Текст книги "A Few Broken Rules"
Автор книги: Kate Kane
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Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 14 страниц)
Chapter 14
Jamie and Ben rode back to the house with Gabe in the rental SUV while Lane and Jess took the Escalade to Macy’s at Town Center. Lane thought it was closer to home and besides, the parking situation would probably be better than going to the Mall.
“Gabe seems nice,” Lane said as she drove.
Jess laughed. “You mean he’s not what you expected.”
Lane smiled. “I’m not sure what I expected, but you’re right. I guess that since he grew up in Hollywood with famous parents, I expected something else.”
Jess nodded. “I know what you mean. Even though his parents aren’t actors, they are sort of Hollywood royalty. But he wasn’t raised by nannies or housekeepers, his parents took him on every location and he says they were pretty strict, by Hollywood standards anyway.”
“So, he speaks Italian. That will come in handy for you while you’re over there.”
Jess smiled at her Mother. “Well, that sure came as a surprise, but I imagine it will be handy. Of course, he is quite a practical joker. Remember the story I told you about the practical joke he pulled on the set when we first met?”
Lane remembered the story; Gabe had come to the set the day the accident scene was scheduled for shooting, sporting two black eyes and stitches across his face, holding a newspaper screaming headlines saying he’d been the victim of an accident. Just as the producer and director began scrambling trying to decide what to do, Gabe had burst into laughter. Everyone had forgotten that his mother was a make-up artist with multiple awards including two Oscars, and an Emmy.
“So, I’ll probably need to keep a close eye on him. Who knows what he’ll say to people?” Only one person knew Jess spoke fluent Italian and much to her relief, since Gabe was fluent, no one else needed to find out. Although she knew if she told Gabe and explained why she wanted to keep it a secret, he wouldn’t say a word to anyone.
Lane parked the SUV and they walked the short distance to the store.
“I just need to find some pants and long tops that will get me through the next few weeks. My regular clothes are just too snug and I’m not big enough for maternity wear yet.”
They walked through the store pausing at the women’s better casual wear where Lane selected three pairs of leggings and three long sweaters. They wandered to the maternity wear. “It’s just to browse.” Lane told Jess.
Since Lane still wore suits to the office, she was pleased that there were some dresses and skirts with maternity panels. She hated to try things on in the store, but knew from experience that even though they said you should buy your “normal” size that maternity wear didn’t fit quite the same. She selected a dress and a black skirt and walked toward the dressing room.
“You want me to come with you or stay out here?” Jess said as Lane turned toward the dressing room.
“Come with, I could use another set of eyes.”
When the men got back to the house, Jamie took Gabe outside to play hoops on the basketball court and Ben excused himself and went to his office to continue working on his trial strategy. Rosella Garcia had indeed killed her ex-boyfriend. That was a fact that no one disputed. Jury selection was set to begin on Monday and Ben intended to convince the jury, that even though it appeared Juan Rameriz had been shot in the back, Rosella had acted in self-defense. He was reviewing the independent medical examiner’s report when his cell phone rang.
“Bellini.”
“It’s Tanner. I just left Freddy. Seems there’s some serious money being laid down on Rockhurst. The odds changed last night after news of Coach Ferguson’s death hit the streets. I’m stopping at the hospital next. I want to check on the Harper kid again, see when he’s going to be released. His hospitalization still isn’t public knowledge. You follow the games. How much will Harper be missed if he can’t play?”
Ben had been watching the football team play together since Jamie was a freshman. “The backup quarterback is good. In truth, there probably won’t be much difference.” Ben rubbed the back of his neck. “The whole thing makes no sense. It may be the state championship, but it’s still high school football for God’s sake.”
Ben heard boisterous voices coming from the kitchen. Jamie and Gabe hadn’t stayed outside long. “Call me after you finish at the hospital.”
Ben ambled into the kitchen to find Jamie rummaging in the freezer and coming out with a bag of frozen peas. He looked over to the table to see Gabe was sitting there, listing to one side.
Jamie looked up to see Ben leaning against the doorjamb and gave a half grin. “Apparently we play a rougher game of round ball in Kansas than they do in Hollywood.”
Jamie handed the bag of frozen peas to Gabe who took it and held it against his left side. “I’m pretty sure nothing’s broken. Give me a couple of hours and I’ll be ready for a rematch.”
Jamie looked at Gabe. “I’m really sorry.” He looked at Ben. “We both went up for the rebound. I got the ball and caught him in the ribs with my elbow coming down with it.”
Ben shook his head. “You might want to take the rest of the day for recovery time. The game tomorrow with Jake and the Bellini brothers will make Jamie’s game look tame.” Besides, he thought, no one here wants to explain Gabe getting hurt to Jess.
Gabe had gone to his room to take a hot shower and Ben was sitting at the table with Jamie when Lane and Jess came home. Ben stood to take the bags from Jess and followed Lane into the master suite. They needed to talk and there was no time like the present.
Chapter 15
Ben placed the shopping bags on the bed and put his arms around his wife. He knew the phrase, we need to talk, always made her anxious, yet how else was he supposed to initiate this conversation? He wanted to soften her angst as much as possible.
He kissed her. “I love you. Did you have a good day shopping?” He said as he sat on the chair near the bed and pulled her onto his lap.
She nestled her head against his shoulder. “Yes, I got a couple of things to tide me over. Of course, I’ll need serious maternity wear before we know it.”
He stroked her hair as he kissed her forehead. “There’s something I want to talk with you about.”
“Is it Jamie? Has something else happened?” She was unable to mask the worry from her voice.
“Everyone is fine. It’s a sort of story that I want to tell you.” He kissed her cheek. “Just listen. Eighteen years ago, while I was a student at Creighton, I used a fake ID to go out with friends and one night I met a woman. We spent the night in a hotel room at one of the casinos in Council Bluffs. The next morning, while she was sleeping, I got up and went to find some aspirin and breakfast. When I got back to the room, she was gone. I waited in the room until checkout time thinking that maybe she’d had the same idea, but she never returned. I spent the better part of the next week in a failed attempt to find her.”
Lane sat quietly on his lap as he talked; her head still nestled on his shoulder. He stroked her hair and kissed her head as he told his story. When he began talking, she first wondered why he was dredging up stories of old girlfriends. After all, when they first became engaged, she’d told him she didn’t need to know about any of them. As he continued, though, the pieces began to fall into place and she realized the story was about her, about them. She leaned back to look at his face.
“That’s an interesting story. I have a similar one. Shortly after Philip left me, I was out with friends at a bar in one of the casinos in Council Bluffs. There was a group of guys there. We drank and danced. I got very drunk, and the next morning, I woke up naked and alone in a hotel room. I felt abandoned and ashamed. I quickly got dressed, took my embarrassment and shame, and went home.”
He kissed her. “I’m so sorry. I should have left a note, but I didn’t want to disturb her. You, I didn’t want to disturb you. You were sleeping so soundly, and it seemed like you really needed the rest.”
She looked at him. Knowing both sides of the story explained so much, but she had no idea what bearing it had on anything today. “Ben, why are you telling me this?”
He shifted her and stood. Holding her hand, he walked toward his closet and the safe that held the paternity results. “I have something I need to show you.” He entered the combination into the safe, pulled out the test results, and handed the paper to her.
She read the words on the page, read them again slowly, and then, looked at Ben. “You’re Jamie’s father?” She whispered in bewilderment.
After the confessions they’d both made, she knew that he was the man she’d spent that one night with all of those years ago. He was the man who had helped her forget about Philip and feel desirable again before leaving her alone to deal with her embarrassment. She’d chosen to believe she hadn’t had wild and crazy sex with a stranger all night, but the proof was in her hand.
Ben pulled her into a loving embrace, and kissed the top of her head. “So it seems, and now, we need to figure out how we’re going to tell him.”
They stood in Ben’s closet, Lane with her head against her husband’s chest, as the gravity of this new reality sank in. Apparently, this man had the most potent sperm on the planet. Twice now, she’d gotten pregnant from one instance of unprotected sex with him. And, the instance eighteen years ago meant that Jamie was not Philip’s son, but Ben’s. She often worried about Jamie. He was such an easy child to raise with his pleasant, happy, agreeable temperament; but she worried that beneath the surface there was an ember of anger just waiting for something to cause it to erupt. Learning that his whole life had been a lie just might be the match that would light the fire.
“I’m open to suggestions.” She finally said as she gave the report a shake. “Tell me, when and why you had this test run.”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t me. We can thank Jess for this. Apparently, when Joey was doing protection detail last month, she noticed that he and Jamie had the same eyes, Bellini eyes she said. She stole our toothbrushes and sent them to a lab for testing. She told me she’s been sitting on the results for a couple of weeks.” He held Lane close. “So, how and when do we tell him? He’s got a lot on his plate right now, but maybe this will distract him from the football situation.”
Lane leaned into Ben, putting her head on his chest as she wrapped her arms around him. “The report came from Jess; do we want her with us when we talk to him? It might make things easier.”
Ben smiled and kissed her cheek. On the other hand, it might make things more difficult, he thought. “Sure. Do we want to wait and include Jake too, or should we just get this over with now?”
Lane smiled; the Parkers had a saying, ‘What are the three fastest methods of communication? Telephone, telegraph and tell-a-Parker.’ She knew that Jake would soon know whatever they talked about with Jamie and Jess. She looked at her watch. Jake’s office probably closed early for the Thanksgiving holiday anyway. “I’ll give him a call and ask if he can come by.”
Thirty minutes later, Ben, Lane, and the Parker Kids assembled in the hearth room. Jess, who knew why they were assembling, had forewarned her friend and guest Gabe Greer that he might want to stay away from the room. Of course, she hadn’t told him why, and Gabe, having grown up in Hollywood as an only child, wasn’t about to miss the show, whatever it was. He chose to hover in the kitchen. His spot gave him a clear view to both the sights and the sounds in the hearth room, yet allowed him some seclusion and the family a feeling of privacy.
Ben stood and paced as though he were in a courtroom and the Parker Kids were the jury. It wasn’t much of a stretch; he and Lane were about to be put on trial. “Your mother and I have something we need to talk with you all about. While it concerns all of us, it’s mostly about Jamie.”
Ben stopped pacing, sat on the arm of Lane’s chair and took her hand in his. Ben glanced around the room, sizing it up as if he was about to deliver opening arguments. Jamie sat in the chair next to his mother. Jess and Jake, sat on the sofa adjacent to Jamie’s chair.
Jamie sat, frozen in his seat. Whatever this is, it can’t be good. Maybe someone else is dead. Maybe I’m about to be arrested, he thought.
Lane reached over to touch Jamie’s hand and as though she’d read his mind she said, “It has nothing to do with the football team.”
She took the paternity report from Ben and held it in her hand. “This is a report. Before I give it to you, I want to tell you all a story. Just after Philip left me, I went out with friends who were trying to cheer me up and get me over being dumped by your fath… by Phillip. We went to a bar where I had a little too much to drink and spent the night in a hotel room with a stranger.” She gave a half smile in Jamie’s direction. “I always believed that Philip had gotten me pregnant the night he left, but that’s not what happened.”
Ben stood, took the paternity report from Lane’s hand. God, they weren’t handling this very well, but then how did you go about telling someone that what he’d believed his whole life was a lie. An unintentional lie, but still a lie. He approached Jamie and held out the report.
“Bambino, this is a paternity report. I was the stranger who spent the night with your Mom, and it shows that I’m really your biological father.”
Jamie took the paternity report and looked at it. He read it and handed it to Jess.
Jamie looked at Ben, and balled his hands into fists; through clenched teeth he seethed, “So what you’re telling me is that you knocked my mother up twice and abandoned her both times.” He stood and pushed past Ben as he made his way to the window overlooking the lake. “At least this time you married her, so you only have one bastard.”
Since Jess knew what the report said, she barely glanced at it before handing it to Jake. She stood and walked toward Jamie. “Okay, Boysenberry, take a breath.”
Even in her trademark five-inch heels, she was half a foot shorter than he was. Jamie spun to face her. The muscles in his arms rippled as he clinched and un-clinched his fists. “Believe me, Sis, I am breathing.” He practically snarled at her.
Lane looked at her son, tears glistening in her eyes. “I’m afraid we’ve handled this badly, Jamie. Ben and I haven’t known very long.”
“Oh, crap. Boysenberry. It’s not quite what you think.” Jess put her finger in his chest.
Jamie moved his sister’s finger away from his chest. “There are rules, Jess.” He pointed toward Ben. “He taught them to me a long time ago.” He counted them off on his fingers. “Rule 1: No means no and stop means stop. Rule 2: never have sex with a woman who’s too incapacitated to say no or stop and Rule 3: Always, always, always wear protection.”
His hazel eyes were slits as he glared at his father and seethed, “How many rules did you break that night, Dad?”
Ben ran his hands through his hair as he looked at his son. “God, Bambino. How the hell do you think I came up with the rules to begin with? I left your mother the next morning and went to get breakfast and aspirin. When I got back to the room, she was gone. I waited in the room until checkout time, thinking she’d gone to get food and or aspirin but she didn’t come back. I spent a week looking for her.” Ben reached for Lane’s hand. “Jesus, I was 19. But, believe this, I have always loved your mother. I would never have abandoned her.”
Jess still stood next to her baby brother. “I figured it out last month when I was here. I stole your toothbrush and Ben’s and sent them in for testing.” She motioned toward Ben and Lane. “They had no idea. He didn’t abandon her. He spent a week looking for a woman named Angie Valle and he had no idea she was pregnant.”
Lane stood and approached Jamie. “I’m sorry. I never meant to lie to you.”
Jamie let his mother hug him, and perhaps out of habit, he put his arms around her too. “I need to think. I’m going for a drive. No protection detail. Alone.” He stated firmly as he released his mother and stormed toward the garage.
Jake stood up. “Not in this lifetime, Jandy. I don’t care who your father is, you’re still my baby brother, and I’m coming with you.”
Jess ran after her long legged brothers. “If y’all think you’re going anywhere without me, you’ve got another think coming.”
Gabe Greer sat in the kitchen, his mind spinning from the scene that had just played out in the hearth room. Fellini couldn’t have written or directed it any better. He grinned. This is going to be the best Thanksgiving ever.
Chapter 16
Jamie opened the door to his Chevy Colorado pickup and climbed in. He was vaguely aware that his siblings had piled in through the passenger doors as he started the engine. Neither Jake nor Jess said a word as Jamie slammed into reverse and backed out of the garage barely pausing as he slammed the manual five-speed transmission into first gear.
Okay, Jamie is pissed off, that much is crystal clear, but he’s going to have to talk about it eventually. Jess thought as she settled in the back seat. If she were taller, she’d have been uncomfortable, smashed into the half seat. She pulled the seat belt across her lap and snapped it into place. She and Jake were both waiting for Jamie to blink first. Regardless of whose genetic material he carried, he was one of them and it looked like they were in for a long ride.
There was no music, no sound except the tires on the pavement as Jamie drove south on State Line Road. His whole life had been a lie. Yeah, there was good news. Philip Parker, the father he thought had rejected him even before he was even born, wasn’t his father after all, and Ben Bellini, the man who had taught him everything he knew about how to be man, was. Still, everyone he loved had been lying to him. It didn’t matter whether they knew they were lying or not. He glanced into the rear view mirror at Jess then glanced over at Jake. Jess had said she’d figured it out last month, but Jake hadn’t known anything about it at all. Sure, some of them had known longer than others; like his Mom, Ben, and Jess. He wasn’t sure it mattered how long who had known what. Lies, it was still all lies. What was he supposed to do with this new information anyway? Was he going to have to change his last name to Bellini? Mom’s last name was Bellini now and the baby would be a Bellini from birth. Jake and Jess were only half siblings to him, but he would share both parents with the baby. He shook his head. Even if he didn’t have to change his last name, maybe he should.
Crap! He shook his head again and glanced in the back seat catching Jess looking back at him.
“You ready to talk yet, Jams?” She said as she locked eyes with him.
“As ready as I’m going to get.” He replied, his voice sounding calmer than he felt. “Tell me everything. What you know, when you knew it. How you figured it out. Don’t leave anything out.” He commanded.
Jess took a breath. “Last month Joey Bellini was acting as my protection detail and pretending to be Pauli. We were in Ben’s kitchen playing a romantic scene for the paparazzi, who were by the lake with telephoto lenses. I was sitting on the island and Joey was standing in front of me. I was staring into his eyes, thinking how familiar they were. But, before I could figure anything out, you called me and said Ben and Mom were back together and wanted everyone to come home for dinner. It was really at dinner when I figured it out.” She looked at him through the rearview. “You know, your place at the table is directly across from mine, and I looked at you. You had Joey’s eyes, then I looked at Ben and they were his eyes too. I just put it all together. I didn’t know how it could have happened; I just knew you had the same eyes as the Bellini brothers. So I stole your toothbrush and Ben’s and, after I was back in L.A., I sent them to a lab I found online. It only took about a week to get the results back, and I wanted to talk to Mom and Ben to give them a chance to explain. It just didn’t seem like a conversation that I wanted to have over the phone, so I waited. I was sure neither of them knew; you know Mom couldn’t pull off a deception like that for all of these years, and I wanted them to be able to talk through it. I wasn’t sure when or how I was going to spring it, but then I got home today and heard about what you’ve been going through this week. I decided to talk to Ben right away.”
She paused and looked at his reflection in the rear view mirror. “I talked to Ben before we went to Papa’s. He must have talked to Mom when she and I got back from shopping.” She shrugged. “That’s it, you know everything I know.”
Jake looked at his brother. “You know, Ben would have moved heaven and earth to protect you before, because he thinks of all of us as family, but now that he knows you’re his biological son, I’m sure it’s gone to a whole new level.”
Jamie blinked. He was Ben Bellini’s biological son. Dante and Teadora Bellini were his grandparents; suddenly he had a Nonno and a Nonna but no Nana Evie. He felt like his world had tipped on its axis. Hell, his world had tripped on its axis.
Jess looked at Jamie. “You know, Jams we all still love you. You gained a father, a real father. You haven’t lost anything.”
Jake chimed in. “You’ve been calling Ben, Dad for the last month. It just happens to be true, but that doesn’t make everything else false. Now, can we take a left and hit the Martin City Jack Stack? I’m starving.”
Jamie turned on his blinker and took a left on Blue Ridge Parkway. He parked the truck, but didn’t move. He turned and looked at Jess. “You know you left Gabe back there, right?”
Lane started to cry as the Kids left the house. Ben held her in his arms, stroking her hair as he told her that everything would turn out fine. Gabe watched as Ben lifted Lane into his arms as though she weighed nothing at all and carried her toward the master suite. Gabe heard the door close as he walked to the refrigerator and got a bottle of water. This would make one of the best scripts he’d ever read, not that he’d want to exploit the Bellini family, even if Jess would allow it.
A few minutes later, Lane walked into the kitchen where Gabe was sitting at the island, a bottle of water in his hand. It was nearing dinnertime and she had no idea when the kids would be back. She knew that Jake and Jess would keep Jamie safe and grounded. The kids always said that blood is thicker than water and Parker blood is thicker than molasses. She smiled. Guess it was really her blood, Valle blood, that was thicker than molasses.
“Gabe, it appears that dinner might be late. Can I get you anything, maybe a snack to tide you over?”
Lane walked toward the refrigerator. She was sure Gabe had heard the family drama that had played out earlier, and while he was a guest in her home and she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, she still wasn’t prepared to discuss any of it with him.
“Jess sent me a text a couple of minutes ago.” He looked at his phone, “It says, ‘We’re bringing back Jack Stack’.” He smiled his movie star smile. “I hope that means something to you.”
Lane smiled and gave a light laugh, “It means I hope you’re hungry and that you like barbeque. Because, if I know my kids, they’ll have enough food for a small army when they get back.”
