The Director (Hollywood Nights) (14 page)

           
“What?” Frankie gasped.

           
“That’s right. Harvey found me. He took
me back to his agency and told me to tell him everything.
Everything.
I did, because I had nothing left to lose. I wanted him
to put the final nail in my coffin. To confirm what I thought was true. He
didn’t. He listened, he heard me, and he said I was the perfect challenge for
his son, Alex to prove he was worthy of taking over the business. I don’t know.
I saw past the challenge. I think he knew I was scraping the bottom and he
concocted this test for his son as a way of doing two things at once.”

“What two things?” Frankie asked.

“He saved my life, and he made
Alex step up and earn his place. I’m not the same person, Frankie. I mean I am,
but I’m not. I’m finally allowed to just be me, and I like who I am. I know
you’ve been keeping me at a distance. I get it. I’m not even hurt by it. I’m
grateful for every smile, every comment, every chance I get to earn my place in
your life.”

           
Frankie smiled at her, wiped a stray
tear, and said, “And Jed?”

           
Shay couldn’t stop the warm flush of
emotion that surged through her at his name. “He gets me, Frankie. He
understands me in a way no one ever has before, not even you. See this
bracelet, this flat line was me before I met him, this fist spike, that’s the
start of my life now.”

           
“They liked you, instantly.” Frankie
sighed. “They didn’t like me that easy. I had to work for it. Of course, I had
taken the happy-go-lucky one and made him an emotional wreck before it got
better. You have taken the…grumpy one and made him happy.”

           
“Maybe just less grumpy.” Shay held
her hand out and Frankie took it.

           
“I knew you had to be special to him
when I saw the hoodie.”

           
“What is with that thing?” Shay had
to know. She had tried to find InkBlot, but didn’t come up with anything that
fit the graphic design of the logo.

           
“The InkBlot hoodie. It was their
band, the three of them when they were kids. A short lived adventure, but they
hold on to it like a link that keeps them together. I guess it is. I don’t know.
I mean, you’re the only sister I ever had.” Frankie said. Then she added, “If
you marry him we really will be sisters.”

           
“Won’t that make being a little
lesbian even more awkward?” They laughed. Shay squeezed Frankie’s fingers and
explained, “You are always going to be my family Frankie.”

           
“Well.” Frankie smiled. “Help me up
so we can go see the rest of the family. Jonas will get worried soon. He thinks
I’m going to pop this kid out any minute. We still have some time.”

           
Shay grabbed both hands and pulled
Frankie to a standing position. “Are you excited?”

           
“Scared,” Frankie admitted. “I’m
excited, but also scared. It is apparently a big deal to his fans. I keep
reminding myself that I once got excited about this stuff too. I’m thinking
about letting his stylist take over my wardrobe.”

           
Shay walked with Frankie through the
house and into the dining room where everyone seemed to be busy getting things
set up for dinner. “You’re great as you are, but it couldn’t hurt to get some
cool pregnancy pieces at the same time.”

           
“Hi, Shay!” Janice said excitedly.

           
“Hi.” Shay smiled and looked at
everyone now looking at her and Frankie. She leaned in to tell Frankie, “You
should ask who she uses, she always looks great.”

           
Frankie nodded. Buddy Junior ran
towards them, smiled, waved, and then ran to hide behind his father.

           
“Hey,” Frankie called after him,
“Where are you going? When did that happen?”

           
Janice said, “When he met Shay.”

           
Shay tried to ignore Frankie’s sigh of
defeat as the last person Shay thought might have accepted her easily, Buddy
junior, was flirting with Shay instead of Frankie. She asked, “Where’s Jed?”

           
“Down the hall, in the third bedroom
on the right.” Jonas pointed.

           
Shay looked at Frankie and Frankie
said, “I forgot they grew up in this house. That was his room. Go grab him and
tell him dinner is ready.”

           
Shay made her way through the
insanely gorgeous home and found Jed right where they suspected him to be.
“Hey.”

           
He turned to look at her. He seemed
unsure of something. Like he just finished doing something he shouldn’t have
been doing, but she couldn’t tell what. She closed the distance between them
and as he wrapped her in his arms he breathed a sigh of relief and asked,
“How’d it go with Frankie?”

           
“Good,” Shay said as she reached up
to push her fingers through his hair. Maybe it was just a text, e-mail, or
missed call that had him on edge. She was sure he had returned something to his
pocket. “She just wanted to catch up. This was your room?”

           
He squeezed her tight and said, “I
think they know about the…”

           
“I’m sure they do,” she said.
“Frankie gave me the copy I showed you. They are just worried about you, Jed.
They want you to be happy. I guess I have that in common with them.”

           
He looked down at her and then
pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. “I thought you wanted to make me
miserable.”

           
She smiled. “Terribly miserable.”

           
“Well,” he said and looked around
the room that was once his. “It’s working. So, you ready to go have dinner with
my family?”

           
She nodded.

***

Shay decided over the course of a
small gathering with his family that there was no way in hell she could ever
look at Jonas Gunner the same again. He was such a brat. His sister had asked
him to stop, but he kept on. Frankie even looked annoyed at him. He had been
asking questions the entire meal. Shay had put up with it. Jed had taken it in
stride.

“I just don’t understand why you
can’t do something safer, that’s all,” Jonas ended his line of questions aimed
at his big brother.

“Well,” Jed grumbled. “I’ll keep
that in mind as I decide on my next project.”

Shay was irritated most by the
fact that through Jonas’s line of questioning, she had started to worry about
Jed’s safety as well. When he told the stories of his adventures they seemed
exciting and important. When Jonas questioned him he made good points regarding
risk and safety. Shay didn’t want Jed to take another assignment that might put
him in harm’s way.

Still, she didn’t like Jed taking
the beating.

Janice and Buddy had taken Buddy
Junior to their car and were reasonably out of sight.

Shay looked at Frankie who
mouthed the word sorry. Then Shay looked at Jonas. His smug little smile
provoked it.

“Goodnight Frankie,” Shay leaned
in and kissed Frankie full on the lips, nothing overly dramatic, but simple smooch
that got her husband’s attention. Frankie covered her lips with her hand as
Shay pulled back. Frankie was blushing. Jonas was in a state of shock.

“What was that?” he asked.

“What?” Shay asked innocently and
looked at Jonas. He probably had had more sex than anyone in a ten mile radius but
his expression was that of a man who had never seen anything like it before.
“She’s adorable. We always kiss hello and goodbye. What?”

“Frankie?” He looked at his wife.
Frankie shrugged. It was true. She couldn’t deny it. “Jed?”

“You want me to kiss her too?”
Jed asked.

“Frankie!” Jonas looked at her as
though she had just kissed his brother though he was the farthest from her.

“Jonas.” Frankie mocked him.

“I don’t like you kissing my
wife, Shay.” Jonas crossed his arms and glared at her.

“And I don’t like you grilling
your brother in front of everyone like that. It’s not just him that had to sit
there and take it, Jonas, we all did. So, I thought it was only fair to make
you as uncomfortable as you had made me.” Shay watched Frankie bite her lips to
keep from smiling. This was a part of the old Shay Frankie always appreciated.
Shay had been bullied enough in her life; she didn’t let anyone bully people
she loved, even if they were related. Frankie had drawn the line between who
she would choose. Shay had to do the same. It was Jed, even over Frankie, it
was Jed.

Jonas thought about it a moment
and said, “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” Shay said sweetly. Then
she moved to stand next to Jed who smiled from ear to ear.

“She hates me,” Jed said and Shay
knew he meant the opposite.

“I really do.” She looked up at
him.

 
Everything sparked between them at the
admission. He leaned in to kiss her lips. It was not a simple kiss. It was
passionate, with lips, tongue, and teeth. Arms were wrapped tightly around one
another. They had forgotten time and place.

Frankie cleared her throat and
said, “We’re just going to go inside now.”

As if coming to their senses, Jed
slowly let her go and they both looked a bit stunned towards a smiling and
waving Frankie and a blushing and cowed Jonas.

***

           
Jed was as shocked as his little
brother when Shay leaned in and kissed Frankie. He was glad it was just a
simple kiss, because he had to admit he was a bit jealous. Then she revealed
that she did it to get back at Jonas for being an ass all night. “Do you and
Frankie really kiss hello and goodbye?”

           
Shay shrugged. “Yeah, we used to. It
got attention when we were younger. She knew I was just doing it to get him
fired up.”

           
“Did you consider it might bother
me?” he asked.

           
“Did it?” She placed her hand on his
shoulder quickly as she asked. Before he could respond she explained, “I didn’t
think it would. I mean it wasn’t a real kiss, just lips on lips long enough for
him to feel awkward. He thinks we were a little more lesbian than we joked
around about being. He feels threatened by me when it comes to Frankie. I know
this because he told me he would fight me for her. I swear we were not involved
with each other that way. We were kids. We just practiced.”

           
Jed smiled. “I don’t think he’s ever
had to compete with anyone before. It’s just new for him to feel so strongly
about someone.”

           
“Why did you let him talk to you
like that at dinner?” she asked. Her hand moved to his thigh and remained
there. He liked the feel of it. The intimacy of the touch reminded him that she
admitted she loved him, though not in those exact words.

           
He took in a deep breath and
explained, “I’m older than they are. I was five when they had Janice. I loved
her instantly. She was such a good baby. Then they had Jonas two years later.
He was a little hellion from the time he came home. He’s my little brother, so I
had to take care of him. I let him break my favorite toys, steal my favorite
clothes, I don’t know. I mean, I guess I still look at him that way.”

           
“He is a grown man with a wife and a
child on the way. He can’t just badger you in front of everyone because he’s
worried. I mean he made everyone worried!” she practically shouted the last
part at him. “I don’t want you to take dangerous assignments either, Jed. You
didn’t make it sound like it was all dangerous when you told me what you were
doing. I understood the military assignments, but not the rest. I didn’t know
you were at risk then.”

           
“It’s what I do, babe.” He placed
his hand on hers and decided to go to her place for the night rather than the
beach house. Her place was closer, and he didn’t have any cigarette cartridges
there. He had to break away at the house to get some space and to calm his
anxious heart. She was asking him to change his entire career path. He needed
to think about that. He would definitely wind up smoking if they went to the
beach house. She had almost caught him earlier. He needed to just quit. He
looked over at her. She was trying to smile, but it wasn’t genuine. It was
there for his benefit only. “I can’t make any promises, but I will see what I
can do.”

           
She lit up with a real smile and a
sense of relief that washed over her so visibly he could feel it. Maybe he
needed to think about becoming a family man. Maybe there were other
opportunities out there. He had been offered a job recently that he wasn’t
terribly enthusiastic about. Maybe it was just what he needed to consider.

           
They hadn’t walked five steps into
her house when her phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket and took two
clumsy steps backwards. Jed caught her and held her steady.
 
“What is it?”

“It’s my mother.” Shay looked up
at him.

“You don’t have to talk to her if
you don’t want to.” He wanted to reach through the phone and strangle them for
even making that mournful expression cross her face.
 

“I have to know what they…”

He nodded as the phone rang
again. “I’m here with you. I’ll be here with you.”

           
Jed knew the movie business inside
and out. He knew the woman he was in love with was a damn fine actress, but a
better designer, and after that stunt she pulled to put his brother in place,
he considered her the best woman he knew.