Can't Stop the Music (The Soul Mate Tree Book 2)

by C. D. Hersh

  The red light on his answering machine blinked wildly. Anthony crossed the living room and hit the replay button.

  “Tony. It’s Gloria.”

  His heart lurched upon hearing his ex’s voice, and a torrent of negative emotions flooded him. It had been three years since their divorce. As soon as the papers were signed, she’d taken off with their four-year-old daughter in tow. He’d spent all his savings trying to find them, but, somehow, Gloria managed to stay hidden. If she was calling now, something must be wrong.

  He took a deep breath to calm his racing heart, then rewound the tape to be sure he didn’t miss a word of the message.

  “Kelly’s in the hospital,” Gloria said. “She’s just undergone an emergency appendectomy. She’s crying for you. You need to come right away. We’re at St. Vincent in Indianapolis. Room 220.”

  As fast as he could, he changed clothes and headed for the hospital.

  When he reached the room, Gloria waited in the doorway. She pushed him into the hall.

  “Get out of my way,” he growled. “I came here to see Kelly.”

  Gloria shoved her fisted hand at him. Then she unclenched her fingers. His gold, carved, wedding band, which he’d thrown at her during divorce court, lay in her palm. On the underside of her left ring finger he spotted the ring’s mate to his. She still wore her wedding band?

  “Put this on first,” she demanded.

  He sidestepped toward the room door. She blocked him.

  “Is she even in there or are you tricking me, again?”

  Gloria held the wedding ring out. He shoved her hand aside. “She’s in there, and she still thinks we’re married.”

  “She what?” It took a second for Gloria’s words to register. Then his three-year frustrations exploded like a volcano. “Where the hell have you been all this time? And why didn’t you tell her? God knows I couldn’t since you swept her off after lying through your teeth about me to the judge, the lawyers, and anyone who would listen to you.”

  “I was going to tell her the truth, but she missed you so much, I couldn’t break her heart. So I made up a story and let her believe we were still married.”

  “You should have told her, Gloria.”

  “Well, I didn’t. Now I need you to put this ring on and pretend, for her sake.”

  “She won’t even recognize me after three years. Why do I have to put a ring on?”

  Gloria laughed, the sound hard and bitter. “Yes, she will. She’s slept with your picture every night since we left. I tried to hide the photo from her, but she wouldn’t go to sleep without it tucked in with her.”

  The thought of missing all those hugs, given to a picture, nearly broke his heart. He blinked back the tears and swallowed the lump in his throat.

  “What did you tell her about Daddy being MIA?”

  “That you got a job on an oil rig in the Indian Ocean and had to stay there for years and years so you could make money to pay for our house and her school tuition, and send her to college.”

  His lip curled in disgust. “I should call the cops on you.”

  “Go ahead. Then you’ll be the one breaking her heart when they haul me off to jail.” She shoved the ring against his chest. “She will notice if you don’t have it on, because she plays bride and groom all the time, pretending she’s me and your picture is the groom. A wedding ceremony with rings is her favorite pretend pastime.”

  He considered his options. Break Kelly’s heart or go along with Gloria until he could figure out something else. The odds that she’d take off again with Kelly right after a surgery seemed slim. So, he’d have a little time to come up with a solution.

  “You hack me off, Gloria.” He jammed the ring on, for his daughter’s sake, and shoved past his ex-wife. “This isn’t finished,” he called over his shoulder.

  Kelly lay in the hospital bed, as pale as the sheet covering her. The only color on her was the pink ribbon in her hair and the childish jewelry adorning her fingers and neck.

  “Daddy, you came!” His seven-year-old daughter struggled to a seated position.

  “Don’t move, baby. You might break your stitches.” He rushed to her side and stroked her arm, careful not to disturb the tube running from her elbow to the bag suspended beside her bed.

  “I’ve missed you so much, Daddy.”

  He leaned closer and kissed her forehead. She squeezed his neck so tightly with her little arms, she almost made him cry. “I’ve missed you, too, baby.”

  “Do you have to go back to the ocean right away?”

  Gloria started to speak, but he talked over her. “No. I’m staying here until I know you’re okay.”

  A nurse came in and wrote her name on the chalkboard. “I’m Nurse Jessica, Kelly. I’ll be your nurse tonight.” She set a blood pressure cuff and a patient chart on the bed tray and scooted it closer to the bed.

  He glanced at the clock on the wall. Six-thirty. He needed to call Rose and let her know he wouldn’t be there tonight. Until he knew all about Kelly’s condition, he needed to cut his weekend with Rose short. He leaned over the bed and kissed Kelly’s head. “Daddy has to make a telephone call. I’ll be right back.”

  “Promise?”

  “Cross my heart.” He headed for the nurses’ station to find a phone.

  His heart racing like the horns and strings in the finale of the ‘William Tell Overture,’ he dialed Rosemary’s home number.

  “Rose,” he said when she answered, “It’s Tony. I’m going to have to cancel tonight and possibly the rest of the weekend. I have a family emergency.”

  A code blue announcement blared over the hospital speaker.

  “Are you in a hospital?”

  “Yeah. A family member is sick. I need to be here. I’m sorry about canceling.”

  “Don’t be. You need to be there for your family. Do you want me to come?”

  “No!” The word came out crisper than he intended. “I may be here all night. I don’t want to put you through that.”

  “Okay. You’ll let me know how your relative is?”

  “Absolutely.” Guilt flooded him for not revealing this secret. He would tell her about Kelly and Gloria the next time he saw her, no matter how much she protested she didn’t want to know about his past. He cupped his hand over the receiver and made a kissing sound. “I’ll see you soon.”

  As he laid the receiver on the phone’s cradle and turned around, Susan Markham strode to the nurses’ desk.

  Startled to see her, he grabbed the counter with his left hand to steady himself.

  “Mr. DeMarco.” She gave him a welcoming smile. “Imagine seeing you here.”

  Realizing his left hand, with the wedding ring, was in full sight, he shoved his fist into his pants’ pocket. “Small world, isn’t it? What brings you to Indy?”

  “I’m visiting a friend who’s recovering from surgery. And you?”

  “Sick family member.” He jerked his thumb toward the hall in the opposite direction of where his daughter lay. “I should go. I hope your friend recovers.”

  “And your family member.”

  He started down the hall and ducked into an empty room. As soon as he entered, he pulled the curtain separating the beds and hid behind the fabric. When the click of high heels passed the door, he peeked out. Susan minced down the tile floor toward the end of the corridor. When she passed through a doorway, he ran for Kelly’s room.

  Gloria waited for him just inside the entrance like a guard dog.

  “We need to talk.” He pulled his ex out of the room into the hallway, behind an open door. “This farce can’t continue. We are going to tell Kelly the truth.”

  “And make me out to be the bad mommy?” Gloria shook her head. “Not going to happen.”

  “You are
the bad mommy. Even though you have sole custody, taking Kelly away like you did was wrong. Criminal, even. I’ve got every right to have you arrested.”

  His ex’s complexion paled. “But you won’t, will you?”

  He frowned and decided not to answer the question. Let her stew for a while. If he turned her in to the authorities for kidnapping Kelly, would the courts change the custody ruling? And how would his daughter take him pressing charges against her mother?

  Unwilling to let Gloria know he waffled on the issue, he suppressed a sigh. He had to figure out how to use her mistake to his advantage. Hold it over her head to keep her from running away again with Kelly. Show mercy, yet keep control of the situation.

  “Why did you come back to Indy, Gloria? And how did you get my new number?”

  “I got your number from Franco. Mom knew he’d opened a new restaurant. When Kelly got sick while we were visiting Mom, she told me about Franco. I contacted him, but didn’t let him know I was here.”

  “So, if Kelly hadn’t had an appendicitis attack, I’d still be in the dark about where you were?”

  Gloria didn’t answer.

  “You’ve got a lot of guts asking me to hide your crime from Kelly. When she finds out you’ve been lying to her, and she will, eventually, what do you think that’s going to do to her?”

  “Why do you think I’ve kept up the charade? I didn’t mean for this to go on so long, but I got in so deep I couldn’t get out. She adores her daddy. Every time I thought about telling her the truth, I looked into her eyes and couldn’t. I knew she’d never believe anything bad about you.” She gave him a desperate look. “I don’t want to be the wicked mommy who broke up her family.”

  “But you were.”

  “I’m sorry about that. I should have handled things differently. I know that now.”

  “A little late, don’t you think?”

  “I’ve had a lot of time to think about it, Tony. I was really wrong and treated you like crap.”

  An apology? From the woman who broke apart their family?

  “Now I need you to pretend we’re a happy family.”

  He grunted. “Hell’s going to freeze over before I do that.”

  “We can figure out some way to make a show of an amicable separation. Kelly doesn’t ever have to know about what really happened. Come home with us.”

  The thought of getting to see Kelly weakened his resolve. But he didn’t trust Gloria. The best way to ensure she didn’t run again might be to go along with her, for the moment. “I won’t turn you over to the police, only because of how it might affect Kelly. But if you do anything that makes me think you’re going to run again, all bets are off.”

  She nodded. “Thank you, Tony. I won’t run. I swear.”

  “We’ll figure out a cover story and break up as soon as she’s out of the woods.”

  After that he could make no promises.

  Chapter 17

  The house seemed lonely without Anthony, so Rosemary decided to go to The Literary Lounge without him. Staying in, where every place she looked reminded her of tangled limbs, hot kisses, and his hard body against hers, left her aching and longing for his touch.

  She put on a modest blouse with a high neckline, a pair of slacks, flats, and checked her image in the mirror. Prim and proper. No one would hit on ‘Marian the Librarian.’ Satisfied with her appearance, she headed for the bar.

  After finding a table and ordering, a familiar female voice behind her said, “You alone?”

  Rotating in her seat, she waved Susan to the empty chair opposite her. “Yeah. You?”

  “For the moment.” Susan scraped the chair out, sat with a plop, and flagged a passing server. “Whisky. Make it a double.” She dropped her purse on the table and clutched the wooden edge so tight her knuckles whitened.

  “Wow, that’s a bit strong for you, isn’t it?” Susan usually drank wine. She had never seen her drink anything stronger.

  “I need some courage. I just came from the hospital.”

  She laid her palm on Susan’s hands, which trembled like grace notes on a violin. “Are you okay?”

  “I am, but I have a friend who’s about to get some bad news.”

  “Someone you visited at the hospital?”

  Susan captured her gaze. The intensity of the stare set her on edge.

  “You seem different, Rosemary. All glowing.”

  She touched her lips and chin. Glowing? She knew pregnant women glowed. Did women who’d experienced multiple orgasms glow? Her whole body still reeled from the night of lovemaking, every muscle tingling whenever she thought about what they’d done. Susan couldn’t see that. Could she?

  Silence stretched between the two women as she tried to make her face noncommittal and blank. She didn’t mind admitting she and Anthony were in a relationship, but she certainly didn’t want people to see how much they’d made love. Especially Susan.

  Susan drew her hands away, her head shaking. “Oh, no! You did it with him, didn’t you?”

  The disdain in her voice angered Rose. What right did Susan have, to disparage her actions with Anthony when she’d slept with almost every single man in town?

  “I don’t think what we did is any of your business,” she replied in a crisp voice. “Besides, you told me to do everything you would do.”

  The server brought their drinks. Susan downed hers in one gulp. “I don’t disapprove of sleeping with single men. God knows I’ve done my share. You’re entitled to, if you want, but—”

  “Then don’t give me that look. The one that says I did something wrong. Because I didn’t.”

  “Maybe not, but he did.” Susan reached across the table, grabbed the other drink, and guzzled it, too.

  She gaped at Susan. “What’s got into you?” She shoved the bowl of pretzels across the table. “Eat something before you get falling down drunk.”

  Susan obligingly took a handful of the snack and ordered a second drink for them both. “I don’t know how to break this easily, so I’m just going to say it.” She took a deep breath.

  Rosemary’s heart pounded. Sentences begun that way were never good.

  “DeMarco is married.”

  “Was married?”

  “No. DeMarco. Is. Married. I saw him at the hospital. He had on a wedding ring.”

  The room tipped and she grabbed the edge of the table. Married? “He can’t be. He told me he wasn’t married.”

  “Rosemary, Rosemary. What a naïve woman you are. Married men don’t announce their status. They sneak those wedding rings off, screw you, then . . . maybe they tell you. After you’re so in love with them you’d do anything to keep them.”

  The conviction in Susan’s voice and the angry expression on her face took Rosemary aback. Had that happened to her?

  “He wouldn’t do that to me. I know. He’s a gentleman. Like me, he believes in true love.”

  “You don’t know that. You met him at Woodstock ten years ago. Come on, Rosemary, with all the free love flowing then, do you think a guy’s going to turn down sex?”

  “He admitted he tried free love. Casual sex wasn’t for him.” Just like it wasn’t for me.

  Susan grunted her disagreement. “Once he’s tasted free sex, he’s not going to go all fairy tale, true-love ending on you.” She clasped Rosemary’s hands in hers. “I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but I saw his ring. He shoved his hand in his pocket as soon as he saw me. He tried to hide the wedding band. And when I checked the room he ducked into, no one was there. You could have bounced a quarter on the sheets. I asked at the nurses’ station. The room had been empty all day. Who knows what the low-life was up to.”

  Rose opened her mouth to protest again. Nothing came out. The words were stuck in her throat, like a high C that
refused to come out of a laryngitis-plagued singer.

  Her lack of knowledge about his past—or maybe his married present—was her own fault, because she wouldn’t let him tell her. She shoved away from the table and stood.

  Susan jumped out of her seat and weaved toward her. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Home.” Rose caught the wobbling woman.

  “Stay and have dinner with me,” Susan pleaded. “Those two drinks hit me like a truck. I’m too drunk to drive home.”

  “I’ll be lousy company.” She helped her onto her chair.

  “We can be lousy together. Besides, we need to figure out what to do about Principal Patrick now that you and I are alone in our fight against him.”

  “Anthony actually came up with an idea. He suggested we put the power of the people to work and contact all the band, music, and art booster parents. They care about the arts and will fight to keep them. Between that and your secret about Patrick, we should be able to keep him under control.”

  “Good idea. I can start work on it Monday morning.” Susan grabbed her hand and squeezed. “I feel awful about spoiling what you thought might be your happily-ever-after. Forgive me for being the bearer of bad news?”

  “Not your fault.” It’s my fault, Anthony’s fault, and the fault of the elusive tree that promised me true love. All this time waiting and her life had come to this: falling in love with a married man. Fate sucked.

  Her life might have been better if Bodi had dosed the sandwiches with hash and she’d been hallucinating. Maybe then she would have lost her inhibitions and her virginity at Woodstock in a haze of drugs and a melee of free sex. She might not have found her true love that way, but she would have experienced love. Love of a sort, anyway.

  A tall, handsome guy passed by and gave them the once-over. Rose pulled her neckline tighter. Susan batted her eyelashes at him.