“Oh, Jake, how tragic,” Alicia said.
“Not as tragic as it could have been if he hadn’t found out about me at all,” Jake said. “Pop and I spent a lot of quality time together after he came to see me. He’d never remarried, so Danielle and I were the only family he had. Even if I didn’t get to know him until I was an adult, I couldn’t have asked for a better father. I was at the farm with him six years ago helping him bale hay when he had a massive heart attack. He died before the paramedics could get him to the hospital.”
“I’m so sorry, Jake,” Alicia said.
“Me, too,” Jake said. “But I’m glad Pop went fast the way he did. He’d worked hard all of his life. He wouldn’t have made a good invalid.”
Alicia’s heart went out to him.
Jake said, “Maybe that’s another reason why it’s so important to me that I’m a good father to Danielle now that I finally have the opportunity. We’ve already lost so much time.”
Alicia said, “But the important thing is that Dani is with you now, Jake. You have to focus on that. And you also have to give her time to get used to the idea that you’re serious about being a better father. Keep showing her you’re serious. She’ll get the message.”
“I’m not sure I believe that,” he said, “but thanks for saying it just the same. I need all of the encouragement I can get at the moment.”
Several seconds of silence passed.
Alicia finally said, “You know, I think you and I are both going to feel really weird if we try to launch into playful phone sex after just having such a serious conversation.”
“You’re right,” Jake said. “I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Alicia assured him. “But I think it proves my point that mixing reality with fantasy never works.”
“Uh-oh,” Jake said. “Sounds like you’re getting ready to dump me now.”
Alicia laughed. “Dump you in our fantasy relationship, you mean?”
“Dumped is dumped,” Jake said. “Fantasy or not.”
He sounded even more despondent than before.
“Okay,” Alicia said, “I won’t dump you. But in the future I do think we should keep our reality conversations and our fantasy conversations separate.”
“I’ll agree to anything,” Jake said, “as long as you don’t dump me. I’m serious, Alicia. I can only take so much female rejection at one time.”
Alicia said, “How about this? Saturday night has always been my fantasy night, and since the Housewives Fantasy Club is still out of commission at the moment, Saturday night can be our fantasy night for the time being. We’ll have get-to-know-you-better talk time during the week. But on Saturdays there’ll be no reality chitchat first. Just sixty minutes of steamy, unadulterated phone sex.”
Jake laughed and said, “I’m already counting the days.”
Alicia said, “Good night, Jake.”
“Just one more thing,” Jake said. “Thanks for understanding I needed a friend tonight instead of a fantasy.”
“Don’t go turning nice guy on me, Jake,” Alicia warned. “You know I need you to be your bad-boy self if this is going to work for me.”
“I’ll be back to bad by Saturday night,” Jake said. “That’s a promise.”
Chapter 15
What’s wrong with you lately, Alicia?”
Startled, Alicia looked up from her Friday morning cup of coffee with the girls. Zada lifted baby Lizzie to her shoulder, and already acting ever so much the veteran mom, she expertly rubbed Lizzie’s tiny baby back. A loud after-nursing burp followed.
“I’m serious,” Zada went on to say. “You haven’t been yourself in weeks.”
Three weeks to be exact, Alicia thought. Since the fantasy night I spent with Jake. And yes, Zada had caught her daydreaming. Daydreaming was something she’d been doing way too much of lately. Going back over every second of her nightly phone calls from Jake. Falling for him a little more each day. Letting her mind wander in dangerous where-she-shouldn’t-be-wandering places. Imagining herself becoming more to Dani than just the woman across the street with a swimming pool, and more to Jake than just a fantasy playmate.
“Sorry, Zada,” Alicia finally said. “What was your question again?”
Zada looked over at Tish, then at Jen. “See?” she said. “Alicia hasn’t heard a word we’ve said all morning.”
“Well, excuse me,” Alicia said in her own defense. “But the three of you keep forgetting I have a new business I’m trying to get off the ground.”
Tish said, “You mean the new business you’re so worried about that you’ve been coming home early almost every day so Danielle can practice her breaststroke?”
“Her butterfly stroke,” Alicia corrected. “It’s the hardest stroke to perfect, and Dani happens to be a natural at it.”
Jen said, “Well, I applaud you for taking such an interest in the child, Alicia. I’m starting to see a huge difference in Dani. She lost the attitude and that god-awful punk look because of you. She’s even brought her dog over to play with Sonya a few times this week.”
“We all applaud you for taking an interest in Dani,” Zada said. “But what does that have to do with you being zoned out all week?”
Tish said, “Maybe we should go back to the breaststroke for an answer to that question. As in, who’s been stroking whose breasts behind our backs?”
Alicia shook her head. “You never give up, do you, Tish?”
“I’ll give up,” Tish said, “if you’ll ’fess up about what’s really going on between you and Jake.”
Alicia ignored Tish completely and turned back to Zada. “I apologize, Zada. I wasn’t listening before, but I’m listening now. Would you please repeat the question?”
“I asked you if you were okay with our decision to turn our Fantasy Club night into family night for the rest of the summer. I’m sorry,” Zada added, “but I’m in total family mode right now. And it won’t hurt the guys to hang out with us during the summer instead of playing poker.”
“And there’s also the Woodberry Park Fourth of July picnic coming up,” Tish threw in. “You know how crazy I always get trying to organize the picnic.”
“Amen to that,” Jen and Zada said at the same time.
Alicia shrugged. “I’m fine with postponing our Fantasy Club meetings until the fall.”
Zada looked at Tish.
Tish looked at Jen.
Jen looked back at Alicia.
“Well, what did you expect me to say?” Alicia demanded. “That no, I don’t agree? That I insist we get back to our routine immediately whether the rest of you agree or not?”
Zada said, “No. But I didn’t expect you to take our decision so lightly. You’ve told us in the past how much you look forward to our girls fantasy night. And how those nights make you feel less of an outsider in our cul-de-sac. We just didn’t want you to think you were being excluded when we make Saturday nights family night for the rest of the summer.”
Alicia frowned. “Wait a minute. Are you saying I’m not invited to family night because I don’t have a family?”
“Of course not!” Zada said. “You are family, Alicia. We just weren’t sure you’d be interested in coming.”
Jen spoke up and said, “Because of Jake, Alicia. We can’t very well have family night and not invite Jake and Dani.”
Alicia hid a smile. “I thought everyone understood that Jake and I settled our differences the night he rode with me to the hospital when Lizzie was born. Inviting Jake and Dani won’t be a problem for me at all.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Tish mumbled.
Jen reached out and whacked Tish on the arm.
“Okay, then,” Zada said, beaming. “Let’s start our first official family night tomorrow night. My house. Six o’clock. The guys can talk baseball. The kids can play games. I can breast-feed Lizzie, then put her down in her own crib. And because I intend to exploit my new mother status for as long as humanly possible, the thr
ee of you can provide all of the food.”
Tish sighed. “God, I can feel myself slipping into serious fantasy withdrawal already.”
“And I hear the withdrawal symptoms are horrible,” Zada teased. “The first thing you do is revert back to missionary position.”
Everyone laughed.
But Alicia laughed for a different reason.
Unbeknownst to her fantasy-deprived housewife buddies, Alicia’s Saturday fantasy night was still right on schedule.
On Saturday afternoon, Dani walked down Alicia’s driveway, Kiwi tucked into the crook of her arm. She’d had a really fun day at Alicia’s pool.
Tish and Jen had also come over to the pool with their kids. They’d chosen up teams for relay races, and Alicia, Tish, and Jen had even joined in. Later, they’d all had a truly fabulous lunch together. Jen had made lasagna—Dani’s favorite.
Dani smiled.
She couldn’t remember when she’d had more fun.
She was also looking forward to later, when everyone was invited over to Rick and Zada’s house for family night. In fact, she was having a lot more fun in Woodberry Park than she ever imagined.
That thought, however, made Dani sad.
She knew she had to be careful. Knew she had to keep her guard up. If she allowed herself to have too much fun, it would only make it harder to leave when it was time to go back home to LA.
And she was going back to LA.
Whether she was having fun or not, her goals hadn’t changed. She was going to make it big as a model. And after she did make it big, she and Hayley were going on their own magic carpet ride down the road to independence. No more Natta. No more Jake. No more evil stepfather making life miserable for Hayley.
Dani stopped walking when she reached her house.
Now, what! she wondered. The strange car sitting in her driveway was a sporty, silver two-seat BMW convertible with the top down. One of Jake’s girlfriends, maybe?
Her I-want-to-be-a-model side hoped it was one of Jake’s girlfriends finally coming to visit. Then she’d have something to report to her grandmother. But the part of Dani that secretly wanted to prove Jake wasn’t some jerk who would always care more about his girlfriends than he did about her stomped toward the house with a chip back on her shoulder.
The second Dani opened the front door, Jake called her name. “Danielle? Would you come into the kitchen for a minute? There’s someone I want you to meet.”
Dani took a deep breath and marched into the kitchen. Instead of some girlfriend, a tall man with gray hair and a matching gray mustache stood up from the table to greet her. He was casually dressed in a golf shirt and slacks, and he had a deep tan. His dark brown eyes were kind; his smile, friendly.
Jake said, “This is my agent, Buddy Vance.”
Dani forced a semipolite, “Hi.”
Mr. Vance said, “You’ve grown up to be a beautiful young lady, Danielle. The last time I saw you, you were only a baby.”
Dani wasn’t sure what to say to that comment.
Jake rescued her when he said, “Buddy and I have some business to discuss. You might want to go up and rest from your swim before we go to the Clarks’ house tonight.”
Relieved, Dani said a quick good-bye and gladly hurried upstairs. Jake didn’t know it, but she had some business to take care of before they left for the Clarks’ house later, too. Jake being tied up with his agent would give her the opportunity she’d been waiting for all day.
Dani hurried into her bedroom, locked her bedroom door, then walked across the room and pulled open the top drawer of her bedside table. She felt all the way to the back of the drawer. When she found her hidden cell phone, she scrolled down her menu.
She had two missed text messages from Hayley.
The first one said: Where R U? I just had a huge fight with Evil-1! Help!
The second message said: OMG! Mom took up 4 me. She told Evil-1 to leave. He did! E-soon—H.
Dani was still smiling over Hayley’s great news until she checked her voice mail. She lost the smile when she saw there were five missed voice messages from her grandmother.
A sick feeling settled in the pit of Dani’s stomach.
She hadn’t called Natta every day, the way she’d been instructed to do before she left LA. Why would she? Natta was always angry about something.
She’d been furious that Jake liked the dog. She’d been thoroughly irritated that Jake had said nothing about her hair and the nose ring. And she’d been downright livid when Dani admitted she’d given up on the punk-Goth look, washed out the streaks in her hair, and tossed the fake nose ring into the trash.
Having nothing bad to report about Jake always made Natta angry. And Natta was equally angry when she let a day go by and didn’t call because she still didn’t have anything bad about Jake to report.
There was just no winning with her grandmother.
Dani listened to all of her grandmother’s five messages with her eyes squeezed shut tight. The last message informed her that she’d better call. In Natta’s words, “Now, Danielle! No excuses!”
Dani looked across the room at the clock on her big-screen TV. Three o’clock in the afternoon Illinois time meant it was only noon in LA. Reluctantly, Dani hit speed dial for her grandmother’s cell phone. She could hear the noise in the background the second the call was answered. It sounded like a bunch of people, all talking at once.
“I have to take this call,” she heard her grandmother say. Seconds later came, “Go ahead, Danielle. I’m here.”
“Where are you?” Dani asked.
“I’m at a restaurant having lunch with friends!” Ranatta snapped. “Where have you been for the last three days?”
“You told me to keep my cell phone a secret,” Dani reminded her. “I can’t call every day and risk Jake finding out about my phone.”
Ranatta ignored the explanation and said, “Well? What’s going on? Anything new to report?”
Dani squeezed her eyes shut again. “No, Natta. Nothing to report. That’s another reason why I haven’t called.”
“Well, there must be something Jake’s doing wrong, Danielle,” Ranatta insisted. “Does he go out at night and leave you alone?”
“No,” Dani said. “He never goes out at night.”
“And during the day? Who do you stay with when he’s off shooting one of his underwear commercials?”
Dani said, “I told you, Natta. He isn’t working right now. He’s always here with me.”
“Still no girlfriends showing up?”
Dani sighed. “No. No girlfriends.”
“Then what about your neighbors, Danielle? Are there any single women living in the neighborhood?”
Dani hesitated one second too long.
“Who, Danielle? Tell me.”
Dani said, “We do have one single neighbor, Natta, but she’s my friend, not Jake’s. She lives across the street and she has a pool. She lets me come over and swim.”
“How old is she?”
“I don’t know,” Dani said.
“Young or old, Danielle? I didn’t ask for the woman’s exact age.”
“Young,” Dani said.
“Is she pretty?”
Dani said, “I told you, Natta. She’s my friend. Nothing’s going on between Alicia and Jake.”
Ranatta’s laughter echoed through the phone. “You silly child. If she’s single, young, and pretty you’re fooling yourself, Danielle. She’s only being your friend in order to get to Jake.”
Dani shouted, “You take that back, Natta! Alicia likes me for myself. Why is that so hard for you to believe?”
“Alicia who?” Ranatta demanded.
Dani refused to answer.
“Never mind,” Ranatta snipped. “The first name is more than enough for my detective. I doubt there’s more than one single Alicia living in Podunk, Illinois, on Owls Roost Road.”
“Whatever!” Dani said. “Go ahead and tell your detective. And he’s going to tell you the s
ame thing I did. Alicia is my friend! Not Jake’s!”
“I’m caring less and less for your attitude these days, Danielle. Do you hear me?” Ranatta said. “And when that social worker shows up next Tuesday, I expect you to make it clear that you’re miserable living with your father.”
Dani didn’t answer.
“Unless you’ve changed your mind about your modeling career,” Ranatta threw in as usual.
Her grandmother’s threat didn’t work this time.
Dani still didn’t answer.
“Don’t let Jake deceive you, Danielle,” Ranatta warned. “I told you. The only reason he’s shown up in your life now claiming he wants to be a father is to get back at me. Jake still blames me because your mother realized what a mistake she’d made marrying a man like him.”
Dani sighed. “I know, Natta. You’ve told me that a million times.”
“Then act like it,” Ranatta snapped. She added, “I won’t be making my Sunday call tomorrow because I’m going to Malibu with friends. That’s why I insisted that you call me today.”
“Okay,” Dani said with another sigh.
“You find a way to call me on Tuesday the minute that social worker leaves,” Ranatta ordered. “Not two or three days later. Do you hear me, Danielle?”
“I’ll call as soon as the social worker leaves,” Dani agreed.
“And don’t disappoint me. Not about the call. And especially not about what you tell that social worker!”
As usual, Ranatta hung up without saying good-bye.
Dani turned her cell phone off, shoved it to the back of the drawer again, and slammed the bedside drawer. After a loud groan, she fell backward on her bed. Kiwi took it as his cue to pounce on top of her. Dani giggled when he licked her face all over.
“You like me, don’t you?” Dani said to the dog. “And Alicia likes me, too. I don’t care what Natta says.”
Kiwi turned around twice and curled up beside her. But as Dani stroked the long tufts of hair on the dog’s ears, she suddenly wondered what would happen to Kiwi when she did go back home to LA. Would Natta let her keep him? Or would she take him back to the pet store?
Dinner First, Me Later? Page 12
