grabbed the nearby tissue box, clutching it to her chest like a favorite doll.

Dr. Graham, as he often did, let her cry until she’d cried herself out.

“I suppose,” she said when she’d recovered enough to speak. “If we all had perfect childhoods, we wouldn’t need therapists.”

“I’m sure people would think of some other reason to be miserable and confused. We are a contrary species.” He smiled again, but this time there was sorrow in the smile. He uncrossed and crossed his legs again, and settled the legal pad on his lap. “The past is gone, Mandy, but you have a chance to make the future better now that you’re seeing life through a clearer lens. If your father is, as your friends put it, a good guy, then you have more of a family than you’ve ever had in your life. If not, you’ll know you tried and can put him in the same box as you’re learning to put your mother.”

He was right. In addition to talking to James, she’d voluntarily called Lola, told her she was going to LA for the weekend, and managed to stay emotionally disconnected throughout the call using some of the techniques she’d worked on with Dr. Graham. Her mother had impacted her life far too long.

“Sometimes I feel sorry for her,” she said to her therapist.

He nodded. “She’s had a difficult time, but remember she’s caused some of that difficulty herself by not getting additional help over the years. It was a different world twenty-five years ago, so she may not have had the opportunities you’ve had.” He put both feet on the floor and leaned forward.

The intenseness of his gaze made her shift on the couch.

“You’re using your tools well, and I hope your young man turns out to be everything you’ve always wanted.” He looked at his notes. “White picket fence and all. Remember it’s your life and your turn now. Your parents had their youth. It’s time for you to claim your own.

“You can do it, Mandy. I know you can.”

So did she.

• • •

Mandy was tempted to take a nap after she finished her shift on Thanksgiving Day. Maybe if she put her feet up for a little while?

Bad idea.

Instead she slipped out of her white shirt and black pants and into more comfortable jeans and an emerald green tee-shirt she’d splurged on a few weeks before. The shirt was one of the most feminine things she owned other than her little black dress.

As she pulled into Elizabeth’s drive, her phone rang.

James.

“Can’t wait to see you tomorrow,” he said when she answered.

“Me either.” He heart beat a little faster hearing his voice.