Directing Disaster

Ben looked at Pauli, “Have the police contacted you?  You were a witness for the shooting.”

“No, do you think they will?”

“Probably not.  It’s all on video.  You weren’t directly involved, and the paparazzi know as much as you do.  You’re family though, so I thought they might.  When are you heading back to St. Louis?”

“I have a shift Sunday afternoon.  I thought I’d stay for the wedding reception.  Thanks for the invite to the wedding by the way.”

“You know what happened last month, with the baby on the way, I wasn’t going to take any chances this time.  No one was getting any time to back out.”  Ben looked at Joey, “What did Hunter say about the packages that were left at the house yesterday morning?”

Pauli looked from Ben to Joey, “What packages?”

“The stalker left two packages, the Bambino found them yesterday morning, white roses for Kate, black roses for Kit in the driveway.  With a love note and a hate note.  That guy was more than a little warped.”

Jess sipped her water and smiled as they carried on what they assumed was their private conversation.  It was a good thing she was a good actress.  The last question had her ready to get up on a chair and smack every one of these men.  Who the hell did they think they were keeping something like that from her?

Joey looked back toward Ben, “Hunter took them.  You know they’re going to end up in some evidence locker somewhere.  I don’t think they’ll ever arrest anyone for that execution.”

The garage door opened again and Lane walked into the house.  Suddenly all Italian stopped.

“Red.”  Ben said as he walked to Lane.  He leaned down and kissed her.  “Do you want to change before we go?”

He walked with her to the bedroom.

Jess looked at Joey and Pauli, “You boys finished telling secrets?”

The Bellini twins looked at her. Joey with a look of defiance, Pauli was obviously ready to melt.

“Yeah, Toots.  Finished.”  Joey said as he stood, “I’m going to lay down for a while.  What time do we leave for the football game?”

“The game’s in Liberty at 7:00, so probably around 5:30, give or take.”  Jess replied.

She wasn’t about to let them know she understood what they’d been talking about, but she also wasn’t about to let them get away with keeping things from her.  Let Joey go have a nap.  She knew she could get anything she wanted out of Pauli, but she also knew he didn’t know anything about the packages.  Grrrr.  Jamie found the packages, she’d get it out of him after the game.  She knew he’d be home soon, but there would be no time to get him alone and work on him.

Lane and Ben came out of the bedroom.  Lane was wearing her Levi’s, with cowboy boots with a sweater.  She was carrying a barn coat.  Ben had picked up a leather jacket.

“Lane and I are going to a doctor appointment.  We’ll stop and grab a bite afterward, so we’ll meet you at the game.”

Pauli looked at Lane, “Is everything okay?”

She smiled, “Yes, just a normal appointment; and Ben wants to meet the doctor.”

Jess watched Pauli as Ben and her Mother left.  He might be trying to get with to her, but he was still crushing on her mother.  She smiled.  “So, Pauli, you’re still crushing a little bit, aren’t you?”  She could swear he blushed.

“I’m interested in you. I don’t know why you keep saying I’m crushing on your mother.”

“Uh-huh.  Pauli, you should see your face when you look at her.  You might think you’re interested in me, but believe me I’m a poor substitute for Angelique Lane Valle Parker Bellini.”

*****

She was so infuriating.  She either picked on him or accused him of crushing on her mother.

Pauli remembered the first time he met Lane.  She and Ben were in St, Louis.  He had taken a shower in Ben’s hotel room and had come out wearing nothing but the towel he was drying his hair with.  He hadn’t known that Lane was in the adjoining room, or that Ben had opened the door between the rooms and was sitting on Lane’s bed.  Her room had two queen sized beds and Ben’s room had a king sized bed, so she’d traded rooms with the Bellini brothers.  She’d gotten out of bed and walked from her room into the other room wearing a night shirt that, as Ben put it, barely covered her ass.

The next morning, he’d been rummaging through Ben’s suitcase looking for workout clothes; and Lane, thinking he was Ben, had thrown a pillow at him.  He’d thrown it back at her and was enjoying the exchange until Ben growled, “What’s going on?” from the other room, and Lane had realized it wasn’t Ben’s backside she’d tossed the pillow at.  Ben had come in from the other room, pointed at Pauli and growled, “You, get the sweats and get out.” Then he’d pointed to Lane and said, “And, you, stop flirting with my brother.” Pauli had gotten the sweats and left the room.

Later that morning, Ben had told him that Lane was 12 years older than he was, and told Pauli to get whatever he had to say out of his system.  He remembered thinking there was no way that she was older than Ben.  Even now that he’d met her kids; the oldest of whom, was just a couple of years younger than he was, it was still hard to believe Lane was pushing 50.  He’d told Ben that Lane was amazing and he couldn’t wait to meet her kids.  Even at the time, he’d meant he couldn’t wait to meet her daughter.  Lane was beautiful, there was no denying it.  And the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.  Jess might be a lot shorter than her mother, and she might be blonde, but other than that she was every bit as hot as her mother was.

*****

Jess was sitting at the table, just looking at him with those big blue eyes.  She blinked with those unbelievable eyelashes and smiled at him.  God, what was he going to do?  She raised her left eyebrow and cocked her head a bit.

“Fine, I’ll tell you what we were talking about.”

Jess smiled.  Sometimes it was just too easy.

Chapter 25

tossing the ball

Jess walked out of the garage, onto the driveway, and spoke with the paparazzi, “Hi, guys.  We’re going to watch my little brother play some high school football.  You can come and ruin the night for a lot of high school kids or you can give me one night of normal family life and we can pick this up tomorrow.”  She flashed a movie star smile, “I promise if anything noteworthy happens, I’ll tweet my location.”

The Parker and Bellini contingents arrived at the football field at 6:30.  The paparazzi had decided to stay away, but it didn’t matter.  As Jess, Joey and Pauli walked into the football stadium, heads turned and cell phones popped out taking pictures.  They’d made the news yesterday, and that alone made them celebrities. Add to that the fact that Bellini men pretty much stopped traffic wherever they went; and multiply that by Jess’s new found star status, and there was no way to travel incognito.  They made their way to the visitor bleachers, and moved to the top where Jake, Meg and Abbey were seated.

They watched as Jamie’s team lost a hard fought game.  After the game, they split into groups.  Jake and Meg had a date night pla

Although they wouldn’t say what they were going to do, Lane and Ben had plans too, so that left Jess with Joey and Pauli.  Pauli and Joey were close and with Joey in Las Vegas, they didn’t see much of each other anymore.  Yet, each of them wished the other was somewhere else.  Jess might spend most of her time insulting whichever one of them she was with, but both Joey and Pauli wanted to be alone with her.  She’d be going back to L.A. soon, and in no time she’d be in Europe filming the movie.  There was always the phone, texting, and Skype, but Pauli knew that wasn’t the same. It was the way he’d been keeping in touch with Jess for the last month.  First, there was the two hour time difference and then there were their conflicting schedules.  Most of Europe was seven hours ahead ahead of Central Time; and Joey was on Pacific Time, making it a nine hour difference.