Tender Deception: A Novel of Romance (14 page)

“Jimmy said you’ve been in the Mideast,” she said nervously.

“Yes. I just got back. Did you miss me?”

The full power of his penetrating gaze was turned on her.

She shuddered and concentrated her attention on the drink in her hand. She made an attempt to change the subject. “How does the band sound to you?”

“Very good.”

“We’re all thrilled at getting to play here. Jimmy and everyone in the band is grateful that you were able to arrange this engagement. It’s giving us a lot of new exposure and publicity—”

“You’re wasting your time with Jimmy’s band,” Kirk said shortly. “Remember what I told you? You could go a lot farther on your own, and I could help you if you’d let me. It wouldn’t take much to have your name as a headliner on one of those big marquees outside.”

“I—I don’t know if I want to be a superstar, assuming that were possible. I’m happy playing in Jimmy’s band.”

She felt his searching gaze measure her. “Are you?” he murmured, a dark flush staining his cheeks, “or do you like being near Jimmy that much?”

An angry retort sprang to her lips. But before she could utter it, he said, “You never did answer my question: Did you miss me?”

She raised her eyes to his, remembering with a rush of warmth the electrifying response to his caresses. “Was I supposed to miss you? When you left without even telling me you were going, I got the message that our last good-bye was final.”

“I did leave in something of a huff,” he admitted. “But since then I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind. How has it been for you, Lilly?”

She refused to reply verbally, but her heart silently answered for her. Had absence made the heart grow fonder? Or was she finally being honest with her true feelings?

There were two men in her life. She knew how she felt about Jimmy. Or, at least she thought she did. Jimmy had been her first love, her teen-age idol. But she was no longer a teen-ager. She was a woman now. Was it the woman who had responded to Kirk with so much passion while the child in her still clung to her high school crush on Jimmy, not wanting to give up the dream?

How did she truly feel about Kirk? Perhaps she had known all along, but lacked the courage to face it. All it took was seeing him again to make her heart see the truth. She was in love with Kirk. And it was no high school girl’s infatuation.

She could face the truth about her feelings now and not feel disloyal to Jimmy. It was possible, she knew, to have different feelings about different people. It was even possible to love differently.

Understanding her own feelings was one thing. Deciphering a complex man like Kirk Remington was another. He had made it clear enough that he wanted her. But he had never told her he loved her. Was it because of the shadow of the beautiful woman who still possessed his heart?

“Did you have a chance to see Marie Algretto while you were abroad?” she asked impulsively, surprised at her own boldness.

Again the dark flush spread over his cheeks. He shot her a black-eyed glare. “I told you once not to bring up my personal life.”

“You seem to have no hesitation about bringing up my relationship with your brother.”

“That’s another matter. My relationship with Miss Algretto doesn’t concern you.”

Lilly flushed. “I think it concerns me very much. The fact that you avoid a direct answer every time I bring up the subject tells me that it’s still a very painful subject for you.”

He sighed, “Lilly, let’s not sit here and quarrel. I brought you over here to tell you that I missed you and that I’m glad to see you again.”

The sincerity in his words and expression softened the anger she had felt a moment before.

Kirk reached over and took her hand in his. He was looking at her directly, his gaze holding hers. “Friends?” he asked softly.

Her heart melted. “Yes,” she murmured, her weakness for him responding against her will.

He squeezed her hand and sat back. “That’s better.”

Lilly toyed with her drink. “Will you be in Las Vegas for a while?”

His eyes clouded. “I’m afraid not, Lilly. I just flew down here for a few hours to see how Jimmy and the band were getting along and to see you. I have to catch a plane out of here in a few hours for New York. But I’ll be back in New Orleans when Jimmy finishes this engagement here and returns to Bourbon Street. I want to know if I can see you again when that time comes.”

Lilly nodded slowly, wondering if she was letting herself in for the heartbreak she had been trying to avoid. But she no longer had the will to say no to him.

* * * * * * *

But the following night she had second thoughts about ever going out with Kirk Remington again. Jimmy said, “I see you and my big brother are on friendly terms again.”

“Yes,” Lilly admitted.

“I guess you know why he didn’t stick around here very long.”

“Yes. He told me. He had to fly to New York on business.”

“Oh? Did he also remember to mention that Marie Algretto is in New York this week singing at the Metropolitan?”

Lilly felt the blood drain from her cheeks.

“Wise up, Lilly,” Jimmy said. “Kirk wants you for a playmate. But for the rest of his life, any time that redheaded opera singer crooks her little finger, brother Kirk is going to drop whatever he’s doing and go running to her side....”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Lilly resolved to have nothing more to do with Kirk Remington. Jimmy was right; Kirk only wanted her for a temporary playmate. His heart belonged to Marie Algretto. If the time came that she wanted him back, he’d discard any other woman he was involved with in an instant.

Lilly’s realization that she loved Kirk changed nothing except to make her more vulnerable. So, she concluded, there was only one course she could take. That was to refuse to go out with him ever again.

She stuck to that resolve when the band returned to New Orleans. She offered no explanation. She didn’t want to let Kirk work his persuasive ways on her. It would be too tempting to give in to him. She simply refused to go out with him. Kirk appeared baffled, then angry. But after several futile attempts, he left her strictly alone.

That might have forever ended her involvement with him. But fate intervened in the form of a violent falling out between Jimmy and Kirk. Lilly heard the bitter argument between the two brothers through the closed door of the Sho-Time Bar’s office one night when the band finished playing.

The next night Jimmy came to work wearing a strained, angry expression. He called the group into the club’s small office. “Bad news, fellows and Lilly. We’re losing our steady gig at this joint.”

There was a moment of stunned silence.

“I don’t dig this, man,” Cemetery Wilson exclaimed. “I thought you had half interest in the joint.”

“Not exactly. Kirk has the lease. I fronted the band for him and oversaw the managing of the club. But the lease belongs to him. The lease is up and he’s refusing to renew it. He’s closing the operation down.”

Skinny Lang had a coughing seizure. When he recovered he said, “Hey, I don’t get it. Isn’t the club making money?”

“I guess not,” Jimmy shrugged. “Kirk doesn’t think so. He blames it on the way I’ve been running things when he’s out of town.”

“What a drag!” Charlie Neal groaned, rubbing his stomach. “I thought we were on our way after that Las Vegas gig.”

“So did I,” Jimmy agreed. “Well, that’s what I get for teaming up with a square businessman. Kirk may be my brother, but the guy knows nothing when it comes to music and running a band. All he knows is the bottom line in a financial report.”

A pall of gloom settled over the musicians. Lilly gazed with stricken eyes at Jimmy. She wondered with a sinking feeling if she were somehow to blame. She knew there was a smoldering jealousy between the two brothers. Kirk was angry because she refused to see him anymore. Was he blaming her attitude on her feeling for Jimmy and had he chosen this way to get back at both of them?

She found it hard to believe that Kirk could be that petty. Still, when two men fought over a woman, no holds were barred.

“How about you leasing the joint, Jimmy?” Cemetery suggested.

Jimmy made a hopeless gesture. “I don’t have that kind of bread. Maybe if we could have stayed on here another year or two. But the way it is now—” He shook his head. “No way.”

“So what happens to the band?”

“We go back to booking one-night gigs until something steady turns up again.” Jimmy made an effort to put on a cheerful front. “Hey, don’t let this get you down. There’s plenty of work to keep us going. And sooner or later we’ll get steady booking again.”

But his words had a hollow ring. Lilly knew the odds were against his holding the band together under these circumstances. She felt a cloud of despair settle over all of them.

The band was restrained and somber that night. Their usual
joie de vivre
evaporated into a pall of gloom. Jimmy drank more than usual. Lilly had often seen him drink with customers and friends in the course of an evening at the club, but he held his liquor well and never showed the effects of alcohol. Tonight was the first time she saw it get the best of him. By the end of the evening, he was less than sober and it affected his playing. He didn’t seem to care.

The band ended their steady engagement at the Sho-Time Bar on Bourbon Street. From that night on, it was a downhill trip for Jimmy LaCross’s Jazz Band. And most of all, for Jimmy LaCross. He was able to find one night engagements for the group here and there, but no steady work. He was hitting the bottle regularly; Lilly seldom saw him completely sober. She was sick with worry over him. He had been so certain that they were headed for stardom. The bottom had fallen out of his dreams and he couldn’t take it.

Finances for Lilly became desperate. She had to find other work to pay the rent and eat. One week she had a temporary engagement substituting for a regular pianist at a cocktail lounge in a motel on the outskirts of the city. During the evening, she heard a familiar voice speak her name and looked up, surprised to see the drummer, Cemetery Wilson.

“Hi, babe,” Cemetery said, taking a seat at the piano bar.

“Cemetery! What are you doing out here?”

“Not much else to do,” he said somberly.

Lilly finished her number and signed off for a break. She took a seat beside the drummer.

“Buy you a drink?” Cemetery offered.

“I’ll have a cup of coffee. Are you all right, Cemetery? You look down.”

He shrugged. “You know how it is, babe. Looks like the band is breaking up. Skinny is starting with a new group next week. Riley is going back to St. Louis. Jimmy just can’t book enough work to keep us together.”

Lilly nodded, close to tears. She was afraid if she tried to talk about it, she’d break down completely.

“Jimmy is a great guy,” Cemetery said, “and I love him like a brother. But he never was much good at managing his money. I guess blowing that horn is all the good Lord meant him to do well. If Jimmy’d had any sense, he would have saved his bread while we were at the Sho-Time Bar, then he could have leased a place of his own. But with Jimmy, it’s easy come, easy go. He likes to show his friends a good time. And he’s got a weakness for the horses. That’s where his money went.”

“But that’s Jimmy,” Lilly defended. “That’s part of him—laughing, making people like him, not worrying about tomorrow. He just blows that pretty horn. That’s why we love him.”

“Yeah,” Cemetery muttered. “I’d like to break his fool neck except he’s such a great guy.” The drummer scowled darkly down at his glass. “He needs you tonight, Lilly. I can’t do anything with him. Maybe you can. He has a special feeling for you, like you’re his kid sister. Maybe you can do something with-him, talk some sense into him.”

Concern rushed through her. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s been down at the Red Lady on Bourbon Street all evening. You know the joint, where Maxie Jones and his band is playing. Jimmy’s been drinking since noon. Somebody needs to get him to go home. I tried, but he won’t listen to me. Maybe he’ll listen to you.”

Lilly’s torment pained her. “I’ll finish here in a half hour. Can you give me a lift down there?”

Cemetery nodded.

When they left the motel lounge, Cemetery took the freeway downtown in his dilapidated Toyota. He got as close to Bourbon Street as he could with the nighttime traffic restrictions and let her off on a street corner. “No use in me going along,” he said. “Jimmy’s sore at me for trying to get him to leave earlier.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Lilly promised.

The Red Lady was one of the flourishing night spots in the heart of the area. Maxie Jones had one of the popular Dixie bands on the street. Like Jimmy, he played trumpet. The two of them had more than once gotten into “carving” contests when one tried to outplay the other. Jimmy usually won, blowing his horn higher and wilder than Maxie, a situation that created some bad blood between them.

Lilly was upset at the thought of Jimmy being at Maxie’s place in his frame of mind, especially if he was drinking heavily. She found him, as Cemetery had described, sitting at one of the front tables, obviously drunk. His trumpet was in his lap. He was holding a half-empty glass in one hand, staring up at the bandstand where Maxie’s band was romping through a frantic rendition of
That’s-a-Plenty.