"Well, hello,
bebette.
" His voice was more than a little shaky. "Does Daddy know you're on the phone?"
There was a soft rustle and Remey smiled. He could picture her, curls bouncing as she shook her head in answer.
"Wasn't you hungry, Remey?"
Remey furrowed his brows, confused.
Hungry... oh, God.
He covered his face with his hand as he realized it was Tuesday. He, Aleks and Willow had gotten into the habit of having dinner together at the café on Tuesday nights. Willow sounded so confused and sad, wondering why he hadn't been there.
"Oh, sweetheart." How did he explain this to her? "I'm not home,
bebette.
I'm in California. Where they make movies, where I used to live before."
"I saved you pie, but Daddy said not to an' I could has it tomorrow for snack. But I wanna save it for you, 'kay?"
Remey's heart broke all over again. He'd known Aleks was going to take the separation hard, but the confirmation from innocent Willow, who undoubtedly had no idea what was going on, made it hurt even more.
"Thank you, Willow, but you can have your pie for a snack. It was sweet of you to think of me, though."
There was silence for a few seconds, and Remey began to wonder if she'd accidentally hung up, but then came an impatient-sounding sigh.
"You been gone a looong time."
Remey couldn't help but smile, even though it hurt like hell. But he had to smile. He was getting scolded by a three-year-old. "I know. I'm sorry I missed dinner tonight."
"Wanna come t'morrow?" Then, right on the heels of that, "Santa's comin' on Sunday. Is you comin', too?"
Remey pressed the fingers of his free hand to his eyes, which stung a bit at the hope in Willow's voice. She didn't know or didn't understand about Aleks being upset with him, or how things might never be the same between them. She only knew she missed him and she wanted to see him for Christmas. And oh, gosh, did Remey want to see her.
It might be a mistake, but he wasn't going to be the one to let her down. Not again, if he could help it. So he took a deep breath and nodded. "I am,
bebette.
I promise. I'll be there before Santa will."
If he had to pull every string there was and use the pull he'd earned after years of working his butt off for his label, he'd be home in Haven by Christmas Eve at the latest. Alli would be thrilled he intended to use his fame for once.
"Yay!" Her cheer made him wince a little, but laugh at the same time. Then he heard her gasp. "Uh-oh!" Followed by a clatter.
"Willow?"
Silence.
"Willow?" Remey pulled the phone away from his ear and let out a soft laugh. Disconnected call. He had a feeling her "Uh-oh" had been Aleks discovering his imp of a daughter was playing with his phone. He wondered what Aleks would think when he found out who she'd been talking to.
He set the phone on the table, staring at it for a few seconds. Willing it to ring, to be Aleks, even if it was to yell at him. He missed him, missed them both, so much.
A full minute ticked by on the clock and his phone didn't ring again. Remey sighed, his throat tight, and slipped it back into his bag as the door to the conference room opened, and Alli came in, holding bags from their favorite sandwich shop. Remey worked up a smile and pulled out a chair for her, touched she'd gone to so much trouble. He'd have to do his best to eat. He didn't want her to feel like it had been a wasted trip.
"Listen, since you're here, Kevin said he'd gotten a call with an offer for you to be on the Christmas Eve special on Channel 5, you know, the one they show every year? It's a huge deal and he said he practically pissed himself when they called," Alli related, sounding smug as she worked their drink cups out of the tray. "So can I tell him yes, so he doesn't, like, explode?"
Remey didn't answer, and Alli sat in the chair beside him, covering his hand with one of her own. "Hey, Cajun, what's wrong?"
Remey let out a breath and glanced over to meet Alli's eyes. "I just... I just got off the phone with Willow," he explained, rubbing the heel of his free hand over his eyes.
Alli gasped, lacing her fingers with his and scooting her chair closer. "You talked to her? But I thought... you said Aleks wasn't returning your calls. Did he change his mind?"
Remey shook his head. "No. I... she said he was drawing. She must've made off with his phone and figured out how to call me."
Alli smiled, squeezing his hand. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't smile, but that's really cute."
Remey smiled, too. "Yeah. He must have one that puts your picture with your number or something. I don't know if she can read yet. She's smart enough, though."
Alli gave him a sympathetic look, and Remey knew she heard the emotion in his voice. "He could still come around, Remey. It hasn't even been a week." She gave his shoulder a light nudge. "Hey, maybe the donation drive your fans are doing will help, right? It can't hurt. Ever since you tweeted about having to miss doing the concert and how important getting the center funded was to you, they've rallied, babe."
Remey glanced at her. "Yeah?"
Alli laughed, nodding. "Oh, yeah. I guess you haven't been checking your Twitter feed or anything, but they're close to a hundred and fifty thousand already. Your man is going to get his center and then some, Cajun. It has to count for something."
Remey blew out a breath, running his fingers through his hair. "That's great news. Still, I don't..." He broke off, meeting Alli's eyes with a helpless shrug of his shoulders. "I don't know if it will be enough,
cher.
He wants to know, and rightfully so, that he and Willow are my number one priority. This whole shakeup happened at the worst possible time. If I'd had a bit longer..."
Alli slipped her arm around his shoulders and hugged him close, her eyes sympathetic. "I know. But that kind of money, and the fact it's a result of your fame... maybe it'll soften him up enough so when you go back, you'll be able to at least get him to talk to you. He can't resist you, especially if you give him the forlorn looks you keep giving me."
Remey chewed on his lower lip, poking at the wrapped sandwich in front of him. "I don't know... Alli. I told Willow I'd be home for Christmas. I couldn't stand the idea of disappointing her. I can't break my promise. I maybe shouldn't have made it, but... I can't resist her."
Alli straightened up in her chair, her eyes gleaming with purpose. Remey reminded himself for what had to be the millionth time in the past five years he never, ever wanted to get in her way when she had a goal in mind. "So you won't. Cajun, how often do I tell you that you do absolutely nothing with all the pull you've earned?"
Remey glanced over at her, smiling. "A lot. I was thinking so myself, too, while I had her on the phone. I'm not going to turn into some diva, but..."
"Pulling strings once does not make you a diva, Remey," Alli told him, her voice stern. "This is worth it. We're going to tell them no on the special, and we're going to get these suits to focus on you like they should've been all along."
"And then?"
Alli gave him a mischievous grin. "And then we're going home for Christmas. Aleks wants to know you're going to put him and Willow first? Well, then let's show him."
When the doorbell rang, Aleks considered not answering it. But Willow was down for a nap and if it rang again, it'd wake her up. So he tossed his paintbrush into the jar of thinner and hurried down to get it before whoever it was rang a second time.
He sighed as he swung open the door. "Damn it, Jess."
His sister-in-law raised a brow at him. "Such a lovely, warm, happy holiday greeting, Aleks. Why, yes, I'd love to come in." Then she pushed past him into the entryway and began taking off her coat.
With no other option besides physically tossing her out, Aleks sighed again and shut the door. "I'm busy, Jessica."
She cut him a sideways look as she unwound her scarf. "Mmm, yes, I'm sure. Being the tortured
artiste
pouring your pain onto the canvas?" Jess shook her head and took his hand. "Not today. Today we're going to talk--me and you. Come on." Her tone was very matter-of-fact as she pulled him into the living room.
Aleks frowned. "Were you always this much of a bully or is this a new development?"
"Oh, always. I've never had a reason to bully
you,
is all
.
I saved it for your brother." Jess tugged Aleks down onto the couch beside her, keeping hold of his hand. "I considered asking Stevan to come and hold you down while I talked to you, but he's a big, insensitive lug and I figured I'd have better luck getting the story out of you on my own."
Aleks sighed heavily. "There's no story, Jessica. Remey put his career first, like I knew he would. Nothing to talk about there."
"Did you hear about the donation drive?"
Aleks frowned, tugging his hand free. "What donation drive?"
"Well, Remey tweeted last Friday how he was so disappointed about not being able to do the concert and how important the funding for the center was, and some of his fans started a donation drive to bring in the funding. I know how awful you felt about having to refund everyone's tickets, but it's brought in close to a quarter of a million dollars. In a week, Aleks. That's enough to fund the center for ages."
Aleks stared at her for a second, not sure he'd heard right. "A... quarter of a million dollars? US dollars? Two hundred and fifty thousand of them?"
Jess laughed. "You sound surprised. The man has something like three million fans following him on Twitter--one of which is me, of course. Two-hundred-fifty K is only the start, I bet. If only half of his fans donate a dollar, you'll be able to fund the center for years."
Aleks couldn't even fathom that kind of money. They'd stood to raise about eight thousand from the tickets sold, which had been amazing in itself. But this... He shook his head. "Wow." A little hundred-forty-character message was all it took for Remey to do what Aleks hadn't been able to do in the last three years. He almost wanted to be jealous, but it was too important for petty feelings. He could only be grateful. "Maybe we can do something like name it after him or something. To thank him."
Jess tilted her head at him with an admonishing look. "Aleks. You know Remey doesn't care about recognition. The only thanks he wants is for you to stop ignoring him and acting like he doesn't exist. How many voice mails and e-mails and texts have you ignored?"
Aleks hated the fact she could make him squirm with guilt. "Some. A few." He sighed. "A lot." He met Jess's gaze. "Willow called him a few days ago. She got my phone when I was painting and she was supposed to be napping and figured out how to call him." And there was a slice of pie in the fridge Willow refused to eat or let him throw out. Remey's pie, staring at him every time he opened the damn fridge.
She missed him. So did he. But Aleks knew they'd both miss him a hell of a lot more later on down the road when he was flitting in and out of their lives the way Regan did.
"Oh, Aleks..." Jess's eyes got all misty-looking. "She misses him."
"I know." Aleks sighed and shook his head. "But she'll get over it, especially if things go back to normal."
"And what are you going to do when he comes back?" Jess asked. "Haven is too small a town for you to ignore him. You're going to run into each other. It's unavoidable. How are you going to explain to Willow--when you see him at the market or the café and you won't say a word to each other, or you won't let her near him?"
"I don't know, Jess. I haven't gotten that far yet. I only know I can't let Willow pin her hopes on someone who can't or won't put her first, put us first. Remey can't do it, and I knew it all along. I didn't want to get involved with him, Jess. I always knew this was going to be how it ended. He was the one who kept insisting he was different, but..." Aleks shrugged. "If he were different, he'd be here, wouldn't he?"
He hated the way Jess kept looking at him. Like he was pitiful. And maybe he was. He hadn't anticipated how hard it would be for him to put Remey out of his mind. So far, he hadn't been able to at all. He hated this. And he knew it was his own fault because he'd set himself up for it.
"Aleks, let's be honest here. This has a lot more to do with Willow's mom than it does Remey. If his job was something like... I don't know, an architect and there was an emergency on a job site he absolutely had to go handle, would you have reacted the way you did? Would you have thrown him out of your life over something he couldn't control?"
Aleks knew the answer and so did Jess by the expression on her face. "You're right. I know you're right. But he's not an architect, he's a celebrity. It doesn't change the fact this is what life with someone like Remey would be like. Playing second string to his career, waiting for him to come back from wherever he's jetted off to this time."
Aleks didn't want to spend his life waiting on Remey. And he refused to let Willow spend hers doing the same.
Jess sighed. "Aleks, I swear maybe I should've brought your brother over here so he could knock some sense into you." She frowned at him and pushed to her feet. "You love him. Willow loves him. And he loves you. Any fool could see it. And you're going to throw it away because he doesn't have the right job? He's not Regan. He's not your past. He's Remey. And he wants you, you idiot."
Aleks watched as she stomped to the hall and grabbed her coat, the door shutting quietly behind her. He hated when she did that. Came storming in, pointed out all the ways he was being a tool and then stormed right back out, leaving him with his thoughts.
And right now all he could think was he might have made the biggest mistake in his life and how the hell did you apologize for that?
* * * *
The doorbell ringing was like someone set off a firecracker under Willow. She bounced right up off the floor, tugging at Aleks's hand.
"Remey, is Remey! He promised, Daddy. He said 'fore Santa came!"
Aleks glanced out the front window, but there were no cars parked out there. "Don't get your hopes up." Aleks had trouble obeying himself as he approached the door. Willow must have thought he was moving too slow and darted past him to tug the door open, letting out an ear-splitting squeal.