Authors: Cheryl Harper
The memory made her head ache. Laura rested her elbows on top of one of the stacks of paper on her desk and rubbed her tired eyes. The part that had kept her up all night was wondering whether Holly was right. Should she have tried harder? She traced her thumb over KT’s picture again. She’d gotten desperate enough to read the stupid tabloids but there was no news of KT Masters right now.
And just as she had about eleventy gazillion times since he’d left, she pulled up his contact info and her thumb hovered over the phone number. What would be the harm in calling him? He’d given her a phone and put his number in it. But she’d been fighting this urge for a month. If she could hold out a little longer, it would ease up. It had to. Maybe she’d expected things to feel different by now, but she counted not crying every time “Teddy Bear” played in an Elvis-themed hotel to be progress.
Tony knocked and pushed open the door. “Everything okay?”
“Sure. Just one of those days where I can’t lay my hand on what I need. Do that five or six times in a row and I mutter.”
He nodded. “Got a guest I think you might like to meet. She’s checking in now.”
Laura glanced at the clock. “Sorry. I’m still on duty. How’d you get involved? Is Wanda having trouble?” The biggest challenge of all she’d attempted was keeping the hotel fully staffed. With Willodean’s expansion plans, it was only going to get harder. They needed Wanda to succeed.
He shook his head. “No, she’s fine.” And he waited. Clearly, she was going out to the lobby to meet this guest. She had no idea who it could be.
She pulled down on the edge of the Hawaiian shirt that was paired with khakis for the hotel’s summer uniform. Today’s was pretty inoffensive. Palm trees swayed in a dizzying pattern but there were other, less attractive choices.
Wanda was handing over a room key when Laura and Tony stepped out into the lobby.
The white-haired woman in skinny jeans and a sequined sleeveless top turned and said, “Is this her? Is this Laura?”
Laura crossed over and held her hand out. “I’m Laura Charles. How can I help?” She’d never met this woman in her life. She’d remember such a beautiful face. But there was something familiar about her smile.
As she wrapped her hand around Laura’s and squeezed tightly, she said, “I’m Arlene Masters. Kevin’s grandmother.”
Laura’s eyebrows shot up and it was a good thing Arlene held her hand in such a tight grip. The rest of her might have shot off like a rocket too.
“Why, I can’t believe it. What a surprise!” Laura wrapped an arm over her stomach. “I’m so happy to meet you.”
Arlene’s eyes crinkled at the corners just like every grandmother’s should. “Probably not as excited as I am to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Laura glanced around the lobby at the small audience of Tony, Wanda, and Misty, who was snoring in the corner. “Why don’t I show you to your room?”
“I’d love that. Kevin told me so much about the Hawaii wing that I asked to stay there.” She grabbed the handle of her rolling suitcase and followed Laura to the elevator.
As they made the short trip up, they made small talk about Arlene’s flight out and all the traffic around the hotel and the airport.
Laura opened the door and held it open. As Arlene passed, Laura smiled. She smelled like a proper grandmother too.
After she took a look around and clapped with glee at the framed picture of Elvis hanging beside the television, Arlene said, “I was hoping I might meet Holly too. Are you two available for dinner tonight? I feel like I’ve heard so much about the hotel that I can’t wait to explore a little. I’ve got my heart set on one of Elvis’s favorite sandwiches.”
She had the kind of face Laura couldn’t say no to. And she should definitely say no. She didn’t know what Arlene Masters was doing here but she’d almost gotten her feet under her after KT’s departure. This would set her back.
But Arlene tilted her head and the combination of her sweet smile and the twinkle in the dark eyes that were very much like her grandson’s were impossible to ignore.
“We’d be happy to.” Laura picked up her phone and quickly dialed the apartment. When Holly answered the phone with a very professional hello, she said, “Hey, Holly, there’s someone here who’d really like to meet you. She’s going to meet us for dinner at Viva Las Vegas in”—she glanced over at Arlene—“an hour. Can you meet us?”
“Yes, I’ll see you there.” Holly’s tone was very cool. She was still miffed. Laura knew the feeling.
As she ended the call, Laura headed for the door. “We’ll see you then, I guess, unless there’s anything else you need . . .” Laura held the door open, ready to make a quick getaway.
Arlene tapped her chin. “You know, I do believe I’d like to meet the owner. Is she around?”
Laura could almost hear the squeal of glee that Willodean would issue when she learned KT’s grandmother was here. Maybe she was pushing Laura to find a date, but that in no way meant that she’d given up on KT Masters’ triumphant return.
“I’m not sure she’s still in this afternoon, but you can call down to the front desk. Tony will have some idea of whether she’s expected back.” And Laura could point to her penthouse suite if she had to, but she wasn’t ready to escalate yet.
Arlene nodded. “Thanks, hon. I’ll do that.”
Laura made a quick retreat, ignored the waving hula girl on her way down to the elevator, and sighed with relief when the doors closed behind her.
She headed back to her office, ready to barricade herself in so that she could dream up wild plans to get out of dinner.
F
IFTY-NINE MINUTES AND
fifty-nine seconds later, Laura inched her way inside Viva Las Vegas.
In addition to the menu, she’d made a few changes to the décor, mainly turning down the wattage over the bar. Willodean hadn’t been a fan at first but she’d decided now that it gave the place a romantic atmosphere.
Laura was pretty sure she just had romance on the brain. In some places, the light was still bright enough to perform surgery if worse came to worst.
Struck by the idea that what Willodean really needed was a man to distract her, Laura stumbled over a nonexistent wrinkle in the carpet. She frowned down at the perfectly well behaved floor and tried to convince herself to approach the table where Arlene and Willodean were already hooting. Lucky was getting wound up to host one of his trivia games, but they’d chosen a table in the back. Maybe she’d get lucky. Maybe the sound would drive them away. When the first song started, Willodean and Arlene strutted down close to the stage and did some dance routine that looked like a mix of aerobics and dirty dancing. Holly walked up and shouted, “What’s this, a Zumba class?”
Laura laughed. She wrapped her arm around Holly’s shoulder and pulled her closer. “God, I hope not! I’m glad you’re here. Don’t leave me, got it, kid?”
Holly smiled and wrapped her arm around Laura’s waist and they approached the table cautiously. Willodean spotted them first and waved Arlene back to the table.
“Can you believe it? Another Zumba buddy! And she’s KT’s grandmother.”
Laura had no idea what the one had to do with the other but it didn’t matter. Holly lit up like the old Viva Las Vegas bar. “KT’s grandmother! That’s great!” Arlene wrapped her arms around Holly’s neck and they hugged like they were old friends. Then all three women at the table turned to stare at her.
And she knew she was in deep, deep trouble.
Laura smoothed her hands down her pants and took a seat at the table. The other three followed and Laura blessed her new waitress’ efficiency because drink and entrée orders delayed the conversation for a few minutes.
Then it got real.
Arlene reached across the table to join hands with Willodean and with Holly. “I’m so happy to meet you both since we’re about to be family. Or we will be if we can only straighten out these two.” She motioned with her head at Laura and she thought it was very unfair that she was the only one of the two on hand to have to straighten anything out. Arlene patted her hand. “Oh, don’t frown. If you could see Kevin, you’d know he’s barely functioning at this point. It’s up to us to get you on track.”
Laura cleared her throat. “Well, what if I’m not sure I want to be on that track anymore?”
Willodean and Holly both snorted. Simultaneously, like they’d been working on snorting in sync.
“What? I have a date, if you’ll recall. One of you insisted while the other was ready to hurl insults.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “KT and I both know we don’t fit.”
Arlene shook her head. “KT doesn’t know that. He just can’t see that his next adventure will take more bravery and will be more exciting than anything he’s done yet. He’ll have to step out of what he knows and try something new.”
Laura took a drink of her sweet tea. “If KT doesn’t want to do that, I don’t blame him. I mean, he asked me to pick up and move to Hollywood, but I couldn’t do that.”
Eyebrows shot up all around the table.
Holly pointed accusingly. “I knew it! You have been keeping secrets from me. No guy asks his ‘assistant’ to move into his house. You . . .” She leaned forward to say, “You were . . . dating? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Laura glanced at Willodean who said nothing.
“Holly, I just . . . I didn’t want you to get too attached. KT and I both knew that it was only a casual thing. No one falls in love in a week so it was just for fun, nothing serious, and nobody would get hurt.”
Arlene pursed her lips. “But . . .”
Laura sighed. “But it hurt. It hurt a lot to let him go.”
Holly leaned an elbow on the table and propped her chin on her hand. “I’ve been trying to convince you to call him, but nothing’s worked.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice doing the hard thing for my own good. Not calling him was better for us both.” Laura ran her thumb over his picture. “But I’ve worn out this phone staring at his photo.”
The new waitress saved Laura again by arriving at just the right time with the food. Everyone was quiet for a minute while they ate. But it couldn’t last.
Holly said, “You always taught me to look at a problem logically, make a list to attack it. So what’s the problem here.”
Laura rubbed her forehead and said a quick prayer that Holly’s heart didn’t get broken in this process too. “KT’s career and his family are in California. My career, which is just starting again with a job I love, and my family, which I’ve had to build, are here. I don’t want to leave. Neither does he.”
Arlene waved her hand. “Honestly, young people. Mountains out of molehills. Careers are temporary and can change on a dime. So you both have jobs that are tied to certain places but that can be worked around. And family . . . that’s more important. Now that I’ve met Willodean and Holly, I understand.”
Holly looked miserable when she said, “I could move. We could go. It would be okay.”
Laura laughed. “No, it wouldn’t. Besides, what about Mike and Willodean and Tony and Manny and Misty . . . we’d miss them if we weren’t here.”
Holly sniffed and wiped her eyes as she looked at Willodean. “Yeah, but we’d make new friends. Probably. We might be okay.”
Laura hugged her daughter. “Of course we would but we’d still miss our family. A lot. It makes you sad just thinking about it. I couldn’t do it.”
She smiled at Arlene. “Besides, there’s one big problem that has nothing to do with location.”
Arlene nodded. “Yeah, Kevin’s insistence that he’d never be a father.” There was a wicked glint in her eyes. “We can work with that. We have Holly on the one hand who can show him how awesome kids can be.” Holly straightened in her seat and looked like she was itching to go forth and be awesome right then and there. “And then there’s the fact that he’s already gone for a girl who wants babies and motherhood and the absolute terror and wonder that comes with it.”
Laura sighed. “I really do. But . . . for the past month, I’ve just been thinking that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to build a family with KT and Holly. I mean, she’s almost grown, past the easy-to-screw up stage, right?”
Arlene looked at Holly. “I don’t know. As I remember, being a teen girl was fraught with danger, but . . . you don’t have to worry. Kevin’s biggest problem isn’t going to be screwing up. It’s going to be being wrapped around her little finger.” Arlene laughed as Holly perked up, then she patted Laura’s hand. “You’ll have to be the bad guy, keep an eye on things.”
Holly shook her head. “She’s been practicing for fourteen years. I think she has the hang of that by now.”
Everyone at the table laughed. Willodean said, “Just remember, Laura, any new baby is going to be a teenager for a long time too.”
Holly tried to frown at Willodean but her giggles escaped.
Arlene sighed. “You know, I think I’m going to like it here.”
Willodean clapped her hands. “Oh, I’m so happy! Laura, add Zumba classes to the spa plans. It’s going to be great!”
“Convincing Kevin to move to Memphis will be easy. And I’ll be happy to be closer to home.” Arlene smiled. “One problem down, one to go.” The look on her face said she already knew it was going to work out. “Willodean, do you know of any apartments for rent? Until Kevin can wrap his head around moving out here, I’ll need a place to stay.”
Willodean smiled. “I might have a place to show you. We’ll look after dinner, okay?”
They leaned their heads together and whispered and cackled like little girls. Laura traced her finger over KT’s face again and wondered if all it took was a willingness to try. She hoped so. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t beg or try to force him to do what she wanted, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t be honest with him. She took a deep breath, pulled up his information and typed out a text message. She kept it simple.
I still miss you
. And she hit send.
KT
CURSED AS
he slid out of the rental SUV and nearly dropped his ringing phone. He’d been as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof ever since the taping had wrapped in Lake Charles. And before that he’d had a week of pirate shenanigans and drunken revelry. Not his. Other people’s drunken revelry, which was the worst kind.