Something Better

by Gail R Delaney

  "I saw that yesterday. For Jake."

  Maggie nodded. "She does a lot for Jake's sake. Some day she'll realize she's not fooling anyone, let alone her son. But, if she knew how much he understands, it'd break her heart."

  "Can I ask you something?"

  "You can ask," she said with a shrug, lifting her own glass to her lips. "Whether you get an answer or not will depend on the question."

  "I asked Jake if his father ever hurt them... hit them. He said no."

  Maggie pressed her lips together, and she rolled her head slightly, as if working out tension or a knot in her neck. "What Larry does is worse than that. Someone hits you, you've got physical proof. You can show someone and they believe you. Larry's abuse was indifference. He didn't care. He just didn't care if what he did or said hurt her."

  "He wasn't always like that..." David couldn't imagine Andi willingly entering into a marriage with a man like that. She was a strong woman. Losing control when things got intense, that wasn't a lack of strength... that was just 'enough'.

  "Not by what she tells me, no. According to her, he was..." She made a face and tipped her head back and forth. "Nice. He wasn't Prince Charming, but he wooed her and properly courted her, all that happy horse crap. Based on some of the things she's let slip, Larry was always a self-centered butthead. She just didn't see it at first."

  David glanced to the stairs. A huge part of him wanted her to come down, just so she was there with him. But, another part of him hoped to hear more before she did. He understood bad marriages and rough family life, and he understood putting on a good face. What he didn't understand were the people who set out to make the lives miserable of everyone around them.

  "I'm going to clue you in, boyo, on the stuff that our beloved Andrea wouldn't tell you if her life depended on it. Yeah, she's told you Larry is an ass. What she hasn't told you -- and never will tell you -- is to what extent. I know because I lived through that part with her."

  "So, you tell me."

  "I only know the Larry that came after Jake's birth, and after Andi wrote her first book. That's when it changed. He cheated on her--"

  "She told me that."

  "He cheated on her a lot. With any woman -- and I mean any woman -- who'd pull up her skirt or drop her panties for him. He told her that after she had Jake, he didn't find her attractive. He told her she let herself go, and that having sex with her turned his stomach."

  David grit his teeth together and curled his hands around the edge of the counter, the knot in his chest bursting into righteous rage.

  "Larry has this idea that he's some great male catch, and if he wants it, he gets it. As much as he insulted her, that didn't stop him from screwing some faceless bimbo and coming home to their bed. She'd already left him and come here when he threw that fact at her as one of his final parting barbs. Andi threw up for three days. It's a miracle she came out of that marriage alive and healthy. You understand me?"

  David nodded. When she told him her husband had been unfaithful, he had assumed he understood her pain. And to a point, he did. But his experience hadn't been this cold, this biting, this spiteful and heartless.

  Maggie had paused, and he looked up, wondering if there could possibly be more. She leaned into the corner of the counter, her arms crossed over her body and her expression tight. "She'll deny it and say that she refuses to let the opinion of Lawrence Butthead affect her. She wants to not let it affect her, but it does. How can it not when someone who tells you they love one day tells you the next that you are nothing to them."

  For that, David had no answer. When it ended with Josie, things had been hard -- on both of them -- but as hurt and angry as he had been, he never lashed out to purposefully hurt her. Despite what she'd done, he cared too much to do that. She hadn't been his wife. She hadn't been the mother of his child.

  "This is a lot to hear," Maggie stated, pulling him out of his thoughts.

  He met her eyes. "Tell me more."

  "In the six years that she's lived here, she's been on maybe half a dozen dates." Maggie paused, staring hard at him. "You're the first man she's let touch her."

  The reality of that statement sank in, and David dropped his shoulders.

  "I tease her about you, but I do it so she won't panic and bolt. She deserves you."

  David had to swallow before asking his next question, knowing that Maggie's answer would be nothing short of the truth. "Do I deserve her?"

  Maggie stared at him, long and hard, for several moments before offering a small nod. "The verdict is still out. So far, I'm on your side."

  David drained the glass and looked back to the stairs. "She thinks I'm going to leave."

  "Are you?"

  "No," he snapped before looking at her again. Then he took a slow breath, and tried again. "No, I'm not. Why does she think I would?"

  "She hasn't figured out why you're here, yet... and you wonder why she thinks you'll leave?"

  David started to defend himself -- or maybe it was just to rail on someone or anyone to relieve the knot of tension in his chest -- but Maggie cut him off. She pushed away from the counter and crossed to him, stepping close enough that she had to tip her head back to look him in the eye. "Hurt her, and I hurt you. She and Jake are my family, and I love them."

  David nodded, making sure she saw the same conviction in his face. "I won't hurt her. I've already promised Jake that, and I'm promising you."

  "Tell her I told you any of this--"

  David raised his hand. "Understood."

  Just as Maggie predicted, Andi came bouncing down the stairs moments later with a smile on her lips, her skin glistening and glowing like she'd washed her face. The red was gone from her eyes, and when she picked up Maggie's glass to steal a sip, the shake was gone from her hands.

  *****

  Except for the very distant sound of traffic -- so far away that it was no more than white noise -- the only sound David heard was Andi's breathing and the gentle creak of the double hammock they held each other in, swaying in Andi's back yard. The sun had set, and the cooler desert night air had set in, but with Andi curled against his side, he wasn't cold at all.

  His arm circled her shoulders, and she rested her cheek on his chest, her hair brushing his jaw as her fingers toyed with his Star of David pendant. The touch was damn distracting, but he wouldn't still her hand for the world.

  She shifted closer, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder, and drew in a long breath. He could get used to this damn quick.

  "I suppose you have to go home soon," she said softly after probably a good half hour of silence. If he hadn't slept beside her the night before, and listened to her breathing, he might have thought she'd gone to sleep.

  David ran his thumb up and down her arm and turned his head slightly, so when he spoke it was against her hair. "Eventually. But not yet."

  "I suppose it would be selfish of me to want you to stay." She continued to talk to the buttons of his shirt, not raising her head to look at him.

  He shook his head, chuckling softly. "No." He sighed and looked at the stars again. "But, I have a meeting with Avi tomorrow at six downtown.

  "Is that who you were on the phone with earlier?"

  He nodded. "My manager. He had a television interview set up for one of the LA Morning shows. Damage control." She tensed. "Because of the accident on set," he added.

  "What is there to control now?"

  "He wants me to do some live interviews so people can see I'm alive and well and not hiding some disfiguring face injury," he said with a chuckle. "I told him one and one only. I have no interest in running the gauntlet. Though I should warn you..."

  She lifted her head, looking up at him, and David realized with a flash of warmth from head to toe, that he rather liked looking at Andi Parker from this angle. Lying down, her in his arms, looking up at him with bright eyes and ruffled hair... it was an erotic image.

  "Warn me about what?" Her forehead creased into a deep worry line and she fr
owned.

  He touched her cheek and ran his thumb over her lips before curling up enough to press a kiss to the lines on her brow. "Don't look so serious. I'm sorry. I should have worded that differently. I should inform you that when I do the interview, your name is going to come up."

  Andi's eyes rounded and she pulled back. "Why would they care about me?"

  David laughed, his voice echoing back from the stillness of the evening. "Okay, I'm going to try very hard not to sound conceited when I say this, but they're going to care because I care. Because you and I have been -- and forgive the bad phrasing, but it's not mine -- seen together in public. We've been connected, and neither one of us have made any denials that we are together. So, I'm going to get asked."

  "What are you going to say?"

  "Depends on what they ask..."

  She scowled, and he practically heard the wheels turning in her head. "What kind of things will they ask? I've never really..." Andi shrugged, as best she could in the position they were in, and shook her head. "I've never paid attention to celebrities and their love lives." She pulled a face that was somewhere between a grimace and confusion.

  David chuckled. "What was that face for?"

  "I'm trying to figure out when you went from being David Bishop the sexy movie star -- Mr. Top Ten Most Eligible Bachelor -- to David, the man who danced with me before dinner. David, the man who came to my son's birthday party. David, the man who..." Then her lips curled up slowly, into a provocative grin, and she shifted up his body until she leaned over him, her lips just brushing his. "The man who kisses me in my back yard hammock and slept in my bed last night."

  He pushed his fingers into her hair, holding her head so he could slide his tongue into her open mouth. She hovered over him, letting his tongue taste her, returning the touch with their breath mingling in the space between. Andi tilted her head and angled her lips over his, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him. His body screamed to pull her over him, to satisfy his need to have her thighs wrap around him, to feel her slight weight on him, but he forced himself not to indulge and curled his fingers into her yellow blouse.

  Andi pushed herself away and shifted onto her side beside him, her lips glistening in the moonlight. Fighting the groan in his throat, David shifted with her until they were face to face and the hammock creaked and swayed with their movement.

  "Have you figured it out?" he asked.

  Andi shook her head, smiling. "No. Sometimes, I don't think you have. I look at you sometimes and wonder what the heck you're doing here... with me... and that's when I remember who you are."

  David touched her cheek, something he found himself doing often, and something he found himself enjoying more and more each time. "I'm just a man, Andi."

  "Oh, I know," she said with that same sexy, fate-tempting smile. "Trust me."

  "You're tempting fate again..."

  She smiled wider. "So, what would they ask you? And what would you say?"

  David folded his hands under his cheek, matching her. This was another position he could get used to very easily. "Well, they'll ask me if the rumors are true that we're seeing each other. And feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the answer to that is yes."

  She smiled and nodded. "I think that's a safe answer."

  "They might ask if you are my girlfriend." He chuckled at her grimace, the exact reaction he'd known he'd get from the dreaded term. "Hey, their word, not mine. And since it's their word, I'm going to have to answer yes."

  "Ugh. I told you, I'm too old to be anyone's girlfriend."

  "And just how old is that?"

  Andi shook her head. "Nope."

  "You know I'll find out eventually, right? There are vays to vind out deez tings..." he teased, pulling an awful evil spy accent. "In fact, the proverbial 'they' probably already know. Do you really want me to hear on live television?"

  "That's evil, and I don't like being manipulated."

  David closed the small space between them and said, "Yeah, but is it working?" just before he kissed her. She returned the kiss, but was still scowling when he settled back on his folded hands. "Oh, come on, sweetheart. It can't be nearly as bad as you think--"

  "Thirty-seven."

  David figured he did a damn good job at hiding his response. He just arched his eyebrows and protruded his lower lip, trying to look like he contemplated her. "Well, not quite cougar territory..."

  She smacked his arm and he laughed. "See, that didn't hurt too much, did it?"

  "It hurt... a lot... painfully so," she huffed. Then her face sobered and her gaze shifted away from him. "They're going to ask you why you're dating a divorcee with a young son. They're going to want to know why you'd choose to complicate your life like that. Especially since said person's ex husband is a bastard and will always be around, being a pain in the ass."

  "And I'll answer them."

  Her eyes shifted back to him, but she didn't say anything. David shifted closer to her so their noses almost touched, but held her gaze. "I'll tell them that I'm not dating her ex husband, I'm dating her. I'll tell them that her son is great. I'll tell them that she is worth it. And then some."

  Andi laid her palm against his cheek, stroking his skin, and he turned into her touch to kiss her warm palm. "As the reason I'm dating her... well, any blind fool could see why. I'll tell them that I admired her before I ever met her. I'll tell them that as soon as she walked onto the movie set, I couldn't stop thinking about her." She drew in a sharp breath. "And I'll tell them that from the moment I kissed her, even if it was on set to demonstrate a scene, I was a lost man."

  "You were?"

  David nodded and pulled her to him for a kiss. It seemed he couldn't go much longer than a few minutes around Andi Parker without kissing her or touching her. Oh, yeah... from Kiss One, he'd been lost. No going back. No choice.

  "Do you want to go with me?" he asked, not pulling back enough to break contact. He tilted his head, letting his chin brush her skin, and inhaled her scent.

  "To the interviews?" Andi practically gasped.

  He nodded. "You don't have to be in the interview, just go with me."

  She didn't answer right away, curling herself against his chest so her face tucked into the side of his throat. David had to draw a slow, metered breath to remind himself that he was a gentleman.

  "I'm afraid," she finally said.

  When he tried to see her face, she curled tighter into him. So, David relented and wrapped his arms around her, holding her as close as she seemed to need. "What are you afraid of, sweetheart?"

  She shook her head, her hair whispering against his skin. Andi drew a quick breath, the kind she took whenever she wanted to convince everyone she was fine. "Nothing. I refuse to be afraid. I'll go if you want me to, David."

  "I'd be proud to have you there," he whispered across her ear.

  "When? Tomorrow?"

  "The interview won't actually be until after ten. I'll write down the address before I go."

  "Okay."

  It was his turn to sigh. "I hate to, darlin', but I've got to go."

  She nodded against his throat, and he held her for another indulgent moment before they disentangled themselves. They actually managed to get out of the hammock without flipping it over, and without dumping either one of them on the grass. But it involved a lot of laughing and more than one startled squeal from Andi. Finally, on their feet, he took her hand and they walked back to the house. Maggie shouted a farewell from the living room as they passed through. They paused long enough for David to write down the studio, and they continued out the front door to his car. Standing beside it, David turned to her and she slid easily into his embrace.

  He kissed her deep and thorough, letting the desire flare to life now that he felt less likely to take advantage of the setting. Even then, in moments, he leaned Andi against the car and relished in the feeling of her body against his. Images of the tabloid photo came to mind, and as much as he wanted t
o be angry at the photographs, they captured a moment that would be engrained in his memory for the rest of his life. Pulling in deep breaths, David rested his forehead against hers and laced his fingers into her hair.

  "I'm an addict," he admitted. "I've spent one night holding you, and I don't want to sleep alone."

  She nodded, curling her fingers into his sides. David took her face in his hands, tipping her chin up so the moonlight played across the curves and planes of her face. He drew a breath, and the scent that had wrapped around him all night filled his senses. "You are so beautiful," he said, but found it hard with the sudden restriction of his throat that he didn't understand. He stroked her cheek with his thumb, brushing the corner of her lips. "I can't believe how beautiful you are."

  Andi wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her again. Her body trembled in his hold as she kissed him again. Letting her go and getting in his car was one of the hardest things he could ever remember doing. Andi stood at the top of the driveway and watched him go, lifting her hand in a wave.

  Chapter Twelve

  "What time did he say you should be there?" Maggie's shout echoed up the stairs.

  Andi ran from the bathroom into her bedroom, wincing as she stuck an earring in her right ear. That's what she got for wearing earrings once every six months. She paused long enough in front of her closet to take in the full view, and winced again. What did one wear to her celebrity boyfriend's live television interview at which she would not be seen? The only thing she knew for sure was that it wasn't a sundress. So, she'd opted for white linen pants and a form fitting pale blue blouse with capped sleeves and a fluttery hem. As a last ditch effort to dress up the outfit, she'd draped a gold link belt around her hips, with the jingly ends dangling down her thigh. With a shrug, she lifted her leg and slipped on a pair of beaded sandals.

  "Andrea Parker! What time did David say?"