Born to Be Wild (8 page)

Her mother started to say something, but suddenly held it back, with an expression not unlike a soap actor's before a commercial break. What was this about? Mary Lisa prodded a bit. “She was excited, said he was rich and handsome, and not a sleaze like the guys down in L.A. She ended it with ‘I might marry him, who knows?'”

Mary Lisa had said enough. She knew a minefield when she saw one. Had Prince Charming's crown lost its luster? Had he belched at dinner? Or worse, said something distressingly common in her mother's hearing?

Her mother sipped her tea, shrugged indifferently.

“Kelly called it off, two days ago.”

“Goodness, why?”

“I believe she called him a controlling jerk.”

“That's a surprise. She sure was high on him last week. What happened?”

“Who knows? Sometimes a girl's blinders come off before it's too late.”

“Who is this jerk? Is he local? She never told me his name.”

“John Goddard.”

“John Goddard. Hmmm. I think I remember him, at least I remember his name. I was pretty young when he left to go back east to college, right?”

“That's right. It's a pity he turned out to be unsatisfactory since his family is one of
the
families in the area. They own a good deal of property and business interests in and around Goddard Bay. At first your father and I were very pleased, but apparently he didn't suit her.” She looked toward the fireplace and frowned.

Mary Lisa wondered why Kelly had really changed her mind. Most girls, and especially Kelly, could tell whether a guy was a jerk pretty fast—it wasn't usually a sudden epiphany.

Maybe this John Goddard was a selfish lover, that would certainly be a deal breaker, even qualify him as a jerk.

She said, “Kelly's young and pretty, there'll be lots of men who come her way.”

“Yes, of course. After Jared, we thought—well, never mind that. It's water under the bridge.”

“What bridge? Who's Jared?”

Her mother flapped her hands. “Oh, all right. Jared Hennessey was a mistake, nothing more, over quickly. He's gone, moved out of town. She's quite over him. I think Kelly's grown to be as beautiful as Monica. Maybe even more so. She has her degree in communications from Oregon State University, an excellent field, and she could do anything she wants to do. She could be an actress like you if she wanted to, so many people have told her that after they've watched you on TV. But I don't think she would be happy in Los Angeles—it's so plastic and cheap and they expect the women to be whores to get anywhere.”

Mary Lisa absorbed the multiple blows without a whimper. It had been three years and yet it seemed like yesterday. Nothing ever changed—sad, but true. But the difference now was that she had thicker skin. She said easily, “I believe the whore part had some truth to it in the bad old days, for both men and women actually.”

“How pathetic.” Her mother picked up her teacup and looked over the rim at her middle daughter, one corner of her mouth curled up in a hint of a smile. “Aren't you going to ask about Monica?”

“How is Monica doing?”

“She getting ready to run for the Oregon House of Representatives.”

I've fallen into the Twilight Zone
. “Monica, a politician? Her degree is in art history. She's hardly even voted.”

“So what? She's gorgeous, bright, and knows how to get what she wants. The incumbent's weak, too old for the energy it takes to get things done, and has broken his promises too many times now.” That sounded memorized, like she was spouting the party line.

“There are—what, sixty state representatives, if I remember my civics class?”

Her mother nodded. “Yes, two-year terms. They meet on the second Monday in January in odd years. The sessions usually last about six months, but she'll be serving on interim committees after that to study issues scheduled to come up in the next legislative session. She wouldn't have to spend all her time in Salem.”

Mary Lisa agreed with her mother. Monica would make an excellent politician. It wasn't any calling for public service, it was the draw of power and notoriety that would be attracting her sister. Monica had always wanted to be standing in the spotlight, center stage, more than Mary Lisa. Now that she considered it, Monica and politics were a perfect fit. “She'll be good. She's ambitious and focused and she's tough.”

“The Board of County Commissioners certainly think she's a strong candidate. They're saying she could be a state senator by the time she's thirty-five. I'm glad to see you're over your snit with her, Mary Lisa.”

Mary Lisa cocked her head slightly to one side and put on her best poker face. “What snit would that be, Mother?”

“Your resentment of your sister ever since she married Mark Bridges. It's time you got over it and moved on.”

What was she to say to that? Of course there was some truth to it. She remembered what an infatuated twit she'd been, ready to leave L.A. and her brand-new role as Sunday Cavendish on
Born to Be Wild
, forget all about an acting career for the dubious privilege of becoming Mark Bridges's wife, move back to Goddard Bay and—what? Thank the good Lord that noodle-brained, rudderless Mary Lisa Beverly no longer existed. She seemed like a stranger from another lifetime. Mark Bridges was as handsome as Brad Pitt playing Achilles but without the rough edges. No, he was as smooth as a rock in a creek bed, and, unfortunately, faithless as a French ally. Had she really been that stupid, that recently? Yes, she had, but that was before she became a bonafide grown-up, even if she did have some goo left in her otherwise solid center. Mary Lisa smiled, a joyous, full-bodied smile, and sat forward a little. “Between us, Mother, let me tell you that I send endless thanks heavenward that Monica took Mark away from me. Imagine if I'd married him before he betrayed me.” She actually shuddered.

Her mother's voice was sharp. “You make it sound inevitable, his betrayal.”

“I think he's that kind of man.”

“That's your bitterness talking, Mary Lisa, your envy. Mark would never betray Monica. He worships her. Nor was it really betrayal. After all, you weren't married, and that was the whole point. There were no vows to break. He married Monica; he would never look at another woman now.”

Mary Lisa grinned. “If he did, Monica would cut off his b—ah, she'd make him sorry he was ever born.”

Red stained her mother's cheeks. “Is that the way you talk down in Los Angeles?”

“Well, it seems to be the way everyone speaks most everywhere unless they're with their mothers and then they catch themselves. As I did.”

Her mother swiftly got to her feet, smoothed down her lovely cream linen slacks. “We eat dinner at six. You'll need time to get yourself together, Mary Lisa. You can go up now.” She nodded and left the living room. Mary Lisa slowly ate some more spice cake.
Welcome home, Mary Lisa
. She wondered yet again as she climbed the stairs what had brought her here from L.A. Maybe it was some vague sense she'd be safe at home. Well, perhaps her body might be safer here, but not her spirit.

“He's a bastard.”

You said that already,
Mary Lisa thought, but she nodded dutifully. She was beginning to wish John Goddard had never been born, much less swum into her sister's waters. She'd already listened to a five-minute harangue and it showed no signs of winding down. “He's a dreadful lover, selfish, rolls off and snores like a bull. And all he does is work, work, work. I never saw him and if I called him at his office, he was rude, or had his secretary kiss me off with some excuse about his being in court or meeting with investigators or a defense attorney or some scummy criminal. Always another criminal, no end to them. I heard Mr. Millsom—you remember, Mary Lisa, the lawyer—he said John Goddard didn't care about right or wrong anyway, just winning, about carving notches on his belt. Mr. Millsom said it's pure ambition and he'll do anything, including prosecuting innocent people, to get ahead.”

“Hmm.”

“I can't believe I ever saw anything in him.”

“He sounds pretty bad, all right. Mother said he was crude and controlling, didn't like you being independent.”

“Sure. That goes without saying. He works with lowlifes all day, naturally he'd become crude.”

“You mean other lawyers?”

“Ha ha. Yes, His Highness expected me to be at his beck and call, as if he thought I'd stay in my apartment until he announced what he wanted to do.”

“What apartment? I thought you were living here.”

“Jared and I moved to an apartment. Then I kicked him out. I kept the apartment, but after I broke it off with John two days ago, I decided I'd stay here for a while.”

“So tell me about Jared.”

“Jared Hennessey. You never met him. He talked me into eloping with him, but he turned out to be a con who only wanted to get to Daddy's money. I just saw through him a little late. He's gone now and I really don't like to talk about him anymore.”

“You were
married
to this guy? I mean, he was your husband?”

“Yeah, for all of two weeks, then
poof
, it was over.”

And no one bothered to tell me,
Mary Lisa thought,
not even Kelly
.

“He works out too much, Mary Lisa. I'd want to go to a movie or a restaurant, but no, he wanted to work out, or run, claimed it de-stressed him. He thought only about himself.”

“Jared Hennessey?”

“No, John Goddard.”

“Okay. Well, it's too bad you didn't notice all this bad stuff—about John Goddard—until after you'd slept with him.”

To her surprise, Kelly looked down at her Ferragamo-clad feet, then shoved her hands into the pockets of her black slacks. “Yeah, well, I didn't get pregnant, no thanks to him.”

Now this was serious. “You mean he refused to wear a condom?”

Kelly jumped to her feet. “I'm hungry. You sure are skinny, Mary Lisa. Oh yeah, did you know? Mom called Monica, asked her to dinner. With Mark of course. You're not going to make a scene, are you?”

Oh joy. Mary Lisa shook her head. “Nope. I left all my scenes in L.A.” She shoved her sister out of her bedroom and shut the door.

Kelly had been very busy. But why had she moved back home? To lick her wounds? But wouldn't their mother be all over her? Well, maybe not. She'd see about that at dinner.

She hadn't brought any dress-up clothes with her. Her mother would notice. Did she care?

If Mary Lisa had harbored the notion she could make it unscathed through a meal with her entire family plus her ex-fiancé, Mark Bridges, she knew now she'd been as bright as a Russian lightbulb. Three years was a long time, but since it appeared that no one and nothing ever changed, it ended up being like yesterday. The pot was still bubbling gaily under the lid.

 

MARY
Lisa chewed slowly and lovingly on a blackened shrimp so deliciously hot and spicy it set her mouth to smoking. Mrs. Abrams had studied Creole cooking under Paul Prudhomme himself. Mary Lisa couldn't imagine the great man preparing the shrimp any better.

She sipped a crisp dry Chardonnay, one of her father's favorites, as she listened to her sister Monica talk about a cocktail party in Salem that the party bigwigs were throwing in her honor in a couple of weeks to introduce her to the important political rollers. “But most of the money's in Portland,” she said. “Mark knows enough of the big-money people there to give us a start.” She gave him a tender look, lightly touched her fingertips to his cheek, and then she smiled across the table at Mary Lisa.

“She can charm lemon juice out of an onion,” Mark said. He toasted his wife, taking her hand and kissing her palm.

You obnoxious snake,
Mary Lisa thought,
you shed your skin so well, I'll bet no one ever notices all the rot you leave lying in your wake
.

She caught herself, surprised her feelings were still so strong. She'd perhaps expected some lingering rage, perhaps a dollop of remembered humiliation, but no, this was bone-deep disgust. How nice. She gave all her attention to her father, George Beverly. Ah, but he was handsome, tall, lean, auburn haired, with eyes so blue that some people who met him for the first time thought they might be colored contacts. She watched her father continue the conversation with his eldest daughter. “What do you think your opponent will do? Might he retire?”

Bless her father for giving her his wonderful voice—melodic, light and dark by turns, always compelling. She remembered how he could always talk her and her sisters out of teenage snits. As if he felt her staring at him, he looked up and smiled. She gave him a thumbs-up. He was dressed in black slacks, a fine white chambray shirt, and an Italian geometric tie. She'd always thought he was the finest-looking Beverly. To the best of her knowledge he'd never strayed from her mother, though he owned one of the largest construction companies in northwestern Oregon and had spent nearly all of his fifty-five years surrounded by women at home, where all her mother's friends congregated, playing bridge late, she knew, so they could see him when he got home from work. He'd been the only boy in a gaggle of five sisters, and then the father of three girls. His mother, Aurora, had given both her son and her granddaughter her red hair and blue eyes, and her height. And her acting ability as well had come through to Mary Lisa, thank the good Lord. Aurora had never been in a movie or on Broadway, but she'd always acted in local theater productions in Seattle. When Mary Lisa was five years old, her grandmother introduced her to the stage. It had been a love affair since that first magic moment when she'd looked at Bottom lying in mountains of soft greenery with beautiful Titania cooing over him, feeding him peeled grapes. Such a wonderful memory. Monica's voice brought her back as she answered her father, “Champ Kuldak ready to retire? I don't think so, Dad. I doubt he'd willingly retire until they bury his carcass. But you're right, he's old enough to retire and fish or putter in a garden, whatever old men do. And after all these years, he's finally vulnerable. I don't think he's going to do much. Rest on his record that's mediocre at best?”

Mary Lisa saw the brief ironic smile play over her father's face, but he said nothing, only nodded. He turned to look at Mary Lisa. “As you can see, we've got lots of excitement going on here. I'm very glad you're home, honey. It's been too long and my Porsche is running a bit rough. Would you take a look at it?”

“At least it's running,” she said, and laughed. “I'll bet you it's the plugs again. You and plugs, you've never learned to rub along well together.” She sat forward. “Do you guys know that when Dad visited me a couple of months ago, everyone wanted to know who the movie star was, and wanted to meet him?”

“How embarrassing for you, George,” Kathleen said with a delicate shudder.

“Not at all. I basked in the attention from all of Mary Lisa's young friends. An old guy like me loves to have a couple of pretty girls smile at him.”

Mary Lisa laughed. “More like a dozen pretty girls, Dad.” She looked up at her sisters and Mark. “When I took him to the gym with me and my friends, I thought some of the women were going to jump him.”

Monica and Kelly beamed, but Kathleen frowned. Her husband said in a light voice, smiling toward his wife, “I tried not to sweat too much.”

Mary Lisa laughed again. “It's great to see you, too, Dad. Don't worry about your precious Porsche. I'll look at it before you go to the office tomorrow morning.” She knew he was probably the only one in this elegant dining room who really loved her, and not only because she was the only one who was his female double in her coloring and body. They had spent so much time together when she was a girl that she could lay tile, set a window, fix a toilet, hang wallpaper with no visible seams, and coax his Porsche into running like it had when she was ten years old, the same year her grandmother had told her she was a born actress, shortly before she'd died of breast cancer.

It seemed the only thing her mother had given her was her supercilious eyebrows, which, as it turned out, Sunday Cavendish used often to excellent effect. Monica and Kelly, though, strongly resembled their mother—dark hair and eyes and willowy builds. Except Kelly was streaking her hair now. It was charming and sexy.

George Beverly said to Monica, “I hope you won't spoil it for us, Monica. I've found over the years I rather like seeing both our federal and state governments gridlocked. That way it's harder for the nincompoops to hurt us.”

Kathleen said, voice sharp, “Your daughter is not a nincompoop.”

Monica opened her mouth and shut it. Mary Lisa knew she wasn't about to argue with anything her father said because she wanted money from him. Monica wasn't stupid.

Mark laughed, his eyes on Mary Lisa. “True enough, sir, but at least if she does become a nincompoop, she'll be the most beautiful of all of them. And Monica is your daughter after all. Maybe she'll stay above the money-grubbing powermongers.” He continued seamlessly. “Mary Lisa, I haven't congratulated you yet for all your success on
Born to Be Wild
. And you won another Emmy. Fabulous. I read in
Variety
you're considered something of a phenomenon—the bitchier they make you, the more over-the-top you are, the more popular you become.”

Kathleen raised her now famous eyebrows in an incredulous and pitying look. “You actually read that sleaze, Mark dear?” Mary Lisa found herself studying her expression, and decided it was extraordinarily effective. Sunday should definitely take on that look.

Mark shrugged. “Naturally I'm interested in what Mary Lisa's doing. But I haven't quite stooped to buying the soap opera fanzines in the checkout line at the supermarket, except if Mary Lisa's on the cover.”

Kelly said, “That's because you never go to the supermarket, Mark. Hey, Mary Lisa, even I didn't know you were on a cover of
Soap Opera Digest
last month until Heddy at the beauty shop mentioned it.”

Mary Lisa smiled in acknowledgment, but said nothing. It had been a fun shoot. Nor was she going to tell them that she'd be on one of the weekly covers again this month since she'd won the Emmy—she shared the cover with Bernie. The shoot had been a hoot.

Monica seemed bored as she took a delicate bite of her Caesar salad, frowned at a crouton, and gently shoved it to the side of the salad bowl.

Kathleen said smoothly, “Of course we're all happy for your success, Mary Lisa. But a soap opera—for heaven's sake, where did that ridiculous name come from? A soap opera just fills up the day for bored housewives—well, I hope after leaving this part you'll find some more meaningful parts. Isn't it difficult to be prancing around like that, dressed like a tart, sleeping with every man in sight?”

Mary Lisa felt her stomach knot, but said easily, blessed humor coming from somewhere, “Goodness, Mother. Why don't you tell us how you really feel?”

Her father burst into laughter. “Bored housewives? You know, Kathy, in our main office, the TV goes on religiously every day at eleven o'clock with a viewership upwards of a dozen people. We call it our soap brunch hour. And everyone cheers when they see Mary Lisa. I love to watch you, sweetheart, and of course to try to figure out who will end up marrying whom with every new season.”

Mary Lisa nodded. “Too true. An unwritten rule is that the writers give a newly married couple about six months of marital bliss before they start messing with them.”

Kathleen was staring at her husband. “When did you start watching television at your office?”

Her father's eyebrows went up. “I thought I'd told you, Kathy. The TV arrived the day Mary Lisa first started on
Born to Be Wild
.”

“A lovely big-screen, Dad?”

“It's a forty-five-inch,” he said and laughed.

Kelly looked her sister in the eye. “And look what happened when you accepted that part, Mary Lisa. While you were down there, poor Mark was up here, all alone. Except for Monica. Was it six months before Monica messed you two up?”