InHap*pily Ever After (Incidental Happenstance) (7 page)

            “Absolutely,”
Dylan said graciously. “But first I really think you need to open the door for
my lady.”

            Ricco caught
himself quickly. “Oh…oh my gosh! Of course, I’m so sorry!” He ran around the
car and opened the other door, extending his hand to assist the passenger. When
he recognized Tia he stopped, squinting his eyes and shaking his head in
disbelief. “Uhh…Miss Hastings?”

            “Hi Ricco, how
are you today?” she asked, flashing a shy smile. He stared at her for a moment,
brow furled, trying to connect the dots. He’d worked at the club for several
years, and had always liked Tia. She always had a smile and a kind word, and
even though he knew she was a school teacher, and had a lot less money than
some of the other club members, she never once stiffed him on a tip. Ricco had
known about her fiancé’s death, and had seen the shadow behind her eyes when
she tried to pretend for her parents and her friend, Lexi Summers, that she was
OK. Tia was so down-to-earth…low-key…and seeing her with this big celebrity guy
was just not computing.

            As he followed
Tia around the back of the car, scratching his head, another vehicle pulled up
to the valet station. Tia heard a shriek as the passenger recognized Dylan and
jumped from the SUV, rushing toward them. As Tia was taking aim with Ricco’s
phone, the door to the club opened and a trio of girls walked out. They saw the
commotion, and made their way over, pulling their own phones from their pockets
when they realized who was standing there.
So it begins,
Tia thought, as
she snapped the picture and another phone was thrust into her hand. The others
hadn’t even realized she and Dylan were together—in fact, they paid her little
mind as Dylan turned on his full rock star charm; shaking hands, signing scraps
of paper, posing for pictures, and exchanging kind words with everyone for a
few minutes. He waved away the next approaching group, apologizing and saying,
“Listen mates—I appreciate the warm welcome, but it’s bloody cold out here.”
They giggled a bit too enthusiastically.  “It’s been nice meeting all of you,
but I’m here to meet my girlfriend’s parents for the first time, and as you can
imagine, I’m a bit nervous, and just need to get on with it, you know?”

             Eyes darted
around and shoulders shrugged as they looked right past Tia, who just stood
back with a knowing smile. When Dylan reached over and took her hand, planting
a soft kiss on her forehead and heading for the entrance, their eyes widened
and their mouths formed little “o’s.”  Most of them knew who Tia was, and they
were more than a little surprised the see her on the arm of a rock star.  The
crowd chuckled and nodded as they approached the entrance, but the befuddled
wave of people followed them anyway, pressing ever closer; their tasks forgotten,
some leaving cars idling along the curb. They bottlenecked at the door, and
Dylan was swept through by the crowd, his hand yanked from Tia’s, leaving her
at the back of the wave.

All
eyes in the well-appointed lobby turned toward the commotion as the chattering
group pushed in. From her seat on the long couch where she eagerly awaited the
arrival of her daughter and her first chance to meet the man who’d essentially
brought her back to life, Danielle Hastings recognized the tall, commanding
figure that was the center of attention and rose to her feet. “Oh my goodness,
Will,” she exclaimed as she stared at the face of the man she’d seen on
television just a few hours earlier.  “I think that’s Dylan Miller!”

            “Who?”

            “He was all
over the news this morning, remember? He’s the actor who’s part of that scandal
with Penelope Valentine.” She shook her head at the look of confusion he threw
her way. “Remember, the love triangle? What’s he doing
here
?”

            Will merely
shrugged…he hadn’t paid a whole lot of attention to the story this morning,
being wrapped up, as usual, in the morning paper.  But the excitement was
palpable, and they watched the group with interest, especially when Tia finally
made her way through the door. They watched as Dylan spotted her and reached
across the crowd to grasp her hand. He pulled her in close and draped his arm
protectively over her shoulder, ignoring the rest of the crowd and letting her
take the lead.

            “Oh my,”
Danielle gasped as she watched her only child walking toward them with a huge
smile on her face and her arm around the celebrity. “Oh my!”

            “Wait a
second; is Tia…” Will asked, suddenly interested. His voice trailed off as Tia
waved and led Dylan to where Danielle steadied herself on the back of the couch
and fanned her face with her pocketbook.      

            “Oh goodness…I
think so!” she exclaimed.

 Tia’s
heart thumped in her chest and she fought to control her breathing. Damn, if
she didn’t gain some control of her body functions, her heart was going to give
out. It was as if the world was moving in slow motion—she was hyper-aware of
every detail, and yet felt as though everything in her peripheral vision was
floating in clouds. She could hear the sounds of the crowd, but was completely
focused on the surprised faces of her parents as she and Dylan approached. She
swelled with pride at having Dylan by her side, and was beyond thrilled to
finally introduce him as her boyfriend, but she was still incredibly anxious
about how they’d take the news that she’d lied to them for months. Quickly, she
glanced around and took in the stares of the other patrons; shock, awe, and
downright incredulousness.
Damn it
, she thought,
I know exactly how
they feel.
She pursed her lips and inhaled deeply, releasing the breath
slowly as she reached her parents.

“Mom,
Dad,” Tia said in a rush, “Oh God, I have a million things to tell you, and at
least that many apologies to make, but I’m so happy to finally introduce you to
Dylan!”

Her
parents’ mouths practically hung open as she hugged them both, and they stared
openly at the couple, the shock plainly evident on their faces. Dylan took it
in stride, as he always did, and planted small kisses on her mom’s cheeks, then
enthusiastically shook her dad’s hand. “I’m so pleased to finally meet both of
you,” he said. “Tia’s told me so much about you.”

There
was a heartbeat of uncomfortable silence, but then her dad recovered, shaking
his head and smiling. “It’s such a pleasure to meet you, Dylan,” he said.
“Tia’s told us a lot about you too, of course, but she didn’t tell us that you
were a celebrity. Forgive us if we’re a little bit shocked.” He extended his
hand again, more consciously. “I’m Will,” he said, “and this is my wife,
Danielle.”

 “I’m
pretty used to that kind of reaction, believe me,” Dylan smiled, taking
Danielle’s hand. “No problem at all.”

“You
may be used to it,” Will said, “but you certainly shouldn’t have to deal with
it in a situation like this. Please, accept my apologies.” He glanced around at
the curious onlookers that were filling the sizeable lobby and turned to Tia.
“Well, I guess I know why you insisted I reserve the DND. Shall we?” He took
his still-speechless wife’s hand and led the way into the dining room, where
even more patrons turned their heads and gawked openly. The foursome simply
smiled and waved, and retreated into the sanctity of the little alcove at the
back of the room.

The
DND lived up to its name.  Up a couple steps and separated from the rest of the
room by a beverage station and a private section of the bar, it was the perfect
place for the group to chat out of the prying eyes and ears that sought to be
part of their introductions.

They
sat down, and Danielle finally found her voice. “You have to forgive me,” she
croaked. “Obviously, this is a bit more than I was expecting,” she added, her
fingers on her throat, “but I’m so happy to finally meet you too, Dylan. We
have heard so many wonderful things about you. You’ve made our little girl very
happy, and for that, I’m incredibly grateful.” She reached across the table and
squeezed Dylan’s hand.

“That
is completely mutual, believe me,” he smiled, draping his arm over the back of
Tia’s chair and tossing her a wink.

“I
saw the story on the news this morning, but I had no idea…OK,” she said, trying
to make sense of the situation, “this whole thing obviously has a whole new
meaning—I’m afraid you’re going to have to fill in some of the gaps for us.”
She turned to Tia.  “How in the world is our only daughter in the middle of an
international scandal and a celebrity love triangle?”

“Oh,
Mom,” Tia said, “I really wanted to tell you everything…”

Dylan
interrupted. “First of all, please let me clarify one thing. There is no
triangle,
and there never was. Everything that horrible woman did was complete
rubbish—a total pack of lies—and I intend to see that she pays the price for
what she did.” He turned to Will. “There was never a moment when I stopped
loving your daughter; or one where I was unfaithful to her.”

Tia
leaned her head on Dylan’s shoulder and addressed her parents. “This whole
thing hit like a tornado. Dylan just got back to the States yesterday, and he
showed up at school to…” She paused, unsure what to say next. This was
completely new to them, and they had no background knowledge to help make sense
of any of it. “I don’t even know where to start,” she said. “I’ve only heard
bits and pieces of the story myself…” She looked at Dylan, turning her palms up
and shrugging her shoulders.  

“Well,
I guess it’s best to get that out in the open right away anyway, since it’s the
news of the day,” Dylan started. “I want you to know that I take full
responsibility for Tia being hurt, and I plan to spend the rest of my life
making it up to her.” Tia smiled up at him and squeezed his thigh, where her
hand was resting. “I really don’t know the whole story myself—I only found out
what she’d done a couple days ago, and left as soon as I could to come and find
Tia—but I’ll try and fill you in on what I’ve pieced together.

 “Penelope
actually showed up right after Tia and I met, to tell me that she’d be my
co-star in the film. I’d literally just met Tia the day before, but she’d
already made a huge impression on me, and the last thing I wanted was to have
our time together interrupted; especially since I was only in town for a couple
days and thought that would be all the time we’d have. Miss Valentine made some
crude comments about her and me having ‘chemistry,’ or some rubbish like that,
and at the time I was really feeling the chemistry with Tia. I told her to
leave, and put her out of my mind completely.”

Tia
wanted desperately to interject…she had so much to tell her parents; she wanted
to share all the good things that had happened in her and Dylan’s relationship.
She hated that they had to start the conversation with the Penelope story, but
since her parents saw it all on the news, they had to get it out in the open
right away. They’d completely avoided the topic last night, but, as much as she
didn’t really want to know, she had to hear it before it was broadcast to the entire
world. She bit her tongue, and let Dylan continue.

 
“It wasn’t until September that I saw her again; once I got to New Zealand.
Unfortunately, the way they’d set things up, we were living and working in
smothering proximity. I kept trying to get her to make some friends, I spent
weekends hanging out with the crew, and I was crystal clear that I was in love
with Tia. She seemed to accept that, and we built a rather tentative
friendship. I never really trusted her, but I did believe that she was trying.
Obviously, though, she had an agenda all along and I was too stupid to see it.”

Tia
jerked her head at him, and addressed her parents. “Now I need to interrupt. I
have to tell you that Dylan is the kind of person who always looks for the good
in people. He trusted her, to a certain extent, because that’s the kind of
person he is. It’s one of his best qualities.” She turned to Dylan. “I don’t
fault you for that; and neither should you,” she said firmly.

“Thank
you,” he said to her, “but I’ll still be kicking myself for that for a long
time, because you ended up hurt by it.” He took a deep breath before
continuing. “From the information I got—mostly from the assistant who was
bribed into helping her carry out her plan—Penelope had some crazy idea that if
we were a couple, she’d be back in Hollywood’s good graces and would live
happily ever after. When I didn’t return her affections, she hatched this huge,
elaborate scheme to make it appear that Tia had broken up with me, thinking I
would turn to her for comfort. Of course, she also had to make Tia think I’d
broken up with her.” He looked at Tia with pain in his eyes. “And it worked.”

Now
it was Danielle’s turn to interrupt. “Wait a minute,” she said, looking back
and forth between them, “are you saying that you thought Dylan broke up with
you?”

Tia
nodded, unable to meet her mother’s gaze.

“You
never mentioned anything about that at all!” Danielle exclaimed. “Why wouldn’t
you tell me that, honey? You must have really been hurting—you know I would
have been there for you.”

Tia
sighed. “Of course you would have been, Mom, I know that. But you would have
been there at your own expense, and that would’ve made me feel even worse.” Her
mother’s eyes narrowed in confusion and she continued.  “You had your holiday
trip all planned, and I didn’t want to ruin that—I figured either you’d cancel
if you knew that I didn’t really have anywhere to spend the holidays—or you’d
ask me to go with you and I’d ruin your trip anyway by being depressed the
whole time. Plus, I kept hoping that I’d get that ticket eventually, and that
Dylan and I could work things out. No matter how much evidence was staring me
in the face, there was always a part of me that refused to believe that it was
over—what we had was just too strong.” She turned to Dylan and smiled. “I’m so
glad I was right about that.” He leaned over and planted a soft kiss on her
lips.