For the Love of His Life (2 page)

Reluctantly he forced himself to look away and at the phone in his hand. He touched the screen and the time was visible. “Shit! It’s almost noon! I was supposed to be at a meeting with my director at eleven! Oh my fucking God, he’s gonna be pissed!”

He began to toss clothing aside, looking for the rest of his stuff. He pulled his pants on, having real difficulty with the zipper due to the loud moans of pleasure coming from the two women on the bed. He pulled on his shoes without bothering to find his socks, and kicked at the piles searching for his shirt. As he looked around, he saw more lines of coke on the flat mirror on the desk near the door.

“You don’t mind if I help myself to a bit more, do you girls?” He grinned when his only answer was their groans accompanied by the wet sounds of intense pussy slurping. He sat on the chair to snort a line up each nostril, then sat back and sniffed purposefully.

“Wow! I wonder who gave us this great shit? One more, no more,” he said as he bent over the desk again to hoover another line up each side of his nose. He got up and smiled at the bed, rocking on his heels as the room began to spin slightly.

“Goodbye, girls. Nice knowing you, in the biblical sense, what-ever-the-hell your names are.”

Determinedly he staggered out of the room, fishing his keys out of his left pants pocket, using the fob to make his car chirp so he would know where he had left it last night. It was right outside of the door. He’d obviously driven over the curb. The car was resting against the wall next to the door he’d fallen through.

“Shit! Why is it so fucking bright out here?” He got into his car, pulled his sunglasses out of the visor and jammed them onto his face. “Where the hell am I? Who cares? This town isn’t that big. I’ll just start driving. I’m sure I’ll recognize something soon.”

Satisfied he had a workable plan, he backed away from the wall, put the car into drive and screeched out onto the road in search of a street sign.

Chapter Two

Veronica Sorrenson looked around, exasperated when the phone began to ring. She was hard at work, covered with flour and rolling out the pie crusts she needed to get done quickly. Normally they would already be in the oven, but her father had asked her to look over some financial paperwork when she got to work that morning. That had put her behind with her baking.

“Gram-Marie?” she called, listening for an answer in between the overly-loud rings of the phone. She could hear voices in the storefront, so obviously her grandmother was talking to someone—probably the mail carrier whose usual route brought him to their store early.

Veronica sighed as she clapped her hands together to shake off some of the flour. She strode quickly to the big roll-top desk where the phone was and pushed the speaker button to answer.

“Hello,” she said curtly, hoping her tone signaled she was too busy to chat.

“Ronnie? Is that you? I thought you’d be busy with the day’s pies. I need to talk to Gram-Marie. Is she around?”

“Jared? Long time, no hear, cousin. What’s up with you?”

“Typical stuff. Movies in editing, scripts to read, actors to tame…the usual. It’s good to hear your voice. Kind of like a shot of the Boundary Waters to give me some peaceful images to overlay on my overly-crazy existence.”

The door to the storefront pushed open and the matriarch of the Sorrenson family strode in, looking over the envelopes she was carrying. She stopped when she heard the familiar voice.

“Jared Sorrenson Miller? Is that you? How are you, honey? It’s been too long since you called. I was beginning to think you didn’t love me anymore!”

Jared laughed. “Gram-Marie! How could you think that? Everyone loves
you
. I’ve been busy, but not too busy to remember my manners, or to call the most beautiful woman I know!”

Marie Sorrenson, known to all the family as Gram-Marie, snorted rudely.

“Tsk, tsk, boy! You must want a really big favor! Your call comes out of the blue and you begin by flattering me…what do you want?”

Veronica smiled and added, “He said my voice soothed him also. It must be a
really
big favor!”

Marie grinned, “Yes. Your voice has been known to drop wild critters at fifty yards! Not very calming to most folk. Come on, out with it.”

Jared sighed into the phone. “Okay, you got me. I need a big favor from you, Gram-Marie…in fact, from all of you.”

“Everyone in town?” Veronica asked innocently.

“No, just all of you at the resort.”

Marie sat down on the chair by the desk, shaking her head at her granddaughter, and asked, “What is it, you mischievous boy? What do you need us to do? Make some guests change their vacation dates again, so you can have the best cabin? Send you some of Ronnie’s pies for another celebrity wing-ding? What is it this time?”

Jared cleared his throat audibly.

“I’m afraid it’s bigger this time. I need to send you a guest who will be there until I can get the crew up to start filming my next movie.”

“And how long with that be?” Veronica grinned at Gram-Marie while the older woman rolled her eyes and shrugged.

“I don’t know…it depends on a lot of things. Maybe a month? Six weeks tops. I’ve got to get a whole lot of folks packed and up there, so it’s gonna take some time.”

“And who is it you are expecting us to tolerate for an unspecified amount of time?”

“Ronnie! Would I send you someone you’d only tolerate?”

“Hell yeah! You’d send us Satan to baby-sit, if your next movie depended on it.”

“Funny you should say that, cuz. He’s only the biggest, baddest star in the business right now.”

“Who is it?”

“You’ve heard of Raul Roderick, right?”

Marie snorted. “Who?”

Jared chuckled. “
The Gamer King
?
Avenge Tastes Sweet
?
MOFO-Town
?”

“No,” Marie said, while Veronica smiled at her, all the while filling the pie crusts with the flavors of the day.

“Well then, how about his romantic movies?
Make Mine Latino
? Or
Three’s a Crowd, But I Like Crowds
?”

Veronica giggled. “Jared, you should see Gram-Marie’s face! She looks like she just sucked a lemon!”

“What on earth are you people thinking of with these titles? Or these so-called plots? Why doesn’t anyone make the kinds of movies I like to watch anymore?”

“Because you’re too old for them to consider you a target market?” Veronica whooped as she ducked away from the rolling pin tossed at her by her grandmother.

“Old, my ass! I just expect plots and they’re too damn busy putting big, fake titties and young men without shirts into everything!”

“So you
have
heard of Raul then?” Jared chuckled.

Veronica explained, “Gram-Marie, he’s the kind of actor who is very good at looking good in his movies, and he’s always shirtless at some point. But he’s kind of limited to playing the same kinds of men over and over again…not much range, and even less talent.”

Jared burst in excitedly. “Ah, but that’s where you’re so wrong, Ronnie! I only agreed to let him read for the part as a favor to his agent. But he blew me away! He’s so right for it he’s the only actor I seriously considered for starring in my epic film about the Boundary Waters area! You know…the one I always promised Grampa I’d make about his great grandfather, Hank Maynard?”

“If he’s that good, why do you need to send him up here early?”

Marie nodded at Veronica’s question, asked as she was busy putting the pies into the oven. Jared cleared his throat again.

“Well, you see, there’s the little problem of his drinking…and his drugs…and his whoring. He’s a real party-animal and right now the only reason he’s not in jail is that I went to court with him and basically told the judge I’d answer for his behavior until his probation is over.”

“Probation for what?”

Marie’s voice was steely. Everyone knew her father was a Canadian Mountie, and she was gung-ho on supporting law enforcement officials.

“He…uh…can’t be allowed to drive for six months. They took his license away after he ran into a parked squad car because he thought he hit the brake pedal, but it was the gas pedal. Then, when they got him out of the car, he was so blasted he didn’t remember his real name. All he told them was he was the famous actor Raul Roderick . He promised them supporting roles in his next picture if they would give him a ride to the meeting with me he was already two hours late for.”

“Obviously the officers weren’t impressed, eh?” Marie sounded smug.

“No. They took him down to the station and booked him. I was the person he called for his one call…not his lawyer. So I got him released to my custody, but I’ve been having a hell of a time keeping him out from behind the wheel of a car, or out of bars and nightclubs. I’m afraid he’s going to kill himself before I can get the performance of a lifetime out of him I’m convinced he has in him. So I really need your help…”

There was silence while Marie and Veronica communicated with each other non-verbally.

“Well?” Jared sounded anxious.

Marie nodded at Veronica, who spoke.

“We can’t give you an answer now. We have to talk this over with the rest of the family. All of us have to agree to this, since we are all going to have to deal with this spoiled brat you want us to baby-sit for you.”

“Agreed,” Jared spoke quickly.

Marie leaned forward in her chair, “Have you given any thought as to how he is going to get around up here, if he can’t drive? None of us have the time to be his chauffer.”

“I’ve already spoken to Aunt Joan’s son, Jake. He’s more than willing to earn big money by ferrying a famous movie star around to the few bars in Grand Marais. I’ve told him he can’t take Raul further than that, or he won’t get paid. I think I can keep his wings clipped enough so he won’t be able to get into much trouble up there.”

“Fine. We’ll talk to everyone and let you know.”

“When? I’ve got to get him isolated as soon as possible!”

“Call back tomorrow. We’ll have an answer for you by then.”

“Please, Gram-Marie, be convincing for me, okay? And Ronnie, please put in a good word for me! I have to have him star as Hank Maynard…it’s the role he was born to play, in the story I have been itching to film for years! And not just because I want to come up there for a nice, long stay. If you want me to, I’ll beg.”

Marie clucked her tongue. “Tsk, tsk, boy. You are already begging and it’s unseemly. Be a man. Hang up and wait for our decision.”

“Yes, Gram-Marie. I love you. And you too, Ronnie. And everyone else. Remember that, okay? And I’ll call tomorrow. Good-bye for now.”

“Bye,” Veronica called out before the phone went dead.

“So?” Marie walked over to stand in front of her pie-assembling granddaughter.

Veronica shrugged.

“Hollywood was happy to have him at first. It was rumored he was Oscar-quality, just waiting for the right role. But he’s been in a bunch of crappy action things and some really dreadful rom-coms. He either has a lot of talent but no one has given him the script to show it off, or he’s a pretty face with a gigantic ego and an even bigger drug problem.”

“We’ll talk over dinner.”

“How are you leanin’?”

Marie smiled.

“Remember when Jared was six and your grandfather taught him to fish? Paul was so proud of him the day he caught the big walleye! Then, when he got into his teenaged years, his folks used to send him up here alone every summer, to de-stress. He was always so jittery when he got here, but he calmed down quicker every year.”

“Do you think being up here could do the same for a spoiled brat of a movie star?”

“Who knows? Maybe…”

“So, you want to do him this favor, don’t you?”

Marie sighed as she got up to go see who had rung the bell that signaled a customer in the store.

“We’ll see, Ronnie, we’ll see.”

Chapter Three

“How’s our newest guest doing?”

Veronica walked into the kitchen looking for coffee, and found her grandmother hard at work on the soup of the day.

Marie snorted in answer. “He’s sleeping it off again. Jake had to carry him into the cabin last night. I swear that man is trying to kill himself! I got Jake to sit a spell with me before he drove home.”

Veronica nodded sympathetically. “Insomnia again?”

“Yes…too much after-dinner coffee maybe? Anyway, Jake said when he went to the airport to pick up our guest, the airline personnel were solicitously helping him out of the airplane, a stewardess on each side of him because he was too drunk to walk by himself. They insisted on walking him all the way to Jake’s car, and it took all three of them to get him shoved into it and buckled in.”

Marie chopped carrots into the soup. She waved the knife in the air in disgust. “He passed out before they were even out of the airport and didn’t wake up until Jake shook him to tell him they were here. Then he took one look around and insisted on being driven to the nearest bar. Jake took him all the way back into Grand Marais…” She stabbed a potato with a force that made Veronica wince.. “…and he closed the bar! Then slept until mid-afternoon yesterday. Jake was already here eating a piece of your pie. Mr. Movie Star refused to eat anything, drank some black coffee, then got Jake to drive him back into town again.”