"Oh, you're having your revenge now," Colin said.
Jason shook his head. He gave Colin a reluctant smile. "I've, uh, apologized to Jaina for what I said that night... I owe you one, too. I've never seen Jaina this happy."
The older man tried to shrug it off, but inwardly knew that Jason's acceptance of this meant a lot.
Fortunately, the kitten was so small that it took very little to hold her still while Jason administered a shot. He said that Cupcake--laughing at the name--was so small that he didn't dare give her more than that.
Colin bundled the kitten--which was very put out at this point--into a new carrier, with a bed and some cat toys, and put kitten, carrier, and supplies in the car. He stood for a moment by his car door, wondering at the lengths he'd gone to for Jaina. Never mind that it was her birthday, he just wanted to make her happy.
Feeling a little silly, he stuck the last item in his pocket and got in the car.
♥♥♥
Jaina was enjoying her birthday--several people had already wished her a happy one--and a small break when there was a knock at the trailer door and a PA stuck her head in.
"Ms. McGregor? There's a delivery for you."
"Come in," Jaina said, straightening in her chair.
The PA came in, carrying a flower arrangement. It was in a green wicker basket, tied with a gold ribbon. As the PA set it down, Jaina saw it was actually a small rose plant, white roses, and there was a card on a plastic stake in the potting soil.
After she thanked the young woman and the PA left, Jaina pulled the card out of its small envelope. In Colin's handwriting, only small and a bit cramped, was a note.
Jay,
Happy birthday. I know you don't like
cut flowers, so... I got you those
white roses you mentioned. I guess you
can put them on the kitchen table.
He'd scribbled something out, and then scrawled, "I love you. Colin."
She was grinning stupidly when another knock came at the door. Jaina got up and went over, hoping it was the erstwhile guest who was a good hour late.
Jaina pulled open the door, and stopped cold.
Standing on the pavement, a large bouquet of pink roses in his arms, was Jack Fallon.
♥♥♥
She stared at him for several moments, too surprised to speak.
His brown eyes swept over her appraisingly. "You're looking good, Jaina. I thought for sure New Zealand would do you in."
Rage boiled up within her and she clenched her fists. Her voice shook as she demanded, "What are you doing here, Jack?"
He actually had the grace to look sheepish. "I, uh... heard you were working here, so I made a desperate play to get a guest on the show."
Jaina's eyes narrowed. "Who'd you hear it from?"
"An acquaintance, uh, Angela... Ellison, I think her name is?"
She made a vow to hurt Angela severely.
Jack moved to the first step of the trailer. Jaina took an instinctive step back, and he pushed his way in. "Look, I... I'm sorry for the way I treated you, darling. I know I don't deserve it, but I hope you'll forgive me."
Jaina's eyes went from him to the roses he was holding. And then her gaze flickered to the small white roses on the counter. The pink ones were larger, flashier... but the white ones were alive, and had genuine sentiment behind them.
She straightened. "What are you trying to pull?"
His perfect blonde brows met in an expression of hurt confusion. "I thought it was obvious, Jay. I..."
Jack stopped, and said, "I know it's your birthday, so I got you these, but I was hoping..."
The door opened behind him and Colin walked in with Cupcake as Jack dropped to one knee.
"Will you take me back?"
Chapter Thirty
Jaina stared at Jack in silence, her eyes huge. Then she looked at Colin, who wore an almost identical expression... for an instant before it dissolved into a hard, fierce look she'd last seen on Hedridan's face when he was stabbing orcs.
Luckily, it wasn't directed at her, but at the man kneeling before her.
"Uh..." Jaina said.
Colin cleared his throat, forcing his features into bland interest. "Am I interrupting?"
Jack turned around. "Hullo. If you'll excuse me, I'm in the middle of making up with my fiancée."
Jaina considered her options. There was boiling him alive, skinning him, hanging him by his toenails... Or she could castrate him with a dull spoon. A rusty one. Now that sounded entertaining.
She reached down and grabbed him by his perfectly styled locks. "No, you're not," she said, giving them a hard yank.
"Ow!" he yelled.
Jack scrambled to his feet and Jaina jabbed her finger into his chest. "I told you I never want to see you again, you smeghead!"
He grabbed her hand. "Jaina, darling-"
"Don't you 'Jaina, darling' me, you git!" She pulled her hand away and slapped him.
Rubbing his cheek, he turned and glanced at Colin, who'd set down the carrier and was holding Cupcake. The kitten looked incongruously small in his hands. "Jaina, must we do this in front of an audience?"
"Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of him." She smiled nastily.
Jack frowned. "Who is this?"
"Colin Pierce." Colin didn't offer a hand. Instead, he set the kitten on the counter. It saw Jaina and headed down the length of the counter on its feet the size of dimes.
Jack stared at Colin for a moment, then turned his back on the other man. He placed a hand on the counter. "Fine. Jaina, look. I was stupid, I admit that. I was wrong, and I'm sorry."
"I don't think cheating on me with a man is something I can forgive, even if I wanted to." Jaina crossed her arms and glared at him. "Which I don't."
"Jaina, I love you! I can't live without you."
Colin rolled his eyes.
"If that were true, you wouldn't have done what you did. And since the past can't be changed... No. Not gonna happen, Fallon." Jaina's eyes flicked to the kitten, which stared with fascination at Jack's pinkie finger, adorned by a gold ring.
Colin moved around to stand near Jaina. "Would you like me to get security?"
Jaina sighed. "He's the new guest star. We can't kick him off the lot."
"Pity," Colin murmured.
Jack looked between them. "What, are you two... an item?"
They just looked at him, and he started laughing. "Of course not... what was I thinking?"
At that moment, Cupcake bared her claws and pounced on his hand, digging her tiny teeth into his finger.
Jack shrieked and tore his hand away. Cupcake fell over, but quickly righted herself and hissed at him. Jaina snatched up the kitten and glared at Jack.
"I said no, Jack. And I mean it. Stay out of my life."
He gave her a rather mean, smug smile. "We'll just see about that."
He stormed out of the trailer.
Jaina sighed. "Well, that was fun!"
Colin plucked the kitten out of her hands and pulled her into his arms. "Come here."
She rested her cheek against his chest, holding handfuls of his shirt in her fists. "This is going to make this week miserable."
"I know. Just remember... say the word and I'll remove his face."
Jaina laughed. "You... didn't think I'd take him back, did you?"
Colin snorted. "No, I was wondering how we would cover up the murder."
"Good."
He kissed her forehead, then her mouth. "Stay put. I'll run the rat home and get MJ to watch her until we get back tonight. You stay put, and if Fallon bothers you again...
He left the sentence hanging, but neither of them needed to finish it.
♥♥♥
She managed to avoid Jack for the rest of the day, insisting that due to personal reasons, she could not deal with their guest star. When pressed for details, she gave a terse, “We dated. He cheated.” Her direct supervisor just said "Ah" and nodded.
Jaina looked at it, then looked at him. "What's this?"
"Well... I was thinking... Perhaps you might want to stay a little longer than end of summer?"
She smiled. "We've only been living together for three, four days now. For all you know, we'll be on the verge of strangling each other in another week."
Colin gave her a lopsided smile. "Maybe, but I doubt it."
She sat for a moment, thinking, then said, "I'll think about it. But thank you."
They kissed, and kissed again, but before they could get further than that, someone knocked on the door and they had to scramble apart.
"Well," she said with a sigh, "back to reality."
♥♥♥
Jaina had a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday, to follow up on testing. The news wasn’t the best, and some of the results inconclusive. Doctor Grey said Jaina could stop the prednisone, but recommended she see a rheumatologist as soon as possible. Afterwards, in an effort to stall thinking about the implications, Jaina went to pick up Emily from Jason and Teniel's.
She'd borrowed Colin's car, since hers was, not surprisingly, having difficulties. Once Emily was buckled in, Jaina asked, "So... what were you doing with this boy that was so bad you got sent here?"
Emily immediately began fiddling with the stereo. "We were watching The Matrix. And I kinda nodded off."
Jaina gave her little sister a very skeptical look. "That's not bad enough to get sent here."
Emily hesitated, then admitted, "I think Dad's reaction had to do with the hickey."
Now they were getting somewhere. Knowing Jason's reaction to discovering Jaina wasn't perfectly pure white and virginal, she could only imagine what their father's had been to the same concerning his baby girl.
Avoiding that subject for a moment, she asked, "How did you get the hickey?"
"I was curious. And so he was nice enough to give me one to see what it was like."
Jaina snorted derisively. "Nice try."
Emily shrugged. "It was worth a shot."
"I'm not that gullible," Jaina reminded her wryly.
Emily chortled, "But Jason sure is! He knows curiosity and I don't mix."
She stopped, and thought for a moment. "I think he just didn't want to think about me making out with a boy. He took the smile, nod, and slowly back away approach."
"Better than his reaction to- Never mind." Jaina stopped, keeping her eyes on the road.
She hadn't cut herself off quickly enough. She now had Emily's full and undivided attention. "To what?" her little sister asked.
"You already brought it up once," Jaina said, reminding her of their e-mailed conversation over the weekend.
"Oh, Colin-in-Cleavage? Didn't I tell you it would be useful to have a Leia wanna be costume around?"
"It isn't Leia-wannabe! It's a legitimate belly-dance costume!" Jaina retorted hotly.
Em just stared at her. "Is it gold?"
"Well, there are gold beads on it. You've seen it!"
"Is a bikini top and a skirt with large slits up the side?"
Jaina didn't like where this was going. "Yeah..."
"Would it make Jabba drool?"
The both shuddered at that thought.
"Leia Wannabe," Emily proclaimed.
"Whatever." Jaina waved it away, turning back to the original topic. "Now, the question with you and this boy is, were any clothes removed in the process of you getting the hickey?"
Emily was still flipping through the radio stations. She landed on something particularly horrid and exclaimed, "What is wrong with these people?! Don't they have normal music here?"
Jaina opened the special, hidden area in the middle seat that had a place for CDs. "Check in there."
"Well," Emily said, as she pulled out several jewel cases. "I was wearing this shirt that's really loose around the stomach. And his hand was kinda in there."
One sculpted eyebrow lifted. "Uh-huh. And... ?"
Emily shrugged. "That's it. That was as far as we'd gone be- Never mind. We were graduation happy."
Jaina's skepticism was so palpable, she didn't need to speak. Emily reconsidered.
"Graduation makes everything very happy. That and I was leaving for Oxford at the end of the summer. And he's going to UCLA. Hence the happy for graduation."
Jaina nearly plowed into the car ahead of them. "Was leaving? Are you not going to Oxford anymore?"
"I still am. Unless Dad decides to have me stay here."
"I'll bet Jason would love that. He tries to hide it, but he's very torn about my not being there."
"In his house? Only because you can screw like bunnies elsewhere." Emily grinned at the dirty look Jaina shot her.
Her older sister said, "Part of him is happy he doesn't have Colin over all the time, the other half is freaked about what he knows is going on over at Colin's."
"Yup. He ranted last night."
"And I would prefer not to be referred to as a bunny." She paused. "And it's not that often."
Emily gave an unladylike snort of derision. "Yeah. Right. But bunnies are cute. Except when they have nasty big pointy teeth."
"Yeah. And kill people."
"Well, that's when they're evil, duh."
"So tell me about Colin."
Jaina pulled the car up in front of the bright yellow house. "Tell you what about Colin?"
Emily was staring out the window at the house. "Um. Is that it?"
Jaina nodded as she reached for her purse. "That's it."
"It's yellow."
"Yes, I know."
Both sisters shuddered.
"Anything," Emily said. "Like how did you meet, that kinda stuff. I hear he has this weird obsession with chicken, is that true?"
"Uh, no, it's not a weird obsession, it's just a... joke. Something that happened when he was in Nepal about two years ago." She opened the door and then locked the car. "We met on the Doctor Life set. The hospital. He startled me, and I dropped my makeup bag. Makeup everywhere."
"So he helped you pick up the makeup?"
Jaina nodded. "Yeah."
"And what's with the two bicycles?" Emily motioned to the open garage door. "You don't ride."
Jaina stopped and looked over her shoulder at her sister. "Colin's teaching me to ride. I told you that in May."
"Like I'm going to remember something you told me over a month ago. How's that going?"
"I'm still having trouble stopping. Y'know, without falling down."
"It's easy. Jump off. Centre of balance. That's all you need."
Jaina pushed the front door open and they walked in. "Em, this is me we're talking about."
"Right. I'll tell Colin to get you training wheels."
"Very funny. You know I can't go anywhere near training wheels, after that one time..."
"Yes, I know. That was evil of me."
"Loosening that screw was very evil!"
"You challenged my title. I had to prove it to you."
"You were six!"
"So?" Emily stood in the middle of the very white living room. "Wow. Um. It's... white. And what is that ugly thing on the mantel?"
"Some sculpture. Colin likes art. I told him he wouldn't know what art was if it wore a sticker that said, 'Hi, my name is Art.'"
Emily laughed. "So he helped you with the make up and hit on you?"
"But Rachel, the executive producer, found me then, and I demonstrated some makeup stuff on Colin... You've have had to be there. I can't explain it."
"What happened after?"
"He didn't hit on me... not really. I mean, he was pretending to be gay."
"What do you mean 'not really'? What, he looked gay? Girly? Manly?"
"Well... no. But he didn't really hit on me. And until I told him- Well, eventually he told me he's not gay.
Emily was wandering aroun
d, looking at the paintings. She was making faces at most of them. "Uh-huh. Okay. Did he tackle you after that?"
"What? Tackle me?"
"Yeah." Her sister looked at her as if she were incredibly dense. "After he told you he wasn't gay? Or was it before?"
"There was no tackling involved with that. What tackling are you referring to, Em?"
"I thought you were all with the smoochy and stuff after that. You know. Pent up sexual energy and stuff."
Jaina shook her head. She dropped her purse on the sofa and her keys next to it. "C'mon, I'll give you the tour."
Chapter Thirty-One
"There's no dishwasher," Emily said.
"Yes, I know. I can't convince him to get one. No, I, uh... avoided him for a couple of weeks after that, actually. I was a little mad at him for lying to me for months."
Emily picked up the largest knife out of the wooden block on the counter. "Oh. Tell me more. 'Cause I told you about Dustin. I deserve to know more."
"More like what? Until we admitted we like each other, we were just friends. We did friends stuff. Like Nora and Alex."
"Smoked pot on your back porch? Jasa won't like that."
"That's not what I meant." Jaina led her to the back patio, through the French doors. "The patio. It's kind of, um, cold out here."
"Nora and Alex are meant to be together," Emily observed. "It was deemed by the gods."
"Yes, and I've talked to Rachel and Gavin about that." Jaina forced herself to keep a straight face.
Emily immediately perked up. "And?!"
"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."
"I'll kill you first. I've almost succeeded at least once."
Jaina was wry. "Kill me and I can't tell you."
"I meant before you can kill me. To ponder the great question. Do I or do I not want spoilers?"
"They didn't tell me anything, Emily. I'm just the makeup artist. But I can tell you that Keith and Diane are getting married. I've seen the dress and I'm planning Maria's makeup."
“You’re evil. Almost as evil as me.”
Jaina glanced up to see Colin leaning over the edge of the balcony, staring down at them. She gave him a little wave, then they headed back into the house.
Love's Dance Page 19
