Thad noticed no one was listening.
“We’re in the city limits.” Thad pointed to the sign.
“I can’t believe we are in Hollywood.” She whispered. “For some reason I thought it was much further.”
“Okay, a few more turns and we’ll be at my place. It’s my stopping off point when I’m not at my Malibu house.”
“Oh look the Hollywood stars on the sidewalk.” Lacy couldn’t believe her eyes.
Thad smiled, “Thought you’d like that,” then slowed the rental and pulled into a drive that took them up a pretty steep hill.
“The view. It’s all about the view here. The higher you are the more you pay.”
“I see.”
He pulled into a single stall garage and Lacy heard the door go down.
“Always keep everything closed. The tourists around here love to spend their days with their long lenses peeping into other people’s lives.”
Thad found his keys, opened the door and sent the girls in. “Look around. I’ll get the suitcases.”
Lacy stood in the kitchen looking out the big glass casement window. She could see the Hollywood sign up in the mountains. She grabbed her camera and took a picture! She was actually in California. In Hollywood.
Everything in the house spoke of modern and new. Stainless appliances. Granite countertops. Elegant cupboards. Wood floors. And it was spotlessly clean.
The girls had run to the bathroom right away and Lacy made a quick trip herself. It had been a long day. She checked out the bedrooms. There were three. One obviously Thad’s. She shut the door, two others that were guest rooms.
“So nice.” Kew said. Ting just looked wide-eyed.
“Why don’t you girls choose one of the guest rooms and take a nap.”
“Yes-yes.” Ting said.
Sounded like a good idea to her, too. They hadn’t eaten since Chicago…Thad had not wanted to stop on the way home. It was too busy during the day to mix with the public.
He came in muscling the suitcases. He looked so vulnerable, the tiredness showed in his face. And…Lacy remembered the last time he was in California he had been in a motorcycle crash. She saw him for the first time in his own environment and realized how little she knew about Thad Gannon.
He had dumped the hat and his blond hair stood up all over. She noticed he’d changed the old shirt and had on a white tee. He was tan and muscled. No wonder the girls were goo-goo over him.
Once he got a drink, he fell onto the sofa and said. “Sit down. I’ll call for pizza. Think the girls will eat it? It’s a little outside their normal food range.”
“It sounds good, but maybe we could order Chinese. As a surprise.”
“Great idea. I know the best place in town. It’s the real deal. You know what they like?”
“Fried rice with shrimp for Kew and sesame chicken for Ting.”
“Whoa, I’m impressed. You’re a mother already.”
Lace felt her face turn red. “Well not exactly their mother. I’m twenty-eight…oh twenty-nine now and they are 15 and 16.”
Thad laughed out loud. “Guess I should have done my math first. What’ll you have?”
She gave him her order with stipulations. No mushrooms. No msg.
“Got it.”
“Aren’t you going to write all this down?”
“I’m an actor. Remember?”
Lacy looked at him. What that had to do with ordering Chinese she had no idea.
“I see you’ve missed the point.” He laughed again. “I memorize lines. Pages and pages of lines. I can remember this.”
Lacy laughed, too. “Geesh, I thought I must have lost my mind.”
“You might before this trip is over.” Thad picked up the phone. “It’s good to have you in the house, Lace.”
She popped up from the sofa. It was getting way too close in here.
“I’ll go wash up while you get things done.”
She’s running again. Thad thought.
The girls slept right through dinner. Lacy put their food in the fridge to heat up for later.
Thad ate like he was starving, and so did she for that matter.
“Okay, what’s the deal? Are you giving up the apartment or the Malibu house?”
“Whoa…what’s the hurry?”
“Well, we came here to help. And I can’t stay forever.”
“Okayyy…” he let the word slide out into a long syllable.
She took another bite.
“Well, for starters, I’m going to put this house up for sale. It’ll go in a New York minute?”
“Really? Real estate goes fast here?”
“That and the fact that I lived here.”
“And…why is that?” She gave him a look.
“Because I am…was famous?”
“Was, being the key word.” She said smiling taking another bite.
“Well, aren’t you the comedian today?”
“Probably giddy from being awake too long would be more like it.” She told the truth.
“Thinking you’d better have a nap. The girls were smarter. You’ve worn yourself out.”
“You’re looking a little thin around the edges, yourself.” She shot back.
“Oh yeah?”
“Really, Thad you’ve probably overdone it. You’re still healing and I know your ribs still hurt you.”
“How do you know?” He stood, groaning from the effort.
Lacy looked at him. “That and the fact that you insisted on hauling the suitcases and lifting them the entire time. You’d better rest. Have you got any friends to come and help. You don’t need to be lifting anything else especially not furniture.”
“Yes ma’am.” He saluted.
She took their empty boxes and utensils to the kitchen.
“We can start tomorrow, but I have to tell you Thad, I can’t stay here forever. So we’ll rest tonight but tomorrow, we need to get some help from all your friends and get going.”
“Go lay down Lace.” He ordered and groaned again as he forgot and reached up high for something in the cupboard.
“Ditto, Gannon.” She said over her shoulder and wondered when she’d gotten so sassy. She clicked the door shut, kicked off her shoes, and lay down on the double bed, pulling a blanket over her head.
And didn’t see anything until the light of day.
Chapter 39
The girls were eating cereal at the table.
“Sorry I slept so long.” She came into the kitchen dressed in the same clothes she’d worn yesterday her hair sticking up like Thad’s.
“We already took our showers. Thad left this morning. Had to see the Producer-Man.” Kew informed her.
“Oh, I’m so ready to clean up. See you girls in a few…” Lacy trudged off to the shower after getting some clean clothes from her suitcase that Thad put outside her door.
Half an hour later, she felt human again. And had a bowl of cereal. “Girls, we have Chinese in the fridge…”
“We ate it. We slept, but were hungry. Thad heated it up for us before he left.” Kew informed her.
Lacy glanced at Ting. She was awfully quiet.
“You all right Ting?”
“Yes-yes.” She said, with a tiny lift at the corner of her mouth.
“Well, we’ll wait for Thad and start to get busy. There isn’t going to be much to pack. The place is neat and hardly used, it looks like.”
“Thad said to wait for him.” Kew stated. “He wants to tell you something.”
“Hmmm…wonder what it is.”
“He said something about bringing friends today. Not to work yet.”
“Okay. Maybe we can take a walk. See the neighborhood. After all we’re in Hollywood!
“Yes, I want to see John Wayne.” Kew announced.
“John Wayne?” Lacy laughed out loud.
“Yes we watch many of his west, is it wild west? shows. He was very good man. Very handsome, too. Girls like him because he was good man.”
&nbs
p; “You did? Well, then let’s find out how far we have to go and see if we can get a picture with you and John Wayne’s star.”
“Ting would you like to go too?”
Ting nodded and went to get her backpack.
“You don’t have to take that, if you don’t want to Ting. We will be back.”
“Back here. We not leaving again?”
“No, not yet. If you want to take it you can, but I think you may want to leave it here. You wouldn’t want to lose it.”
“Oh no. Not lose it. Pictures in here.” She took it off and took it back to her room.
“Her backpack is very important.” Kew informed her. “She hides it under the bed every night.”
“She does?” Lacy nodded, taking note to make sure Ting’s things were safe. Which meant they would have to lock the door and she didn’t have a key and said so.
“No. No. Thad left the key on counter under the sugar jar.”
Lacy laughed and gave Kew a hug. “Thank you Kew. You are so organized. You think of everything. Very smart!” She saw Kew’s eyes go soft as she stood up straighter.
“All right. Let’s get the key and take a walk. We’ll ask the locals which way to go. It can’t be far.”
Kew got the key and gave it to Lacy. “You take this.” She said. “I’ll watch out for Ting.”
“Yes. Good idea.”
They went out into a beautiful morning. The houses were lush with green grass and bushes of blooming flowers everywhere. White, pink, yellow, blue and cherry pink. The lawns on the street were perfectly kept. Not one blade of grass out of place. And most every house had an upward leaning driveway.
Lacy asked a lady outside primping her already perfect lawn the shortest way to the stars on Hollywood Boulevard. “About 7 blocks that way.” She pointed.
“Thank you so much.”
“The lady smiled but did not stop working. She was probably tired of answering tourist questions.
Two hours later, and a stop at the ice cream soda shop, Lacy checked her watch and headed back to Thad’s. Surely he’d be finished at the studio by now.
“Hey where were you girls?” He opened the door and growled.
“We went for a walk down to the boulevard. Is something wrong?”
“Leave a note. When you go out leave a note. And don’t go out at night around here. It gets pretty crazy. You’re in a different place, it’s not like your farm Lace.”
“Okay.” She treaded lightly. He was not in the mood to hear any guff from them. That was clear. “Sorry, we should have left a note.”
By this time Ting was cowering, a look of fear on her face. Kew had gone on to her room. Ting however was clinging.
“Come on Ting. Let’s go talk.”
“We’ll be back in a few Thad.” Lacy suggested they go to her room.
He grumped taking a coffee cup out of the cupboard. Lacy noted it hit the granite counter a little heavy.
She settled Ting down. Tears were forming puddles in her eyes. “He not mad at me?”
“No. No. Not mad. Scared. He didn’t want us to get hurt.” She knew Ting did not believe her for a moment. “You stay here with Kew. It’s okay.”
“He not hit you?”
“No No…he will not. It’s okay.” She reassured her again and patted her shoulder then left the room.
Lacy moseyed into the living room and found him sipping coffee and gazing out the window next to his chair.
“I’m really sorry Thad. We should have left a note. We took off without telling you.”
He waved his hand in dismissal but didn’t speak for a bit. She went to the kitchen to give him a minute and made a cup of tea and sat down on the sofa and kept quiet.
After a few minutes he started talking.
“I’m officially out. Met my replacement today.”
“Sorry Thad…”
“I signed off, saying I wouldn’t sue. My looks were my ticket. And in the contract it said if they changed, I was out. Simple as that.”
“They don’t see the real you.” She sipped.
“Yeah, well who is the real me?” He grumped. “I don’t even know who I am without my looks and toned up body.”
She noticed he sneered at that last part.
“Right. People only look on the outside. But you’re a good man Thad. They just didn’t look deep enough to see that.” Uh-oh, now he was up and pacing, his hands mussing his hair.
She kept her mouth shut and sipped.
“Well, this is what it is. I’m no fool. Something happens, you move on.”
“I like the sounds of that.” She said cautiously.
“I’ve got friends coming. At least they said they would. To help pack up. Talked to my real estate agent today and she’s excited to list the place. Says it’ll sell quick.”
“Well that’s good, right?”
“Yeah. I won’t be going to the studio. Won’t need the place. We’ll clear everything out, have a cleaning lady come in and make sure it’s spotless and go to my house in Malibu. You and the girls will love it.”
“Okay.” She checked her watch. “When are they coming? If you have boxes we can get started.”
“Yeah I have the boxes in the garage when I moved in. I only slept and ate here.”
“Okay lead me to them.” She finished her tea and set the cup in the sink. “We may as well start packing.”
Lacy could see his countenance change. Busyness always helped her keep the thought demons away. They hauled in boxes and began cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, wrapping and packing the few items and utensils.
Half an hour later Thad was at the door. His friends had come. Lacy stood back and waited for a large group to come trailing in. Two guys and one girl came.
“Where’s everybody.” She heard Thad say as he looked past them.
“Sorry dude. Everybody was busy today…”
“Yeah. Well, thanks for coming. We’ve got boxes, if you guys want to take a room, go for it.”
“I’ll get the girls.” Lacy didn’t wait for introductions. She knew Ting would have a meltdown if she felt threatened. She opened the door and explained to Kew who translated quickly. Ting’s eyes grew large.
“Come on, we’ll go sit in the back yard.” Kew suggested. “There’s a table out there.”
“Good idea.” Lacy walked with them through the kitchen and made sure the girls were settled outdoors. She came back in and felt like she might be in the way so stayed in the kitchen and kept clearing out the drawers. She could hear Thad and the others talking in his bedroom. They were looking at the scars on his face and asking questions that told Lacy they cared about him. She was musing when he came around the corner.
“Sorry Lace. I didn’t get a chance to introduce you. I looked and you were gone.”
“Had to make sure Ting didn’t have a meltdown. She’s afraid when people come in the house.”
“No problem. Where are they?”
“They’re outside in the back yard.” She peered through the window.
“Great. Look, drop what you’re doing. Come meet my faithful friends. I expected at least twenty to come, like they usually do when I invite them for a party.”
She saw the disappointment and wanted to say something in his defense, but knew it would not make him feel better.
“I’d like to meet your friends.”
“Hey, you guys, this is Lacy Linden from Michigan. My old high school flame.”
Lacy gave him a look knowing her face turned twenty shades of red. “I wasn’t his flame. He hardly noticed me. We’re friends.” She corrected and laughed nervously.
“Nice to meet you. All three stepped up and shook hands. “I’ll get back to work. Got to keep up with you.” Lacy got out of there fast. The girl was New York City beautiful. A model no doubt. She had the face, the figure and the smile to go along. The other guys weren’t too hard on the eyes either.
“Geesh. I must be turning into someone else.” She mumbled and went back
to the kitchen. She’d honestly never paid that much attention to people’s looks. She’d left so fast she didn’t get their names.
Three hours later, the boxes had been packed and stored in the garage.
“Hey, thanks you guys. It’s late, I know you want to get out of here. Come on down to my house and spend the weekend okay? I’ll grill on the deck. Weather should be great. We’ll talk about old times.”
They agreed and were gone.
“They’re really nice, Thad. To come and help on such short notice.”
“They are the good guys, Lace. The tall guy is trying to break into the comedy club scene, the other two are brother and sister, from Reality Church, the one I just got hooked up with.”
She nodded glad to know he had friends and that they’d showed up.
“What’s for dinner?” He grabbed a menu hanging on the fridge door.
“You guys have any take-out chicken around here? Something normal, like mashed potatoes and corn or something?”
“Yep, know just the place.”
“You know all the places.”
“That’s because when I was here I ate out. No time for cooking.”
Thad dialed and she set the table after calling the girls inside.
Chapter 40
The next day Thad borrowed a large bed truck and they loaded up the boxes. The girls helped. Kew was the quickest. She loved using her already strong muscles and likened the work to a dance.
“You’re right Kew. Even work is an art.” Thad smiled at her.
Lacy knew Kew appreciated that. Ting carefully lifted out the lighter boxes and carried them, making sure to keep distance between her and Thad. And he, Lacy noted made sure to do the same.
“Okay, hop in the club cab, girls. We’re headed to Malibu.”
Lacy stepped up and into the huge truck and rolled down the windows. “It’s beautiful out today. This is so exciting. We get to see the Pacific Ocean girls!”
Thad grinned, stretching his scars. And realized it was the first time he’d truly smiled in a long time.
“Should be there in just under an hour if traffic isn’t backed up or accidents hinder us.”
We’ll take the scenic view. I’ll head straight for the 1 and drive along the coast once we get out of Santa Monica.”
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