California Dream (13 page)

“Not bad,” was Eddie’s assessment from the doorway.

Roddy raised a caustic brow at him in the mirror. “What? No complaints about my hair even? You aren’t afraid to be seen with me?” He turned to give Eddie a hard time about his outfit, but froze when he saw the almost haunted look on his friend’s face.

Eddie announced he wanted to make a couple phone calls before they took off, so he went back to his room and Roddy made his way downstairs to join Lee.

He first spotted a pair of yellow shoes with impossibly high heels. His eyes slowly traveled upward, admiring Lee’s calves and thighs before the yellow leather began. The visual trip ended when he reached Lee’s face, framed by her wild gold hair and lit up by a confident smile.

She was perfection. Roddy knew she would be the envy of all the starlets attending the premiere. In that dress, her picture was sure to be taken more often than theirs. Lee could make the lame get up and walk in her ensemble, he was sure. He smiled to himself as he realized nobody would comment on his looks as long as he was next to Lee. They were even likely to steal some attention away from Eddie.

“You look great,” Lee said to Roddy as she admired the fit of his snakeskin pants with his boots.

“Maybe almost good enough to be seen with you,” he replied. “Nobody’s gonna believe I stole you from a library.”

Two limousines pulled into Roddy’s driveway, and a blonde in a tight satin dress alighted from one and approached the front door to ring the bell. Her mouth fell open when Lee answered.

“Um, I’m here to meet Eddie Brandon?” Her eyes seemed unsure.

Lee opened the door. “He’ll be down in a minute,” she said as she let the other woman in. “Would you like a drink or something while you wait?”

Comprehension seemed to dawn when the woman spied Roddy casually leaned against the banister. No doubt she had been thinking Eddie had double-booked his dates until she spotted him.

“I’m Lee Miller, and I’m sure you know Roddy O’Neill,” Lee said when the other woman declined her drink offer.

Mention of his name was all their visitor needed to change her whole demeanor from uncertain to sultry. “I love your music,” she cooed on the introduction.

“Thanks.” Roddy turned to whisper in Lee’s ear, “Don’t worry, she’ll be gone by tomorrow.”

She was saved from having to make any kind of reply when Eddie swaggered down the stairs. His expression was one of both relief and disappointment when he spied his date waiting for him in the front hall. Roddy knew Eddie had to be thinking the same thing he was: the other woman paled next to Lee.

“You’ve met everyone, Bambi?” Eddie breezed through the introductions.

Roddy turned to Lee, and they both incredulously mouthed,
Bambi?
at each other, both suddenly beset by a fit of nearly uncontrollable giggles.

Roddy sternly got hold of himself and took Lee’s hand. “Is everyone ready to head out?”

“It’s getting late,” Lee piped up. “We should go.”

He looked down into her face, searching for some trace of nerves, and found none. He gave her a reassuring smile nonetheless and led her out to the car. Eddie followed with Bambi glued to his side, not looking as pleased with himself as he usually did.

Once they got to the premiere, Lee glanced curiously out the windows at everything. She still outwardly betrayed no sign of nerves, but Roddy remembered he had been strung tight the first time he attended something like this.

Moments before it was time to alight from the car, he handed Lee a pair of oversized sunglasses. “Put these on or you’ll go blind,” he warned. “And no matter what, just smile. I’ll hold onto you, so there’s nothing to worry about. You’ll be fine.”

A look of panic leapt into Lee’s eyes, and Roddy squeezed her hand again. Her first public appearance with him was rather a big moment, but he believed she would handle it with aplomb, just like everything else.

She obediently took the glasses from Roddy and slipped them over her eyes about a second before their chauffeur opened the door. A thousand flashes seemed to go off the second her feet hit the pavement. The crowd started cheering and chanting the moment Roddy stepped out behind her to take her elbow.

“Smile!” he whispered in her ear, and he couldn’t help but grin when she immediately did so, looking as gorgeous as ever.

He led her through the throng, stopping every few feet to sign autographs and banter with his fans. Lee was greedily assessed by dozens of pairs of male eyes, he noted, while the women present wore obvious envy. Lee smiled graciously at them all, and gave the appearance she had been on red carpets dozens of times.

“Who’s the lady?” an avid young reporter asked Roddy as he shoved a microphone under his nose.

Roddy felt like punching him, but he smiled instead and put his arm around Lee’s waist. “This is Lee.”

Inexperienced, Lee made the mistake of lifting her glasses for a moment, and was instantly blinded by camera flashes. She dropped them back down and gripped Roddy’s arm like a lifesaver in a stormy sea, but he noted she kept smiling the entire time.

Once Lee recuperated, Roddy allowed an usher to lead them to their seats. Lee seemed to enjoy both the movie and his video, though she made a couple comments on the lack of clothes worn by the dancer in the video.

After the movie, Roddy took her to a party in Beverly Hills. Half the population of Los Angeles seemed to be in attendance. The house was packed wall-to-wall with people, and everyone there seemed to know Roddy and want to say hello.

“How do you get through nights like this in one piece?” Lee asked in a rare quiet moment.

“Champagne,” he said, grabbing a bottle off a passing waiter’s tray.

Once Lee caught a bit of a buzz, she lost a lot of her inhibitions, and she relaxed and seemed to start having fun. Roddy enjoyed the easy way she managed to mingle with the cream of the entertainment world. She treated them like ordinary people, and they all apparently warmed to her. She was unaware of the politics simmering under the surface at the party, and since he didn’t give a damn about them, Roddy was amused.

Lee was not in awe of anyone, which could be a dangerous state of affairs in Hollywood, where mountains competed with egos for space. Lee’s compliments were genuine, and she just happened to take to all the right people, especially a shy studio head’s wife who appreciated her irreverent humor.

The woman took an instant liking to Lee, and she told Roddy he needed to let Lee get out more so she could make the right acquaintances.

“It would be nice to have some friends,” Lee said with sincerity and complete disinterest in Hollywood social climbing, which further endeared her to the woman.

Later, Roddy told Lee, “You have no idea how many people try to get close to her. If you decide you want to be an actress, you’re in.”

“I’m fine just the way I am,” she said firmly, which gave Roddy a warm rush. She certainly was.

They were some of the first guests to leave the party. Roddy had been waiting all day to be alone with Lee, and he was tired of having to share her with the world. All he wanted was to get her home and slowly peel that yellow dress off her, like a banana. Then, he could take his time and savor every delectable inch of her.

“I hope I didn’t make a fool of myself tonight,” Lee remarked in the limousine on the way home. She kicked off her shoes and wriggled her toes.

Once home, they went directly to the back patio, where Lee melted into Roddy’s arms and pressed herself against him before she pulled his head down to hers.

“I’ve been waiting all day to be alone with you,” she murmured against his lips.

“You too?” he said on a groan. “Just feel this.” He guided her hand to the bulge in his pants, and she rubbed it slowly over the snakeskin before taking a tug on the laces holding the pants closed.



“She stole my press!” Eddie complained.

Roddy laughed and glanced again at the full-color photo of him and Lee smiling into the camera outside the premiere. As expected, Lee had captured the headlines as Roddy’s “mystery woman.” Somehow, an enterprising reporter had managed to dig up a story about her that was remarkably close to the truth.

“If you went out with a decent woman you wouldn’t have anything to worry about,” Roddy admonished. “All your Bambis have got to go.”

“Listen to you crow,” Eddie said on a sneer. “I can remember a time not so very long ago when your girlfriends could have failed an IQ test.”

“That’s all in the past. I’ve moved up in the world.”

Roddy felt pretty good about himself that day. The night with Lee had only just begun when they got back from the party the night before. Now, in addition to being responsible for his domestic bliss, Lee had run away with Hollywood’s fickle heart. He was infinitely proud of her, coupled with all those other warm, squishy feelings he wasn’t ready to analyze. Later would be soon enough to think about those things. For now, he wanted to simply enjoy being led around by a certain part of his anatomy. He wasn’t ready to think about how his heart was falling in line the same way. At the moment, all he wanted to do was bask in happiness without worrying about the future.

As usual, just when he thought he might be able to compartmentalize his feelings for her, she appeared. She looked like a cool spring breeze under the hot California sun with her hair hanging loosely down her back and wearing a gauzy, white dress that blew softly around her of its own accord.

“Why can’t you use the manners I tried so hard to teach you when you answer the phone?” Margaret O’Neill’s voice came over the line.

“Hi, Ma,” Roddy greeted her without enthusiasm.

“And,” she went on sternly, “how is it I have to read about my son’s fiancée in the morning paper, and I haven’t even met her yet?”

She’s not my fiancée!
Roddy would have bellowed if Lee had not been sitting right there. Instead, he said, “Gee, Ma, I just got up.”

Margaret barked out a laugh. “I’ll just bet you have. When are you going to let her out of bed long enough to come out and have lunch with me?”

Roddy cast an anxious glance at Lee. His mother wanted to have lunch with her now? He could just imagine the conversation they would have. Margaret was bound to fall in love with Lee on sight, and then Roddy was sure she would insist he put a ring on her finger. Lee probably wouldn’t know how to react to that, and to his way of thinking, she should be spared the discomfort.

What he didn’t want to admit was that he really wanted to spare
himself
the discomfort. Deep down, he knew lee would have no problems handling herself in any situation, particularly after last night. What Roddy really wanted to protect was his own personal freedom.

“Soon, Ma,” he hedged.

“How about tomorrow?” Margaret pushed, not about to be put off. “This article says you’re hard at work in the studio, and it also says she quit her job for you, so I’m sure she’s dying of boredom locked away at your house. She’s probably starved for female companionship.”

Margaret’s reproach could not be ignored. She didn’t like being left out of anything, and she wasn’t going to give up until Roddy gave in.

Roddy groaned on the inside. He could already imagine the next conversation he would have with his mother. She would gush on and on about how much fun she had dining by the pool with Lee, and she would be sure to tell him what a lovely young woman Lee was, with asides about how well she had obviously taken to living in Roddy’s house, which had been in dire need of a woman’s touch before. Then she would start in again on how he should marry her.

Roddy stole a glance at Eddie, who seemed inordinately amused by it all. He knew Margaret almost as well as Roddy did, and he was probably already making plans to hang out at Roddy’s house as much as possible for a front row seat. Eddie was having way too much fun at his expense since Roddy met Lee.