The Queen of Cool (10 page)

“
Yes,” Jaden said. “I told
my friend about the business. He wanted to know who was involved.
It turns out he knows you from a television show you guest starred
on.”

“
I’ve been on a lot.” Lo
shrugged her shoulders.

“
What did he come up with?”
Lisa asked.

“
The Queen of Cool,” Jaden
said.

Q

CHAPTER SIX

Tuesday, early morning—3:25 a.m.

Fairmount Historic District, Fort Worth

Days: 17

“
NO!” Mandy screamed and
writhed in her bed. “I want my MOM! You’re not my MOM!”

“
Mandy, you’re very sick,
honey.” Trying to soothe Mandy, Lo sat down on her bed. She put her
hand on Mandy’s forehead and cheeks. “You’re burning
up.”

“
I want my MOM! You’re not
my MOM!”

“
Mom’s in Italy with
Leonardo, doofus,” Alisha yelled at Mandy. “She doesn’t give a shit
about you.”

“
I want my MOM! I want my
MOM! I want my MOM! I want my MOM! I want my MOM!” Mandy began to
chant.

Lo looked back
to see Don standing in the doorway. His face was slack, and sweat
appeared on his brow and upper lip. His eyes flicked from Mandy to
Alisha. Seeing their father, the girls let loose. Alisha screamed,
“
You’re
a doofus,” while Mandy chanted “I want my MOM!”
like a Hare Krishna on methamphetamines. The noise level grew to an
ear-splitting volume. Lisa came into the hallway to see what was
going on.

“
Don?” Lo said.

“
He always checks out when
things get bad,” Alisha said.

Lo walked over to Don. His eyes flicked to
her but Alisha was right. Her husband of eight months was nowhere
to be found. She took his hand and led him back to their bedroom.
She sat him on their bed and climbed onto his lap. With her knees
on either side of his legs, she wrapped her arms around his neck.
She held on for a few moments before he seemed to click in. His
hands moved along her thighs to cup her behind.

“
Don, I really need your
help,” Lo said in his ear. “Can you come back here for
me?”

She held on for another moment before he
said:

“
Lo?”

“
Don, Mandy’s
sick,” Lo said. “I think she has appendicitis. She had some tummy
pain this afternoon, but we thought it was from eating too many Pop
Rocks. Now she has a really high fever. I need to get her fever
down. But I can’t take care of her
and
call the doctor.
Will you call the doctor for me?”

She pulled back to look into his face. His
face flushed with shame. His eyes were glazed with moisture.

“
Lo, I’m so sorry,” he
said. “I…”

“
There’s no reason to be
sorry,” Lo said. “A sick child is very overwhelming.”

“
I…”

“
We can talk later,” Lo
said. “Right now, we’ve got to help Mandy.”

Don blinked at her. His mouth screwed to the
side as he worked out the puzzle.

“
Mandy’s sick,” Don said.
“I’m going to call the doctor.”

“
Right.”

Lo got up to open their bedroom door. Alisha
and Mandy were pressed against the door listening. Lisa was
standing in the hallway pretending she didn’t care.

“
Mandy, back to bed,” Don
said. “Alisha, get the phone. Lisa, help your sister.”

The girls were slack-jawed with shock at
their father’s changed demeanor. Lisa popped to attention at his
voice.

“
Do it,” Don said.
“Now.”

The girls jumped into action. Alisha ran
down the hallway to get the phone and Mandy scooted back into her
bed. Lo followed Mandy and sat down beside her. Lisa stood in the
wings to help.

“
I want my Mom,” Mandy
whimpered.

“
I know how bad you want
your Mom,” Lo said. “But she’s not here, right now.”

“
She’s busy with some
Italian guy,” Alisha said as she came into the room.

They heard Don’s voice on the phone in the
hallway.

“
It doesn’t matter what
she’s doing,” Lo said. “She’s just not here, and that
sucks.”

“
I want my Mom,” Mandy
said.

“
I want my Mom sometimes
too,” Lo said. “But she’s never coming back. You’re Mom will be
home from Italy soon.”

“
You’re not my
Mom.”

“
Remember when the star
forward on your soccer team hurt her knee?” Lo asked.

“
I bet her mom
wasn’t in Italy with some
guy
when it happened,”
Alisha said.

Lo turned around to glare at Alisha. Alisha
shrugged.

“
Who took her place?” Lo
asked.

“
Delilah,” Mandy
said.

“
Why did Delilah take her
place?” Lo asked.

“
She was second string,”
Mandy said. “Second string always subs in for first
string.”

“
And didn’t she score the
winning goal?” Lo asked.

Mandy nodded.

“
What if, just for tonight,
I become your second string Mom,” Lo said. “How would that
be?”

Mandy looked at Alisha, who shrugged. Mandy
nodded her head.

“
I feel really sick, Lo,”
Mandy flopped back on the bed. “My stomach hurts so bad it feels
like it’s going to explode.”

“
I know,” Lo said. “Lisa?
Can you go fill up her bathtub with cool, not cold
water?”

Lisa ran into the bathroom.

“
Alisha? Can you help me
get Mandy undressed?” Lo asked.

Alisha came to Lo’s side and helped her take
off Mandy’s T-shirt and pajamas.

“
Underwear too?” Alisha
said.

“
Let’s leave them on for
now,” Lo said. “Don?”

“
He’s going to call me
back,” Don said.

“
Can you carry her into the
bathroom?” Lo said.

Don picked Mandy up from her bed and carried
her into the bathroom. Mandy screeched at the cold water. Lo
kneeled down to hold her hand. Don stuck a digital thermometer in
Mandy’s mouth. The phone rang at the same time the digital
thermometer beeped. Don grabbed the thermometer from her mouth.
Turning into the bedroom, he talked to the doctor.

“
We need to get to the
hospital,” Don said. “It’s faster if we drive there than if they
send an ambulance. Alisha and Lisa get dressed.”

He followed Alisha and Lisa out of the room.
Lo stayed holding Mandy’s hand until Don came back. Together, they
dried her off. Lo left him to get her dressed. Don carried Mandy
down the stairs and out of their River Crest home. In a blur of
motion and anxiety, they rushed to the Cook Children’s Medical
Center where Mandy went in for emergency surgery.

Ring!

Lying on her stomach, Lo automatically
reached for the light in her bedroom – Don’s bedroom; their
bedroom. Not finding it, she rolled onto her side.

Ring!

The noise was coming from somewhere close to
her. She opened her eyes and saw the cell phone vibrating and
ringing on her new nightstand. Expecting Don, she reached for
it.

“
Hello?”

“
Lo?” Mandy’s voice was
filled with sorrow and tears. “Can I come home?”

“
Mandy?” Lo asked. “What
happened honey?”

“
I haven’t been to school
since Dad died…”

Lo gasped at the words: “Dad died.” She held
the mouthpiece away from her mouth so Mandy wouldn’t hear her
trying to catch her breath.

“
They kicked me out,” Mandy
said. “I was going to stay here and fight it, you know, like Dad
would want me to do, but…”

Mandy began to sob on the phone.

“
Amanda Downs,” Lo said.
“Your father would only want you to be happy. He wouldn’t want you
to fight for something that makes you miserable.”

“
Can I come
home?”

“
Of course,” Lo said. “But
you remember our home burned down.”

“
Can I stay with
you?”

“
Of course, honey,” Lo
said.

“
If you’re there, then it’s
home,” Mandy said.

Q

Tuesday morning—10:25 a.m.

Trinity Trails, Fort Worth

Days: 17

Leaving Mandy in Yazim’s capable hands, Lo
took Mandy’s car to go for a run. Before everything happened, Lo
worked out a couple of times a day. She and Don usually ran
together in the morning. After seeing training clients, she’d do a
heavy weight workout followed by another cardio session. But it had
been seventeen days since she’d even thought of working out.

Since she was going to be almost naked in
front of the cameras in a week, Lo forced herself into shorts and
running shoes. She bullied herself into Mandy’s car and made
herself drive to the Trinity Trails. She parked off South
University so she’d have to run almost a mile to her favorite part
of the trails in Trinity Park. She had exactly two hours before
they were meeting Jaden Sadler, the lawyer, to go to the air
conditioning company. She needed to stay on schedule so she wasn’t
late. She stepped out of Mandy’s BMW and did some rudimentary
stretches.

“
Just one mile, Lo,” she
told herself. “You can quit when you get to Trinity.”

Pushing one foot in front of the other, she
started a slow jog. While her breath was labored, her feet moved in
the familiar pattern born out of years of daily running. One step
at a time, she made slow progress to Trinity Park. Once there, she
continued along the river. She was breathing deeply and trotting
along the familiar trails when she saw a fit, golden-haired young
woman coming toward her. The woman’s bright smile made Lo think she
knew her.

“
Lo?” The woman face
shifted to concern when Lo didn’t acknowledge her. “Lorraine
Downs?”

Lo skidded to a stop and looked at the
woman.

“
Lo, it’s me,” the woman
said. “Mary Bess. Mary Bess Dalton.”

Lo flushed with embarrassment.

“
I’m sorry, Mary Bess,” Lo
said. “I’ve just been…”

“
I can imagine,” Mary Bess
said. She gave Lo a bright white-toothed smile. “I’ve tried to call
a number of times.”

“
My phone’s been shut off,”
Lo said. “Everything…”

Lo looked away from the smiling woman to
keep from bawling her eyes out.

“
I heard about the house,”
Mary Bess touched Lo’s forearm. “I’m sorry, Lo. I’ve wanted to do
something to help in some way, but I don’t know how. I think
everyone feels that way. And you just disappeared. I heard there’s
a missing person’s report out for you.”

“
I’m not myself, Mary
Bess,” Lo said. “I…”

“
Well of course you’re
not,” Mary Bess said. “You lost Don.”

“
I’m sorry,” Lo said. “I
can’t really talk about Don.”

“
I understand.” Searching
for something to say, Mary Bess asked, “Is it true you don’t have
access to any money?”

“
I’ve been living off my
brother-in-law’s unemployment,” Lo nodded.

“
God, Lo, what are you
going to do?”

“
My sister and I are
restarting Don’s air conditioning business,” Lo said. “We think.
I’ll find out today if there’s anything worth starting. It’s our
only chance. If that doesn’t work…”

“
What about taking on more
clients?” Mary Bess asked. “I would think you’d be swamped after
winning Ms. Fitness Olympia again.”

“
Anything I make goes into
the estate,” Lo said. “I wouldn’t have access to it.”

“
But the air conditioning
business?”

“
It’s not a part of Don’s
estate. It was his Dad’s.”

“
I’ll tell you what,” Mary
Bess said. “When y’all are ready, give me a call. We can use a
check up and… I bet I can get all the girls involved. Everyone
needs help with their air conditioning.”

“
Thanks Mary Bess,” Lo
said.

“
We’d rather help you, Lo,
than anyone else,” Mary Bess’s eyebrows furrowed. Her eyes scanned
Lo’s drawn face. “Did you forget we love you?”

“
I’m sorry, Mary Bess,” Lo
said. “I’m just not…”

The women hugged for a moment while Lo
sniffed at her tears. Stepping back, Lo pointed to the trail in
front of her, and Mary Bess nodded.

Lo took off down the trail.

“
Call me?” Mary Bess
yelled.

Lo nodded to the smiling woman and ran away.
She tried to out-run the sorrow that hung around her like a cloud.
After a couple of miles, she knew she was just burning time. Taking
a full breath, she turned around and ran back to Mandy’s car. She
had just gotten in the car when her cell phone rang.

“
Why does Mandy get to come
home and I don’t?” Alisha asked.

“
Who said you can’t come
home?” Lo asked.

Lo heard Alisha crying on the phone.

“
You finished your trial?”
Lo asked.

Alisha grunted an affirmation.

“
Then come home,” Lo
said.

“
You sure you don’t just
want alone time with precious Mandy?”

“
Alisha Downs!” Lo said.
“How dare you? You know I love you. You know you’re welcome
wherever I am. You know that.”