The Complete Groupie Trilogy (89 page)

She was laughing and crying as he kissed planted a soft, long kiss on her tummy. “I love you, baby Bean,” he said before he rose up to kiss Andy. “And I love you. Best of all.”

They shared another long, slow kiss. She dragged herself from the bed before they headed straight for round two. Today was a workday, and they didn’t have the luxury of hanging around in bed all day.

He pouted as he followed her to the shower, which he insisted they share. He took his time bathing her, and then got even using his fingers to work her into a frenzy. She had to lean against the wall as he gave her something naughty and exciting to think about all day.

It made meeting up with Graham later that morning even more awkward, especially since Vanni was not shy about staking his claim where Andy was concerned. Everyone at the studio knew they were a couple, some even were privy to the information she was his fiancé. Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, everyone was bound by a code of silence until the official press release was issued that Friday.

It was a safe little bubble where Andy finally felt acknowledged and valued.

Shannon wasn’t too keen on the current controversy with Holly, especially when it got back to her that her high-paid celebrity judge was engaged to someone else who was likewise in the family way. She met with Graham and Dixie early to express her concerns.

Dixie waved it off that, while they didn’t want to focus on it, the controversy could drive initial ratings. “If people see us the first time because of this,” the firebrand redheaded media mogul explained, “then they’ll keep tuning in.”

Graham nodded, but his investment in Vanni’s remaining a judge wasn’t completely altruistic. He liked the fact that he could see Andy every day thanks to the new show, and it worked to his favor that Vanni was still screwing up the way he had always screwed up.

There was still a kernel of hope that she’d eventually pull her head out of the sand and see that he was all wrong for her, especially now that she had a baby on the way.

Graham was thoughtful and attentive when working with Andy, which didn’t escape Vanni’s notice. In fact he watched every encounter and read between every line to see what was really being said between them. The minute the news broke about Holly, Vanni had feared that Andy would run screaming back to stable, uncomplicated Graham. So far she hadn’t, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still harbor some of those fears she might.

They had been through too much, this past year especially. Andy had finally gotten out from under the oppressive cloud of obligation. If she left him now it would be because she chose another man.

The more he watched Graham with Andy, the more Vanni understood that there were deep feelings between them, and a connection he wasn’t likely to break.

Worst of all he couldn’t even make a big deal about it because across town in a Hollywood hospital lay another woman pregnant with his child.

Andy made the disheartening discovery he was now the one under the oppressive cloud.

With a sigh he realized she was being far more magnanimous about his situation than he had ever been about hers.

He truly didn’t deserve her, but somehow she loved him anyway.

He stuffed down any distaste he may have felt for Graham and his working relationship with Andy, and they got down to business.

Vanni met the other two judges slated to be on the show. Allison Ewing was an older, country singer who had made a name for herself in the 1980s as a Honky Tonk Party girl. She’d married and raised a family in the interim, but her straight-shootin’ approach to life, music, and even politics, had kept her in the public eye even after she had retired from music. Her hair was still bleached blond and teased to high heaven, and she had a thick Oklahoma accent that could have been annoying and abrasive had it not been for her bright blue eyes and ready, Southern smile.

Ryder Reed was a producer from New York. He’d made careers out of Internet stars with his own start-up company. He and Graham would be in competition for the contestants that emerged from the competition. Ryder wanted young, urban and marketable, but he was known for championing those other, larger labels might have ignored entirely. A couple of novelty acts had top-ten hits thanks to Ryder’s ability to think outside the box.

The judges were split apart for the first round of auditions, where they listened to demo tapes only in the privacy of a sound booth, rather than live auditions. Unlike other shows, that often produced train-wreck auditions, these were a little more challenging. It wasn’t a matter of these contestants being talented; it was if they were talented
enough
based on the strength of their production value alone. Each hopeful sang two songs, one with musical accompaniment, and one without. At that point each judge would score based on their individual criteria to bring the contestants back for the live auditions the following week.

The original screening process had produced more than two thousand quality contestants for this first round, so it was up to the judges to go through and narrow the field down to a hundred or so semi-finalists. Those contestants would come back the following weeks to perform live with a band, to see if they had what it took to be legitimate stage act.

Andy left Vanni to do his judging while she worked more with the production team. She had her own office, and that was where Graham found her that afternoon when they all broke for lunch. He brought a sandwich from the lunch truck, along with a box of juice. She gave him a grateful smile. In order to get things up to speed by the following week, they were swamped. She might have worked through lunch had he not intervened.

“Always looking after me,” she said as she turned away from her computer and opened up her juice.

“Always,” he promised. He sat in the chair opposite her desk. “So how did things work out this weekend?”

She shrugged. “It is what it is. I think Holly is just going to be a complication for the foreseeable future.”

He nodded. “I talked to a doctor about a fertility test,” he said. “They can be done while she’s pregnant but her doctor would have to sign off on it since it comes with certain risks. Since she’s so ill, that may delay things.”

She gave him a good-humored smile. “I wouldn’t expect it any other way. We don’t do easy, apparently.”

He nodded. He wanted to add the only reason he knew about the fertility test was because he still held onto the hope she might be having his baby instead of Vanni’s, but it was a futile battle at the moment. He’d just wait until Vanni screwed up – again – and she came running back to him to fix it.

Again.

It wasn’t a matter of if. It was a matter of when.

“My security guy says you have received a couple more suspicious packages,” he said. “Is there a problem I should know about?”

She shook her head. “Nothing concrete, yet. It’s nothing dangerous, just more and more obscene. Obviously this chick wants Vanni to get the hint that she’s completely and totally available.”

“According to the world, he is,” Graham pointed out. “When are you going to tell the world your happy news?”

“This week,” she answered. “At the press conference. He’s just going to get it all out in the open.”

Graham sighed. “Have you talked that over with Shannon?”

“No. Why?”

“This Holly thing has her nervous. She wasn’t kidding when she said she wanted him to keep his nose clean. It’s in the contract.”

“So what are you saying? That we can’t announce anything until after the show is over?”

“I don’t know. How forgiving will middle America be if the new judge for a reality show is starring in his own soap opera? Having two babies from two different mothers? That’s a hard sell. To our audience and to our sponsors.”

“So PING screwed me again,” she surmised. “Because we didn’t announce my pregnancy first, we missed our window?”

“You know, it might be a good idea to hold off telling the world anyway. Until you know how this thing with Holly will turn out. Get the fertility test done before you bring the media into it.”

“The media’s already into it,” she pointed out angrily. “That’s the problem. This isn’t just a personal problem with three private citizens. It’s front page news for every tabloid in the country.”

“I’m just saying that maybe now isn’t the time to air the dirty laundry. Let Vanni polish his image with the show, and with everything he’s doing to make up for things that happened with the Wilke girl and Holly.”

She rolled her eyes in frustration. “Do you know how long that’s going to take?”

“It might not take long at all,” he reasoned. “The Wilkes’ look content to get a payoff, and I’m sure Holly will disappear if you throw enough money at her. That’s all she wants.”

Andy shook her head. She wasn’t as sure of that. It seemed to her that Holly got a lot out of being linked with someone famous in the press. With his child, she was famous by proxy. She wasn’t going to go away just because they gave her some money. She’d keep coming back like a homeless cat that could turn feral at a moment’s notice.

Andy scooted out of her chair and paced around to the window overlooking the lot. “I can’t believe this. All these years later and I’m still in hiding.”

Graham stood and walked slowly over to where she stood. He wanted so badly to remind her that she wouldn’t have to be hiding if she were with him. She wouldn’t have to worry about another woman trying to steal him away; she wouldn’t have to worry about suspicious packages on her doorstep. She could just be loved like she should be. Yet he said nothing at all as he took her into a hug. She let him hold her while she processed this information, and didn’t pull away until they both heard someone clear his throat in her doorway.

They turned to find Vanni standing there, holding a plate from the food truck. She shrunk away from Graham like a naughty child who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “You’re done for lunch?” she asked unnecessarily as she rounded the desk to greet him at the door.

His eyes were narrowed as they traveled between Graham and Andy. “I thought we could eat together,” he said. “I figured you hadn’t broken away yet. Guess someone beat me to it.” He glared at Graham, who wasn’t the least little bit guilty about being in her office, bringing her lunch, or comforting her through Vanni’s self-destructive, hurtful choices. He walked with his cane, but with his chin high as he offered the younger man a smile.

“Just holding your place, Hoss,” he said as he walked between the two of them and out the door. He sent Andy a glance. “Talk to Shannon. Let me know what you decide.”

She nodded and watched him disappear down the hallway before she took the plate from Vanni and headed back to her desk.

“Talk to Shannon about what?” he wanted to know.

“About your big press conference,” she answered as she sat. “Graham doesn’t think it’s a good idea.”

Vanni chuckled. “Of course he doesn’t.” He shut the door so they could have some privacy. “That man’s still in love with you. Don’t tell me you can’t see that.”

“And I’m in love with you,” she clarified. “Neither of which is the point. The point is they are worried that they can’t sell you as a judge on their show when you’re juggling two baby mamas. Mainstream America just won’t buy it.”

“Have you looked at any soap opera lately? How about reality TV? Not only will they buy it, they’ll want seconds. That’s the kind of society we live in, Andy.”

She shrugged. She wasn’t convinced. They needed this job. Could they really risk gambling on such a big “maybe?”

“So what are you suggesting, Andy? That we say nothing? That we keep pretending? How long do you think that will last? Your pregnancy is getting more noticeable by the day. Shouldn’t we get in front of it and give them a chance to forget by the time the baby is born?”

“Which one?” she asked before she could stop herself. “Face it, the only baby on record is Holly’s. That’s the one PING is obsessed with. It’s way more newsworthy, so the controversy isn’t going to just go away. Graham says that doctors are reluctant to perform a fertility test before the baby is born due to complications. Holly’s already in the hospital. You’re likely not to know until September whether or not you’re the dad.”

He wanted to tell her he already knew, but she seemed to cling to the waning hope it was just another con from Holly and not a bitter reality they’d have to face. “I don’t care what middle America has to say about anything. I’m going to marry you and we’re going to have a baby.
That
is my family and I’m damn proud of it. I don’t want to keep you hidden away in a locked tower like a dirty little secret. Besides… we live together. You wear my ring. You’re starting to show. Do you honestly think that by not telling them what’s going on, they won’t know?”

She leaned back against the chair with another sigh. Nothing could just be normal for them. “I don’t know what I think, Vanni. I’m just scared. For you, for us. For the future. It’s almost as though whenever we get too happy, life has to take us down a few notches. The other shoe always seems to drop.”

He leaned forward on her desk. “Then let it. I don’t care what the tabloids say. I don’t care what rubes across the rural wasteland of America think. I never did. And if I lose this show, we’ll find some other way, even if it means DIB does some big European tour until the fervor dies down. But we
are
announcing the news this week.” He reached for her hands. “Baby, trust me. The only thing that matters to me is us.”