Chapter 12
The first thing Jeanie did after
she got settled in her room was check messages. There were several, mostly from
people in the business in Vegas for the awards ceremony. She was disappointed
that Kevin hadn’t called, but didn’t really expect him to. She sat down at the
desk and phoned home.
“Lupe? Hi…me. I made it. How’s
Madi and Jess?” Jeanie shuffled through her itinerary… “I’m sorry, what? It’s
okay, put her on…”
Jess took the phone and quickly
fired off, “Aunt Jeanie, can I spend the night at Rachel’s?”
“Whose gonna be there?”
“Umm, Rachel? Her parents? Her
brother?”
“Boys?”
Jessie burst out laughing, “Me?
Boys? NO!”
“Gimme the phone number…”
“Oh man!” Jess groaned. Jeanie
could hear papers being shuffled as Jess fumbled around. Finally, she came up
with Rachel’s parent’s phone number.
“You never trust me…” Jess whined.
“It’s cause I love you…I do,”
Jeanie cooed knowing full well that she could elicit a giggle from her niece. “I
do…cherish you…for the rest of my life…I don’t have to think twice…” she
sang.
“Oh God, I give! I give! You’d
think you’d break off a little BSB instead of 98 Degrees…” Jess half-giggled
and half-groaned.
“Who? BSB? Never heard of
‘em!"
“You’re going to hell, Aunt
Jeanie…”
‘I know…Hey, is Madi okay?”
“Sort of…”
Jeanie sat up a little straighter.
“What’s wrong?”
Jessie started laughing. “Nothing,
I’m sorry. Let’s just say Kev’s gonna be pissed…”
Jeanie closed her eyes. “Why?”
Jess held the phone away from her
mouth while she tried to stifle her giggles. “Um…you know how he’s always
letting her help him wash the car? How cute he thinks it is when she’s got the
water hose?” Jess could hardly talk she was laughing so hard.
“Oh no…”
“Well, she washed some of daddy’s
other stuff today too…”
“Oh no…”
“Let’s see…she managed to drag the
hose into the house…”
“WHAT?”
“Let’s see…she washed CDs, then
she washed the keyboard that was leaning up against the bar… oh yeah, the hole
in the middle of a guitar is perfect for filling up with water…Lupe caught her
when she decided to wash the inside of the windows…”
“Oh GOD………Where was the baby
sitter?”
“She didn’t show…”
“That’s just great…lemme talk to
Lupe again…”
“So, can I go to Rachel’s?”
“Fine…go. You better be good…”
“Hey, I’ll be as good as little
Miss Madison Kirkpatrick Richardson…how’s that?”
“Jess?”
“Huh?”
“You’re going to hell…”
“I know.”
* * *
Once she was satisfied that Lupe
would keep a closer eye on “Miss Madison” as Jess called her, Jeanie tried to
return her other calls. Nick… Nick called three times. “This has to stop,” she
muttered. She adored him, but enough. It was over. She would always love him,
but it was over. She refused to call him. It would only add fuel to the fire
and he’d think she DID want to talk to him or, worse yet, he’d fly out to
Vegas. Kevin made the statement that more than once lately Nick was just
dropping out and no one could find him. “Bad business” as Kevin called it.
Jeanie had to agree. It wasn’t smart or mature.
Hunter called…she looked at the
number. It wasn’t a telephone number per se, but a hotel room extension. He was
staying two floors up.
First Kevin stood her up for the
trip, the baby sitter didn’t show, Nick was calling repeatedly, Hunter was here
and in the same hotel and Madi…Madi learned to wield a mean water hose… Jeanie
plopped down on the king-size bed. “God, can this get any worse?”
Be careful what you ask for …
* * *
Nick sat quietly in the corner. He
was sick of rehearsal. He loved what he did, but right now he needed to talk to
Jeanie.
After his last telephone
conversation with Tiffany, he made a decision. He would confide everything to
Jeanie. Everything. Hopefully, she loved him enough to somehow understand. He
knew telling her instead of Kevin was the coward’s way out, but he was terrified
to tell Kevin.
Nick loved Madi as if she were his
own daughter. In his heart, he didn’t think Tiffany would hurt her, but he
didn’t feel good about any of this. Tiffany loved the “power” she had now…she’d
already made joking threats about blackmailing Nick if he didn’t do exactly
what she wanted. Now, he wasn’t too certain she was joking. No, he’d rather
lose Jeanie than live with the guilt if anything happened to Madi. Besides, if
any harm every came to Madison, there would be no living with Jeanie. He’d seen
first-hand of profound love she had for her daughter when Kevin took Madi. It
almost killed Jeanie. He had to do something…
* * *
“Tiff? Me…”
“Hey handsome…” Tiffany stretched
out on Jeanie and Kevin’s bed. Nice room. Much nicer than the dungeon they’d
stuck her in downstairs. “Guess where I am?”
“Where?”
“On THEIR bed…oh yeah, sorry. Make
that your EX BED!” she giggled.
“Knock it off, Tiff…”
“Look, Tiff. It’s over. You need
to just pack up while they aren’t home and get a flight back here. I’ll pay for
your ticket.” There was silence on the end of the line. “Tiff?”
“Did you tell them?” Tiffany sat
up. She couldn’t believe he’d have the nerve to do that. Nick wanted Jeanie too
bad to tell her the truth.
“No, but I am telling Jeanie. I-I
just am.”
“No way! You better keep your
mouth shut…”
“Tiff. They’re my best friends.
I'm not keeping my mouth shut.” It wasn’t as big a deal as she was making it…it
was bad, sure, but…
“Don’t Nick. Please? You don’t
understand. You could get me in a lot of trouble…”
Nick walked out of the rehearsal
room and into the hall. “What the fuck are you talking about? What the fuck did
you do?”
“Nothing bad. I was gonna pay ‘em
back. Besides, I’m always having to watch their stupid brat. They don’t pay me
for that shit…”
He tried to take deep breaths.
Calm… “What did you do? Did you steal from them?”
“I got to go…”
“Tiffany!” he hissed. “So help me
God, don’t you do anything stupid! You call the airline and you get a flight
NOW!”
“Don’t YOU do anything stupid Nick.
So help me, you tell…and I’ll…I’ll…take Madi and run and I’ve got enough money
now to run a long, long way. They’ll never find this fuckin’ kid…”
“TIFFANY!”