Crazy Thing Called Love (22 page)

“So? Why didn’t you?”

“He was like …” Ruth dropped the glasses and took a deep breath. “Like a cocked gun, and he threatened to fire me if I told Billy or you. And then … then you guys would have been totally unprepared.”

“That little pep talk at commercial? That was you preparing me?”

“It was me doing the best I could without ensuring that you or Billy would walk off the show. The kids were freaked out, dirty. Hungry. Tired. Phil wasn’t even going to clean them up.”

“Is that supposed to make it all right?”

Ruth finally looked directly at her. And Maddy saw that she was a woman diminished, reduced to a puddle in last year’s Anne Klein funeral line.

“I’m sorry,” Ruth said. “For what it’s worth, and I know it can’t be much, but I really am sorry.”

As if they’d conjured him, Phil came around the corner into the green room.

“The studio audience is getting rain checks, but they’re not happy,” he announced and then turned to Maddy. “You should have gone back on.”

“And done what, Phil? Lie some more?”

“I wasn’t lying,” he said, a hand pressed to his chest. “I was doing my job, and doing it pretty fucking well.”

“You can’t be pleased with that show,” Maddy said. “That was a train wreck. We’re all going to get fired because of your stupid—”

Oozing smug satisfaction he held his hands out as if placating a jealous lover. It was hard not to punch him in the throat.

“Now, I’m sorry things played out like that during the show. There wasn’t any way to warn you that would have protected the integrity of the surprise.”

The top of her head felt like it was going to blow off.

“But before you get upset—”

“Get upset?
Get?
”

“Listen, the numbers are through the roof. Facebook, Twitter, the
AM Dallas
blog, that segment is all anyone is talking about in the tristate area. The clip of Billy kicking over that chair has gone viral, Madelyn. Viral! Ruth, tell her how great this is.”

Slowly, like an ancient woman, Ruth got to her feet, uncurling vertebrae by sore vertebrae. And when she reached full height, she looked Phil in the eye.

“I quit,” Ruth said.

“What?” Madelyn and Phil asked at the same time.

“I won’t get dragged into your cesspool, Phil.”

“What about the show?” Madelyn asked.

Ruth shrugged. “What about it? For three years we’ve loved this show like some morning it was going to wake up and love us back. Look at us, Maddy. What has our work gotten us?”

Richard stormed into the room, stopped dead center, and pivoted to face all of them, his hands at his hips. His short-sleeved plaid shirt stretched over his middle-aged man paunch. Normally, Richard looked like a mild-mannered high school science teacher. Not now. Now he looked like a man who was about to fire the lot of them.

“Can one of you explain what the hell just happened?” he asked.

Phil looked up from his phone, smiling like a smug rat. “I think we just became the most talked about morning show—”

“Stop.” Richard held up a hand. “Who planned this?”

Maddy and Ruth pointed at Phil, who suddenly seemed to catch on to the fact that Richard was not pleased.

“I wouldn’t say planned,” he hedged. “It just sort of happened.”

“You flew those kids down here?” Richard asked and Phil shook his head.

“I got a call this morning from Janice Wilkins saying the kids were on the red-eye.”

“And that daddy bullshit?”

“They’re his kids.” Phil glanced at Ruth and Maddy, neither of whom jumped to his aid. “The girl said so.”

“And you didn’t check?”

“Why check, she said he was her father. Why would she lie?”

Oh, Phil
, Maddy thought.
You lazy lazy bastard
.

“Right. Why would anyone lie? One phone call and I got the truth. One fucking phone call and I found out they’re his sister’s kids. Did you pay the girl?”

Phil shook his head, looking green.

“You’re sure? No gifts?”

“Some diapers.”

“You’re fired.”

“What?”

“Out. Immediately.”

“You … you can’t do that.”

“Yes, Phil, I can. And considering the fact that Billy’s lawyers are without a doubt going to land on us with both feet, I am delighted to throw you under that particular bus.”

“But the show didn’t make the accusations, we just provided the forum. That’s … that’s the law, right?”

“You weren’t even sure?” Richard sighed and shook his head. “God save me from fools. I should have fired you when your wife left and you started wearing those
stupid T-shirts. Snoopy does not make you look younger, Phil.” Richard was in full attack mode and if Maddy weren’t so terrified that she was going to be next, she’d actually be enjoying this. “All right, let’s pick another reason to fire you from the many many I have. Are you schtupping your subordinate?”

Phil choked on his tongue.

“Sabine, right?” Richard looked around for confirmation and Ruth got very interested in her manicure, but Maddy knew a chance when she saw it.

“Yes,” she said.

“Right.” Richard nodded. “Explicitly against the station’s HR policy. A policy we keep around so I don’t have to think about any of my employees naked. You’re out. Pack your shit and make sure I don’t see you again.”

Phil didn’t move, his mouth agape. His Superman Says Stay in School T-shirt was sadder than ever.

“Do I need to call security?” Richard asked.

“My lawyer—”

“Won’t help you. You’ll get a package, Phil. Now leave.”

Phil shook his head and slunk away, his proverbial tail between his legs.

“As for you two …” Richard pointed his fingers at Ruth and Maddy. And Maddy braced herself for the hit. “… you have one week to fix this.”

“Fix what?” Ruth asked.

“The show.”

What would Matt Lauer do? Maddy thought.
He’d pounce on this opportunity
.

“We’ve got some great ideas,” Madelyn said, even though they didn’t.

“We’ll worry about great ideas after you get Billy back on the show,” Richard said.

“He won’t … he won’t come back.” Maddy looked
at Ruth, who was still white-faced and small. No help. “Not after that.”

“Convince him.”

Like it was that easy? Did he know nothing about Billy Wilkins?

“What happens if we don’t?” Ruth asked.

“Well, Ruth, you’ll be fired for going along with that fiasco this morning.” He turned to Madelyn. “And you’ll be doing weather at five a.m. in Omaha. We clear?”

Numb, both Maddy and Ruth nodded.

Richard left, taking all the air in the room with him, and all the strength from Maddy’s legs—she collapsed onto the green room couch.

“What are we going to do?” Ruth asked.

“You quit, remember?”

“I know. Maybe I still will.” Behind her dark glasses her eyes were alive. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink. Or twenty.”

They’d never done this, in their years together. Sometimes when they worked late, they’d order salads from the deli and eat in the conference room. But they’d never socialized outside of the office. Maddy didn’t socialize with anyone outside of the office.

All part of her life on the iceberg she’d been calling home.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Holding two new
toothbrushes and a tube of toothpaste, his pockets stuffed with water bottles and protein bars, Billy stood outside his guest bedroom door. The second he’d opened the front door Becky had run into this room with Charlie, acting like the devil was chasing them. Of course, the way Billy had been yelling, he couldn’t blame her.

But it had been twenty minutes since she’d barricaded the two of them in the guest room and he was beginning to get nervous.

Beginning? What a joke. He was sick with worry, with anger and stress. What if they jumped out the window?

Carefully, he twisted the doorknob, planning to just look in on the kids, see if they were both sleeping. Or missing. Or dead.

But the door was locked.

What the hell? With sudden, exasperated anger, he lifted a fist to pound on the door, but he stopped himself, took a breath, and carefully knocked.

“Becky?” he called through the wood.

Silence. Lots of it. And then finally the door creaked open. Her little face poking through.

“Did Janice call?” she whispered.

He shook his head. “I thought maybe you’d want this stuff.” He held out the toothbrushes and toothpaste and a bottle of water.

If he’d held out a snake she couldn’t have looked more distrustful.

“I didn’t poison it. I promise.” He smiled, but the tension around the girl was too thick to even dent. One hand slipped out and grabbed the water. Another hand grabbed the toothpaste.

And then the door shut in his face.

Again, the urge to bang on it was pretty hard to resist, but stomping around like a bully wasn’t going to help anything.

Denise. God. Denise was dead. Those poor kids in there.

It had been a long time since he’d felt so useless. The divorce. The trade to Dallas. He was nothing but a dumb body. There was no one in this situation he could fight. No opponent he could punch to the ground.

He wasn’t even entirely sure what the situation was, since his sister couldn’t be bothered to return his phone call.

Maddy would know what to do, he thought, but he instinctively rejected the thought of calling her, much less having her here.

He couldn’t … he couldn’t even stomach thinking about Maddy right now; the wound was too raw. The woman he’d known would never have done this. Never. And he was afraid that he might have only seen what he’d wanted to see. That he’d ignored the reality of this new Madelyn Cornish, that she had changed so much that all the things he loved about her were gone.

They had both walked away from their past, but if she’d done this …?

Then he was a fool.

A fool who needed to figure out what to do next. Luc was going to come by and drop off groceries and some new clothes for the kids, but that left many many empty hours.

Realizing he couldn’t stand outside a closed door all day, he walked down the hallway, through the dining room, and to the kitchen, where his cell phone sat like a loaded weapon on the counter. He’d turned it off a half hour ago, unable to keep up with the phone calls and texts.

He scrolled through the numbers until he found the one that Becky had given him in the truck and hit call.

“Leave a message.” Janice’s recorded voice jerked him sideways. That smoker’s rasp she’d practically been born with reminded him all too clearly of being a little kid, following his tough, ball-busting big sister around with nothing but worship in his heart.

The beep sounded. “Call me, Janice,” he said through clenched teeth. “This is your last chance.” He spat out the numbers for his cell and home lines and hung up, his anger unspent, growing larger by the second.

As soon as he hung up his phone rang.

“Victor,” he said, not even having to look.

“All right, Billy. We gotta talk. This shit is getting crazy.”

“Okay.” He sighed and collapsed into a chair.

“You need to make a statement. The Mavericks’ front office is seriously up my ass right now.”

Some of those messages on his phone had been from the head of the team’s PR department. Hornsby too. They were not happy with him.

“Fine. Write it up.”

“I think … I think it would be best to make that statement on
AM Dallas
.”

“No.”

“Billy—”

“No. Nonnegotiable, Victor. I’m not stepping foot on that show again.”

“All right, all right. I’m just trying to do some damage control. What’s the story with the kids?”

“They’re not my kids. They’re my sister’s. She … she died a few months ago. As far as I know they’ve been living with my older sister.”

“Man, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want sorry,” he said, rubbing his forehead, a useless effort against the giant thundercloud of pain building in his skull. “I want all of this to go away.”

“Okay. I’ll do my best. So, why did the kid say you were her father?”

“She was coached, it was a setup.”

“By the show?”

“That stupid fucking Phil guy, Ruth too. Maybe Maddy.”

“You willing to take a paternity test?”

“No!”

“I’m just trying to make this go away, Billy. You want me to get the lawyers on it?”

“They already are.” He’d called his lawyer the second they entered the house.

“Okay, I think I’ve got enough to work with. I’ll be in touch. Keep your phone on.”

Billy hung up and his phone immediately rang again.

Coach Hornsby.

The fight, the anger, it all drained out of him and he was just too tired to hash out the details, too tired to defend himself against a guy who didn’t understand him, much less like him.

A man who was undoubtedly back to being disappointed in him.

How was he going to explain that he’d left these kids behind with his addict younger sister. And his older, cold and brutal sister.

He couldn’t even explain it to himself without wanting to throw up.

He ignored the call and within a moment a text bloomed on the screen.