Dinner First, Me Later?

by Candy Halliday

  Jake jumped up from his chair; so did Alicia. Jake started to run after her, but Ranatta stepped in front of him.

  “I’m taking Danielle home with me.”

  “Like hell you are,” Jake said and pushed Ranatta out of his way.

  Ranatta turned to follow, but Alicia reached out, grabbed her arm, and spun her around. The fact that everyone on the terrace was definitely watching them now didn’t mean a thing to Alicia. “What kind of monster are you?” Alicia demanded. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done to that child? Better yet, do you even care?”

  Ranatta jerked her arm away. “What I’ve done for Danielle,” she said, “is let her get a glimpse of the real Jake Sims.”

  “And what about the glimpse Dani got of the real you just now, Ranatta?” Alicia asked her. “Don’t you realize Dani is going to eventually wonder how you knew we were here? And how did you know where we were? Did you have your detective watching Jake from the moment you left this morning with Dani?”

  Ranatta looked Alicia up and down and smiled. “I keep forgetting you’re a Harvard graduate,” she said. “But if you could figure out how I found you so easily tonight, then why are you such a fool when it comes to Jake Sims?” Her tone turned even nastier when she said, “If you don’t realize Jake will dump you the minute Danielle leaves, then you, Miss Greene, are an idiot!”

  Ranatta turned around and stomped off.

  Her cheeks still stinging from Ranatta’s essential slap in the face, Alicia grabbed her purse, threw a twenty-dollar bill on the table for the drinks, and hurried after her.

  Dani was crying so hard she could barely see which button to push. She pounded the button for the first floor just as Jake ran for the elevator. Dani thought she had escaped, until Jake stuck his arm out and caught the door.

  “Get out!” Dani yelled at him.

  Jake ignored her and pushed the button for the first floor again. The doors slid together, trapping them inside the elevator car alone.

  “Danielle,” he began.

  “Don’t!” Dani said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say to me. You just admitted you’re a liar. And so is Alicia.”

  “You’re right,” Jake said. “We did lie to you, Danielle. But we both love you. You have to know that.”

  The elevator doors opened and Dani pushed past him. Jake followed after her. He followed her through the downstairs part of the restaurant, and right outside onto the sidewalk. Her grandmother’s limo was parked directly in front of the restaurant. When Dani reached the car, she turned back around, ready to face him.

  The hurt look on his face didn’t phase her. She was hurt, too! Dani said, “You told me if I decided to go back to LA, you wouldn’t try to stop me. Did you lie about that, too?”

  Jake didn’t answer, he just kept staring.

  “Did you lie about that, too?” Dani screamed.

  “No,” Jake said. “If you really want to go back to LA, Danielle, I won’t try to stop you.”

  Dani swiped at the tears running down her cheeks with both hands. “I can’t live with you anymore,” she told him. “And I don’t want to see you or Alicia ever again. You both made me trust you. Now, I’d never trust anything either of you told me.”

  Dani turned back around, opened the limo door, and got into the car. But as she started to close the door, Dani saw Ranatta come out of the restaurant, Alicia right behind her. Dani quickly slammed the door. She had nothing to say to Alicia. But she did stay close to the window, wanting to see what Jake had to say to her grandmother. As angry as she was at him, Dani still wanted Jake to prove that even if he had lied about Alicia, he hadn’t been lying about everything else.

  Ranatta walked up and stopped in front of Jake, her arms crossed sternly in front of her. Dani didn’t miss the satisfied look on Ranatta’s still-pretty face. “You had your chance, Jake,” she said, “and you blew it. You never should have lied to Danielle about your girlfriend.”

  “You are the last person to be lecturing anyone about lying, Ranatta,” Jake said.

  “Face it, Jake,” Ranatta said. “You can force Danielle to stay, but what will you prove by doing that? As soon as your six months are up, she’ll be right back in LA with me.”

  Dani held her breath, waiting for his reply.

  “I’m not going to force Danielle to stay,” Jake said. “If she wants to go back to LA with you, that’s her choice. I’ll follow you back to my house now, so Danielle can get her things.”

  “Jake, no!” Alicia begged, grabbing his arm. “Please don’t do this.”

  Jake only jerked his arm free and walked away.

  Dani put her hands over her face and burst into tears.

  “Jake, wait!” Alicia called out again.

  He was well ahead of her now, walking in the direction of the parking lot, and she was having trouble keeping up in four-inch heels. Alicia stopped, jerked her shoes off, and started running.

  Jake was already unlocking the door to the Corvette when she finally caught up. He got into the car and slammed his door. Alicia barely got her door closed before he started backing out of the parking lot.

  “Jake, please,” Alicia said.

  “Don’t start, Alicia,” he warned. “If Danielle wants to leave with Ranatta, I’m not going to stop her.”

  “Don’t do this, Jake,” Alicia said. “Dani’s upset right now, and she has every right to be upset with both of us. But hasty decisions are always regretted later.”

  He wasn’t even listening.

  Alicia could tell by his tuned-out expression.

  “I shouldn’t have let you cloud my judgment about dinner tonight,” he said. “Not with Ranatta in town. I should have realized she was up to something.”

  His hurtful remark stunned Alicia. “A cloud on your judgment?” Alicia repeated. “That’s your perception of having dinner with me?”

  He frowned over at her. “I’m not in the mood to baby you right now, Alicia. I don’t give a damn about dinner, okay? And this isn’t one of your fantasies where everything always turns out perfect. This is my life we’re talking about here!”

  “Your life?” Alicia said. “Well, I hate to point this out, Jake, but this is also Dani’s life and mine!”

  He wouldn’t even answer her.

  “Oh, my God,” Alicia said. “You’re blaming me for Dani going back to LA, aren’t you?”

  He still wouldn’t answer.

  “Well, don’t stop with dinner, Jake,” Alicia told him. “If you’re going to hold me responsible for you letting Dani fly off to LA, then don’t forget to throw in that I’m the one who showed up on your doorstep, you didn’t show up on mine!”

  His head snapped in her direction. “I gave Danielle my word that I wouldn’t try to stop her if she decided to go back to LA, dammit! So drop it. It’s over!”

  “Well, give the man a big round of applause!” Alicia shouted, clapping her hands facetiously. “He’s going to hold on to the one promise he made that will send Dani away, instead of making her stay so he can keep all of the other promises he made to her.”

  His knuckles turned white gripping the steering wheel.

  “Tell the truth, Jake,” Alicia said. “What this is really about is that you’d rather believe Dani failed you as a daughter than face the fact that even as hard as you’ve tried, you still failed Dani on some level, the same way your mother failed you.”

  He glared at her. “Are you through now?”

  “No,” Alicia said. “But if you let that child leave believing everything else you told her was a lie, then we’re through, Jake. You aren’t the man I thought you were.”

  “Your choice,” he said, refusing to look at her.

  They rode the rest of the way to Woodberry Park in total silence. When Jake pulled into his driveway, the limo was already parked in front of his house. Jake got out of the car, still refusing to look at her. Alicia made one final attempt on Dani’s behalf.

  “Jake,”
she said as he started across the lawn. When he turned around, Alicia said, “Is there anything I can do to make you change your mind?”

  “What you can do,” Jake said, “is sell this house for me with everything in it. I don’t live here anymore.”

  Alicia walked to her side of the street.

  She stood by the curb for the next forty-five minutes waiting for Dani to come outside. She wanted Dani to see her standing there, hoping if Dani could see her, she wouldn’t leave without at least saying good-bye.

  It turned out to be an empty wish.

  The limo drove off, and two seconds later Jake walked out the door with a suitcase in each hand. He threw the suitcases behind the seat of the Corvette, and never once looked in her direction.

  All Alicia could do was stand there, her worst fear coming true, as she watched the taillights of Jake’s red Corvette disappear down Owls Roost Road and fade out of sight.

  Chapter 32

  I’m absolutely astounded,” Jen said as they sat around Tish’s kitchen table on Thursday morning at coffee. “I just can’t believe Jake’s attorney actually called you yesterday to put Jake’s house on the market.”

  “I knew when Jake didn’t return my calls all last week he was serious,” Alicia said. “Saturday will make two weeks since the night he and Dani left. It’s over. I have to accept that.”

  “Well, I don’t know about anyone else in this room,” Tish said, “but I’m worried about you, Alicia. You’ve been way too calm about this whole thing.”

  “I agree, Alicia,” Zada said as she walked around the kitchen bouncing Lizzie. “I know how much you care about Jake and Dani. When people you love walk out of your life, you don’t just dust your hands off and say ‘Oh, well.’”

  “What do you expect me to do!” Alicia wailed.

  “If he won’t answer his cell phone, you can always call his agent and find out where Jake is, Alicia,” Tish said. “So cut the crap about not knowing how to find him.”

  “No!” Alicia said. “I’m not calling again. Not after yesterday. His attorney calling to put the house on the market was Jake’s answer to all of those messages I’ve left on his cell phone asking him to please call me. If he wanted to talk to me, he would have picked up the phone and called me himself about the house.”

  Jen said, “Poor Dani. I wonder how she’s doing.”

  “Dani getting hurt in all of this will always be my biggest regret,” Alicia said. “I miss Dani as much as I miss Jake. And Kiwi,” she added absently.

  “Maybe you should get a dog,” Tish mentioned.

  “No, maybe I should get to the office,” Alicia said. She stood up from the table, but before she left she gave each of them a hug. “Thanks for being concerned about me, you guys, but I’m going to be okay.”

  Alicia only wished she believed that. By the time she made it across Tish’s lawn and up the driveway to her garage, she was crying. Jake had been her pretend lover. Dani had been her pretend daughter. And Kiwi had been her pretend dog. And if pretending was what it took to keep her sane, then pretending she was going to be okay was exactly what Alicia intended to keep right on doing.

  After her first week back in LA, Dani decided she’d made the right decision. Natta had been so happy to have her back, she’d even agreed to give her a few weeks off before she had to start back to school.

  Natta had also stopped talking about a modeling career, after Dani told her flat out that she didn’t want to be a model, that she wanted to go to college instead. But she wasn’t sure how long that would last. As nice as Natta was being at the moment, Dani also knew Natta couldn’t help herself when it came to wanting things her way.

  Natta had also allowed her to keep Kiwi, something Dani never expected her to do. She had seen Natta kick at him a few times when Kiwi got too close to her for comfort, but at least she was tolerating him.

  But now it was Thursday of her second week back in LA, and Dani wasn’t sure how long she was going to be able to tolerate going back to her old life. She was homesick for her life back in Illinois. If Hayley hadn’t moved off to Texas, she wouldn’t be homesick at all, Dani kept telling herself. But deep down she knew that was a lie. Every time she looked at the ladybug on her bracelet, it made her want to cry.

  Even though Jake had called her on Sunday to make sure she was okay, he hadn’t said a word about her coming home. All Jake had said was that he’d call her next Sunday. Dani sighed. She knew it had been her own decision to leave, but didn’t Jake realize she had a good reason to be angry with him and Alicia?

  She’d been waiting for Jake to tell her to get out of the limo that night at the restaurant, and tell Natta that she wasn’t going back to LA no matter what had happened, but he hadn’t. So maybe Natta had been right all along. It was obvious she would never be Jake’s top priority. Now, she and Jake were right back where they’d been before. Him calling every Sunday, and him coming to LA twice a year to see her on her birthday and at Christmas.

  Her thoughts returned to Alicia, and that also made Dani sad. She’d seen Alicia standing at the end of her driveway the night she left, and she could tell Alicia was crying. Dani wished now she had made Natta stop the car so she could have at least told Alicia good-bye. Whether Alicia had lied to her or not, she’d still been a good friend.

  Maybe when Jake called this Sunday she’d ask him to tell Alicia she said hello. Maybe she’d ask Jake a few other things, too. Maybe she’d pitch a screaming fit and ask Jake why he hadn’t acted like a father should have acted and told her she was NOT going back to LA!

  No, she wouldn’t do that.

  She had made her choice.

  Jake had made his.

  She’d just have to deal with it.

  Dani let out another deep sigh as she walked into the formal dining room where Ranatta was sitting at the table, her face plastered in her green Swedish moisturizing mask, sipping tea from Josephine’s priceless cup. She suspected the early morning intrusions on Natta’s breakfast were beginning to wear thin, though Natta hadn’t mentioned it yet.

  Dani didn’t really care. Getting up early was a habit she’d gotten into living with Jake. She also didn’t intend to go back to eating every meal alone. Breakfast was her only chance to catch Natta. So, Dani decided, like it or not, Natta would just have to put up with her.

  Dani took a seat at the opposite end of the long formal dining-room table where Natta’s latest maid had placed her breakfast. She ignored Natta’s frown when she bent down, picked Kiwi up, and put him on her lap. But she waited until Natta wasn’t looking before she tore off a piece of her toast and gave it to Kiwi.

  It took her a second to notice the issue of People magazine sitting next to her plate on the table. Dani was already preparing herself for the lecture the poor new maid would receive for forgetting Natta’s no-bad-news-in-the-morning rule when Ranatta said, “I thought you might be interested in the new issue of People,” giving Dani her answer about why the magazine had been left on the table.

  Dani picked the magazine up and frowned. The picture on the cover was of Jake and Jennifer DiCarlo, and the caption under their picture read: NEWEST CELEBRITY COUPLE—ARE THEY TEAMING UP FOR MORE THAN THEIR ANTIDRUG CAMPAIGN?

  “Just one more bit of proof,” Ranatta said smugly, “on how committed Jake is to any relationship. I’m sure he tossed that Alicia twit aside the second we left in the limo.”

  Dani kept frowning. “I don’t believe any of this,” she said. “The campaign is too important to Jake. He wouldn’t risk ruining the campaign by getting involved with Jennifer DiCarlo.”

  “Oh, please, Danielle,” Ranatta scoffed. “Surely you aren’t still holding on to some silly notion that Jake cares about anything or anyone other than himself.”

  Dani sighed. “Stop it, Natta. Jake never said anything bad about you. And I’m not going to let you say bad things about him!”

  For a split second Dani thought she saw a hint of respect in the eyes staring back at her from behind
the green Swedish facial mask, but that respect disappeared when Ranatta said, “This is my house, Danielle. I’ll say whatever I like, about whomever I like, whenever I choose. And don’t you ever forget that.”

  Ranatta got up from the table and left the room.

  But Dani knew she had made her point.

  “Exactly how long are you going to stay at the farm and sulk, Jake?”

  “As goddamn long as I want to stay at the farm and sulk,” Jake told his agent on Thursday morning.

  “Knock yourself out,” Buddy Vance said, “as long as you show up at Wrigley Field on Saturday night. It’s the Cubs’ last home game of the season, and you made a commitment to throw out the first ball in the game. The Jake Sims I know will keep that commitment.”

  Jake didn’t answer.

  “Just one more question,” Buddy said. “When are you going to stop taking one for the team and go after what you want in life?”

  “What in the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jake barked.

  “You’re smart enough to figure it out,” Buddy said and hung up on him.

  Jake closed his cell phone, but he remained sitting on a rocking chair on the front porch of the cabin, looking out over the lake. He’d come straight to the farm the night Danielle left with Ranatta. There was no way he could have stayed in Woodberry Park. Not with Danielle gone. And not with Alicia across the street, staring him down, with the same disappointment on her face that he’d seen on Danielle’s.

  He’d spent his entire life disappointing women.

  He thought about Carla. Thought of Danielle. Hell, now he’d even disappointed Alicia. But Jake wasn’t prepared when his mother’s face flashed through his mind. All at once, Jake was right back to being that ten-year-old kid, sitting on the neighbor’s porch crying, and wondering what he’d done to disappoint his mother so horribly that she’d leave and never come back.

  Jake suddenly realized that feeling unworthy of anyone’s love was at the heart of his anger now—the absence of anyone having ever loved him unconditionally. He loved both Danielle and Alicia unconditionally. But it didn’t matter now. Just like his mother, Danielle and Alicia had both given up on him.