During this trip, Mel had been keeping a close eye on Tate and Angie just in case the elopement bug hit again. Mel would have no problem putting Angie in a body-locking bear hug if that’s what it took to keep her from doing something dumb.
Mel was a bit surprised that the brothers hadn’t insisted on coming to Vegas to supervise the trip and make sure there were no matrimonial shenanigans. While most of the family welcomed Tate, there were a few holdouts among the brothers, who were convinced that no one was ever going to be good enough for Angie. Period.
“You know what night I’m talking about,” Angie said. She waved a celery stick at Mel. “It looked like you and Joe were in the middle of something heavy when Tate and I arrived, but you’ve never admitted it.”
“And with all the badgering you’ve done, too,” Mel said. She sipped her champagne and gave Angie a pointed look, which was summarily ignored.
“I know. I’d be proud of you if I wasn’t so annoyed by your tight-lippedness,” Angie said. She studied Mel with a look that was understanding and exasperated at the same time.
“There just isn’t much to say,” Mel said. “We had a moment, but then it passed and I haven’t heard from him since.”
“Really?” Angie asked.
“Okay, he sent me flowers, forget-me-nots,” Mel said. Her throat knotted up at the memory of getting the pretty little blue flowers. “But that was weeks ago.”
“How long are you willing to wait for him?” Angie asked.
“I don’t know,” Mel said. She shook her head. “And I’m coming to realize that even if he does circle back around, what happens when he takes on another bad guy who threatens his loved ones? Will he dump me again? My self-esteem is shaky at best. I don’t really know if I can do this again.”
Angie was quiet while she thought over what Mel had said. Then she nodded. She reached across the table and squeezed Mel’s hand.
“Joe is my brother, my favorite brother and if you tell the others that, I’ll deny it,” she said.
Mel laughed. She would never. But she totally understood. She loved all of the DeLaura brothers as much as her own brother, Charlie, but yeah, Joe was her favorite, too.
“But as much as I love him,” Angie said, “I love you, too, and I hate to see you . . .”
She stopped and Mel waited. After a few seconds, she said, “You hate to see me what? Fat? Grumpy? Lonely? You’re killing me here.”
“I hate to see you sad,” Angie said. She looked miserable on Mel’s behalf, which actually made Mel feel better. “When Tate and I are, well, I just want the same for you.”
Mel squeezed Angie’s hand tight and then released it.
“I know you do, and I really appreciate it,” she said. She took up her glass and drained it. “Can we not talk about this anymore? We’re in Vegas, in VIP seating no less, let’s try to be happy.”
“You’re right,” Angie said. She raised her glass and drained it as well. “Viva, Las Vegas! Hey, maybe you’ll get lucky with one of the Elvis impersonators at our hotel.”
“Yeah, right,” Mel said.
“Aw, come on, can’t you just see one of them sashay up to you and break into ‘Hunka Hunka Burnin’ Love’? It’d be all over for you, and you know it.”
The image made Mel laugh hard. It felt good. Whatever would she do without her friends?
The lights in the theater dimmed, and she and Angie grew serious as they turned their attention to the stage. The rest of the crowd hushed as well. Mel had never been to a show with showgirls before so she wasn’t really clear on what to expect. She figured there would be sparkles, feathers, and high kicks, but she wasn’t sure what else was involved in the whole performance.
Music started overhead and the theater went completely dark. Mel watched the curtains on the stage, waiting for them to part, but the music swelled louder and louder with no sign of movement from the stage. She could barely make out Angie in the darkness but noted that she was watching the stage with the same intensity as Mel.
With the boom of a drumbeat, the lights flashed on at designated spots in the theater, and as if they had been conjured out of thin air, dancers dressed all in silver with three-foot headdresses stood amid the crowd.
The audience broke into spontaneous applause as the girls began to shimmy and shake to the music. It was lighthearted and joyful and Mel found Holly standing just a few feet away from them. This was the heavily made-up woman she had met the day before, and it took Mel a second to reconcile the glittering vision before them with the mom in the ponytail just a few hours previous.
Angie nudged Mel, letting her know she had spotted their friend as well. The music swelled and the dancers moved among the crowd, working their way toward the stage. Holly was the first on the stage and began to pump turn, spinning while kicking one leg out then in with her arms in a delicate arc over her head, while the rest of the girls moved forward to join her.
Mel watched with her jaw a bit slack as Holly kept spinning and spinning, the footlights hitting her costume just right and making her look like a bit of silver flame. Mel lost count of her revolutions. When Holly stopped, she slid effortlessly into the chorus line and led the girls in a series of choreographed high kicks that moved down the row of dancers one after another in perfect sync.
The girls broke off as the curtain behind them opened. They moved into smaller groups and continued dancing until Mel was breathing hard just from watching them. Their finale ended on a huge staircase that filled up the back of the stage. The girls parted in the middle and a man in a snappy tuxedo appeared at the top of the steps.
Mel saw Angie bounce on her seat. The man held a mic up to his mouth and he started to sing. It was a silly ballad about Vegas, rolling the dice, pretty showgirls, and what happened in Vegas staying in Vegas. His voice was low and rich and he punctuated his words with a wink here and there. The crowd loved him and went wild as he made his way to the front of the stage.
Levi Cartwright was in the house and he clearly owned the stage. He was tall, lithe, and good looking in a traditional Rat Pack sort of way. A glance at the crowd and Mel could see that the women wanted him and the men wanted to be him. The man released charm like the rest of them exhaled carbon dioxide.
Once the song ended and the raucous applause died down, he went into a monologue about the silly things people did in Vegas that had people holding their sides as they wiped tears from their eyes. He went on for fifteen minutes and then the girls showed up to dance in new costumes. Again, Mel saw Holly leading the flock of pretty girls in complicated dance patterns around the stage. When Levi came back, Mel saw Holly meet his gaze and give him a small nod.
She realized there had been a look of uncertainty on Levi’s face that had lasted no more than a second, but still, it had been the look of someone who was afraid. Mel watched him closely for the rest of the show and noted that he and Holly had the same exchange a couple more times. It was as if Holly was his shield against insecurity. Mel supposed she could have been reading more into it than there was, but she didn’t think so.
The show ended in a finale that had everyone on their feet, clapping and cheering. Mel counted five costume changes for Holly and knowing the stairs she had to traverse with the heavy headdresses, she really wasn’t surprised that Holly was over it. Maybe a life in the limelight just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Carlos collected them from their table at the end of the show. He told them that Holly was down in her dressing room and wanted to know if they wanted to meet her down there. Mel almost passed, knowing she would have to come back up those stairs but she really wanted to see Holly and tell her how wonderful she had been. She heaved a sigh and followed Carlos and Angie.
He led them right to Holly’s door. Mel went to knock but the grumpy bulldog, Fancy Leroux, who had been upbraiding Holly before the show, yanked the door open before she could.
Fourteen
Startled, Mel jumped. As she gazed at the elderly woman, who was giving her a fierce blast of stink eye from the open door to Holly’s dressing room, she wondered if she could take her. Sure she could. Right? How tough could the old bird be?
Her confidence was not boosted when Angie moved in beside her as if to protect her from the octogenarian.
“I think I got this,” Mel said.
“She used to be a dancer,” Angie argued. “She could probably crack you like a walnut with one well-placed kick.”
“Your faith in me is remarkably underwhelming.”
Angie shrugged.
“Can I help you?” Mel asked the woman.
“You’re the bakers,” Fancy said.
“Yes.” Mel didn’t think lying was going to help at this point.
“You are ruining Holly’s life and, more importantly, my show,” Fancy said. “Why are you encouraging this madness?”
“I’m going to assume you’re talking about Holly opening a bakery,” Mel said.
“She bakes a mean cupcake,” Carlos said. Fancy glared at him with her black eyes and he took a step back. “Yeah, I’m just going to head back upstairs. Call me if you need me.”
It would have felt more sincere if he hadn’t been running away when he added that last bit over his shoulder.
“I’m sorry that you don’t approve of Holly wanting to open her own business but I really think that’s between you and Holly and doesn’t have anything to do with us,” Mel said.
“You don’t understand,” Fancy cried. She opened her arms wide in a very melodramatic gesture, forcing both Mel and Angie to take a step back. “Every show has a heart. Holly is ours. If you take her away, the show will lose its heart. It will collapse onto itself like a hollow chest and it will die. You can’t let her do this.”
Mel had no idea what to say to this. Fancy was clearly agitated and she had a feeling there was nothing that she could say that would reassure the woman that the show would be fine.
“It’s not really up to us,” Angie said. “It’s Holly’s choice to make.”
“Pah!” Fancy waved an age-spotted hand as if she were swatting a fly. “Ever since she had that kid, her priorities have been screwed up.”
Mel bit her lip. She disliked it when women weighed in on the choices other women made in regards to having a family or not. It was such a personal decision. How did any woman feel entitled to judge another’s journey?
“Holly is a grown woman and can do whatever she wants,” Mel said. “Maybe you need to stop trying to keep her here and work on finding someone to fill her spot.”
“There is no one!” Fancy yelled. “No one can do what she does. It takes years of intensive training to be able to manage the shows as effortlessly as she can.”
A young woman with bright red hair and freckles across her nose joined them.
“Excuse me, Fancy. Maria in makeup is looking for you,” she said.
Fancy swung around and looked the girl over from head to toe. “Look at those hips, you look like you just came in off the field. When are you going to slim down? If you want to have a shot at the lead, lose the weight!”
With that, Fancy stomped away, making the floor reverberate as she went. For a former dancer, she sure knew how to make an impact on the floor.
The redhead blew out a breath and glanced down at her body with a look of such self-loathing, Mel had to resist the urge to take her by the shoulders and shake her.
“You know she’s just lashing out at you, right?” Mel asked. “You’re as slender as a blade of grass.”
“She’s right,” Angie chimed in. “I watched you out there tonight. You were spectacular and the crowd loved you. Don’t let the mean old fusspot get to you.”
“Thanks.” The woman tried to smile but it didn’t meet her eyes. “But I’m going to throw up everything I’ve eaten in the past twenty-four hours now.”
“You are not.” The door to Holly’s private bathroom was yanked open and there stood Holly in a blue paisley silk bathrobe and with a towel wrapped around her head. Her makeup was half off, which, combined with her ferocious expression, made her a bit scary looking. “Sit down, all of you.”
She crossed the room and sat at her vanity table. She began swabbing her face with make-up remover while studying their reflections in the mirror.
“Sorry I didn’t get to the door faster to stop Fancy from being hateful. I was on the phone with Billy,” she said. “I wanted to make sure Sydney was all right.”
“Is she?” the redhead asked.
“Yes,” Holly said. She flashed them a small smile. “She’s tucked in safe and sound. Now what was Fancy going on about out there?”
“She blames us for you leaving the show,” Mel said. She turned to the redhead and said, “I’m Melanie Cooper and this is Angie DeLaura. We’re the owners of the bakery in Arizona that Holly is looking to franchise.”
“Oh, hi, I’m sorry. Fancy berated the good manners right out of me. I’m Sunny Evans, I’m in the chorus line.”
“That’s not all you are,” Holly said. “You’re my understudy, and the person who will take the lead when I leave.”
“Not if Fancy has her way,” Sunny said. “She thinks I’m too farm girl.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Holly said. “She’s just used to having me here to boss around and she doesn’t like the fact that she’ll have to break a new girl in. You’re the best dancer out there and everyone knows it. You’ve got natural pizzazz and you kick higher than I ever could.”
“I don’t have your stage presence and Levi doesn’t trust me like he trusts you,” Sunny argued.
“He will,” Holly said. “These things take time.”
“Speaking of, I have to go,” Sunny said. “I have a tear on my costume for the opening act that I need Stacey to mend.”
“All right,” Holly said. “Hey, do not let what Fancy said get to you. If you lose so much as an ounce of weight, I’ll bake you a dozen rum raisin cupcakes and make sure you eat every single one.”
Sunny laughed and held up her hands in surrender. “See? That’s another reason you can’t leave the show. You’re my best friend. Who will threaten me with baked goods if you leave?”
“I can threaten you just as easily from my bakery,” Holly said. The door closed behind Sunny and Holly looked at them and added, “Assuming I can find a place to open one.”
“About that,” Mel said. “We have some news.”
Holly glanced at her face and Mel knew she could tell it was more bad news.
“Don’t try to cushion it. I’m tougher than I look. I can take it. What is it?” Holly asked.
“Scott Jensen passed away from his injuries,” Mel said. “The Las Vegas PD has not ruled it an accident, meaning they are still considering homicide as a possibility.”
“Oh, that poor, poor man,” Holly said. “I feel horrible. This shouldn’t have happened.”
“Tate said the police aren’t giving any details but they are investigating whether the leak was intentional,” Angie said.
Holly finished wiping the last of her foundation off and slowly lowered the cotton cloth from her face. She looked like she was going to cry.
“This is a nightmare,” she said. “Why would someone do this?”
“I don’t know,” Mel said. “But—”
There was a knock on the door and then it banged open. In strode Levi Cartwright, still in his tuxedo but with his bow tie hanging loose about his neck.
“How did I do, was I funny, I didn’t feel like I was funny. I don’t think people were really enjoying my shtick. I’m washed up, aren’t I?” He was halfway into the room before he noticed Mel and Angie. A pained look crossed his face
before he forced a laugh and said, “So, enough about me, what do you think of me?”
Angie laughed but it sounded strained as if she didn’t really think he was funny but she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Mel smiled but she felt like she was forcing it. Levi turned to Holly, and she saved him from himself.
“Levi Cartwright!” she said. “You are hilarious and you know it. Don’t be fishing for compliments from my guests. They saw the show and loved it, didn’t you, girls?”
Mel and Angie both relaxed under Holly’s leadership and they immediately heaped the praise on Levi. He seemed to puff up visibly with their words.
“Now I need to get going and you need to go home and get some rest for tomorrow’s show,” Holly said. She rose and put her arm around Levi’s shoulders as she escorted him to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Wait.” Levi stopped her from shutting the door.
He glanced past her at Mel and Angie and then leaned in close to Holly to whisper something. Holly whispered something back and their exchange went on for a bit longer and then Levi left.
When Holly closed the door, she leaned against it and closed her eyes. Mel had the feeling she was either exhausted, seeking inner peace, or trying to process all that had happened in the past twenty minutes.
“I love them all dearly,” Holly said. She opened her eyes and pushed off the door. She walked back to her vanity and opened the lid on her moisturizer. “But I am tired of carrying this show, everyone’s expectations, worries, and neuroses on my back.”
“As if the thirty-pound headdress isn’t enough,” Angie said. “I can see why you’re ready to downshift.”
Holly smiled at her in the mirror but then her expression faltered. “Unless someone has their way and stops me.”
Vanilla Beaned Page 10
