Righteous Obsession (44 page)

“Are you going somewhere?”  He asked.

“No.”  Alethea appeared uncomfortable as she replied,
“Well, I thought I’d sleep in the guest room.”

“Why?”  Colin demanded, sitting up so quickly that a
sharp pain lanced his side.

“Don’t get upset!” She cautioned him.  “I’m just
afraid I’ll bump into you and hurt you.”

“Not if you sleep on my left side,” He answered,
patting the bed beside him.

She hesitated for a moment then let her robe and gown
slide to the floor then got into bed beside him.  She laid her head on his
chest and slid her arm across his midsection just above his wound.  “I didn’t
really want to sleep in the guest room anyway.”

“I definitely wasn’t looking forward to sleeping alone,”
Colin added, switching off the light.

“Damn!”  Jeff swore as he slammed down the phone. 
First, he tried to call Colin at the hospital, but he’d already gone home. 
Next, he’d tried to call his cell, but only reached Colin’s voicemail.  He’d
left a message, but nobody had called back yet.  He’d tried calling him this
morning, but still got his voicemail.

“Daddy, come quick!”  Caitlin called.  “Colin’s on the
news.”

It was a clip of Colin when he’d left the hospital
yesterday.  He stood in front of the hospital and made a brief statement,
thanking Unforgiven’s fans for their support.  Alethea stood beside him while
Steve and McGregor stood on his other side.  Peter, Amanda, Liam and Alethea’s
parents stood behind him.  The report concluded with the statement that neither
the Matthews family nor the Michaels family were available for comment.

“Thank goodness, the media haven’t discovered your
grandparents!”  Jeff said in relief.

“Boy!  Colin sure looks awful!”  Jemma remarked.

“Believe me, Jemma, he looks a lot better than the
first time I saw him.”

“How much blood did you say he’d lost, Daddy?”

“Alethea told me it was close to half his blood
volume.”

Jemma whistled.  “Wow!  He’s lucky he’s alive!”

“You haven’t gotten hold of him, yet?”  Caitlin asked.

“No.  I keep getting his voicemail.  He’s probably
staying elsewhere.  I suppose he’s dodging the media, too.”

“He’s probably staying with his mother and adoptive
father,” Caitlin guessed.

“Yes, I’m assuming so.  They unfortunately have an
unlisted number.”

“Doesn’t his mom have her own law firm?  You could
call and ask her to have Colin call you,” she suggested.

He sighed.  “I don’t know if she’d give him my
message.  She doesn’t trust me and she’s very protective of Colin.”

“You can try, Daddy,” Caitlin urged.  “The worst she
can say is no.”

“I know you’re right, Cait.  It’s just that I hate to
ask a favor of Amanda.”

Jemma sensed his embarrassment over the subject of
Amanda Matthews and tactfully changed the subject.  “College will be starting
again in a few weeks.  Are you planning to go back for the first semester,
Cait?”

Caitlin looked at her in surprise.  “Sure!  Why
wouldn’t I?”

Jemma shrugged.  “I just thought with all the bad
publicity about Dave some people might get pretty nasty towards you – like fans
of Colin’s.”

“What should they be angry at me?  I didn’t have
anything to do with Dave’s actions.”

“You know that and I know that, but there are people
who might assume you’re a right-wing, religious fanatic like Dave.”

“Jemma’s right, Cait,” Jeff spoke.  “It might be a
good idea to take the first semester off.  By the time the second semester
starts, everybody will hopefully have forgotten this tragedy.”

“Daddy, didn’t we already have this discussion about
over protecting me?”  She demanded.

“Yes, but I don’t want you getting hurt any further.”

“I can handle anything that comes along, Daddy,” she
declared.

“How about if you go to San Francisco and stay with
mom and dad for awhile?  I know they’d love to have you and you’d have a chance
to get to know Colin.”

Caitlin, hands on her hips, glowered at her father. 
“Daddy, I refuse to slink around like I have something to be ashamed of!  I’m
not going anywhere except back home with you and back to college when it
starts!”

Jeff sighed in resignation and threw up his hands. 
“Well, I know it’s useless to argue with you any further.”

Caitlin and Jemma retired for the night.  “I wish
Daddy would quit trying to protect me!  I’m not going to fall apart if some
butt chunk says something nasty to me,” she said exasperated.

“You’d probably return the compliment with interest!”
Jemma laughed.

“You bet!”  Caitlin said, getting into bed.  “I’m
anxious to meet Colin, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing him and Alethea real soon.”

Jemma yawned as Caitlin turned off the light.  “You
won’t forget to introduce Colin to his number one fan, will you?”

Caitlin giggled.  “Not a
chance!”

It was two days before things calmed down enough for
Colin and Alethea to go home.  Peter and Amanda came with them.  They drove
Colin’s Jeep while Alethea drove Amanda’s Grand Prix
®
.  They pulled into
the driveway of Colin’s home and he got out carefully.  He grimaced suddenly as
he caught sight of his front yard littered with fast food wrappers, discarded
coffee and soda cups.  “Christ!”  Colin snapped, glaring at the mess.  “Don’t
these people have any respect for other people’s property?”

At that moment the front door opened and McGregor came
outside with a plastic garbage bag draped over his arm.

“What are you doing here?”  Colin
asked, walking over to him.

“Steve hired me as your permanent, full-time
bodyguard.  I’m renting an apartment down the street.  I came here earlier to
make sure there wasn’t anybody still hanging around and I saw this mess.  When
your friend, Page came to feed your fish she let me in so I could start
cleaning up.”

“Thanks, Buck I really appreciate it.”

“Why don’t I give you a hand, Buck,” Peter offered.

Colin saw his Alethea and his mom standing on the
porch, talking.  He walked over to them and he put his arms around Alethea. 
They went inside and Colin stopped short inside the door, causing Alethea to
bump into him.  “Shit!  What a mess!”  The ten guitars he’d taken with him on
tour were now sitting in the foyer.

“Where are you going to store these?”

“In the other room for now,” Colin answered and
grinned at her.  “I’m assuming you’ll want to turn it back into a dining room
at some point.”

“I do, but there’s no rush.”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about remodeling the
apartment, over the garage, into a recording studio.  It’s bigger and it’d be
easier to work there.”

Colin’s cell had been vibrating for the last hour. He
hadn’t wanted to see what the messages were; figuring Jeff would try to call
him. He punched in his code and listened to the messages. The first messages
were all from rock magazine and rock journalist who had his private number.  He
decided to get together with Steve and set up appointments to do interviews
when he felt better.  There was one more message – a message he definitely
didn’t want to hear!

“Colin, this is Jeff.  I phoned you at the hospital,
but I found out they dismissed you already.  I’d like to talk to you.”

“I’ll bet!”  Colin muttered, his mood darkening
noticeably.

“Would you please call me at either of these numbers,”
Jeff recited both the numbers of his home phone and the lake front home.  “I’m
looking forward to hearing from you.”

“Like hell I will!”  Colin snapped.  “I’d rather shoot
myself in the foot first!”

Alethea and Amanda exchanged looks, but chose to
ignore Colin’s outburst.  Alethea went into the kitchen and started looking
through the cupboards.  “I guess I need to go grocery shopping, too.  Colin
never has much food in the house even when he’s home for an extended length of
time.  I swear he’s the only person I know who can survive three weeks on a bag
of potato chips!”

“Hey!  I love potato chips!”  Colin said, coming into
the kitchen.

“So do I, but not all the time!”  Alethea laughed.

“Why don’t you make a list and we’ll go shopping,”
Amanda suggested.

Colin wandered into the living room and over to his
fish tank.  He stood watching the colorful Orandas swimming around.  He still
felt angry about Jeff’s call; how dare he call and act as if there was nothing
wrong!

Alethea watched Colin for a moment.  She sighed and
turned back to Amanda.  “How long do you suppose Colin will brood over Jeff’s
call?”

“Too long,” she answered.

“I thought about discussing it with him later, but
he’s so touchy about the whole subject of Jeff that I’d rather skip it and let
him work out his own solution.”

Peter and McGregor came in the front door.  “We
finished cleaning up the front yard and we took you luggage upstairs.  Is there
anything else we can do?”  Peter asked.

“No, Dad, but thanks anyway.”

“You want these guitars moved somewhere, Colin?” 
McGregor called from the foyer.

“Into the other room, if you don’t mind doing it,”
Colin answered.

“No problem.”

“Thanks Buck.”

Peter came over and stood beside Colin at his fish
tank.  “Your fish look like they did well while you were gone.”

“Yeah, Page really took good care of them.  Some of
them even look like they’ve grown.”

“I think you’re right,” Peter agreed.  “A couple of
them look bigger to me, too.”

Alethea and Amanda walked into the living room. 
“Alethea and I are going grocery shopping.”  She gave Peter a kiss.  “We’ll be
back in a bit.”

“Take your time.  We’ll hold down the fort.”

Alethea came over to Colin.  “How does Cajun spaghetti
sound for supper?”

“It sounds delicious!”  Colin declared, smiling at
her; his good humor restored.

“Good!”  She gave him a kiss.   She and Amanda left in
Amanda’s car.

“Anything else Buck or I can do for you, Son?”

“No, but thanks for asking.  I’ll be out on the
deck.”  He went outside.  His great view of the San Francisco skyline never
failed to raise his spirits.

Peter came out and stood beside him.  “Your view today
is crystal clear.”

“Yeah!  I’m just realizing how much I missed it!”

“Even though I’ve seen it repeatedly it never fails to
take my breath away!”  Peter remarked.

They walked down into his yard and strolled from one
end of his property to the other.  When he’d bought the house two years ago,
he’d also brought the empty lots on both sides to prevent anyone from building
one of those ugly, modern houses in the vicinity of his home.  “I told Alethea
I’d build her a swimming pool.  Swimming is her favorite exercise for keeping
in shape.”

“I assume she’s going to be using it all year round so
you’re going to have to enclose it.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Colin admitted.

“You can have an architect design a pool house to
match the architecture of your house.”

“That’s a good idea.”  Colin had mostly forgotten his
anger at Jeff by the time Alethea and his mom came back from shopping.   He
helped Alethea unpack the groceries.

“Here,” Alethea said, pulling out a jug of pink
fluid.  “I called my herbalist in Los Angeles and she recommended this to help
your body rebuild its blood supply and the minerals you lost.”  She poured some
into a glass and handed it to him.

“I suppose I could try it,” Colin said dubiously,
sniffing at the rim of the glass.  He took a sip then smiled.  “Hey!  This
isn’t too bad.  It tastes kind of tart, actually.”  He finished it and gave
Alethea a kiss.  “Thanks.”

The doorbell suddenly rang, the front door opened and
Beth Matthews called, “Anybody home?”

“In the kitchen, Grandma,” Colin said.

Roger and Beth Matthews walked into the kitchen.  Both
carried covered trays.

“Hi, Mom and Dad!”  Peter greeted them with a hug and
a kiss.  “What’s up?”

“I decided this morning that it was a good day to bake
so I made Colin some of his favorite blueberry cobbler and Liam some of his
favorite cherry cobbler,” Grandma Beth said.  She put the cobbler down on the
table.

“Thanks, Grandma,” Colin said.  “This is great!”  He
cut a large piece of the cobbler and started to eat it.  He motioned to the
rest of them.  “Help yourselves.”

Everybody had a piece of it and thoroughly enjoyed
it.  Colin wiped his mouth then said, “If everybody will excuse me, I think
I’ll go lay down for a while.”

“Do you feel all right?”  Amanda asked.

“Fine, but I am getting tired and I am learning not to
argue with my body when it makes up its mind,” he joked.  He gave his
grandparents a hug.  “Thanks for bringing the cobbler over.  It really hit the
spot!”

We’d better be going, too,” Grandma Beth said.  “We’ll
have you and Colin over to dinner when he’s feeling better.”

“We’ll look forward to it,” Alethea replied.  “Why
don’t you stay for dinner?”  She suggested to Peter and Amanda.

“Thank you, darling, but we left Liam alone so we’d
better be getting home.”  Amanda said.

Colin sighed as he went upstairs.  Before Father
Michaels, his parents never would have worried about leaving Liam by himself!

He had left his cell phone downstairs and it rang just
as Peter and Amanda were going to leave.  Alethea quickly answered it. 
“Hello?”

“Alethea?”