Groupie/Rock Star Bundle (64 page)

It was not unlike that conversation they had at
a Brooklyn pizza joint so many years ago. He had been bound to
Lourdes and couldn’t break free, and honestly let her know he
couldn’t give her what she wanted. Now the tables had turned. She
was limited in what she could give, and it was up to him to decide
if it was enough.

She made her decision to walk away, so why
shouldn’t he?

Andy had started to suspect their whole affair
was just the product of bad timing.

Yet despite her constant, possessive language
in regards to Vanni, Holly wasn’t the one racing toward Manhattan
to support Vanni through what had to be the toughest emotional
speed bump of his entire life. In fact Vanni had decided not to
share much about this trip with her at all. She had offered to
come, naturally, but he declined. He wanted Andy there and he felt
that it would have complicated more than it helped to include both
women in this ordeal.

He agreed with Andy, the fewer people who knew
the better. It was hard enough trying to carve out any kind of
private life these days now that he was on the PING hit list. Any
decision he could make that didn’t make the front pages of tabloid
news was one more battle against the gossip mill he won.

The ironic part was only he knew it.

So they both signed into the hotel under
aliases. They booked suites on the top floors where patrons paid
way too much money to care what kind of celebrity was doing what
around them. Giovanni Carnevale was small potatoes next to the
dignitaries and box office titans who might be registered right
next to him.

But he still tied his hair back, wore glasses,
hats and overcoats, and basically didn’t make eye contact with the
crowd that milled about the streets of New York.

Fortunately for him no one in those crowds
seemed to care. That was the beauty of the city. Everyone was
racing on their own path to their own destinations. They couldn’t
care less if he was the reincarnation of Elvis. They had their own
lives to worry about.

It was a nice respite from Los
Angeles.

Despite it all neither one of them felt the
need to take any chances. They didn’t travel together, they didn’t
ride together. They didn’t even stay on the same floor. On Andy’s
first night in the city she went out to eat with Iris and with
Jacob and didn’t even see Vanni at all.

He made his presence known with a two dozen
champagne colored roses in her room, along with a box of her
favorite chocolates sitting on the table by the bed. Jacob provided
a gift basket full of soaps and bath bombs and lotions, and Iris
had given her gift certificates for birthday mani/pedis, facials
and hairstyling that Andy was finally at a place in her life to
enjoy.

It was midnight before she heard the knock on
the door. Vanni had a smile on his face as he rolled in the room
service tray covered with the makings for a midnight ice cream
sundae.

“What are you doing?” she giggled as she
followed him into the room.

“I was hungry,” he explained. “And I heard it
is bad luck to eat ice cream alone.”

“I don’t think that’s a thing.”

He just gave her a lopsided grin. “It has to
be. I mean, if you don’t eat it then it will melt, and how can
melted ice cream not be bad luck? Do you really want to risk the
ice cream gods smiting the children of your children’s
children?”

She shook her head as she laughed, and then sat
at the table where he was preparing an enormous sundae she knew
she’d never be able to eat. “I’ve already eaten,” she
said.

“You ate with Iris and Jacob,” he clarified.
“Odds are you went to an expensive restaurant where you paid $75
for two bites of food on a plate as big as your head.”

Again she laughed. He wasn’t far wrong. “Fine.
I give.” He handed her a bowl with a sloppy, gooey sundae with
every imaginable topping. She took a big spoonful as he finished
his own. Despite that it looked like it was constructed by a
five-year-old the ingredients were decadent and delightful. Her
eyes rolled back at the first bite. “If I get fatter it’s your
fault,” she mumbled with her mouth full.

He reached over to wipe some chocolate from her
nose. “I already told you,” he said with a smile. “I like my Andy
bear squishy.”

She shook her head at him with a roll of her
eyes as she plunged even deeper into Mount Sundae.

“I’m glad you’re finally here,” he said as he
dug into his own sundae. “It’s been kinda lonely.”

She wanted to ask if that was because Holly
wasn’t around, but found herself unable to. Instead she pointed
out, “You lived here for more than a decade. Don’t you have
friends?”

He shook his head. “Haven’t you heard how
lonely it is at the top? I’m not the same guy I was before. I can’t
disappear in a crowd. So it’s not like I can just go hang out with
a buddy from high school at a neighborhood bar. Iris has taken care
of me but she has her own life. I’m more a client now than a
friend, and she’s got a full roster. Without the guys here, it’s
just not the same.”

Andy nodded. As closed up as he had always been
it wasn’t like he made any real attachments. Everyone who got close
to him lived in Los Angeles now. “I guess it doesn’t even feel like
home anymore, huh?”

He gave her a sad nod. His dark eyes met hers.
“At least until right now.”

She stopped chewing. This was a dangerous path.
“Vanni…”

He held up a hand. “I know. Not the
time.”

They ate a bit in silence until she finally
asked, “So have you made plans to meet with Angelo?” She couldn’t
even really bring herself to call the man his father, not after his
being gone most of his life.

He shook his head. “Putting it off as long as I
can,” he said. “Not sure if I’m ready at all, but I knew I couldn’t
do it alone. We have to do it by Friday though. That’s when Iris
has set up the televised interview.”

“What if it doesn’t go well?”

“It has to go well,” he told her. “If not I
just lie my ass off. I’m pretty good at that.”

She didn’t say anything. She just watched as he
finished off his sundae in silence. Finally she said, “Let’s do it
tomorrow.”

His eyes met hers. She could instantly tell it
was the very last thing he wanted to do, so she went on, “Why wait?
Let’s just tear the bandage off so no matter what happens to the
wound we can be in better control of the bleeding by
Friday.”

He gave her a smile as he reached for her hand.
“My wise Andy. This is why I wanted you here.”

She returned his smile. “I wouldn’t be anywhere
else.”

And that was the God’s honest truth.

The next day they arranged for a meeting at the
hotel. It was the safest place in the city, free from any peeping
PING reporters. They booked another suite where they could have
some privacy, and if things did not go well then Angelo would not
have the exact room number where Vanni was staying.

In fact they chose a more opulent suite than
the ones they opted to personally stay in. Andy wondered if this
was a loud and proud statement on Vanni’s part that even though he
had been abandoned by his father, he had grown up into ten times
the man this obviously poor man could ever be.

Andy stood by the window and stared down at the
city below. Her heart was in her throat as she waited for Angelo to
arrive. Her heart lurched every time a cab pulled up to the
entrance just below the awning. She could only imagine how Vanni
felt as he waited in the other room. When the knock finally came a
quarter after two, Andy walked on shaking feet over to the
door.

Though she was ready to hate Angelo Carnevale
for all the things he had done to his son, her heart immediately
went out to the man standing on the other side of the door. He may
have been tall once but his stature had definitely shrunk with age.
He was thinner than the clothes he wore, which added to the
frailty.

His hair was neatly trimmed short without an
ounce of style, as was the beard that framed his face. Lines
gathered at the corners of his eyes and mouth and his hands
trembled as he clutched a hat in his hands. He looked old, unsure
and ready to bolt at the hint of any conflict. It made her
instantly understand some of the hidden undercurrents that
motivated Vanni.

She found herself giving Angelo a reassuring
smile as she opened the door wider. “Mr. Carnevale?” she asked. He
nodded but did not enter until she gestured with her hand that he
should come in.

“Is…is Giovanni here?” he asked with a quiver
in his voice.

She nodded. “He’s in the other room. I’ll go
get him. Please, make yourself at home.”

He glanced around the grand room uncertainly.
This was not a place someone like Angelo Carnevale could ever feel
“at home” and it showed all over his face.

“Would you like something to drink?” she
asked.

He cleared his throat. “Water would be nice,
miss.”

“I’m Andy,” she said as she walked over to the
bar to prepare him a glass.

“Are you … a friend?” he asked.

She smiled as she brought him his drink. “You
could say that. I’ve known your son for a few years now. We work
together.”

He just nodded and looked down into the crystal
tumbler. “Does he hate me?” he asked softly, but the power of the
fear behind his words took her breath away. It dawned on her how
much courage it took for him to be in that room, ready to face the
justifiable anger of someone he had so wronged.

“I think you should ask him that question,”
Andy said softly. Without another word she went into the bedroom of
the suite where Vanni waited.

Like she had previously done, he stood staring
out the window toward the street below. She couldn’t help but stop
and watch him for a moment. His hair toppled down his back and he
wore a simple button down shirt over black jeans. It was as fancy
as someone like Vanni got. But as strong as he was and as powerful
as he could be, there was a frightened boy there. That boy was
about to walk through the door and have all his questions answered,
whether he liked those answers or not.

Would he see the sickly man Angelo had become
after years and years of battling alcoholism? Or would he still see
the man who heartlessly and selfishly left him with his mother to
struggle and survive all on their own?

Silently Andy walked up behind where he stood
and took him into her arms. She rested her mouth against his
shoulder for a comforting kiss as he tightened her grip around him.
There was a catch in his voice when he confessed, “I don’t want to
do this.”

She fought back tears of her own. “You have to,
Vanni. It’s the only way to fix what’s broken.”

He turned around to pull her closer into an
embrace. “Don’t leave,” he begged.

She shook her head. She wasn’t going anywhere.
She kissed his face softly and then pulled away to lead him into
the other room by the hand.

The minute Angelo saw Vanni for the first time
was electric. He rose slowly to his feet, gripping the crystal
tumbler in his hand so hard his knuckles turned white. Andy prayed
he wouldn’t break the glass and cut himself.

On the other side of the room Vanni sucked in a
deep breath when he looked at his father. Andy had to wonder if he
was as taken aback by the obvious vulnerability of the older man as
she was. He grabbed her hand for strength and she gently urged him
further into the room.

Angelo’s hands shook as he placed the glass on
the coffee table in front of the antique sofa. Andy could feel the
tremors coursing through Vanni’s body as she guided him to the
opposite sofa.

For long, agonizing minutes no one said
anything. What can anyone say after years of silence and willful
abandonment? What words could make any amends? How can anyone say,
“I’m sorry,” for a lifetime of disappointment?

How would those two words ever be
enough?

The weight of his mistake finally broke the dam
for Angelo. He knew there were no words. The minute he opened his
mouth a wretched sob broke through. To add insult to injury his son
had to see his father for the first time at his weakest. He pulled
a ratty old handkerchief out of his jacket pocket and sobbed
helplessly into it.

Andy glanced up at Vanni, who watched on
silently. Tears balled at the corners of his eyes but he seemed
determined not to let them free. So Andy pulled her hand from his
and walked around coffee table to put her arm around the sobbing
older man. “Let’s sit,” she whispered softly as she helped him down
onto the sofa.

Vanni couldn’t look on as she comforted him. It
softened his heart in a way he wasn’t ready for yet. He knew she
was right to extend the kindness to a pitiful old man, but his
heart was still broken after years of this man’s absence. He
couldn’t bring himself to scale the wall between them just
yet.

Instead he just sat opposite the man and
waited.

Once his tears were spent Angelo sent Andy a
grateful smile. She made him feel welcome and oddly safe when he
was certain Vanni would have nothing but hostility towards him. He
was glad she was there. And he was glad Vanni had a friend like
her.