The Complete Groupie Trilogy (63 page)

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 f
or 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 ob
viously 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 wo
re, 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 underc
urrents 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 h
er hand that he should come in.

“Is…is Giovanni here?” he aske
d 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 ange
r 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 t
he 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 g
uided 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,” fo
r 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 s
at 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.

He glanced over at his son, who watched him carefully. He remembered that look way back when Vanni was a baby. He was such a thoughtful child who seemed to take in the world around him without giving too much away.

Angelo always suspected he learned that from him, the need to build walls and hide behind fortresses. He hated carrying on that trait, especially when Giovanni’s mother had been so open and loving. Not unlike the girl sitting next to him on the sofa.

“I remember that look,” he said softly as he looked away. “You were disappointed in me even as a baby, and rightfully so.”

Andy sent Vanni a supportive glance. His jaw was clenched so t
ightly he dared not say a word.

“I would get drunk,” Angelo went on, as if in confession. “Your mom was at work, hard at work, always at work. She had to be. I couldn’t keep a job. And there you would be in your playpen, staring at me just like you are looking at me now. You couldn’t even walk but you knew you got shafted when it came to a father.”

“So you left,” Vanni finally filled in the blank.

Angelo nodded. “I was weak,” he said. “I figured it was better for everyone. Even your mom. She worked so hard to put a roof over your head and I just tried to drink it all away week after week. I hated myself for being dead weight. And I knew she’d never kick me out. She was kind.”
He turned to Andy, “Like you.”

Andy reached for his han
d and squeezed it with a smile.

“So why are you back?” Vanni wanted to know. “Why now?”

Andy knew he believed Angelo wanted to take advantage of the fame. He didn’t trust this man, for obvious reasons, to do anything more than disappoint him one more time.

“When you first became successful I told myself that I had done the right thing by leaving. Your mom gave you everything you needed to make your dreams come true. You had talent and drive and courage, none of which came from me. It made me happy to know that the curse of my family had finally been broken at last. A Carnevale had made something of himself. I never would have bothered you at all had it not been for the accident, when I realized the demons that chased me all my life now were chasing you.”