CHAPTER 113

“They still in their room?” Nick asked as he slid into the booth. “I ain’t seen ‘em. Have you?”

“Nah, they’re still here. At least that’s what they told me when I called down to the front desk. I heard Kevin say they were gonna stay around for awhile and look for a house or somethin’.” AJ yawned as he snuffed out his cigarette. “Bri and Leigh are leavin’ tomorrow and I’m gonna hook up with Dee for awhile. Howie said somethin’ about Canada…”

AJ leaned against the back of the booth and stared at the strange acting blond in front of him. Nick had called his room an hour ago, insisting that AJ meet him ‘away from the hotel’. Now Nick glanced around nervously, licking his lips and drumming his fingers on the Formica table-top with an annoying rhythm. AJ didn’t like mysteries.

“Nick?”

“Hmmm?”

“What the fuck’s goin’ on? I feel like I’m in the middle of a goddamn James Bond movie. You waiting for me to give you some kind of secret signal or somethin’? Spit it out, for crap’s sake! I’m suppose to meet Dee in a couple of hours!”

Nick shifted his gaze to his bandmate and leaned in. “How ‘bout you and me flying out to New York instead?” he whispered.

After a very pregnant pause, AJ’s expression shifted from impatience to puzzlement. He wasn’t sure he had understood Nick correctly.

“What?”

“I already booked us…”

AJ slammed his ice-filled glass down on the table, causing nearby patrons to glance in their direction. He had understood, after all.

“WHAT? Are you CRAZY? What the fuck is goin’ on, Nick?”

“Shhhh!” Nick scowled. “Just chill will ‘ya? “ Nick’s voice dropped again. “Look. A couple of things happened this morning.” He nodded, trying to explain. “Hannah called from New York. She had a report…”

“Report?” AJ repeated, rolling his eyes. “Did you have to use your secret decoder ring to translate it?”

“Oh, AJ…” Nick frowned. “You are just sooooo drollful…”

Drollful…. Nick had made up another word. AJ didn’t consider himself an academic but Nick was gradually inventing his own language. AJ was relatively sure that ‘drollful’ wasn’t in any English dictionary.

“Okay. I’ll bite. What did Hannah say?”

Nick, satisfied that he had AJ’s attention, settled into his seat, perused the room once more, and began.

“Hannah’s been trying to spend some time at the publishing place. She says she’s getting’ a weird vibe from there. A receptionist there isn’t talking much but Hannah says the girl might know somethin’, even if she doesn’t know she knows somethin’…”

“Huh?”

“Look. Hannah did find out that that Trevor guy has been around a lot. He’s dating somebody in the mail room or somethin’. And Hannah said this girl said that mail goes to Connie on a regular basis. She’s seen the envelopes when she gives them to the mail-guy….”

“That doesn’t surprise me, Nick…”

“Yeah, but Hannah said that this girl asks a lot of questions about Connie and Kevin. Well, not exactly ‘questions’ but comments. Things like how lucky Connie is to be with Kev and how much the men seem to like her and stuff. But mostly she talks about Connie and Kev and asks some personal kinda things like if they’re really serious, if they seem happy or if they see other people. Stuff like that.”

“So?” AJ was growing impatient again. If this girl was a fan, such questions weren’t unusual.

“So, two things…” Nick began. “First of all, I”m her favorite….”

“What a surprise…”

“Shut up, J! Don’t you think she’d be more curious about me than Kev or Connie? Especially Connie… Second, when Hannah tried to regossip her….”

AJ sighed in resignation. Regossip…

“….about Connie’s admirers, ‘cause the girl had mentioned the part about guys liking Connie, the girl acted funny and kinda clammed up. And third….”

“I thought there were only ‘two things’,” AJ interrupted.

“And thiiiiird…” Nick repeated, “ When Hannah finally worked around to the subject of mail, Hannah said this girl said that a letter went out to Connie just three days ago. She noticed it because it didn’t have a return address on it. She asked around but no one said they’d sent it, so she just let it go when the mail-guy came by.”

That part did pique AJ’s interest. It wasn’t much but it was something.

“And fourthly,….”

“Now we’re up to four…”

Nick ignored the barb. “…. look what I have….”

Nick sat up on the bench a little and reached into his back pocket. It wasn’t clear what he pulled out but his hand went under the table, the contents of his pocket hidden in his palm.

“Take it!” he whispered.

“Sheesh…”. AJ leaned forward, reached under the table and soon felt folded paper being pushed into his hand. When he saw what Nick had passed him, his eyes widened. “Man you are in so much shit…”

“Not if you don’t blab, asshole!”

AJ stared at the crumpled envelope in his hand. It was a plain white business envelope, addressed to Connie. I had no return address but it did have a New York post mark. “Where did you get this?” AJ asked in amazement. “This is Connie’s mail! You can’t steal people’s mail, Nick! She’d have a fit and I don’t wanna say what Kevin would do but it would probably involve a visit to the hospital…”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Nick hissed. “I was just taking a chance, that’s all. When Hannah said that a letter had gone out to Con three days ago, I just decided to casually go to the front desk and see if Con had gotten any mail. I know it was a long shot, but I thought ‘What the hell?’ This girl was working the desk – a fan in the strongest sense of the word, if you know what I mean. She was gushin’ and shit so I just told her I was going to meet our group later and they asked me check and see if they had any mail so I could bring it to ‘em. And she said that only Connie O’Rourke had mail and I said I’d take it and she wasn’t sure, so I got all charmin’ and shit and asked her if she didn’t trust me or somethin’ and she got embarrassed and gave me the letter….”

“She could get fired…”

“Not if you shut the fuck up, AJ!”

AJ sighed in resignation. It was too late to do anything about this now. The letter was in their hands and a small part of AJ admired Nick’s growing skill in the area of charm and manipulation. He then noticed that the letter was still sealed.

“You didn’t open it….”

“Uh…no. I thought we could do that….together…”

“Oh, I get it,” AJ spit. “You steal it, I open it, and then you don’t die alone… Thanks, buddy.”

Nick shrugged. “Just do it…”

AJ stuck his finger under the flap and ripped. “Probably junk mail,” he muttered as he unfolded the paper inside. “All this drama for nothin’….”

It wasn’t junk mail. AJ read aloud in a low voice.

Dearest Connie,

I see you decided to ignore my advice and go back to the queer. How can you ever trust that flaming hick? I’m beginning to think you’re some kind of masochist. Do you think you have to settle because you’re deaf?

Is it the glamour? Is it the money? I can give you both. Difference is, that I can be faithful, too.

Think about it. Don’t be stupid. I’m running out of patience.

AJ refolded the paper and pushed in back into the envelope. Whoever was doing this was some sick psycho. Neither he nor Nick spoke for several seconds as they absorbed the tone of the letter. It wasn’t overtly threatening but there was an implication that couldn’t be denied.

“What good will it do for us to go to New York?” AJ asked seriously. “I mean, what can we do that Hannah can’t?”

“We can make friends with this receptionist chick, Tara.”

“Hannah was friendly with her and that didn’t seem to do any good…”

Nick nodded and looked past AJ, staring at nothing.

“Yeah, but Hannah’s not a Backstreet Boy,” he murmured absently, “and this girl just loves the Backstreet Boys….”

Chapter 114

It was going to be a very long day. In fact, the next two weeks would be jam-packed. Connie stretched and rolled her head, trying to work out the kinks of last night’s love making and oblivious to the sound of Kevin belting out Aretha as he stood in front of the bathroom mirror using his razor as a makeshift microphone. She was worn out but Kevin seemed to have the energy of a jack-rabbit. Although his late night plans had gotten off to a less than auspicious start, they had ended on a grand and glorious note from which Connie was still trying to recover. Their prolonged pleasure, however, had had a different effect on Kevin. Not only was he full of vim and vigor, but Connie noted a certain ‘attitude’ this morning. He seemed….proud. He had pushed every button she had last night and given her four orgasms as a result. He had had two himself. The early hours had proven to be emotionally tender as well as deliciously nasty and now Kevin seemed empowered by his unquestionable virility. No doubt, her eyes would have been rolling if she could hear him singing now. He’d made a slight change in Aretha’s lyrics which now included the line ‘I make you feel like a natural woman…’

She logged onto her calendar and email as Kevin fine-tuned his goatee. Steven was none too happy with her disappearance but did seem pleased that she had managed to finish her editing duties on two ‘soon to be released’ novels and was excited about their upcoming promotion. The art department was working on a cover and Hannah had been in and out of the office to arrange a shooting schedule and deliver proofs of the authors’ portraits for the jackets. Then he said he had a manuscript that he wanted her to take a look at. She could download it…

Her writing teacher had emailed her this week’s assignment, which should prove to be interesting. Connie felt herself swallow as her eyes focused on the word ‘erotica’. Oh, Lord… Well, at least she had had plenty of inspiration but she wondered if she would be able to actually write it out. The teacher had made it abundantly clear that he didn’t expect his students to write porn. He was also firm about descriptive phrasing, noting that if he read about crashing waves, peals of thunder or flashes of lightning, the stories would be returned. His final instruction was an echo of what he had repeated time and time again: Write what you know. Oh, Lord…

In addition to her own work, Kevin had been busy scheduling plans that were to include both of them. They were meeting a realtor this afternoon to look at some beach property near Malibu. Kevin’s logic in choosing an ocean-side location was based on the fact that he already had a house in the suburbs, a farm in the mountains and Connie had an apartment in metropolitan Manhattan. He figured that they need a place on the water to round out their growing collection of residences. Connie didn’t really care about where they lived. She had been touched by the fact that Kevin had said ‘ours’ and not ‘yours’ or ‘mine’ and that he had said it effortlessly, with no emphasis, as if it were a given and the most natural thing in the world.

Later tonight, Kevin and Howie would be talking to a producer at a local studio. Tomorrow, they may look at some more properties. Brian and Leighanne were going back to Georgia tomorrow but would return on Sunday. Tomorrow night she and Kevin had been invited to attend a premier. They would have a few days to take care of busy work and errands and then, next Monday night, Brian and Leighanne would host a small party to celebrate Brian’s mother’s birthday. Jackie would be flying out to LA on Sunday from Lexington. Connie had no idea what AJ’s and Nick’s plans were.

*****

Kevin spoke to the realtor, glancing occasionally at Connie who stood out on the broad balcony watching people on the beach and the waves that rolled in from the ocean. This was the fourth house they had looked at in as many hours and while it usually took Kevin almost that long to select a bath mat, he had made up his mind that this was the house and doubted they would find any better or more suitable unless he built one himself.

This place was a little different from the others they had seen. The first had been Spanish in design. It was an attractive house made of salmon-colored stucco with a barrel-tiled roof but seemed rather ‘heavy’ and ominous. The next two had been very modern in design, but cold. This one stood apart from its neighbors. It had a cottage-like appearance and was covered in sea-weathered shingles. A large overhang at the entrance was covered with bougainvillaea that trailed up redwood lattice. The driveway and walkways were paved with brick. Inside, the house had four bedrooms with baths and an office, in addition to the requisite kitchen, dining room and living room. Other amenities included a large laundry room with it’s own entrance, a butler’s pantry, balconies which serviced almost every room and even a widow’s walk that was accessible from the second floor as well as from the living room balcony. Exits all housed French doors. There was a garage and a small ‘servant’s quarters’. Although the houses in Malibu were close together, this property maintained an air of privacy due to lush landscaping and careful room placement. Kevin was also pleased to discover that the lot on one side of the house was vacant – and also for sale.

His final decision hadn’t been based on logic, however. He had watched Connie as she moved from room to room, unaware of the realtor’s sales pitch. Her actions and reactions were different here than they had been at the other three houses they had seen. At the other places, she had been careful not to show any real emotion and had stood close by, watching the realtor speak and nodding politely. Whenever Kevin had asked her what she thought, her reply had been non-committal. “It’s nice. What do you think?” She wanted Kevin to make the decision and he guessed that that was due in large measure to the fact that he would be the one paying for it. Connie made good money, but not that good. Not Malibu good….

But her demeanor had shifted here. She hadn’t stood stoically, watching the realtor’s words. Her eyes had darted back and forth, trying to take it all in. She had opened kitchen drawers and bathroom cabinets. He had smiled at her indulgently when he saw her brushing her fingertips across the carving on the mantlepiece. She had caught him watching her tactile investigation and blushed.

The realtor was still listing the advantages of home ownership when Kevin interrupted him. The exchange was short and sweet.

“How much?”

“4.6 but I think the owner…”

“When can we move in?”

The agent became a little flustered, not sure that he fully understood Kevin’s intentions.

“Well, I guess as soon as the financial arrangements are…”

“Who do I make the check out to?”

“Pardon?…”

“The check.” Kevin repeated impatiently. “ 4.6, right?”

“Yes, but…”

Kevin paused mid-pen stroke. “Is there a problem?”

“No sir!”

Connie didn’t know that the agent had already been sent on his way when Kevin stepped up behind her and turned her to face him.

“What do you think, baby?”

Her stance shifted and, once again, she became stoic and unattached.

“It’s nice. What do you think?”

Kevin smiled and brushed a wind-blown curl away from her forehead.

“I think we need to buy some furniture…”

*****

One of the waiters showed them to a table in a rear corner of the room where Brian and Leighanne sat sipping on a beer and daiquiri, respectively. Kevin had been secretly delighted when he got the message they had left at the hotel, asking if he and Connie would like to meet them for dinner. He wanted to spill the beans about the house he had just bought but, even more, he wanted to tell his cousin that he and Connie were to be married. Brian would be happy for them. He wasn’t quite as sure about Leighanne.

As the waiter seated Connie and took their drink orders, Kevin seated himself and tried to play it cool. Brian opened the conversation.

“Well, Kev, you look like the cat that ate the canary,” he grinned. “You must have had some luck today.”

“I did,” Kevin nodded. “Bought a house.”

The next sound they heard was Leighanne choking on her drink.

“Looks like that’s not all you bought….” In a flash she had leaned across the table, grabbed Connie’s hand and now held it about a half inch from her nose. Connie half expected Leighanne to pull out a jewelers’ loupe and scale. “Why look at this Brian,” she said flatly through a frozen smile. “This almost looks like an engagement ring of some sort…”

Connie said nothing. When she tried to pull her hand away, Leighanne’s grip on her fingers tightened.

“How many ‘sorts’ of engagement rings are there, Leigh?” Kevin frowned. “I only know of one ‘sort’ – the ‘we’re going to get married’ …’sort’.”

Leighanne released Connie’s hand and offered her congratulations….sort of. She just didn’t look at Connie and Kevin when she finally managed to spit the word out, but instead glared at Brian with a laser-like intensity.

“That’s g-great!” Brian stammered, trying to ignore the heat radiating from his left. “Have you set a d-date?”

Kevin took Connie’s hand and shook his head. “No, not yet. I don’t want to wait too long, though.” Then he smiled. “She might change her mind…”

“Oh, I doubt that,” Leigh smirked sarcastically. “My, my! A ring and a house in one day!”

“And any other goddamn thing she wants…” Kevin spit back defensively. Connie may not have been able to catch Leighanne’s tone but he sure as hell could.

Leighanne shrunk a little at Kevin’s counter attack and shifted back into her seat. It’s not fair! It’s just not fair! Connie seemed a little puzzled but not angry. Thankfully, the waiter appeared, ready to take their order, giving Leighanne a moment to compose herself and slip back into ‘sweet’ mode. Although, her reaction had pissed Kevin off, he understood what was going on. His cousin might be red-faced right now but Leighanne was positively green. Brian would have hell to pay.

When dinner was over, the couples went their separate ways, saying their ‘goodnights’ and knowing that they would meet again at Jackie’s birthday party. As they left the restaurant, Kevin made a mental bet with himself that when he and Connie next saw Leighanne, her finger would be at least eight carats heavier, especially after Brian had whispered to him,

“Shit, man! You could have warned me…”