Rock Me Gently (21 page)

Lainey gave Jason an extra squeeze before she moved from his arms.

“What’s all this?” Jill asked of the forms all over the counter.

“Just some legal stuff I was going over,” Lainey answered, gathering it up into a pile.

“Something going on?” Jill asked, watching her mother closely.

“Just the same stuff. Nothing to worry about. Did you hear from your dad yet?”

“No. I think I’ll call him tonight. I don’t even know if he still expects me for the weekend.” Jill turned to Henry and by the look she gave him it seemed to Lainey that maybe her daughter didn’t want to go visit her dad but stay with her boyfriend instead.

“I’m sure he does. Goodness knows he’d make a federal case out of it if you didn’t.” Besides, Lainey and Jason had plans to spend the weekend together and she for one was looking forward to spending the nights curled up with him. “What are you two up to?”

“Well,” Henry began, “the football team got roped into helping out with the annual school talent show, since Mrs Leadbetter, who was in charge of it, inadvertently fell over one of the football sleds that someone forgot to put away. Broke her freakin’ ankle. So Coach Anderson is making us help out and I recruited Jill, since frankly I don’t want to do it and it wasn’t my fault.”

“And I suggested you, Mr Westlake.”

“No. I don’t think so.” Jason declined.

“Why not? This is the first talent show since you became a teacher here. A teacher at our school, with actual talent.”

“Yeah, where’s your school spirit, Dub?”

“Come on, Jason, for the kids.” Lainey grinned encouragingly.

“You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I am. I want to hear you sing some more.”

“I don’t sing in public anymore. I quit, remember?”

“But what better cause to come out of retirement for than your adoring students.”

“Okay, I’ll do it if you will.”

“Me?” Lainey squeaked.

“Yeah, we sounded awesome together in the park. Sign me up. I’ll do a duet, Jill, with your mother.”

“No, no way. I can’t sing in front of a crowd.”

“For the kids, Lainey,” Jason cajoled.

“Forget it. Forget I said anything.”

“Come on, Mom. It’d be awesome.” Jill turned excitedly toward her mother.

“This is insane.”

“You’ll do it?” Jill practically jumped up and down.

Lainey sent Jason a pathetic plea for help. He grinned at her discomfort. She’d backed herself right into that one.

Henry and Jill headed for the door. “Well, that was easier than I thought it would be,” Henry said.

“Told ya, piece of cake,” Jill responded as the door swung shut.

“This has been the strangest day of my life,” Lainey remarked.

“Close up and let’s go home, and I’ll try to top it.”

“Sounds good.”

Lainey hurried to close the shop.

* * * *

Jason watched as Lainey pored over the paperwork spread all over his counter at home. He wished she’d just sign the freakin’ papers already. He’d talked to Cam several times during the day. He was Jason’s attorney and a family friend. He’d gotten Jason out of quite a few little scrapes while he was living the life of a rock star. Plus, their moms had been best friends since forever.

“I don’t see anything wrong, Jason, but I just don’t feel right about it. Something seems off. I mean, silent partners? I don’t get why they’d want to invest in a sinking ship.”

“Well, obviously they don’t see it as such. They must see your potential.”

“What potential? I’ve obviously done a fine job, running the place into the ground so far.”

“Quit being so hard on yourself. Thad had equal if not more of a hand in bringing the shop to where it is today. He’s the one that wants to see it fail. If you leave it up to him, you’ll have nothing.”

The phone rang. Jason grabbed it.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Jason, your Lainey is lovely. We all loved her. You’ve done well for yourself for once.”

“Thanks, Ma. I think so too.”

“Val was brilliant today, the way she pulled out Cam’s card. Did Lainey hear from him?”

“Yep.”

“I take it by the one word answers you are not alone.”

“Ya got that right.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later, Jase.”

“Thanks for everything, Mom.”

“My pleasure. Bye for now.”

“Bye, Mom.”

Lainey smiled. “Do you talk to your mom every day?”

“Practically.”

“That’s so sweet.”

“Do you have parents, Lainey? I’ve never heard you mention them.”

“My dad’s gone and my mother took off when I was a baby. I don’t even remember her.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “My dad did a good job, considering. When Thad and I found out that I was pregnant, he moved in with my dad and me, you know, after graduation and getting married and all. We didn’t stay long, though, before we got our own little apartment.”

“Was it just you and your dad? No siblings?”

She shook her head.

“How about you? Are you an only child?”

“Yep, just me. I’m sure my mother thanks the good Lord every day for only one of me.”

“I don’t know. She seems pretty proud of you.”

“Why’d you and Thad only have one?” Jason asked, carefully.

“He was too focused on his career. We didn’t really know where we were going to end up either. It’s just easier to pick up and transfer one, wherever you get drafted or traded to. I never really missed having another one, though. Jilly kind of broke the mold, you know? She’s kinda perfect.”

Jason watched the soft look on Lainey’s face as she talked about her daughter.

“She is pretty great.”

“You don’t have to say that. But thank you.”

“I mean it. Or I wouldn’t say it. So she and Henry look tight again?”

“Mmm. He’s a good kid too. I don’t mind seeing her with him. That Boyd kid, though—that would be another matter.”

Jason laughed. “Are you going to sign those already, so I can jump you before you have to go home?”

“Oh, is that what you’re waiting for? I don’t need to sign them right away. Jump me now.”

He’d rather she sign first but if this was the only way, so be it.

Chapter Thirteen

The next day at school, nearing the end of the day, Henry walked into Jason’s classroom.

“I think we have a problem, J-Dub.”

As Jason looked up at him, Henry slapped a magazine into the middle of his desk.

On the cover was a picture of himself and Lainey, kissing on his front porch.

Gold Digger Sets Sights on Ex Rock God Jase West
read the headline.

“Ah, fuck off! Where’d you find this, Henry?”

“They’re everywhere and I know that Jill’s mom is going grocery shopping tonight, because I have eaten them out of house and home recently.”

“Do you know where she shops?”

“Yeah.”

“Has Jill seen this?”

“I don’t know.”

“We’ve gotta get those magazines out of the store before Lainey sees them. I haven’t had a chance to tell her yet.”

“I know, why do you think I’m here? But who’s to say she doesn’t see it somewhere else? Or what if someone mentions it to her?”

Jason shook his head. One problem at a time.

He and Henry rushed to the grocery store and bought up every last magazine.

“This is all well and good, if this is the grocery store Lainey uses? What if she goes somewhere else for a change? Are you sure this is the one?”

Henry got on the phone with Jill and convinced her to go shopping with her mother after she closed the shop.

“Henry, what are you up to?” Jill asked.

“Okay, Jill, I’m going to level with you. Westlake and I just bought up all the tabloids in the store, don’t ask why. You can guess. So you have to make sure your mom goes to that grocery store.”

“Oh fer fuck’s sake! If my mother is plastered over those fuckin’ rags again…”

“She is, and Dub hasn’t had time to come clean yet.”

“What’s the freakin’ hold-up?”

“He’s gonna tell her this weekend.”

There was a long pause. “Okay, but after this, if he doesn’t tell her, I will.”

“Thanks, Jill. I’ll see you later.”

Jason held out his hand. “Thanks, Henry.”

“No prob, J-Dub. Remember this while grading my next paper.”

* * * *

He knew immediately when he walked in that something was off. Lainey looked up from the counter, but the usual warm welcoming smile didn’t follow nor did the standard ‘
Hey, handsome’
.

“Hey, Lainey love,” he said.

“Hello, Jase,” Lainey remarked.

“What’s goin’ on?” he asked, carefully.

“You tell me.” She turned the laptop his way. His alter ego leered back at him.

Jase closed his eyes and tried to gather himself.
Fuck
! “Lainey. I was going to tell you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me the first day? Or the second? Or at the coffee shop instead of telling me those women were from the PTA. You had ample opportunity to level with me. Why the secrets?”

“I was afraid that you wouldn’t want to see me, because of my past. Because of your experience with Thad. And then there’s the press to consider.”

“You’re right. I wouldn’t have wanted to but I’m not sure that I would have been able to resist. You didn’t give me that choice. But we’ll never know now, will we?”

“Lainey, I’m sorry. I just wanted you to get to know me. The me that I am now. I’m not that guy anymore.”

“No. You’re not that guy. Or maybe you are. I don’t really care. But you are a liar. And I have no use for that kind of person in my life. Please leave.”

“Lainey, come on. Hear me out. Please. Can’t we just talk about this?”

“There’s nothing to say. You should have told me. Instead I had to learn it from yet another person from my past. Who had the time of her life telling me all about you.”

“Who?”

“It doesn’t matter who. She was some skank back in high school who always had the hots for Thad, but he never gave her the time of day, back then. But she was, apparently, one of the many that he slept with behind my back more recently. In my home, no less. I don’t think she knew when she first came in here that I was misinformed, but she took great pleasure in filling in the blanks when she realized I hadn’t a clue as to what she was talking about. Poor, pathetic Lainey, she’s always the last to know and the first to be lied to.”

After gathering up the bank deposit bag, she then closed the laptop and headed for the door. “You know, I should have guessed. The Bugatti all in itself should have tipped me off. I should have gone digging then. Some small time band, huh?” She paused at the door. “Are you leaving, or am I locking you in?”

Jason strode to the door. “Please, can we talk? Will you give me another chance?”

She locked the door then turned to face him. “You know, I probably would have, if you just being Jase West was the only thing. But the underhanded way that you went about ‘helping’ me with a lawyer, the store and the ‘backers’ was over the top. The West Group? Really? You couldn’t come up with something a little better? And when I asked you if you’d heard of them, you just lied so seamlessly. No thanks. Been there, done that. I’m just glad I didn’t sign the papers. You’re no better than Thad,
Jase
.”

Jason watched as she stalked off down the street toward the bank.

* * * *

Lainey let herself in to her empty house. Jill had gone to visit Thad. This was supposed to be the wonderful weekend alone with Jason. Lainey finally let loose with the tears she’d refused to give in to all day.

Lainey wondered if Jilly knew about her teacher. Of course she must. Everyone else in town seemed to know the truth. The question was why hadn’t Jill come clean? Why had she kept Jason’s secret? Because she had wanted to protect her mother or had she wanted to sabotage the relationship? And how could she think that about her own daughter? This sucked!

Lainey did what she always did when she was upset. She cleaned.

About every twenty minutes either her cellphone would chime or the house phone would ring. Lainey checked every time just in case it was Jill. But it was Jason.

So when the phone finally rang and it was Jill, Lainey took a minute to get to it. She was up to her elbows in dish suds, so she just hit the speaker button so that she could talk and wash at the same time.

“Hello, Jilly. Made it to Dad’s okay?”

“Mom, you have to come.” Lainey’s heart dropped when she heard the panic in her daughter’s voice.

“What’s going on, Jill?”

“It’s Dad. I told you he wasn’t answering my texts. He’s in the hospital, Mom.”

There was a knock at the door. Lainey turned and was not surprised to see Jason outside. She hung her head. She didn’t want to deal with any of this.

Against her better judgment she opened the door for him.

“Mom, are you still there?” Jill asked.

“Yes, I’m still here.” Lainey looked up at Jason stonily. “Where are you?”

“I’m at Dad’s right now. I’m waiting for his coach to come and pick me up. He’s going to take me to the hospital to see him.”