Payback (41 page)

“
I knew when she started sniffing around that we were in trouble. She dangles that kid in front of you like bait. She’s plain, she dresses like she got her clothes from Wal-Mart, and she has no class. I don’t know what you see in her!” 
Brooke screeched.

“Brooke, I’m sorry, but I don’t know what I want right now. It would be unfair to ask you to wait.” Caden’s voice was elevated, but not to the level of Brooke’s.

“
Screw you! You know what you want.  You want to play family. I could have had kids for you!”

I really am sorry.”

“Oh, well, just so you know, I had an affair when I went back to Los Angeles the last time. I could have left you then, but I didn’t! I came back to this godforsaken hellhole. 
For you!
But I’m tired of this place, your lack of attention, and especially of the little mommy and baby. For the record, I’m breaking it off with you. Understand? You didn’t dump me!”

“Fine. Now I’ll sleep downstairs and take you to the airport tomorrow morning when I leave.”

“No, call me a cab. I’m leaving on that red-eye tonight.”

“Fine
. Let me pack my bag and I’ll drive you.”

She thought about it and then nodded. “I’m keeping the ring.”

“Please do.”

The ride to Kalispell was silent
, except for the occasional sniff from Brooke. Although he felt horrible, there was nothing more he could do for her. He wasn’t sure what to do about Marie, but he knew now that marrying Brooke would only bring them both misery.  After paying for Brooke’s airfare and making sure she was settled in, Caden drove over to Christine’s house and stayed with her until eight in the morning. Back at the airport, he boarded the charter for New York City, and read the newspaper until take off. Once in the air, Caden leaned back and looked out the window from the wide leather recliner, noticing that it was raining outside. A summer rain—it seemed appropriate for the way he was feeling.

Marie walked down to give Jeremiah some new pages. When she arrived, the house was quiet
, and Jeremiah was in the editing trailer. “What’s going on? It’s quiet.”

“The
second team is out getting some shots of the river.”

“Where’s Caden?”

“New York, a half-hour interview with Entertainment Focus. It will be live tonight.”

“Oh…he hates interviews.”

“I know. But Sandy Ross is going to do the interview, and he seems comfortable with her.”

“She can be probing.”

“He said okay,” Jeremiah assured her.

“Here are the rewrites. I think that about does it for this week. We have about ten days left, right?”

“More or less. We have a couple of scenes to redo in Los Angeles.”

“A few more weeks and the trees will be turning here.”

“Yeah, we’re going to get a few shots of that for the interim years.”

“Well, do you need anything?”

“Could you stay for another hour or so and help look at some film?”

Marie nodded and took a stool, staying by Jeremiah’s side as they went through three hours of film trying to decide whether
they needed to reshoot any scenes.  Surprisingly, they only found one scene that didn’t work. 

“Luckily
, it’s a scene on the deck…you can film it without getting the meadow in the background,” Marie noted.

“Yeah, it’s amazing how much the lake has evaporated since we’ve been here.”

“It’s the end of summer,” Marie commented, her voice wistful. “I’m going to go home and take my son out for a ride.”

“Horseback?”

She nodded.

“I like to watch Caden out riding with Jack.  He looks really happy when he does. You and Caden have so much in common, what the hell happened?”

“He wants a prenup; I won’t sign.”

“You’re shitting me!”

“Nope.”

Jeremiah rolled his eyes. “You could care less about money!”

“True, and he knows that. But, he has this need to control his fortune…to make sure no one else can get to it.”

“So you don’t care about his money and he knows you don’t care
, but you won’t sign a prenup and he won’t marry you without one?”

“That about sums it up.”

“You two are morons! If you can’t work that out, then you deserve to be unhappy.”

Marie became defensive, “I want a marriage where both parties believe it’s going to make it, not one where everyone hedges their bets. Why get married if you don’t trust that it’s going to work?”

“I’m with you.  I don’t see the need to be married, but I have to admit, Caden really wants to be married and have more kids. He loves being a dad.”

“And he’s a good one,” Marie said with a smile. She took a deep breath.  “See ya.”

“Bye.”

Marie took Jack on a horseback ride following part of the path that Caden had taken her. Jack took the reins, but Marie took them back. 

“Mommy! I drive the horse.”

“You?”

“Daddy lets me drive the horse.”

“He does?”

There was a big nod and two big blue eyes looking at her defiantly. “Okay, here you go.” She handed the reins to him. “You know, Jack, you look a lot like your daddy.”

He nodded. The poor kid heard it all the time.  Jack called out commands and
, to Marie’s surprise, the horse obeyed. But then they were riding Jubilee and she just happened to be the oldest and gentlest horse in the stables.

After an hour, she had Jack take them back to the stables. Jack had been a very good boy on the ride and even offered to help put the tack away
, although it was much heavier than he was. She let him do what little he could do to help and was proud that Caden had taught Jack how to properly take care of a horse after a ride.

“You’re such a good little boy!  Now let’s get you home to eat.”

“Are we walking?”

“Yes.”

“Will we see more bears?”

On the ride
, they had seen a bear off the trail, far enough not to worry about being hurt, but close enough to see that it was a brown bear. “Maybe, I hope not. If we do, you need to stand behind me, but don’t run unless Mommy tells you to.”

“I know!  Daddy told me to roll up in a ball and play dead.”

“Daddy’s right.”

“Mommy, why don’t we live with Daddy?”

“Because Daddy lives with Brooke. He loves Brooke and wants to be with her. But he will always have a room for you in his house. It’s your house too. He loves you very much.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “I knooooooooow! He tells me all the time.  He kisses me too.”

“I know!” Marie said with a big grin. “You’re very lucky.”

“Doesn’t Daddy love you too?”

“He does but in a different way than Brooke.  We love each other like friends. He loves Brooke much more.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, honey. Sometimes we don’t know why we love someone so much, we just do.” She took a deep breath. “Did Daddy tell you that he and Brooke are getting married?”

Jack nodded. “Mommy, look!” He pointed ahead at the path in front of them.

“Oh! A deer! Oh! Three deer! How lovely.”  Marie wasn’t that impressed; they saw deer all the time. But just as they came over a rise they saw a bull moose and cow, with what was probably their adolescent child with them. Marie grabbed Jack up into her arms and stopped. Bulls were known to chase humans, but apparently, this one didn’t perceive Marie and Jack as a threat because he ignored them and continued across the path.

Jack hung on around her neck and when the moose were gone, he looked at Marie and raised his eyebrows with excitement.

“Cool, huh?” Marie asked.

Jack nodded
and out of the blue, he blurted, “I love you, Mommy.”

“Oh, baby, Mommy loves you too.”

That night, after putting Jack to bed and getting her shower, Marie joined Jason in the lower level to watch television on the huge plasma TV. “You want some popcorn?”

Jason smiled. “Sounds good. You going to watch Caden’s interview?”

“Of course, he’s going to promote the movie. I want to hear what he says about it.” She went into the theater and started the popcorn machine. After making up two bags, she grabbed a bottle of water and joined Jason.

“Did you hear about the fight?” Jason asked.

“What fight?”

“Apparently, Brooke and
Caden had a knock-down-drag-out last night.”

“About what?”

Jason hesitated. “I don’t know.  I got conflicting reports.”

“Well, she wasn’t
at the house today, so I guess they made up and she went with him.”

The show began
, and the camera focused on Sandy Ross, a forty-something woman who looked a little like Donna Summers when she was young.  Sandy, who was dressed in a sharp white blouse and a flowing black and white polka-dot skirt, leaned into the camera.

“
Tonight we have one of the most talked about men in the world.  From the age of twenty, he has been a force in Hollywood. By the time he was twenty-nine, he had won a Golden Globe and SAG award as best actor for his role in Rowhouse written by Marie Morrigan. Then he won his Oscar for Night’s End.  Just as he was finally getting the recognition he deserved, our guest disappeared into the backcountry of Montana where he runs a massive cattle ranch.  After seven years of being away from Hollywood, he’s making a huge comeback in a movie based on the book, Bites of the Apple, once again written by Marie Morrigan.  Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome, Caden Kelly.”

Caden walked out to a cacophony of women standing and screaming. He was dressed
in black boot-cut jeans, black cowboy boots, a black shirt with a white yoke and white pearl buttons, a black sued western blazer, and a black cowboy hat. He hadn’t shaved, which made him look like the sexiest bad boy of all time.  The camera focused on his cobalt eyes, as he smiled and thanked the crowd.  Sitting down, he extended his legs in front of him and crossed them at the ankle, a sign of an alpha male quietly taking over the stage.  The women wouldn’t stay quiet.

After five minutes of trying to control the crowd, they finally managed to start the interview. They talked about Caden’s parents’ divorce, the move to Virginia and then to Topanga Canyon.  Caden told the story
of how he started acting on a bet, having beat out a friend on an audition and making twenty dollars in the bet. She carefully covered the fact that he had a degree in Theater Arts from USC and had taken his parents’ modest fortune and turned it into a much larger one.

“
You’ve had some beautiful women in your life, Lea Craig, Sheila Falcon, Valentine Cassidy, and recently Brooke Paulson, but you’ve never married.  We understand that you’re engaged to Brooke. Are you looking forward to getting married?”

Caden shifted in the chair and then took a deep breath.  “
I would love to be married—”

The women in the audience all started screaming and making gestures.  Sandy had to calm them down before Caden could continue.

“
Unfortunately, Brooke and I recently came to a decision that we weren’t meant to be together.”

Marie looked at Jason
, who shrugged.  “He didn’t tell me!” Jason assured her.

“Was this the argument last night?”
Marie asked Jason.

“I think so.”

“
So you broke up with Brooke?”

Caden sat up and shook his head. “
No, I didn’t break up with Brooke. If anything, she made the decision not to go through with the marriage. Brooke is a phenomenal woman. She’s beautiful, fun, charismatic and very caring. I am extremely fond of her, but I think she realized that we come from two different worlds and that Montana is a big part of who I am now.”

“So you’re not going to make any more films?”

Caden chuckled, knowing that if he said no, his female fans would be disappointed. “
I’m not returning to Hollywood full time. I plan to make more movies but on a limited basis.”
The women in the audience all clapped with joy.

“Getting back to women. It took a book by Marie Morrigan to bring you out of retirement.  Didn’t you live together?”

“Yes, back in our twenties.”

“I remember reading that she cheated on you with your best friend,
Gordon Washington?”

Marie gasped. “How do they know that?” she cried out.

Jason could see the horror on her face, “Who knows? Let’s see how Caden responds.”

Caden’s smile dropped. “
What happened all those years ago was just as much my fault. Marie was, and still is, the most talented, intelligent, and fascinating woman I know. She’s hardworking, extremely compassionate, and has a wicked sense of humor. I’m constantly drawn to her work because it’s always thought provoking and yet thoroughly entertaining.”