And Playing the Role of Herself... (31 page)

She suppressed a chuckle and a dark, elegant eyebrow inched up her forehead. "Is that so?"
"Uh-huh."
"Well, I certainly need to stick around for that. Guess you're stuck with me for a while."
"Lucky me." I smiled up at her.
"Lucky
me
." She grinned down at me. Our eyes locked, and both of our smiles faded as electricity sparked between us, along with something deeper. "I love you," she said softly.
"I love you, too."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath at the words, smiling radiantly. "I wonder if I'll ever get used it."
"To what?" I brushed my fingers across her cheek, and she opened her eyes. "To hearing someone loves you?"
"No baby…" She leaned down to brush her lips across my cheek. "To actually believing it."

"Eroto what???" Liz looked at me blankly, the normally flawlessly smooth skin of her forehead furrowed in perplexity.
"Erotomanic Delusional Disorder." I repeated. "With…" I scrunched my face up, trying to remember what Detective Fischer had said. "Uh…attached Narcissistic Linking Fantasies."
She blinked. "Uh-huh. And is there an English translation for that? Something us simple folk can understand?"
We were sharing a carafe of coffee on the small back patio of the guest cottage on Liz's estate, talking and enjoying the cool morning air as had become our habit over the past twenty-three days since I'd been released from Mid-Key Medical Center. Liz had insisted I use her cottage as a place to rest and recuperate out of the public eye, and I had taken her up on her offer with very little argument. Since then, these early morning coffee sessions had become something of a ritual; every two or three days Liz would show up at the cottage door after my morning walk - running was still too painful - and her morning swim, carafe in hand, and we'd talk for an hour or so, until the coffee was gone. This morning when Liz knocked on my door, I'd just gotten off the phone with Detective Fischer.
I smiled slightly and took a sip of coffee. "Mm-hmm. Basically what it means is that Todd Massey thought he had some kind of relationship or friendship with Robyn, and the stories about Josh dumping her for me…that really pissed the guy off, insulted her and by extension, him. So that anger had been building up for weeks, and when he saw her with me, the supposed reason Josh had dumped her, he just…snapped"
She blew on her cup absently and nodded, her eyes flicking from my face to my splinted wrist. I had done a lot of healing since leaving the hospital - my face had returned to its normal size and shape, the welts from the cuts on my face had gone down and lost the angry, swollen red of a new injury, the large metal and bandage splint on my wrist had been downsized to an easily removable light-weight vinyl and canvas splint, and most of the bruising had faded to a faint, slightly jaundiced yellow - but evidence of Todd Massey's 'snap' was still very visible.
"And they're just going to ship him off to some loony bin? No trial for what he did?" She wrapped both hands around the mug, tapping gently with one long, blood-red nail.
"It's not official yet, but that's what it sounds like since they doubt he's fit to go to trial. And he's continued to be violent in custody, attacking two cell mates before they transferred him to a mental health facility that deals with that kind of thing." I delivered the information dispassionately, suppressing the churn of emotions that talking about Todd Massey and the attack brought on.
"And how do you feel about that?" Liz said carefully, watching me with concern.
I sighed and rolled the tension out of my shoulders. "To be perfectly honest, I'm relieved. The detectives and the DA think that with the violence of the assault and his behavior since the arrest, it will be a long, long time before anyone has to worry about him walking the streets; longer, they think, than what he might get if he actually went to trial."
"Maybe that is better, then."
I shrugged. "I think so…I wasn't looking forward to living through it again, and the media attention a trial would have brought…" I shuddered for emphasis. "I'm finally starting to be a non-entity again with the press - I'd like to keep it that way for a while."
I had thought the amount of attention I garnered for 'dating' Josh Riley had been intense, but I'd learned being attacked by a clinically insane erotomanic delusional with narcissistic linking fantasies ranked much higher on the scale of newsworthy things a celebrity could do to get attention. And add the extra titillation factor that the object of the attacker's fantasies and obsession was Robyn Ward, whose boyfriend I had recently stolen, and who I had been spending the weekend with when I was attacked…the fervor had been insane, and the speculation, mind-boggling. Rumors of a lesbian affair between Robyn and I had surfaced, but seemed to stem from previous rumors fueled by the season finale kiss and not by any new information. With nothing new to keep them alive, they never gained a good foothold, and although they never disappeared altogether, there was far less speculation in that area than I had expected, and I was glad to be proven wrong about the Monroe County Sheriff's Office's capacity for discretion.
"Yes, things do seem to be calming down," Liz mused. "Paula said you two swung by your house yesterday when you were out, and it was relatively press-free."
I nodded. "Nary a photog in site. My hydrangeas are decimated, and the front landscaping is a mess, but it was a beautifully empty mess."
"And the rest of the trip?" she asked casually, "everything go alright?"
Yesterday's trip with Paula was only the second time in twenty-three days that I'd left the fenced confines of Liz's estate. I knew Liz was concerned by my reclusiveness, but she hadn't pushed, and for that I was grateful. Last week, I'd finally forced myself to leave the property, accompanying Risa on a brief trip to the grocery store, and yesterday I'd tagged along with Paula as she ran some errands for Liz at a crowded shopping center, just trying to get accustomed to being surrounded by strangers again.
"Everything went fine…better than fine, really. I'm still a little jumpy, but it wasn't as bad as I expected, once I got over the initial weirdness of having people in my space. I'm actually thinking that I should move my ass home and stop hiding out here, especially now that my house is press-free. I've taken advantage of your generosity for long enough. I was thinking of moving early next week."
Liz paused in mid-sip and lowered her cup, reaching out with one hand to touch my arm. "Caid, you're not taking advantage of anything. You know you're welcome to stay as long as you want." She pulled her hand away and returned it to her cup. "I've enjoyed having you around, actually." She smiled. "The only other person who stays in this cottage is Mama, and you're much easier to deal with."
"Liz, I've met your mama. Being easier to deal with than her isn't much of a feat."
She gave me a mock frown. "Are you bad-mouthing my mama?"
I laughed. "No, ma'am. I'd never do that." We shared a smile and I reached out and tapped her cup gently with mine. "And I've enjoyed being here, Liz. Thank you again."
"Caid, you've already thanked me a hundred times…"
"So now it's a hundred and one." We were quiet for a moment. "Speaking of Mama Stokley," I asked curiously, "how'd she take the news?"
Two weeks ago, in an announcement that had surprised pretty much everyone, Liz and Danny not only went public with their relationship, but also announced their engagement. The resulting media flurry had done just as much, if not more, than my seclusion to get stories of my attack out of the lime-light, and despite Liz assurances to the contrary, I still wasn't convinced that the timing wasn't deliberate.
Liz laughed. "Oh, she's a little concerned that he's Italian, and Catholic, and that I'm rushing into things, but she's already talking to caterers and florists and bugging us to set a date."
"Well, it was kind of quick," I said absently, remembering my own surprise at the news, even though I knew Liz and Danny were together. Liz looked annoyed at my comment and I hastily amended, "I'm not saying it's good or bad, Liz…I'm just saying things happened very quickly, and you surprised a lot of people."
"God, if I had a dollar for every time someone's told me we're rushing…" She shook her head and looked out over the lawn, and then back at me. "I've been with a lot of men, Caid…a lot," she said matter-of-factly. "I knew right away it was different with Danny, and he knew it too, and we figured, why wait? Because other people think we should?"
I held up a hand in apology. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I think you're making a mistake - I don't. I've seen you two together, and I think it's good, Liz. Really good."
She contemplated my apology while she poured herself more coffee, and finding it satisfactory, moved on to other topics. "So, when is Robyn getting back?"
Robyn's filming had taken her to New York for sound stage work the day before my release from the hospital. We talked daily, but she hadn't been able to make it back even for a quick visit and I missed her intensely. To say I was looking forward to her return to LA would be something of an understatement; I'd been thinking of little else for the past several days.
"She's not positive yet, but sometime this weekend if everything stays on schedule." I nodded my thanks as she filled my mug.
"Bet you're looking forward to that, hmm?" she asked.
"You could say that," I said dryly.
"Uh-huh." She laughed. "Well, I don't know what y'all's plans are when she gets in," she raised her eyebrows suggestively, "but please make sure she knows she's welcome here any time - I've told Risa to expect her."
I blushed, but managed a smiled at her thoughtfulness. "Thanks, Liz."
She laughed again, and patted my hand. "Of course, sugar."
Liz left a little while later, and I passed the morning with a light free-weight workout and nearly an hour and a half of careful stretching, followed by lunch, some business-related phone calls, and another walk. It was late afternoon before I grabbed a book and settled into a large overstuffed armchair in the cottage's living room, tucked in sideways with one leg draped over a padded arm and the other stretched out along the floor, easing the pressure on my still tender back.
I'd become completely engrossed in the story when the shrill jangle of a phone sounded, tearing through the silence of the house and scaring the crap out of me.
"Shit…" The initial jolt of surprise brought a lance of pain from my lower back, but after taking a few calming breaths, the pain eased and I carefully lifted my leg from where it was draped over the arm of the chair and pushed slowly to my feet. I straightened with a wince and dropped the book onto the chair before crossing to the table where the phone sat in the foyer.
"Yes?" I answered curtly, trying and failing to hide my annoyance both at the pain the intrusion had brought and the interruption to my lazy afternoon.
"Hi." Liz's melodic voice came over the line, "sorry to interrupt your busy day, sugar, but your girlfriend's here, and I'm going to assume she's here to see you and not me."
"My wha…?" I blinked.
"Your girlfriend. Robyn. Remember her? Tall, dark and broody? The one you haven't seen in three weeks? I just told Risa to let her in…so I hope you've showered today, and please tell me you're not wearing those atrocious holey sweat-pant things I saw you in earlier today…if you are, you have about 3 minutes to change into something that doesn't make you look like a reject from the cast of Rent."
"Robyn's here?" I repeated dumbly and looked down at my clothes, even though I knew that, yes indeed, I was wearing those holey sweat-pant things - once black bleach-spattered cotton sweats raggedly cut off at mid-thigh - along with a faded t-shirt with the neck and arms ripped out.
Lovely
.
"You are wearing those things, aren't you?" I could hear the amusement in her tone, and scowled. "And I was wrong about the three minutes - the woman must be in one hell of a hurry, 'cause I can see her car already. I give you about 30 seconds. Maybe you've got time to brush that rats nest you call a hairdo?"
"Liz, you're a shit." I told her and hung up, smiling slightly when I heard her laughter as I put the phone down.
I thought about trying to change quickly but dismissed the idea, since my body wasn't able to do anything quickly at the moment. I used the hall mirror to try and put hair into some kind of order, and then opened the front door and leaned against the frame with my arms crossed, watching the green Range Rover roll past the main house and start down the narrow gravel lane to the guest cottage.
She pulled up twenty feet from the door and turned off the ignition, pausing for a moment to stare at me before slowly climbing out of the car and walking up the short path to the door, a grin building on her face that I knew was mirrored in my own. A moment later I was engulfed in her arms, surrounded by her scent and drowning in feel of her body against mine.
"Hi," she whispered into my hair.
"Mmmm…hi." I melted into her with a groan of pleasure. "You're early."
One of her hands went to the base of my neck and kneaded gently. "There was some screw-up with the scheduling of one of the studios, and we're not going to be able to get in until Saturday. Lynne gave everyone a couple of days. I have to fly back Friday night, but I wanted to see you."
"I'm so glad you're here…" I kissed the side of her neck and snuggled in closer. "God, I missed you."
"I missed you, too," she said in a husky whisper, and tightened her arms around me. It caused a twinge from my back but I didn't care. I could have stood right there, in her arms, for days.
And we did stand that way for several minutes, gently rocking back and forth, just soaking each other in. My good hand crept under the hem of her soft cotton tank-top and splayed across the heated skin of her back, pulling her closer, and she let out a sigh and buried her face in my neck.
At the sound of footsteps on gravel, we finally pulled apart, but to my surprise and pleasure, Robyn didn't pull back very far, keeping one arm draped over my shoulder as we turned to face Liz who was walking up the drive with a smirky grin on her face.
"Looks like your early arrival was well received," Liz called to Robyn as she approached.
Robyn glanced over at me with a smile and I wrapped an arm around her waist and squeezed, returning the smile. "Looks like."
When she looked back at Liz, the two shared a grin, and I sensed some kind of collusion.
"You knew she was coming?" I asked Liz curiously as she walked up.
"She called this morning when you were on one of your little hikes…it was my idea to surprise you. You would have been a basket-case all day if you'd have known."
She was right, of course, and right now I was too damn happy to make a fuss.
Liz stopped in front of us and slipped her hands into the pockets of her long shorts. "Danny's coming over for dinner in a little bit…I was coming by to invite you to join us."
I felt Robyn stiffen slightly, and she looked at me and then at Liz. "I…uh…actually brought some dinner for us…I thought…"
I looked at her in surprise. "You did?"
"Mm-hmm. Indian."
"I love Indian," I told her and smiled.
She grinned back. "I thought you might."