The McCallans

by Hadley Quinn

  “And about the premiere, Kellie… God, you’re fine. You don’t need to change anything about you, okay?”

  “I’m not trying to change anything, I’m just doing a simple little slim down like every chick does before these things. It’s not a big deal, Max. I promise you.”

  “I want you to eat something.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  He stood there and waited.

  “What, right now?”

  “Is this why you’ve turned down the café the past two times?” he asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. “You told me you just had to go into work early.”

  “I did have to go into work early.” One of the days she did, and she’d purposely scheduled it that way. But he was making such a big deal over this, she needed to get him off her back.

  Kellie headed for the cupboard, grabbed a granola bar, unwrapped it, and started to eat. Max remained where he was, watching her, but then he opened the fridge and grabbed her container of egg whites. She watched him turn on the stove and pull out a frying pan.

  “You’re seriously going to make me eat right in front of you?”

  “Yes.”

  She walked away and headed for the shower, unable to deal with this right now. She didn’t spend long in there, barely dried her hair and whipped it into a loose braid over her shoulder, and threw some clothes on for the day. Max was still in her kitchen when she came out fifteen minutes later, leaning against the counter. He handed her a plate of egg whites and a fork, and then waited.

  She felt like a fucking toddler, but she ate what he’d made, barely taking a second to taste any of it. Dropping the dish in the sink, she asked, “So you calling Dr. Howe next?”

  “Do I need to?”

  “No.”

  “Then no.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket, set them on the counter, and wrapped his arms around Kellie to give her a hug. “Don’t be mad at me.”

  “I’m not, but you could try to give me a little more credit.”

  He sighed as he pulled away from her. “It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with—”

  “The psychology of slipping back into bad habits,” she mimicked before he could say it. “I know, I know. I’m aware, okay? And I promise you it has not gotten to that point. Yes, I’m feeling a bit uneasy about things lately but no, I’m not making dumb choices. I know better.”

  “If you’re feeling uneasy about stuff, maybe you should just make sure you’re warding it off, okay? That’s all I’m saying, Kellie. Just take care of yourself. And lean on others if you need to—me, Tate, Jay…whoever you feel comfortable with. You don’t have to do it all on your own.”

  She knew he was right, but she wasn’t sure if she could open herself up to be vulnerable like that. Things were going so well with Tate, she didn’t want anything to wreck what they had. She wanted her past to stay in the past. She wasn’t that same person anymore.

  “Okay, I gotta head out,” he said, grabbing her keys from the end table. “I’ll see you Thursday, but call me before then.”

  She nodded her agreement, even though calling him was probably not in the plans. He was busy enough on a regular basis, but now he had this premiere to worry about.

  Kellie watched him head out the door, and then she headed for the bathroom to put on some makeup.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Are you positive you want to do this?” Kellie asked for the third time. “If you’re not comfortable with it, we can honestly skip it and do something else.”

  Tate smiled at the fact that she was so worried. He didn’t really care for the type of thing they were about to do, but he cared about being there to support her. Obviously he’d never been to a Hollywood movie premiere, but there was nothing about it that intimidated him in any way. Kellie seemed way more nervous than he expected she’d be and that was what alarmed him.

  He took her hand as the limo pulled away from her apartment. She looked gorgeous in a strapless navy blue dress with her hair piled on top of her head and makeup on her face that a co-worker had come over to do. All Tate did was put on a suit that she’d picked out for him. He kind of felt guilty that she’d spent almost three hours getting herself ready and it had taken him only fifteen minutes.

  “Babe, anywhere you go I want to go too,” he told her. “No I’m not used to dressing up, but anything to be with you makes me happy. Just breathe and relax a bit. Stop worrying about me, this stuff doesn’t bother me.”

  She gave him a hesitant smile as they pulled up to the Village Theatre in Westwood, but took in a deep breath of air and let it out as the limo came to a stop. They were right in front of Max’s limo, and Tate already knew that the plan was for all of the McCallans to arrive one after the other.

  The door was opened, so Tate stepped out first. God, his fucking hip had been killing him today, and even though he’d taken some ibuprofen so he could get through this event with Kellie, it had barely taken the edge off and he was still feeling the ache. He’d never tell Kellie though; she had enough to worry about.

  He held his hand out to assist her as she followed behind. He knew this was Kellie’s least favorite part; being paraded in front of hundreds of people just to walk into the building. But she now looked calm and confident as she smiled and stood beside him. She was absolutely stunning and wished that she believed it.

  “I’m timing this right,” she murmured to Tate.

  “Timing what?” he whispered back, just as explosive cheers and squealing erupted from the crowds that were roped off from the red carpet walkway.

  “Okay, let’s go,” she told him, flashing another smile. She glanced to her left just as Max fully stood from exiting his limo. Tate went with the flow and walked with her toward the entrance. He heard Kellie’s name several times, and there were a few inquiries about who her date was, but those people just as quickly directed their excitement and interest to Max McCallan, who was now making his way up the red carpet with some scrawny over-made-up blonde on his arm. Tate only knew of this because they were now inside the building and he watched with Kellie as she turned around to wait for her family.

  “You gotta time it so no one gives a shit about you because either Max is nearby, or look, see? My uncle and grandfather.”

  Tate followed her motion to another limo that had pulled up. Neil McCallan and his wife Blaire stepped out, as well as Craig McCallan and another actress that was easy to recognize.

  “See?” Kellie smirked. “The show is much grander with the ‘elite’ people.”

  Tate was amused as he watched the crowd go crazy while the group of them slowly made their way toward the theatre.

  “And if you had my brother here with Teague, oh God… There might be carnage. They don’t have to deal with that separately, but when you have them all together, it gets really crazy.”

  “I take it they don’t attend these things?”

  She shook her head. “No, not anymore. Not for a few years. And Tyse, not at all so far. Teague does for the movies he works on, but he does the whole back-entrance thing, not this,” she motioned to the red carpet area. “He views it as his place being with the stunt crew, even though he is extremely encouraged to join the red carpet clan because of his last name. It’s not his thing, though.”

  When Max and the rest of Kellie’s family made it inside the building, they were all escorted to a private section of the theatre where a large crowd of fancy dressed people were mingling. Max had introduced them to his date—her name was Adriana and she seemed like a total stuck up bitch. Tate hated judging people like that, but she had literally stuck her nose up at them and turned away to kiss ass with a bigger celebrity.

  “Welcome to Hollywood,” Kellie smiled, shaking her head.

  She introduced Tate to a few people as they wandered through the party for the next hour, and even though the rest of her family did the whole media walk with photos and interviews, Kellie discreetly snuck away from it all.

  “Does Max get too wr
apped up in socializing?” he asked at one point, just as they stepped into the theatre for a private screening of the movie.

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “He’s barely said but a few words to you,” he shrugged. “I thought you guys were pretty close, but he hardly acknowledges you at one of these?”

  She smiled at him and replied, “Because he cares enough to keep the crowds away from me.”

  Tate thought about that as they found a pair of posh seats down the row from her grandfather. He understood the reason for the two empty spots between Neil and Kellie when Max entered the room and sat down next to her with his date on the other side of him.

  “Are you comfortable enough?” Kellie asked.

  Tate raised his eyebrows. “Me? Yeah, sure. Are you?”

  “Pssh,” she scoffed. But then she smiled and said, “I can’t wait to get home and put my sweats back on.”

  Tate didn’t care what she wore or didn’t wear, but he could agree. He didn’t understand how it was so appealing to dress up to watch a movie, but it didn’t matter. It was only one night, even though the two hours sitting there nearly put his hip and thigh in fucking spasms on several occasions.

  By the time they joined the after party out in the heart of the theatre, Tate had to hit the men’s room to down a few more ibuprofen. He hated having to resort to meds but it was his only option at the moment. If he could lie down and meditate instead, he would have. Hopefully they wouldn’t be out too much longer because those were the last four he’d slipped into his pocket for the night.

  As he exited the bathroom, he didn’t see Kellie right away. When he did finally locate her, she looked like she was in a pleasant conversation with her grandpa’s wife so Tate let her be for the moment.

  “You doing okay?” Max asked as he approached. He’d just walked away from a group of people to come talk to him. Either that, or he was trying to escape that same group of people for a while.

  Tate realized he’d been unknowingly rubbing his hip, which happened a lot, but answered, “Yeah, doing fine. And you?”

  Max smiled and glanced around the large room of faces. “Yeah, I suppose. Another day another dollar, yeah?”

  “Somehow that doesn’t make sense for you. Another day another person to please?”

  Max studied him for a second but then nodded. “Sure. Something like that.”

  “Well the movie was good,” Tate told him.

  After a brief pause Max said, “It sounds like you’re obligated to say that.”

  Tate smiled but shook his head. “Nah, it was fine. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either.”

  Max bobbed his head a couple times. “I appreciate your honesty. Same here.”

  That was surprising. “You didn’t care for it?”

  “It was fine. The pieces came together, but not how I envisioned it.”

  “Well you co-produced it, don’t you have a say in some of that?”

  “You’d think.”

  Tate wasn’t sure what to say about that. He didn’t want to pry, but he was interested in a discussion with Kellie’s cousin no matter the topic. “What would you have done differently?”

  Max considered it for a moment, or maybe he was deciding if he should share with him or not. Finally he said, “Different director, different leading man, and I would have gone on actual location instead of it replicated Hollywood-style.”

  “More costs, I’m sure.”

  “Yes, but it’d be worth it. I like the authenticity of a story, not the overproduced version of it. And the back story of this character… It was supposed to be the true life of this guy but I just have my doubts. My father didn’t seem to care.”

  Tate thought that was interesting. What you see at face value was sometimes all people know. It was just like sharing a war story; getting another person to understand what you went through was a long shot unless you put in the effort to pull them into it.

  That meant gutting their emotions somehow.

  “I get what you mean,” Tate agreed. “It seems more and more some of these movies are just about the faces in them and the hype they promote. I think if a movie is that stellar, it can make an impact without all of that.”

  Max watched him a second before he nodded his head. “I totally agree. And even if it didn’t, I wouldn’t care. At least I’d know I did it how I wanted it done. It’s like this screenplay I have in my hands right now that my father wants to sign for… It’s a military action/drama, but no matter what I come up with, I still can’t seem to catch the direction I’d want to go with it.”

  “Maybe you’re just not feeling the story.”

  “That’s exactly what it is. And my dad wants to go one direction with it and I just don’t feel right about it.”

  “Can’t you just cut him out of it and do it on your own?” Tate smirked. “I don’t quite understand the business arrangements with your family, but why can’t you do something like that?”

  Max didn’t say anything for quite a while. He seemed to be observing the partygoers from a distance, but Tate felt several thoughts were probably going through his head.

  “What’s the story line?” he asked. “It’s military? What’s it about?”

  Shrugging, Max said, “I doubt you want to hear about it.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t know, because it’s got McCallan written all over it.”

  Tate barely shrugged. True, but he was interested because it was Max’s project and he knew how much Kellie loved and respected the guy.

  “It’s a story about a former POW,” Max relented with a sigh. “But there’s just…there’s too much missing from it. The man the story is based upon has since passed away, and the family doesn’t seem to be much help either. Also, it just seems too similar to another story that came out last year. I don’t find it unique.”

  Tate considered that for a few seconds. It wasn’t really something he expected to hear, but maybe there was a reason for the coincidence.

  “Well every soldier’s war story is unique,” Tate answered. “It may just seem like ‘the same old thing’ to some people, but every soldier has his own story.”

  “I understand that,” Max nodded. “But I can’t seem to shake the feeling that we shouldn’t do this particular one.”

  “You know I served three tours overseas?” Tate asked casually as he stared across the room at Kellie. She was so beautiful, and her smile—no matter who was the recipient of it—always lit up a room.

  Max slightly nodded. “Well I think Kellie mentioned you’re a former marine, but not much more than that.”

  “Mmm, she respects my privacy. But what she doesn’t know is that I was a prisoner of war in a tiny guerrilla village in Afghanistan. It wasn’t a long span of time like some of these soldiers have had to endure, but definitely the worst time of my life and definitely something I wish I could forget. But…unfortunately I can’t.”

  Max studied him thoughtfully, but with surprise. “I’m truly sorry, man. I had no idea. I’m sorry if bringing that up—”

  “No, that’s not my point. I’m just asking… How far are you willing to go to feel what you want to represent in a movie?”

  Max continued to stare at him; then he licked his lips and turned his gaze to the crowd in front of him. Tate saw him set his eyes on his father and he paused. Finally he answered, “It might be time to find out.”

  Whatever personal issues Max had with his father, it wasn’t Tate’s business. However, he could feel the resistance plain as day, and not only that, but he got the feeling Max had to hold back quite a lot of who he was. Tate could definitely relate, even though he had no idea what it was like to disappoint your father. His own father had always been supportive of anything he did, and because he’d served in the military for a dozen of his own years, Ray Sullivan could sense some of his son’s issues when Tate would return home on leave now and then.

  But he never had his father for his final return h
ome. He’d died while Tate was stuck in a dirt hole in the ground, hallucinating about mud-covered angels with automatic weapons—angels that indeed had come to save his life.

  “Life is too short to have regrets, man,” Tate said to Max, gripping his shoulder. “It’s just too damn short.”

  He decided to leave it at that as he walked across the room to be with Kellie. He didn’t interrupt Blaire’s account of some trip to Africa; he only slid his arm around Kellie and kissed the top of her head. Life was too short. It also didn’t make sense sometimes. Six men had come to rescue him and his lieutenant that day, including his best friend Shane.

  Shane never made it out of there alive. They’d carried his mangled body back to the helo right along with Tate’s useless ass.

  What kind of sick fortune was that? It was a risk that came with the job, obviously. But fuck…Shane was on his last month of his tour. He could have gone home to his wife and twin babies and been out of that hell. Why does life have to be so fucking cruel? Why do good men die when they have so much to offer the world?

  “Hey,” Kellie whispered to him, concern etched on her face.

  Tate blinked a few times as her face came into focus.

  She excused herself from her step-grandma and led him away from the crowd. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  He realized he’d been squeezing her pretty tight, and right now he was starting to overheat and wanted to rip his clothes off.

  She didn’t wait for an answer and continued to lead him somewhere as she pulled her phone out of her clutch and made a call for the limo to meet her out back.

  Kellie faced him again as they waited by the back door. “Talk to me.”

  He swallowed the dry lump in his throat. God, he needed some fucking water. “Just having a memory,” he explained. “Kind of took me by surprise. I’m sorry. We don’t have to leave. I’m okay.”

  She gave him a stern look. “Don’t be sorry. And yes we do have to leave because I have to get the fuck out of this dress,” she growled, tugging at the chest to pull it up.

  He only responded with a smile because he was still trying to catch his breath. Thankfully the limo pulled up and Kellie led him outside to slide into the open door while security stood guard. Tate followed behind and she was immediately getting some water for him from the little wet bar inside.