The Weekday Brides 04 - Single by Saturday (6 page)

Damn it was a sweet-ass ride. When Mike had suggested they go to the dealership for exotic cars in Beverly Hills, Zach thought it was to window shop, maybe score a test drive. At first, he thought maybe Mike was showing off his clout to his big brother. When they’d driven off the lot with little more than a handshake and a signature, Zach was all kinds of impressed.

He and Mike had left the Boys and Girls Club after an hour. The kids took turns taking pictures of the car, the celebrity, and themselves pretending to drive. All the while Karen stood aside with a half smile on her lips as she watched. He couldn’t believe that she’d instantly said no to the car. Who did that? Michael told Zach at the dealership that he would figure out a way for her to accept it, but that if he knew her, she’d nix it outright.

“You were right about Karen,” Zach said as they pulled onto the street leading to Mike’s home.

Mike shifted around the curve and the whole car hummed.
Sweet.
“I’m sure I haven’t heard the end of it.”

No, Zach didn’t think so either. “It’s obvious she didn’t marry you for your money.”

Mike laughed. Instead of professing her love for him, he said, “Lotta good that would do. There’s a prenup.”

“Really? She agreed to that?” Seemed prenuptial agreements were a sign of doubt on the end of the person who had something to lose.

“She insisted on it.”

Mike slowed the car at the gated entry to his house and pressed a remote opening.

“She doesn’t seem to be the kind of woman you’d have to worry about taking you to the cleaners.”

Mike revved the engine, which didn’t do well idling. “I don’t think so either, but this is Hollywood, and nothing is ever as it seems.”

“Wow, Mike, that’s cold.”

He pulled into the drive. “And true.”

Without more discussion, Mike jumped out of the car, and at the same time, a short dark-haired man stepped out of house. “I thought that would be you. Damn, Michael, you’re already trending on Twitter.”

Trending on Twitter?

“Leave it to the kids to jump on social media. Tony, have you met my brother, Zach?”

Tony
…
ah, the manager.
Zach shook hands with the man.

“Noticed you last night at the party, but couldn’t get over to you,” Tony said. “How long are you in town?”

“Leaving tomorrow.”

Mike narrowed his eyes. “You just got here.”

“And there’s work piling up at home. Besides, you’ll be there soon enough.”

“You will?” Tony asked.

Before anyone could elaborate, the gate opened and in drove Karen.

Tony lowered his voice. “She looks pissed.”

“How can anyone be pissed about a car like this?” Zach asked.

“Karen doesn’t do extravagant.”

She damn near kissed the bumper of the McLaren before pulling the Cadillac to a stop.

Tony sucked in a breath and shot his hands in the air as if to tell her to stop before she ruined a machine worth over a quarter million dollars. Even Mike cringed.

“What was
that
about?” Karen came out swinging.

“What, a man can’t buy a wife a present?”

Karen exchanged a look with Tony, and skimmed over Zach, before resting on Mike.

“We’ve had the car discussion.”

Tony stepped forward, surprising Zach as he jumped in the middle of the discussion. “Michael, your agent already called me; Paramount has put in a call thanks to those kids posting all over the net.”

Karen swiveled her anger toward Tony. “What are you talking about?”

“The producers at Paramount?”

She offered a blank stare.

“You met them last night at the party.” Tony switched his discussion to Mike. “Lavine wants to talk to you tonight. They loved the YouTube splash and want to secure your name.”

Zach’s head spun. He had no idea what they were talking about and how it played into this discussion about the car. Apparently, he was the only one in the dark.

“Wait.” Karen shoved in front of Tony. “Are you saying today’s display was about securing a role?”

Zach was about to tell her she was wrong, but realized no one was talking.

“I wanted to buy you a car,” Mike said, but at this point even Zach doubted him, and he’d been at the dealership during the transaction. Never once did Mike say anything about a part in a movie.

“Really?”

“What could be better than my wife driving the car featured in my next film?”

Zach watched as the two of them argued. Mike’s words swam in his head:
this is Hollywood, and nothing is ever as it seems
.

“Look at it this way. Do you want the guy selling you your Ford to be driving a Toyota? No, you want the guy to drive a Ford.”

“Nobody cares what I drive, Michael. No one even recognizes me unless I’m with you.”

“That’s not true,” Tony muttered. “You’re all over the tabloids today, both with and without Michael.”

“You don’t have to drive it daily.”

She glanced over at the car. “I don’t even know
how
to drive it.”

Mike tossed an arm over Karen’s shoulders. “That’s my girl.”

“I didn’t say I’d keep it.”

“You didn’t say you wouldn’t.”

She opened the gull-wing door on the driver’s side and peeked inside. “How long do you have before you
can’t
take it back?”

“Five days or two hundred miles.”

Karen placed two fingers in the air. “Only on two conditions will I keep this car.”

Mike crossed his arms over his chest. “OK.”

“One, if I can’t figure out how to drive it without looking like an idiot in two days, it goes back.”

“You’re a good driver.”

She rolled her eyes. “And two, you agree to leave your agent, your manager, and your producers at home when we’re visiting your family.”

“They’re not coming with us.”

“I’m talking cell phones, Internet…everything. Tony can call me every forty-eight hours, and I’ll relay the time-sensitive information. I’m talking a real vacation.”

Mike glanced over at Zach. “See what I live with?”

“Those are the conditions, Michael.”

Mike tossed the keys at her again.

“Zach, do me a favor, will ya? Teach her how to drive it. I have a meeting to attend.”

Mike and Tony turned around and left the two of them standing in the driveway.

“Son of a bitch,” Zach said. “He was always going at Mach speed when he lived in Utah, but I don’t remember him being
this
intense.”

“You’re seeing the city boy. What I want to know is where the country boy went.” Karen glanced at him briefly and ducked into the house. “I’ll meet you out here in an hour. I don’t want to attempt to drive this thing in the dark.”

Karen didn’t even try talking to Michael before he left. She knew from experience that he wouldn’t be home anytime soon and not to count on him for dinner. She showered and slipped into a California-casual outfit for early summer, a.k.a. sandals, Capri cotton pants, and a short-sleeved shirt, and then walked through the kitchen, checking the time. In the driveway sat a zillion-dollar car for which she barely knew how to open the door, let alone drive.

She stared at the car and found it to be a symbol of her husband’s life, over the top and flashy in every way. If there was any possibility of Michael getting his life in perspective, it hinged on Utah. Hinged on family.

Thinking of family, she realized she hadn’t spoken with her aunt in at least a month. She didn’t hear Zach in the house and decided she’d take the last ten minutes before her driving lesson to call her only relative.

The phone rang twice. “Sedgwick residence.”

“Hi, Nita. It’s Karen. Is my aunt home?”

“Hi, Miss Karen. Yes, let me get her for you.”

Karen waited for her aunt’s housekeeper to fetch her. Man, they’d both elevated in life a peg or two. Her aunt had married a wonderful man named Stanley only a few years before. Stanley had contacted Alliance in an effort to find him a young and temporary wife to tick off his money-hungry children and grandchildren. Although Karen never considered the proposition, she’d met with him at Eliza’s request and decided that what he really needed was a strong woman willing to put his family in their place. The rest, as they say, was history. Stanley and Aunt Edie married, and after a little drama, the kids figured out that Aunt Edie didn’t do well with slackers and freeloaders, all of which Stanley’s kids were.

“Karen?”

“Hey, Aunt Edie.”

“How are you, honey? Are you eating?”

Karen laughed. Seemed all Aunt Edie worried about was if she was eating enough. “Yes, ma’am. I haven’t called in a couple of weeks.”

“Well you’re a busy girl. How’s your Hollywood husband?”

“He’s fine. Off doing the Hollywood thing. How’s Stanley?”

“He’s good. The doctor gave him a clean bill last month. All the blood work looked good.” Her aunt went on for a while about medicine and tests, much like everyone seemed to do when they passed the age of seventy. She finished talking about their health with a pause.

“Michael and I are going out of town for a couple of weeks.”

“Oh?”

“He has family in Utah he hasn’t seen for a while.”

Aunt Edie hesitated. “You’ve not met them?”

Karen knew her aunt already knew the answer to her question. “No…well, except for his brother. Not his parents.”

“A man who doesn’t introduce his bride to his parents…”

“Edie!”

“Don’t Edie me. It’s not normal.”

This wasn’t the time to bring Edie up to date on the future, or lack thereof, of her marriage.

“It’s fine. I’m OK. I promise.”

“I should have done something different—”

“Edie. Stop. I’m good.”

“Your mother didn’t deserve you.”

They’d had this discussion before, too. “Tell Stanley I said hello.”

“You’re cutting me off.”

“I’m saying good-bye. I have a driving lesson to get to.”

Edie sighed into the phone. A heavy gesture meant to make Karen notice. “I love you.”

“Love you too, Auntie. Big kiss to that studly husband of yours.”

That got the laugh out of her aunt that she loved to hear.

Zach stood outside leaning over the car. He’d combed his hair back and changed his shirt. The black button-up linen gave him a mysterious edge and made him look like he belonged on the back of his motorcycle or in the driver’s seat of the McLaren. She allowed herself one brief glance at his backside as he bent over the car. His sex appeal was effortless. She wondered if he knew how much. Michael wore his like a badge, but with Zach, he didn’t seem to notice.

Ignoring the way her skin heated, she removed her eyes from the package known as Zach, and asked, “Are you ready?”

He twisted around. His gaze traveled her body and then rested on her eyes with a soft, approving smile. “Are you?”

“How hard can it be?”

“Have you driven a manual transmission before?”

“Learned on my uncle’s Jeep when I was sixteen.” She glanced at the floor of the driver’s seat. “Where’s the clutch?” She looked for the lever to change gears. “You sure this is a manual transmission?”

Zach warmed her with a laugh. “It’s all on the steering wheel.”

She peered closer. “Seriously?”

There were levers on the wheel and many other buttons that she didn’t recognize. “I tell you what. You drive her first, and I’ll watch.”

Zach lifted his eyebrows. “Don’t have to ask me twice.”

The childlike look of joy on his face stuck as he rounded the car and opened the door for her.

“Damn, the doors don’t even open like a normal car.”

“This isn’t a normal car.”

“Tell me about it.”

Settling into the low seat was much like sitting on the ground. Only this ground moved.

Zach’s grin grew as he wrapped his long fingers around the steering wheel.

“I take it you haven’t driven it yet.”

“Mike did the driving.” With a press of the button, the car fired to life. The raw power of the engine felt like she was sitting on a live rocket ready to catapult into space. “Ready?”

Someone had moved the Escalade while she showered, giving enough room behind the car to back up. Zach pressed another button to put the car in reverse. His hands maneuvered the levers at the steering wheel as if he drove the car every day. Instead of watching his hands, she watched the driver. Joy radiated off him in waves.

She directed him away from the house and off the main streets. “Traffic is heavy until we get out of the city.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Let’s go up Pacific Coast Highway. Eventually it clears out. Then I’ll try to drive it.”

“It’s not hard,” he told her. “You press on the right shifter to accelerate, the left to shift down.”

She leaned over the center console. “No clutch?”

“None. It’s a dual clutch system.”

She waved a hand in the air. “I just need to know how it works up here.” The tachometer revved past five thousand rpm before Zach shifted. He brought the speed down just as easily when they came to a stop sign. Karen didn’t realize how far in she leaned until the spicy scent of the driver wove its way into her system. She sucked in her lower lip and tried to act unaffected as she sat straight on her side of the car.