A Touch of Passion (boxed set romance bundle)

by Uvi Poznansky

  When the limo finally pulled into the stadium, Charity waited for everyone but her mom to exit before she reached out, grabbed her arm, and asked, “Mom? Do me a favor and let the others know that I will join everyone in a minute. I’m going to find the nearest phone and call Johnny. I need to find out if he has heard anything about that article.”

  Judy patted Charity’s arm. “Don’t worry. Johnny knows you too well to believe any of that trash. It will be alright. I promise.”

  Charity gave her mom a weak smile and tried her best not to let the threatening tears spill out. “I’m okay mom. I just want to make sure Johnny is. I know he knows better, but I just hate to think what the people at his job, and his customers, might be saying to him. You know they can really rag him about stupid things. He has a lot of pride. He cares more about what other people think than I do. I hate to think I may have caused him some embarrassment.”

  Judy tucked a strand of Charity’s hair behind her ear and patted her arm. “You didn’t cause this. I would like to get my hands on the gentleman who did. I would wring his skinny little neck. I didn’t like the way he was questioning you yesterday. I should have kicked his butt while we were still at the airport and when I had the chance.”

  Charity kissed her on the cheek. “You know, Mom, bringing you to Dallas has surely brought out the tougher side of you. I’m going to have to keep a closer eye on you. Dad won’t know who you are by the time we return home. You know, just because you’re my manager doesn’t make you my body guard. I can take care of myself. I’m going to fix this, somehow. Now let me talk to Johnny, so I can have some peace of mind and do my job.”

  While listening to the phone ring on the other end, Charity was mentally preparing for the screech from hell, but was surprised to hear Mr. Field’s calm, reassuring voice instead.

  “Field and Son Automobile Repair Shop. Harold Field speaking. How may I help you?”

  Charity was speechless for a moment but finally regained her composure. “Dad. This is Charity. How are you doing?”

  His voice changed from being all business to relaxed, “Charity! I’m glad you called. How’s it going out there in Texas? Met any real cowboys yet?”

  Charity laughed in spite of the knot in her throat. “Not yet. They seem to have better things to do with their time than hang around the studio. Is Johnny around?”

  Charity noticed his brief hesitation.

  “Well, can’t say that he’s here at the moment. He was here this morning and humming like a silly fool in love. Made me smile to see him so chipper, but he left the garage about an hour ago.”

  It was surprising to hear Johnny would leave work in the middle of the day. The mechanics couldn’t keep up with the workload on the best of days, and with Albert out because of a heart attack, Charity couldn’t believe he would leave his dad so shorthanded. “He left? That’s odd. What happened?”

  Mr. Fields hesitated, “It all started because of a paper William brought in this morning.” He cleared his throat several times before continuing. “The big goof always stops at the store before he comes to work. He can’t function without his snack cakes and coffee for breakfast. That man eats like he’s still twelve years old.” He stopped again and blew into the phone. “He saw your picture at the checkout lane and had to buy the paper to see what you were up to. It’s not every day you know someone who makes the papers. It was that paper that prints who’s having whose baby and such nonsense. William bought the paper to bug Johnny about the article. He thought Johnny would get a big kick out of it.”

  This time the pause was much longer and for a moment Charity thought he had hung up on her. Mr. Fields finally continued, “You know no one here believes anything written in that paper, right? William just wanted to have a little fun. I know Johnny doesn’t believe anything in that piece of trash, but he was embarrassed and left. He said he would be back later. The other boys are out there looking real shame faced about the whole thing. I told him to just stay and face the whole thing, but he wouldn’t listen to reason.”

  Charity sat on the nearest chair and hung her head. The ham sandwich was threatening to make a reappearance, so she drew in several deep breathes hoping to calm her stomach. Her voice quivered in spite of trying to sound as if everything was okay. “I’m sorry, Dad. I can’t believe any of this is happening.”

  Mr. Fields cleared his throat again. “They shouldn’t be allowed to write such outright lies and get away with it. I’ve known you a long time. You’re a good person. No one here believes anything in the paper. You just know everyone has your back. I’ll tell Johnny you called, and see to it that he gets back in touch with you real soon. Don’t worry about anything. You just take care of yourself.”

  Before Charity hung up she asked, “Why are you answering the phone? Is Cindy out sick today?”

  He huffed. “No. She was here earlier. She took out after Johnny when he left. She promised to talk some sense into him. I hope that she does, soon. I have five cars out in the bay waiting to be worked on. I can’t afford for him to mope around too much longer.”

  They chatted about what had happened in Murfreesboro since she had left for a few more minutes before Charity explained to him she had to be out on the practice field. After finally hanging up the phone she tried to make sense out of why Johnny had left and why Cindy had run after him. She tried not to let jealousy take over, but that wasn’t easy to do being so far away from Johnny and not knowing what he was thinking. She rested her head between her knees and tried to rein in her thoughts. She wanted Johnny to trust her so she needed to trust him. It took several minutes for that conviction to take root and only then did she rush out to the field to be with everyone else.

  After several hours of following Kim’s every command, Charity could feel the accumulation of stress and the effects of not eating. She had a serious headache pounding in each temple. When a break finally came, she took a few minutes to get away from the others and sought out Maria and her mom in the stadium seats. When she reached them, Maria was busy digging through a huge purse and her mom appeared to be napping.

  Charity eyed the contents Maria was taking out of her purse and placing on the seat next to her. “I hope you have some aspirin in that bag of yours. I have the grandfather of all headaches.”

  Maria laughed but then grimaced. “Don’t make me laugh. My head is killing me too.” She finally held up a bottle. “Eureka! I knew that there was some, somewhere in this overstuffed bag. David always makes fun of me for carrying so much junk around. Junk! What do men know? You never know when you’re going to need something, and you’re miles from nowhere. What are you going to do? They make fun of these bags until there’s something in there for them.”

  Charity shared her bottle of water with Maria. Both of them lay back in their seats and closed their eyes. When Charity heard Kim calling from the field for everyone to begin practicing again Charity opened one eye and looked over at Maria. “Do you feel any better?”

  Maria nodded. “A little bit. How about you?”

  Charity stood and stretched her arms above her head. “About the same as you, I guess. When I make it back to the hotel, I’m taking the coldest shower in history. My feet, back, and head hurt, and that’s just the beginning of my long list of complaints.”

  They both laughed. It was nice having someone she could relax with, besides her mom. She would have liked a friend to talk about her problems with. She loved her mom, but some things were easier to discuss with a girlfriend. Her mom was the best, but she was still her mom. Friends just listened without always feeling like they needed to solve your problems for you. They understood that sometimes all you really needed was for someone to hear what was troubling you. Maria looked like she could use a friend too.

  “David said that you weren’t feeling well, yesterday. Are you alright?”

  Maria gave a rueful chuckle. “I thought I was over the worst of it yesterday, but this afternoon heat has given me another headache. Are you alright?
I heard what happened this morning. I’m certain Mrs. Bennett didn’t mean to upset you. She really is just the kindest of hearts. Would you like to talk about it?”

  It would have been so easy to sit down again and pour her heart out right then and there, but she was needed on the field. “I was just thinking about being able to discuss my problems with friends back home, and how much I miss that. Are you sure you want to hear my problems? You don’t look like you feel very well.”

  Maria smiled. “After we get back from dinner tonight I’ll come back to your suite.” She placed a hand on Charity’s arm. “It’s never easy living one’s life so publicly. The reporters who work for the gossip magazines will write whatever will sell. If they can’t find out what they want from you they’ll just make up something. It doesn’t need to be the truth. It just has to be eye catching enough to sell. They don’t care if you’re hurt in the process or not.”

  Kim yelled up to Charity, “Are you feeling any better?”

  Charity leaned across the railing. “Yeah. I’ll be right down.” She turned again to Maria. “Before we go out, I’m going to need a little time to talk to Johnny. I haven’t been able to talk to him yet about the article. I promise that it won’t take long. Thanks for the aspirin. I think you may have saved my life.”

  Later when the group looked as if they couldn’t go on one minute longer, Kim gave them another brief break. Charity didn’t think she had one more jump or backward tumble in her. Everyone grabbed a cup of something cool to drink, before claiming a spot on the ground to collapse. Unfortunately, her chosen spot was near Betty. The moment she sat down Betty eyed her as if dying to say something. There was no doubt it was only a matter of time before something was going to come out of the blonde’s mouth that was going to be insulting as hell. Charity was praying she wasn’t going to have to shove it right back in.

  Finally, it seemed Betty couldn’t handle staying silent a moment longer. “You know, it’s funny how this sort of thing gets started isn’t it?”

  Charity prepared herself for the battle by taking another long drink of water before finally asking, “What sort of thing are you talking about?”

  Betty rolled the cup of water between her two palms. “Oh, you know. We talked about it yesterday. I remember you said it wasn’t true, and low and behold it’s in the papers this morning! You don’t suppose you might have been wrong do you?”

  Charity was much too tired to be in a fist fight. She really didn’t feel like going to jail, and she was very sure that would happen if she started hammering on the old biddy. I’m going to reason with her. I’m going to reason with her. I’m going to reason with her. Charity silently chanted the words with the hope that Betty wasn’t going to say something she was going to regret later. Charity inhaled deeply before taking a dainty sip of water. Betty really had no clue that it was all that stood between her and a good old fashion ass whipping.

  “Betty.” Charity purred out the name in her best southern accent. “Didn’t we cover this ground, yesterday? Not that it is any of your business, because it’s not.” Charity pointed around the field. “I could be sleeping with every man out here, and it still wouldn’t be any of your business, unless, of course, one of them was your husband or boyfriend.”

  Charity balanced the cup of water on one knee and leaned closer to Betty. Her voice was low enough so only she could hear, “Why don’t I make something perfectly clear to you?”

  Betty squirmed at the steel in Charity’s voice.

  “If you ever bring this subject up to me, ever again, I’m going to rip your lungs out, and I’m not just saying that to be friendly. I’m way past being friendly with you. You have already made it clear to me that you want nothing more but to cause me trouble. Okay. Now, let me make myself clear. I’m through with your snide remarks, and I’m through being pleasant with you. Do you understand? I’m through being pleasant with you.”

  Charity stood and watched Betty visibly take a hard swallow. Charity leaned so the two of them were nose to nose. “Do you understand me?”

  Betty nodded and stammered. “Oh. Uh. Yeah. I understand.” She then looked at the cup in her hands, as if it was a life raft in a big empty ocean.

  Satisfied that matter had been taken care of Charity made her way across the field to Kim. Her heart was pumping for action. What she needed was a couple more hours of going over the routines. She needed her body in motion if she was going to calm down. Fortunately, Betty made a point of staying as far away as possible from her for the rest of the workout. While Charity was amused by her feeble attempt at keeping the peace, it would have been better if she thought the woman was going to keep her mouth shut. The trouble with women like Betty was they couldn’t keep their mouths shut for very long. She was bound to be back to spreading more rumors and lies as soon as she thought the coast was clear.

  Charity didn’t bother with the showers at the stadium. She hoped she didn’t offend the other people in the car, but she was in a hurry. She wanted to call Johnny. He should be at their apartment by the time the car arrived at the hotel. She needed to talk to him.

  David attempted to make small talk during the ride. “Robert’s going to go with us to dinner. He left for the hotel earlier so he could get settled in. I think he was anxious to call home and see how Kelly was doing.” He draped an arm around Maria’s shoulders. “I half way expected to meet Robert and find out the script was a bunch of bull, but he really loves his wife. It’s not every day you find a man who is willing to give up all of that notoriety and money for love. He’s from Louisiana and nothing but a big old country boy who made it big playing football. The great thing is, he never let any of the fame go to his head. When he found out Kelly wasn’t interested in marrying a famous football player, he just quit! Can you believe that? He’s teaching high school football back in his home state, and he doesn’t seem to regret leaving behind a successful career.”

  Charity leaned forward. “I really like him. We’re so lucky to be doing this film. People will be talking about this movie for years. I just feel it, and it won’t be because of anything that you or I do, but it will be because of those two special people. There is something so wonderful about them. They don’t just live their lives for themselves but for other people too. Mr. Bennett hinted there’s a second script in the works for a sequel. I hope so. There is just way too much about them to put into one movie.”

  David grinned and kissed Maria’s ear. “Kelly’s working as a counselor in the same high school Robert’s coaching at. They really are so blessed, and they know it. I’m glad he’s coming to dinner. I think he may be homesick.” His expression turned serious. “Have you met Christopher Taylor yet?”

  Charity wasn’t certain she liked the look on David’s face when he had asked the question. She was suddenly very nervous. She shook her head, “Not yet. Mr. Bennett briefly described him to me over the phone before I arrived but so far he has managed to avoid me. Every time I came anywhere near him this morning he headed off in the opposite direction, as fast as he could walk, without breaking into a run. Have you worked with him before?”

  David chewed on his bottom lip and looked thoughtful. “A couple of times. He’s probably one of the best directors in the business. I’ve seen him make grown men cry. He demands perfection. While I’ve never have had any trouble with him, he has a certain dislike for women, something to do with his long list of ex-wives. He’s not an easy man to be around or work with, but I’m sure you’ll be able to charm him into not being too much of a tyrant.

  Charity mulled over her new problem. After a few minutes she came to the conclusion there wasn’t any point in worrying about a director she hadn’t even met yet. As soon as they arrived at the hotel she and her mom went straight to theirs rooms with the plan to take a quick shower and change clothes. They had about an hour before everyone was to meet back in the lobby for the ride to the restaurant.

  When they both emerged from their rooms Judy asked, “Did you get everythin
g taken care of?”

  Charity put on a brave face and smiled like her heart wasn’t breaking. “No one was home.” She kept her answer short and to the point because the less she said the less likely she would break down in front of her mother. There was no point in both of them worrying about what was happening in Tennessee with Johnny.

  Judy sat on the sofa. “Johnny will be home by the time we return. He probably went over to his parents to eat. You know how much he loves his mom’s cooking.”

  Charity sat on the opposite sofa and tried not to dwell on what Johnny was doing or thinking. She was heartsick about the paper and how hurt Johnny must have been when he first saw it. “I’m sure you are right. I’ll talk to him later.”

  Dinner was a nightmare for Charity. She laughed in all the right places. She was a good actress. No one at the table had a clue her mind was in Tennessee and with her husband. When someone finally suggested it might be time to return to the hotel she almost sighed out loud with relief to have the night over with.

  The moment they were back at the hotel Maria cornered her in the lobby to let her know she would come to her room after she had changed into something more comfortable. Charity used that time alone to call Johnny one more time. If her mom hadn’t been in the adjoining room, she would have screamed when the phone in their apartment continued to ring without an answer.

  When Maria finally knocked on her door, Charity put on a strained smile. “Come on in. I shouldn’t be imposing on you. It’s so late, and you look as if you still have a headache.”

  Maria waved a hand. “I’m fine. It’s true my headache hasn’t gone away completely, but I’ve had it so long now I hardly notice it anymore.”

  They both settled in opposing sofas. Charity had changed into cotton pajamas and a terry robe. The old pjs made her feel almost like she was at home again.