For the Love of His Life (13 page)

“Uh, I think you left out some of the details there, Raul,” Veronica began.

He shook his head at her. “Maybe it’s for the best…”

“Bullshit!” Veronica exclaimed then turned to her grandmother, who was taking another sip from her beer. “Oops, sorry Gram-Marie, it just slipped out. But you all have to hear the whole story. I called Tom Jenkins this morning and he told me it was the Crossroads that Raul was drinking in last night. He had limped in complaining that every bone in his body hurt because he asked me to help him get into shape. He told me not to go easy on him, so I took him on my normal runs for the past couple of mornings. He’s also been doing some exercising in his cabin before and after we ran. As you can well imagine, he was hurting in a major way and trying to kill the pain by drinking a few doubles.”

She still spoke to everyone but she turned to look at Raul. “Tom’s been really pleased that Raul’s been photographed in his place…says he’s been getting more calls than he ever has, asking if his is the place where Raul Roderick shoots pool. The regulars are cool with Raul since he’s bought them drinks a few times. He didn’t think much of what kind of attention it might bring until the door slammed open and a wall of leather, chains and tattoos walked in and took over his bar. He says they started moving furniture around for themselves and scared away most of the regulars. Especially nasty was this red-haired bimbo with huge knockers.”

“Veronica Sorrenson!” Her mother appeared shocked.

“Oh, Mom!”

“Don’t you
Oh Mom
me, young lady,” she continued, “Is that any way to talk in front of impressionable children?”

Joan laughed. “You can’t mean Jake, right? He’s seventeen and I’m sure hearing his cousin say
huge knockers
won’t shock him. And the baby is way too young to understand yet.”

“Besides, the only knockers he’s interested in are his Mom’s,” Keith added with a grin. Everyone smiled.

Joan nodded at Veronica. “Go on with your story, Ronnie. I want to hear what happened that led to my boy getting chased all the way up here by bikers.”

Raul stood still, looking around at the people in the room and wondering what it would be like to feel like one of them…to belong. When his eyes lit on Veronica he stared just a moment longer, and looked over to see Marie studying him. He was surprised to feel himself blush. He quickly looked down while she pursed her lips.

“Tom says that the red-head started talking loudly about how this was her gang and she had read all about Raul being in this bar. She made her gang ride over from Ely just so she could…uh…try to…um…
have her way
with him.”

“Women don’t do that,” scoffed Marie.

“Oh yes they do, Mom,” her son said and her eyebrows rose as she looked at him.

“Well this one did,” Veronica continued. “Tom says he wasn’t going to rat Raul out, and no one else in the bar did either. But she went up to each guy at the bar and turned them around looking for him. When she finally did find him she told him that she would
do
him in the bar, or out in the parking lot, in the limo she figured he’d have out there. But he wasn’t getting away from her until either he
put out
or her gang got to beat the snot out of him for disappointing her.”

“Do you remember any of that, Raul?” Jared asked in the silence that followed.

“I vaguely remember some woman with cleavage climbing on my lap and grinding on me. But I was too drunk to respond, even if I had wanted to…which I didn’t. Even I know biker chicks are trouble. I guess she didn’t want to take no for an answer.”

“Tom pulled his shotgun out from under the bar and clicked off the safety. That got everyone’s attention. He told them he’d already called the police and told Raul to leave. He kept some of the bikers in his sights until the door slammed. Then he told them they were welcome to stay and drink, but no more threatening his customers…even though there weren’t many left at that point.”

Jared whistled softly. “So Tom’s still got that old shotgun, huh? He pulled it on me a couple of times when I was in my wild and crazy days.”

“Jared Sorrenson Miller! What are you talking about?” Marie demanded, slamming her empty beer glass onto the table.

“It was a long time ago, Gram-Marie,” he said, “and Tom forgave me after I started making some money and sent him enough to buy a new pool table. After all, I was the one who ripped the cloth on the old one, after I spilled some drinks on it.”

Raul felt amusement ripple around the room and began to hope it was possible to salvage something out of the day.

Veronica steered the conversation back to the issue at hand. “So Tom says that some of the bikers took off after Raul and Jake, who peeled out of the parking lot. Phil was the first cop there and once Tom filled him in, he took off after them. The other bikers just kept drinking and partying, like it was no big deal. He didn’t know what happened until some big guy poked his face into the door and yelled that they were leaving. They threw some money on the tables and left him a huge mess to clean up.”

Joan turned to Raul. “So I guess it wasn’t your fault that Jake was chased back up here.”

Raul shook his head, trying not to show how dizzy it made him. “Oh yes it was. If she hadn’t been looking for me and I didn’t have the reputation I’ve got, none of it would have happened. It was still my fault. If I can’t find somewhere else around here to stay, I’ll just leave until the film crew gets up here.”

Jared sputtered. “You can’t, Raul. Some of the trucks are heading up next week with equipment and the crew will be following them. By next weekend they’re going to be working on the sets and figuring out how to use the land I’ve rented for the next six months. Then the week after that some of the trailers will get up there, along with costumes and the film crew. There are lots of scenery shots we’ll need. I’ll be coming up the week after that to get everything organized. By the third week in June the actors’ trailers will get up there and the other actors will be up right after that. You don’t have time to be coming back out here.”

“And you’re afraid I’ll get arrested again if I’m back out there without a keeper, aren’t you?” Raul tried not to sound resentful.

“In a word, yes. I sent you up there to keep you out of trouble…”

“It’s no use. Trouble follows me. You put your family on the line, but I don’t want any of them to get hurt because of me.”

“Neither do I,” Jared said quickly. “Ronnie?”

“It’s not up to me, Jared. It’s up to Gram-Marie. She’s the one who said he has to leave.”

“Couldn’t you just do your drinking up here?” Keith asked and everyone turned to him. “I mean, there is beer and wine in the restaurant. You could add some extra to the weekly orders and keep it in your cabin. I could loan you my mini-fridge from the garage.”

“And if you want company, there are other resorts along the Gunflint Trail that also serve alcohol and have pool tables. You don’t have to go back into town. That way you won’t be photographed, since paparazzi won’t be welcome to hang out this far up the road. People will leave you alone up here,” Erik smiled at Raul. “It’s the perfect solution.”

“But he likes going into town to do his drinking and carousing,” Marie groused. “He won’t be able to get into any trouble up here.”

Raul finally walked over to an empty sofa chair and sat down heavily. Veronica promptly sat on the arm of the chair and solicitously felt his forehead, ignoring the fact that her family would be staring at her actions. Raul shook his head and pushed her hand away.

“I think I’m about done with going into town to drink, quite honestly,” he began.

“Easy to say when you’re suffering from a hang-over,” Marie grumbled.

“If I’m really going to keep training and exercising, I can’t be drinking much or staying up late anymore. I need to get on a more regular schedule so I can get enough sleep to be able to do what I have to do. Thanks to the wonderful cooks here,” he nodded politely at Marie and patted Veronica’s hand, “I know I’ll be well-fed. It’s just a matter of self-discipline.”

He saw Jake’s face fall. “But don’t you worry, Jake. I still can’t drive. I’ll need you to take me up the road, because I want to explore more of the land around here that I’m going to have to be able to act like I’m a part of. Eventually you can drive me up to the end of the road and I’ll jog back. I’ll need to be running even more than Veronica because I have more damage to repair.” He smiled. “My driver gets paid whether I have him take me anywhere or not. You’re on retainer, dude.”

“That sounds like it might work,” Jared said encouragingly. “Gram-Marie? What do you think?”

They all watched as the tiny woman got up and walked across the room to stand in front of Raul. She lifted her hand and he braced himself for the slap he figured would follow. Instead she gently patted the side of his face.

“So, Rall, do you really think you can control yourself like that?” She stared into his eyes. He met them and held her gaze, nodding slowly.

“Rall?” Jared asked.

“Shh!” Veronica shushed him.

Marie continued looking into his eyes until he had to blink to keep them from watering. She smiled, patted the side of his face again and turned to walk back to her seat.

“Okay, I’ll let him stay,” she said before turning to waggle her finger at him. “But if you so much as sneeze wrong, or I hear of even a whiff of trouble, you’re gone…no discussion. Deal?”

Raul nodded. “Deal.”

Jared audibly let out a huge breath. “Well, that’s a relief! You wouldn’t believe the hoops I’m going through to get all of the equipment up there! It’s been a load off my mind figuring that my star was already up there and getting fit to play my hero.”

The atmosphere lightened considerably and people were smiling at each other, which Raul silently enjoyed.

“Oh yeah! Raul, you’ll never guess who I got to play the woman you romance and marry! Have you heard of Kelly Ann Sheridan?”

“Um, is she that young blonde who was in
Memory Mine
and
The Girl From Next Door
?”

“Yeah, that’s her. At first I didn’t think she was right for the role, but I owed her agent a favor and her reading just blew me away! I think that this is gonna be a break-through movie for both of you! People don’t realize what you both can do with the right script. After this they will.”

“I’ll believe that when it happens…” Raul said doubtfully.

“You’ll see. Hey, is our business done, folks? I’ve got Tamiko and the girls down here with me for the weekend and they want to go to Disneyland.”

“Yeah, we’re done,” Marie said. “You go back to being a big-shot, but take care of your family first. It was good to hear your voice, you young rascal. I look forward to seeing you when you get up here.”

Jared laughed. “Okay, Gram-Marie. Looking forward to seeing all of you too. Ronnie, could you take me off speaker and give me a couple of minutes before I hang up?”

“Sure, Jared. Anything for my favorite cousin.” Veronica hit the button and moved out onto the porch with the phone.

Raul looked around, enjoying being in the middle of a bunch of people who were chatting amiably with each other. No one ignored him, but no one made him talk either. He leaned back into the cushions and didn’t even realize he was drifting off to sleep. The others noticed but kept on talking. When Marie noticed she rolled her eyes then walked over to cover him with a light afghan, before going into her kitchen to make another pot of coffee.

Veronica moved out to sit on the porch swing and said, “So what’s up, Jared?”

“
Rall
? Gram-Marie really calls him
Rall
?”

Veronica giggled. “Yeah. It’s her way of letting him know he’s not so important that she has to pronounce his name correctly. The first time he was awake during the day and eating in the dining room, she asked me how to spell his name. Then she remarked that it was spelled just like Grampa’s used to be, so she was going to pronounce it the same way. She’s called him
Rall
ever since. You can tell by his face that it irritates him every time. That’s why it’s no use correcting her. She’s not going to stop.”

Jared gave a long sigh. “Probably not. So tell me, has it really been that bad, having him up there? I had hoped that the BWCA would work its magic on him, like it did on me, for so many years. He’s got to be buff enough to play a mountain man and in-touch with his feelings enough to be able to act in love scenes so realistic it’s going to have even the men crying in the theaters.”

“Uh-huh.” Veronica thought about her words carefully. “Given the movies he’s been in before, do you really think he can pull that off?”

“I didn’t think so at first. I wasn’t even going to let him try for it, but his agent was persistent. He was great for the reading he did. I even had him come back a second time. He’s the man for the role, if he can stay sober long enough to do it.”

“I trust you Jared, so if you think he can do it, he probably can. I’ll do my best to whip him into shape…”