Of course that wouldn’t do. What if Dayne didn’t want his baby being raised by a wild-partier type like Hawk Daniels? If Kelly wouldn’t make an attempt at getting back together with her baby’s father, shouldn’t he have a say in how his baby was raised? And what would the tabs say? Anyone could do the math. Kelly might not stay with a guy for years at a time, but she was loyal in a relationship. And she had been in a relationship with him when she got pregnant.
Before long, the whole world would know that much.
Peace would only come by believing her. She ijLay have acted crazy lately, but now she was ready to be serious, ready to talk to him and maybe work things out so the two of them could see if they might have a future together. He had to believe that’s what was coming.
He held on to the thought as he slipped out the garage door to 125
the waiting limousine and all the way to the Hollywood premiere, half an hour away.
Almost as soon as he stepped out onto the red carpet, he saw Kelly, with Hawk a few feet ahead of her. She looked dazzling in a formfitting, floor-length silver gown slit all the way up one leg. Her appearance caught him by surprise. There was no sign of her pregnancy, nothing about her physical appearance that would give away the fact that she was going to have a baby.
Hundreds of people had shown up for the chance to glimpse the cast of Dream On.
Paparazzi took up the front row on either side, and behind them a throng of people jumped and waved and held cameras high overhead in hopes of a picture to take home.
“Dayne! Dayne Matthews, over here!” The shouts came from every direction, from both sides of the roped-off carpet.
Like a politician, Dayne held up his hand and grinned in one direction, then in another. For an instant, he wondered what he might be doing right now if he’d been raised in Bloomington, if he’d studied theater at the University of Indiana and fallen in love with Katy Hart. Middle of March … Saturday night? He’d probably be taking Katy out to dinner and maybe hanging out with the Baxters.
Instead here he was, caught between a thousand flashing lights, dead center in a place where everyone loved him and no one-not even Kelly Parker-really knew him.
He stopped and signed a few autographs, first on one side, then on the other. He cared about the people who would come out on a chilly night just to wave hello.
These were the people who made up his fan base, the ones who would shell out ten bucks for a movie when it might be all they could afford for a week’s worth of entertainment. In many ways they had made him who he was, and he appreciated them.
It wasn’t their fault, the prison he sometimes felt he was in. They didn’t understand, didn’t realize the life they’d created for him.
“Hi!” He waved to a little girl balanced on the shoulders of a 126
man who looked like her father. Dayne turned a few feet. “Hello!”
He took his time, waving and smiling and signing scraps of paper and baseball caps and Tshirts. Not for fifteen minutes did he finally make his way through the double doors into the private party area. Every sort of delicacy had been catered in for the event-part of the push to convince the media that Dream On would definitely be one of the smash hits of the year.
Kelly and Hawk and a handful of film editors and assistant directors were standing by the punch bowl laughing. Dayne kept his pace slow, watching Kelly.
As his eyes made their way down to her waist, he stopped. She was six months pregnant. Wasn’t that what she’d told him? No matter what sort of great condition she was in she should be showing some kind of bump, right?
So why was her stomach so flat?
People were milling around Dayne, bidding him hello, and engaging him in a few minutes’ conversation here and there, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off Kelly.
Six months pregnant? Maybe her math was off. Or maybe she’d hired a personal trainer, someone to help get her abs in rock-hard shape now-before the baby came. Also, though her figure was stunning, she didn’t look radiant. Her face was paler than usual, and her eyes looked sunken-as if maybe she’d been sick.
Dayne turned his back to Kelly and answered a question from one of the select members of the media invited to the party. Yes, that had to be it. Morning sickness. No wonder she hadn’t called. Between the sickness and the fact that things hadn’t worked out between them the first time, of course Kelly was confused.
He glanced at her over his shoulder, but she still had her attention elsewhere.
She had to know he was here, but she hadn’t even looked in his direction. And though she and Hawk were making the rounds separately, talking to other people and playing the part of the genial cast mate, Dayne caught Hawk drifting back to Kelly every few minutes. They would exchange a few 127
quiet words and a knowing touch to the elbow or shoulder, and then Hawk would be on his way again.
Dayne was still watching her when Mitch Henry approached him, his whole face taken up with a grin. “I heard the news!”
Dayne’s heart skipped a beat. Mitch Henry knew about Kelly’s pregnancy? He felt the blood leave his face. “I… I, uh…” What should he say? No one knew yet, so how come Mitch was suddenly beaming with-?
“You heard it, right? We picked up another hundred theaters!”
“Oh.” Dayne laughed, and his heart slid back into a regular rhythm. “Right.
That.”
Mitch crossed his arms and studied him. “You doing okay, Matthews? You don’t look so good.”
“I’m great… fine.” He turned on the smile. “How about you? Working on another film?”
Mitch took a step closer and dropped his voice. “You’re not fine. I know you better than that.”
Dayne allowed a nervous chuckle. “Ah, Mitch.” He held his hands out to the sides. “You got me; I didn’t eat my Wheaties this morning.”
“You know what I wish?” his director asked. “I wish I knew whether it was Kelly Parker-” his eyes tried to find a deeper place in Dayne-“or Katy Hart who was making you look like this.”
Dayne felt like he’d been kicked in the gut. “Well …” He inhaled sharply but played it off, not letting Mitch see more than his smile. “You remembered her name.”
“Of course I remembered.” Mitch was holding a plate of food. He took a cracker, scooped up a mound of caviar, slipped it into his mouth, and chewed a few times.
“She was brilliant on camera, Matthews. Every week I’m tempted to call her, just to get her in one of my films.”
“Really.” For some reason the idea bothered Dayne. Katy had been right to turn down the part in Dream On. The fame and spotlight would’ve changed her life-changed her, even. She
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was better off in Bloomington, where the simplicity of her charm and beauty couldn’t be touched.
Mitch picked up another cracker and pointed it at Dayne. “One of these days I just might do it. I might make the call.” He cocked his head, as if once again he was trying to see the feelings Dayne was hiding from him. “Maybe if she were a part of this world, the two of you wouldn’t have such a hard time figuring it out.”
Dayne was listening more intently than he let on. He snatched a carrot from Mitch’s plate and willed a teasing look into his eyes. “Figuring what out?”
Mitch frowned at Kelly and then shot a whisper at Dayne. “That it was never Kelly. It was Katy Hart.” He glanced over one shoulder and then the other. “And that the two of you are crazy about each other.”
“Nah.” His answer was fast, but it sounded forced even to him. “Katy’s old news.”
“Very well.” The director slowly stroked his chin. “Can I make one observation?”
“Okay.” Dayne was uncomfortable with the subject. Normally he was better at hiding his feelings, but Mitch was spot-on here. Still he had no choice but to make light of everything the director was saying. He grinned. “I’ll humor you.”
Mitch glanced at Kelly again. When his eyes found Dayne’s there was a knowing there. “You never looked at Kelly the way you looked at Katy.” He lowered his plate of food. “No matter what I tried on the set, I couldn’t match it, couldn’t find the look I caught on a simple audition tape when I had Katy Hart in the studio.”
Then Mitch really did know. Dayne kept the grin, but the director’s words cut him deep. “All right. I guess, thanks for that.” He nodded to the punch. “All this talking’s made me thirsty. Catch you later.” He took a few steps in Kelly’s direction, but he pointed back at his director. “You need to tell me about your current film.”
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Mitch Henry smiled. Then he turned to mingle with a group of minor-role players, excited young actors gathered around the dessert table.
Dayne wiped the side of his hand across his brow. Was he that easy to read? He was an actor after all. If he couldn’t hide his feelings any better than that, how could he convince Kelly he wanted to make another go at it?
How could he convince himself?
He stared at her, ten yards away. Kelly Parker. When had things between them gotten so strained? And how would he set them in the right direction here, now?
He came up along her right side and blended into the conversation she was having with the movie’s producer.
The man was rattling off snippets from recent reviews and going on about financial projections for the film. “It’s going to be huge, I tell you.” He nodded at Dayne. “In no small part because of how both of you played the screen.” With cultured practice he leaned in and kissed each of Kelly’s cheeks.
“I’ll let you two visit.” He shook Dayne’s hand. “Good to see you.”
“You too, sir.” Dayne didn’t have a casual relationship with the producer. The man was Hollywood royalty, a serious player in the moviemaking industry, a producer with a golden touch for turning movies into megahits. Dayne’s agent had long since coached him to handle the man with great respect.
When he was gone, Dayne turned to Kelly and touched her hand. “Hi.” They were alone, though not for long at a premiere party like this one. For all the frustration she’d caused him since that phone call in January, he was happy to see her. She had been his friend first, and maybe friendship would allow them a bridge to whatever came next. “How are you?”
“Good.” She gave him a shy look. “I thought you were avoiding me.”
“No.” He studied her. “I was waiting. I didn’t want to rush 130
“Oh.” She shifted her eyes and looked at something off to the side.
He followed her gaze, and there was Hawk. He turned away as soon as he saw Dayne. It wasn’t the time to talk about whatever was going on. Dayne looked back at Kelly’s face. “Can we talk? Later?”
“Dayne…” She took hold of his hands and made the slightest shake of her head.
“I have plans.”
Plans? He steadied himself. “With someone else?” He found his smile, but he wanted to yell at her. “You told me to wait for the premiere. That you needed to figure things out and we could talk tonight.” He ran his thumbs along the palms of her hands. Anyone watching would’ve assumed they were still a couple the way they’d been during the filming of Dream. On.
Kelly seemed resigned at Dayne’s reminder. She nodded toward a side door.
“There’s a private patio out there. We still have half an hour before the movie.”
This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. They were supposed to watch the film and then find somewhere to talk. Two people couldn’t make plans for a baby and a lifetime of sharing a parenting role in half an hour. But maybe he needed to hear what she had to say now. Then they could figure out how the rest of the evening would go. He glanced at the door. “Give me half an hour after the movie, during the party. Before your plans.”
She bit her lip, and for a single instant she looked across the room at Hawk.
“Okay. Fine.”
Soon the crowd gathered for the movie. For Dayne it passed in a blur. He sat with Mitch Henry, and when it came to the scenes in Bloomington, he felt a catch in his heart. If there were a way through the screen, through the film and into that town he’d be there in a minute. The talk with Kelly wasn’t going to be good-he could already feel her pulling away. Whatever the future held it didn’t look promising.
The producer was right about the movie. It was fantastic, 131
upbeat and funny, emotional and sensitive. Women across the country would love it. Dayne had already seen most of it in the editing room, but watching it on the big screen at the premiere was always a pinnacle moment.
When it was over, the party in the lobby area changed. A pop rock band had been brought in to entertain, and the crowd seemed to swell. Dayne watched Kelly, watched her do what she’d been doing earlier-making the rounds and returning to Hawk every ten minutes or so.
After two hours of celebrating, Kelly found Dayne. She tried to smile, but her look was pained. “Can you talk?”
Dayne pushed back his chair. “Absolutely.” He stood and nodded to the other people at his table. They suspected nothing. Most of them were three drinks into the night and wouldn’t even notice his absence.
He followed Kelly through the crowd. Moving like two people used to having every eye in the room on them, she led him toward the patio door, occasionally giving him a demure smile and nodding along the way to assistant directors and editors and the crew involved in making the film. The lights were dimmed, and everyone was busy celebrating. No one seemed to think anything of the two of them heading off together.
At the door she turned to him. “The patio should be open, even though it’s cold out.” Kelly’s words were clipped, nervous sounding”Okay.” Dayne reached out and took Kelly’s hand. He was glad to have privacy from the photographers and media members and especially from Hawk Daniels.
Out on the patio, Dayne watched Kelly’s posture change, watched her exhale hard and walk across the cement to the wrought-iron railing surrounding an old oak tree. She leaned on it and hung her head. “Maybe we should talk later. After the party.”
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“I thought you had plans.” Dayne came closer. Why wouldn’t she look at him?
“Isn’t that what you said?”
“I do.” She uttered a quiet, frustrated cry, and the smell of alcohol mingled with her breath. She kept her gaze downward. “I don’t know.”