“If it were me, I would want my family there.”
“Could you loan me the money for airline tickets, hotels, and the like?”
“Do you want me to make the arrangements, or do you want to do it yourself?” I asked.
“Honestly, I would rather that I do it. I think I need to be in control of that part since I feel so out of control with everything else about my mom.”
“When I hang up, I’ll call Megan and have her set you up with one of our corporate cards. I want you to use it and not worry about paying me back. Don’t get goofy and think you have to scrimp, either. I want you to focus on what’s important: your family,” I said.
“Thank you, David. You keep saving me,” she said, and I could hear the emotion in her voice.
“My pleasure,” I said, and I looked up to see Kitty staring at me. “I have to go. Keep me up to date. If you need anything, and I mean
I had to hang up. Lexi was right behind me and held out her hand for my phone. I’d put her in charge of it because I didn’t want to have it become a distraction on set.
“I’ll let Megan know,” Lexi said.
Then she shooed me toward where I needed to be.
I wasn’t sure if it was good or not that she was so involved in my life. I mean, to the point she felt at ease eavesdropping on my conversations and then acting on what she heard.
◊◊◊
After I finished my morning scenes, I was starving because we’d run late. Lexi was waiting for me.
“Call Brook,” she said as she handed me my phone.
I looked at the time and saw that Brook had just gotten out of school. Today was the last day of classes before Christmas vacation. She would be here tomorrow, which made me smile. Coming with her were her parents and my mom. I knew Dad was as eager to see Mom as I was Brook.
I waited until I got to my trailer and found that Lexi had gotten me a salad and an iced tea. She was batting a thousand today, as far as being the perfect PA. I had a bad feeling she was up to something.
But I did as she said and called Brook; Cassidy answered.
“I have bad news,” Cassidy said.
“Destiny took over while I was gone, she’s now head cheerleader, and I’m dating her?” I asked.
“No!”
“What part did I get wrong? I am now dating Destiny, aren’t I?” I asked.
“You better not be,” she said and giggled.
“So, what’s up, Bad Girl?”
“Daddy says that because I hurt Aaron, I can’t come to California with Brook. Can you talk to him?” she asked.
Fritz had told me that Coach Hope had asked that Cassidy stay home through Christmas. He was taking Brad and Cassidy to Florida with the plan that they would stop at Busch Gardens and visit the tigers. Part of the deal for donating them was lifetime park access. Cassidy would much rather be with her tigers than me.
“I’ll talk to him, but don’t expect a miracle. Your dad doesn’t always listen to me,” I said.
“He deserved what he got,” Cassidy said.
I assumed she was talking about Aaron, our former manny.
“Thank you for being there. I watched the security footage, and if you hadn’t tried to snap Aaron’s arm off, I was going to come home and do worse.”
“He did cry,” she admitted.
“Good. Now that you’ve saved my son and hound, you may demand a boon of me,” I said with a fake British accent.
“Like what?” she asked.
“Anything I have the power to grant you. Just name it, it’s yours,” I said.
“Could I have the Demon?” she asked to test the waters.
“Sorry, I don’t own the Demon. It’s in my company’s name,” I said, dodging that one.
“But you could grant me access to it,” she reasoned.
“You can drive the Demon if the roads are dry. You can’t take it to school or the mall and leave it in the parking lot. I don’t want some idiot to ding it up,” I said to lay out the ground rules.
“Pam wants me to make Yuri cry. What do I get if I do that?” she asked.
OMG! I’d created a monster.
“You’ll have to work that out with her,” I said.
“She did say at lunch that you love her best. I bet I can get her to get you to do things for me,” Cassidy teased.
“Cassidy Hope! When did you become such a greedy gut?” I asked.
I knew she was playing around. Then I heard Brook in the background, asking, “Who are you talking to on my phone?”
Suddenly, Brook was on the line.
“Some days, I wonder about that girl.”
“She was trying to extort things out of me. Cassidy’s figured out that if she hurts someone for me, she might get a reward. If you want to solve your Destiny problem, you might want to strike while she’s in the mood,” I suggested.
“I’ll take that under advisement. Destiny has been civil since our last blowup. I think I’ll leave that alone until I get back,” Brook said, sounding way too reasonable to be my girlfriend. “What did you agree to give her?”
“I told her she could drive the Demon for saving Duke and Coby,” I explained.
“I guess the soccer mom he was banging was married. That whole situation is a mess.”
“I hadn’t heard that part. I’m just glad Cassidy was there. Do me a favor and give her a hug from me. If she hadn’t dealt with it, I would have. And I’m afraid of what I might have done.”
