Scrambled Babies (38 page)

Paeton looked down.  “I’m afraid I’m not much of a help.  Five pages.”

“Five—” Fred’s voice hit a high pitch.  He closed his mouth.  He finished calmly, “Five pages?  I thought you told me—”

“I know.  I started over.  And over and over.”  She paused to gulp in some air.  “I would understand if you wanted to dump me.  I don’t need an agent, I need a social worker.”  Paeton looked down at the insignificant number of pages on her lap.  “I messed up badly, right?”

Fred couldn’t look at her.  “I’m sorry, Paeton.”

“Mr. Valverdi will see you now.”  The secretary nodded at the door to Christian’s office.

Fred got up slowly.  “Thank you.”

Paeton rose and followed Fred into her producer’s office to listen to what she assumed would be the last rites for her screenplay-writing career.

#

Why is success such a long, hard road up, but failure such a quick, easy trip down?

Paeton sat pondering a blank computer screen.  Blank was the word for her entire life.  Steve was out of her life.  Fred was never really an option.  Valverdi had fired her—or as he had put it a week ago, “I’m relieving you of your screenplay-writing duties.”  Her best-selling book had run its course, and Velvet Arrow, her publisher, was screaming for her next one.  And all she had was blank.  So far blank was the best she could do. 

Romance was the worst subject she could imagine.  But she had never written murder mysteries.  If she could, something dealing with a slow death would be an appropriate topic right now.

It was four-thirty in the morning.  She surveyed the hotel bedroom.  She certainly didn’t need and couldn’t afford to be in L.A. anymore.  Her New York apartment, her home really, seemed like the place to go to get her life back in order.  Yes, she would start getting organized in the morning.

Silly thought—morning was already here.  She gave up trying to get any writing accomplished and went into the other room to turn on the TV. 

“
In Your Face
and Steedly Black are back in the news.  The tabloid and its star reporter have issued an open challenge to Paeton McPhilomy and Steve Kaselman to choose their babies correctly on the Royale Jones television show.  The article states that even though a national TV audience was unable to distinguish the infants, the parents should be able to.  Further, Steedly Black has asserted he knows the children better than the parents do, and he will correctly identify the babies by gender on the show, predicting the parents won’t.

“Looking into international news, the Palestine—”

Paeton clicked off the TV.  Her stomach started rolling.  If people thought she was going to defend her reputation in another television “courtroom,” they were crazy.  She dreaded the inevitable phone call from Fred.  She dreaded involvement with Steve again.  She dreaded the next moment!  Every time she tried to disentangle herself from her recent past, no one would let her.

She went into the bathroom to take something to quiet her stomach.  As she swallowed the chalky, pink liquid, she thought
, I need more of a break than going home to New York.  I can’t write word one.  Velvet Arrow will be putting my book in paperback, probably be selling it overseas.  I’ll have some money.  Maybe what I should do is take a vacation.  Yes, I need to get away.  Get far way from Los Angeles and—
  She decided she would call her travel agent after she tried to get some sleep. 

As she was starting to doze off, she bolted straight up in bed.  This time her heart was rolling.  It told her she didn’t need simply a vacation; she needed to go away somewhere permanently!  Leave all her entanglements behind.  France, Italy, England, somewhere far away.  She would live frugally.  She could get a job teaching English or working in a bookstore.  Her children could do worse than grow up abroad.  This was it!  The answer had been right in front of her all along.  She had no reason to stay here.  And if she could get her life under control, she could write from anywhere in the world, thanks to electronic wizardry.

This idea gave her great comfort because she felt she was taking charge again.  As she pulled the sheet under her chin, she wondered how Steve would react to Black’s challenge.  Although Steve had called her many times after playing the tape, she had not returned any of his calls.  She figured he would stop calling eventually.  And even though she had been tempted to return his calls, she knew better.  Yes, she would take a couple of days to close down her L.A. activities and then be on her way.

But would Europe be far enough away to escape from Steve Kaselman?

#

“You’re where?”

“I’m at the airport.”

“You’re doing what?”  She could tell Fred was beside himself.

“I’m going to spend a year in England.  It’ll give me a chance to study the area for my next novel.  It’s going to be a historical.”

“You don’t write historical novels,” Fred sputtered.  “Paeton, don’t do this.  Give yourself the weekend to think about it.  I’ll come to the hotel and we can talk.”  He lowered his voice.  “I know what you’re doing.  You can’t run.  You don’t have to respond to Steedly Black, but you can’t run.”

“Fred, I’ve made up my mind.  There’s nothing you can say—” 

Fred interrupted her, his tone stern.  “You’ll never write another book if you run, Paeton.” 

Paeton knew Fred was right.  But all she could think about was getting away.  Far, far away.  It was her only chance to escape losing complete control of her life.  To erase the purple magic-marker heart from her soul.

Paeton nervously kept checking her watch.  She wished the plane was leaving this minute.  She couldn’t just hang up on Fred.  Why had she called him in the first place?  Was it because he deserved that much after all he had done for her?  Or was she hoping someone could find some magical way to keep her from leaving?

But she didn’t want to change her mind.  Fred usually could persuade her to, but this time she would not be swayed.  She had to get away.

“Fred, I need something to eat before the plane leaves.  Thanks for everything.  I’ll keep in touch.  I’ll work out the details with Velvet Arrow later. You’re the best friend a person could have, Fred.”

“Right, best friend.  You know you can always come to me for anything, Paeton.  I’ll always be here for you.”

“I know, Fred.  Thank you.  Bye.”

She hung up.

Without warning, she heard Madison’s delighted scream.  “Steve!”

Paeton didn’t want to believe it.  Coming toward her, bigger than life, was Steve Kaselman.  As beautiful as ever.  As perfect as ever.  His eyes, certainly, bearing as many perils as ever. 

She tried to quell the uprising of emotion that swept through her at the sight of him.  She was determined to appear aloof.  To avoid any connection at all costs. 

But it was too late.  Her body already ached for his touch, and her heart concurred.

“Madison!  Paeton!  Kelsey!  What are you guys doing here?”

Paeton couldn’t bring words to her lips.

Madison
jumped in.  “We’re going to England.  How come you don’t see us anymore, Steve?”

“England?” 

Paeton could feel his eyes searching for contact.  Intimate contact.  She avoided those demons.

When Paeton remained wordless, Steve spoke again.  “I’ve, uh, been really busy, Maddy.  But I’d love to see you some more.”

“Hi, Steve.  What are you doing here?”  Paeton finally found her tongue.

“Hi, Paeton.  I was going to ask you the same thing.  But I guess Maddy already answered it.  England, huh?”

Paeton felt the purple magic-marker heart begin to grow inside her.  Why didn’t he take her in his arms?  Couldn’t he see she was his? 

She gathered herself to speak. “Yes.  I’m, uh, we’re, I have to go to London for some research on my next book.”

Steve’s eyes told her he wasn’t buying any of it.  “Oh, really?  For how long?”

“I-I don’t know,” Paeton stammered.

“Well, I’m off to do a game in Chicago.  Then I’m coming back to beat the pants off Steedly Black.  The network is giving me a last chance to redeem myself.  If I come out okay against Black, I get to stay and play with the big boys.  If not, it’s Podunk, U.S.A.  I hope you get back in time for us to meet the son of—uh, old Black as a team and show him how wrong he is.”

Through a flannel tongue, Paeton managed, “I-I’m not coming back for that.  I may stay, oh, a year or so.  I’m not sure.  I have a lot of research to do.”

Why didn’t he stop looking at her that way?  As if he didn’t believe a word she uttered.  “Right.  A lot of work.  But shouldn’t you come back for this?  We’d make a great team, you know.  Against Black, I mean.”

Paeton’s knees were close to buckling.  She had to get away from Steve, or she would run to his arms. 

She checked her watch.  “Oh, wow!  Is it that time already?  We’ll miss our plane.”  She bent down to pick up Kelsey.  She took Madison by the hand.

“Ironic, isn’t it?”  Paeton was finally caught by Steve’s eyes.

“Excuse me?” she mumbled, hooked by the demons.

“This is exactly how we were some weeks ago.  Both at an airport.  Both bound for different destinations.  Only then we still hadn’t bumped into each other.”  His eyes threatened to transport her.  But they held a sadness she had never seen before.  “Of course, we did bump into each other, and—”  His words seemed to catch on something and he paused.  He swallowed, then continued.  “Oh, well, we bump into each other at an airport, we un-bump into each other at an airport.”  His laugh was empty.  Steve extended his hand.  “See you, Paeton McPhilomy.  I wish you all the best—that’ll be without any jocks, I’ll bet.  I only want to say it’s been fun bumping into you.” 

This time his laugh held gentleness.  His laugh and his eyes were playing havoc with Paeton’s determination to break away.  All the surfaces of her body felt hot as Steve’s hand dangled in front of her like a forbidden fruit—so desirable—so devastating.  The hand that clutched Madison’s froze.  She hung on for dear life.

“Won’t you at least shake hands?  I’d still like to be friends.  There are mail services and telephones all over the world.  And for all I know, I may get an assignment in London.  I could look you up for old time’s sake.”  Steve edged his hand closer to Paeton.

Her breathing was quick and shallow.  Her heart was mocking her.  She felt she was about to leap from a great precipice.  To her amazement, she felt her hand slip from Madison’s and slowly move toward—

And then she felt Steve’s hand holding hers!  Her heart danced out of her body and played between their eyes.  It was as if his hand enclosed her soul
.  Run!  Run, Paeton!  Run for your life!

“Can I shake hands too, Steve?”  Madison broke the spell.

Paeton was able to free her hand.

“Sure, Maddy.”  Steve took Madison’s small hand.  “See you, Maddy.”

“See you, Steve.  You can visit us, right?”

“Right, Maddy.”

Paeton’s feet were back on the ground.  She took Madison’s hand again.  “Come on, Maddy.”  She turned to Steve, avoiding his eyes.  “Fred will know where I am.” 

Paeton began hurrying away.  She heard footsteps close behind her.  She peered over her shoulder to see Steve keeping up with them.  She picked up her pace.  She was almost running now, trying to leave him behind.  She was embarrassed at her obvious panic.  “Don’t miss your flight,” she called back to him.