Bombshell (9 page)

Calaway let her words sink into his mind, and slowly nodded his head. “I know you’re no angel. Hell, when you first come into town flashin’ all that money, I reckoned you for a bank robber,” he told her. “But that...that other stuff, it’s in the past. It doesn’t mean a thing.”

“It’s all I really know.”

“A man like me, I can’t compete with Hollywood. All I got is this drafty old house and a job that don’t pay much, and that ain’t nothin’ compared to having the world at your feet. But I love you anyway, and I can try to make you happy.”

“I love you too, John,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to. Truth be told, I didn’t
want
to. But when I look at you, I see everything that’s right with the world. And I don’t know what I did to deserve someone like you.”

“Then why do you look so sad?”

She took in a hesitant breath and wished with all her might that she could simply erase the past, that she could have been a more noble and upstanding character. Instead, she was a wretch, a talented wretch who slept with men for personal gain, and there was no running away from a past like that. Not when the result of that past was growing in her belly.

A used-up floozy, just as Sully said.

“I’m going to end up hurting you, John. Sully will never let me out of my contract. And the time is coming when I’m going to have to pay up for the things I’ve done. You shouldn’t have to get mixed up in my mess.”

Calaway turned onto his side and gazed deeply into her eyes. “Annalee, do you trust me?”

“With my life.”

“Trust me with your love and happiness,” he said with a crooked smile. “Can you do that?”

The warm sincerity in his deep blue eyes grabbed powerful hold of her heart, but even as she nodded her head she could not shake the awful gloom. “I want to.”

John Calaway pulled her into his arms and put all his love in his sweet kiss. “I can’t give you everything Hollywood can, but I would never make you do things to shame yourself. I’ll never hurt you, Annalee. And if it’s this contract that’s got you so wound up, let me figure a way out of it, all right?”

As Kiddo tickled her insides, Annalee closed her eyes and feared she might weep.

Chapter Five

Guests poured in from miles away to celebrate the Blue Lantern’s grand opening. Earl Brown oversaw the outdoor grills while Molly fretted over the table decor. Calvin Stamp’s bluegrass band—Stamp’s Stompers—played old-timey reels and brought folks dressed in their Sunday best to dance among the wildflowers.

Summer Hill’s mayor, Clem Shadrick, a portly gent dressed in a top hat and tails for the occasion, stood alongside Annalee and Sheriff Calaway and proudly cut the ribbon that stretched across the café’s front porch.

Sully filmed it all.

“Miss Annalee, before you officially open this lovely café for business, perhaps you can say a few words to the good folks,” the mayor said.

She glanced up, sought a little encouragement from the man she loved, and found warm pride in his magnificent eyes. “Go on, Annalee.”

The crowd looked to her with expectation, and for the first time in her life, her heart pounded with stage fright.

“I suppose the only way I’m any good at this is if I have a team of writers coming up with stuff for me,” she joked. “I guess I don’t know what to say except thank you. Everyone worked so hard to get this place up and running, and even though I’ve only been here a short time, I feel like I’ve made some of the best friends a girl could ever ask for. I hope the Blue Lantern will become the sort of place where folks can bring their families, maybe make some fond memories—and I hope it will be a first step in bringing life back to a town that has suffered so much.”

As the guests applauded, Sheriff Calaway helped Annalee onto a step ladder, where she lit the first of three blue lanterns suspended from the porch overhang. When she had lit the last lantern, she turned back to the crowd and smiled.

“We’re open for business, folks!”

A cheer rose from the crowd and was quickly followed by whistles when John Calaway helped her down from the ladder and wrapped his arms around her. “You did it,” he whispered in her ear. “I’m so proud of you.”

“You’re making me love you too much, John.”

“That’s what I was aiming for.”

“I hate to break up the little romance, Toots, but I need you to go over the script,” Sully grumbled. “Christ almighty, I’ve only been trying to get your attention since you got here.”

Calaway let Annalee free from his embrace and turned to face the little man. “You watch your language ’round here, fella.”

“It’s okay, John,” she said in a quiet voice. “Really, I told him I’d like to see the script.”

She left him helpless and at a loss while she followed the man who had managed her career since she was fourteen years old. Sully set the short script out on a picnic table and waited for her to scan its contents.

“Take out this part about these folks being downtrodden and impoverished,” she told him. “They’re down on their luck, is all. Like most of the rest of the country.”

“Fine, Toots. Whatever you say.”

Something in the tone of his voice didn’t sit right with her. It was a patronizing tone, one that mocked her, but she said nothing in response.

“Well,” he pressed. “What about the rest of it?”

“It’s fine.” She sat down and felt a sharp pain run from her abdomen to her spine. “Sully, if you’ll forgive me, I’m not feeling so well.”

“What’s all this pushing me away?” he asked. “Is lover boy giving you a hard time about all this?”

“Leave John out of this.”

Sully raised his eyebrows and shook his head. “Keeping a guy like that around—What, are you afraid you’re losing your looks because that kid of yours is starting to show? He strokes your ego, is that it?”

“Stop it,” she whispered.

“Does he even know?” he asked. “Did you tell him upfront that some other guy knocked you up, or does he like his women a little on the chubby side?”

The fury she kept tamped down in her heart finally exploded forth. “I didn’t tell him anything—and you don’t talk to me like that! Not anymore, Sully! I’ve been taking your garbage since I was fourteen years old, and I’m sick to death of it! I’m done, do you hear me?”

Sully leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Tell him,” he said quietly. “Tell him and see what he does, before you go burning all your bridges.”

****

John Calaway stood near the bandstand and applauded Calvin’s bluegrass band, but as one tune led into the next, his heart filled with worry. Annalee had been gone too long.

“Where’d she go?” Molly Brown asked. “There’s some folks who found her picture in a magazine, and they’re lookin’ for her autograph.”

“She followed that manager fella to go over some business,” he grumbled. “Ain’t seen her since.”

“I saw him just a few minutes ago,” she told him. “He poked the camera man on the shoulder and they took off. Seemed like in a hurry, too.”

He glanced around, trying to spot her in the crowd, but the umbrellas set atop the tables hindered his line of sight. “If you come across her, let her know I’ve gone lookin’ for her.”

“Sure will.”

Calaway pushed his way through the crowd, made his way up the porch steps, and checked inside the café, thinking perhaps the heat of the afternoon had gotten the better of her, but she was not to be found.

“I thought I saw her out near the riverbank,” Earl Brown offered. “Maybe ’bout five, ten minutes ago.”

Hearing this, Calaway rushed outside, back into the summer heat, and tried to calm the panic that threatened to overtake him. What sort of hold did this Sully character have over her, anyway? Why did she let him speak to her as he did?

Just what the hell was going on?

He found her on the riverbank, sitting in the cool grass, and took in a sharp, sudden breath.

She was crying.

“Hey, what’s all this?” He knelt next to her, thinking he might wipe her tears away, but she would not turn to look at him. “Folks are looking for you, sweetie, and they’re liable to think it’s me who made you cry.”

Annalee sniffled, wiped at the tears that stained her cheeks, but still refused to look his way. “You know all that stuff you said about all the things I did before? How it was all in the past and it didn’t matter anymore?”

“Sure I do. And I meant it.”

“It’s not true.”

She was scaring him now. Scaring him terribly. “I don’t understand. Annalee—”

“I need you to go and get Molly. Please.”

“Molly?” He felt dumb and helpless, unable to do anything more than repeat her words back to her, but when she finally turned to face him and he saw her chalk-white pallor and the fear in her teary eyes, the panic in his heart gave way to full-blown terror.

“I’m pregnant, John,” she whispered.

What? What did she say?

“Already?” he blurted, and hated himself in an instant.

“I think I’m losing the baby.”

****

Annalee opened her eyes, unsure of where she was or why she felt so calm when her world was crashing down around her. A strange man entered the room, an older man with frizzy gray hair and a great, bushy mustache.

Like a walrus
, she thought, and tried to laugh but couldn’t. None of her muscles worked, it seemed. She felt light, as if she could float on air.
Somebody must’ve slipped me a mickey.

“I gave you something to make you sleep,” the walrus man said. He smelled sterile, like rubbing alcohol. “As close a call as you had, you need rest, and plenty of it.”

“Who are you?”

“Graham.”

“Doc Graham?” she asked. “Molly told me I should come see you.”

“You should’ve,” he agreed. “I would have told you then exactly what I’m telling you now. Get some rest.”

She reached down, ran her hands along her belly, and, sedative or not, started to cry. “What about Kiddo?”

Graham sat down at the side of the bed and took her pulse. “You need to calm down. It’s too soon to give you another sedative.”

“I don’t want any more medicine.” She opened her tear-filled eyes and tried to take comfort in the doctor’s kind eyes and hardscrabble face. “My baby…”

“Is fine, for now,” he said with a nod. “But no more working in the diner for you. I don’t want you doing anything until this child is brought to term. Have you spoken to the father?”

The father? Glenn Dougherty? Annalee shook her head. “He has nothing to do with us.”

Dr. Graham raised his bushy gray eyebrows and pushed his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. “Someone is out in the hall waiting to see you. My first inclination is to refuse.”

“John?”

Graham shook his head. “Short fellow. Says he’s your manager.”

“Please send him away,” she whispered. And then, as if the medication had suddenly worn off, she called out in a louder voice. “No, don’t. I’ll see him.”

The doctor nodded his head and opened the door. “Five minutes, and you’ll have to leave.”

Sully stepped into the room, hat in hand, and stood over her where she lay. “Boy, you sure gave me a scare, Toots,” he said quietly. “When I heard the news you were here... You know I don’t wish anything bad for you, right?”

“Sure, Sully.” Whatever was in the sedative Dr. Graham gave her, it had dulled her senses just enough to keep her from lashing out against the man who tried to rule her life. All she could think about now was the well-being of the child she still carried within her.

“I looked around, and I didn’t see that boyfriend of yours in the waiting room. That’s some guy, huh?” His face was calm, caring. He spoke to her as though she were a child. “See, people like us, Toots, we’ve got no business with decent, ordinary folk. They don’t understand what we’re all about. They’re always too quick to cast judgment.”

Annalee tried to sit up, but the medication left her far too weak to even raise her head from the pillow. “He loves me.”

“I love you, too, Toots,” he said with a smile. “What’s not to love? You’re a beautiful girl. And I get it, you love him too, but you know, sometimes these things just aren’t meant to be. Give it some time. I made some phone calls, and I got you a place at this resort in the Catskills. By the time you’re ready to have this kid, you’ll have forgotten all about this town, and you’ll be ready to get back into the swing of things.”

“How much will it cost?”

“Don’t worry about it—it’s on me.”

“No,” she mumbled. “My contract. What will it cost to get me out of it?”

Sully chuckled. “You’re pulling my leg, right? Come on—we’ve got work to do!”

Her eyelids were heavy as lead weights. Her muscles felt frozen and useless, but she managed somehow to shake her head. “I told you, I’m done. I want out.”

“For this guy? Who didn’t even bother to follow you to the hospital?”

“Even if he didn’t—even if he looks at me with hate in his eyes the rest of his life, he’ll be treating me better than you ever did.”

“All right, you want to play that game? Twenty-five thousand. Half of what Dougherty gave you to keep your mouth shut about the kid. Still got it? Or did you blow it all on that shithole diner?”

“I’ll leave it outside your door at the Inn. Now go away.”

“Toots, it doesn’t have to be like this—”

“Go.”

The door swung open, and the smell of rubbing alcohol filled the room. Graham must douse himself with it regularly. “Your five minutes is up.”

“Already?”

Dr. Graham glared at Sully. “You said you were a friend, but you lied. I’m not going to see this girl upset again. Your time is up.”

Sully donned his hat and snapped the brim. “Lotsa luck, Toots. You’re gonna need it.”

Annalee closed her eyes. All she heard was the fading sound of his footsteps as he stormed out of the room. “Dr. Graham, has Sheriff Calaway been around at all?”

Pity washed over the doctor’s careworn face. “He asked me not to tell you. He was worried you would be upset.”

A tear slid down her cheek. “He was the first man who ever loved me for
me
. For who I am. Do you understand that?”