Role of a Lifetime (3 page)

Chapter 6

"Hey Holly."

"Hi Tanya," Holly said, then she had to push the shopping cart out of the way, as they were blocking the aisle.

"I haven't seen you since the other day, you know, at the hospital."

"Oh yeah, thanks for driving Lia home, by the way, and the rabbits."

Tanya waved it off, "Never mind that," she said, "How was it?"

"What?"

"Shut up what, lunch with Kelly Rockport, you brat."

"Oh," Holly scrambled to find something to say.  She had been totally blown away by the idea of Kelly wanting to fly clear across the country just to take her to dinner and after she was unable to focus on her work after their (almost two hour) phone call ended, she gave up and headed to the supermarket, "It was good, they have really good roast beef there, we should get some next time we go to the hospital, well we can't leave the animals in the car, but we can get take out maybe."

"Seriously?" Tanya said, "Roast beef?"

"What?" Holly said, "It was good."

"You ate lunch with Kelly effing Rockport and you're talking to me about roast beef?"

"He wasn't, it didn't seem," Holly didn't know what to say.  When they were eating lunch he had seemed nice but she hadn't thought about it.  Now it was obvious Kelly was interested in her and she didn't know how to handle that either, "He was just normal," she concluded helplessly.

"Normal, but gorgeous."

"Yes," Holly had to agree with Tanya on that one.

She gave Tanya a short explanation of Kelly wanting to help with the animal therapy group.

"Oh, well, that's nice of him," Tanya said and her disappointment was obvious, "You know, I think Paul's cousin is dating again," Paul was Tanya's husband, "his wife died a couple of years ago."

"No," Holly said automatically and firmly.

She and Tanya had met and become friends when their daughters were in a preschool gymnastics class together.  Holly assumed, that Tanya assumed, that Holly hadn't dated since her husband died because Holly was still caring some kind of torch for him.  It was a perfectly reasonable assumption, and Holly was perfectly happy to let people think that.

"Okay," Tanya said, and changed the subject immediately.

They chatted for a minute about the amount of stuff they both had to get in order to get their daughters ready to go off to school and then separated to finish their shopping.

Waiting in line to pay for her groceries Holly was momentarily stunned to see Kelly on the cover of a magazine.  She glanced up but the customer ahead of her was still loading up the conveyor belt, all Holly could do was wait.  The picture was from the movie about Greek mythology he had done, and Kelly looked fierce and even a little scary.  At lunch he had seemed so nice.

It's just dinner, Holly told herself as she pushed the cart up to the register.  And it may not even happen.  It probably won't happen.  And if it does you know what to look for.  And Lia won't be there.  She'll be safe.  I'll be careful and Lia will be safe and it will be okay.

Chapter 7

"Hello," Kelly said.

The girl looked up from her phone, obviously annoyed but her expression changed immediately.

"Oh my god, you're Kelly Rockport," she said.

"Yes," he said and waited but she just stood there staring at him, "I have an appointment," he added.

"Oh, yes, right," she said and instantly began fumbling  with the computer.

"My assistant is just going to wait out here," Kelly said, motioning to Carl who had already set up his lap top in the reception area.

"Okay, right, follow me," the girl said.

She talked nervously as she led Kelly back through the office and opened the door for him.  Kelly thanked her and entered the room.  He scanned the room and shook hands and said hi to everyone.

"And do you know Zoe?" Mary asked.

Mary was the casting director.  Kelly followed her gaze over to the couch by the window.  Zoe Portnoy quickly stowed her phone in her purse and got up to come over and shake his hand.  That was all they had time for and Kelly accepted the script that was handed to him and turned to the page he was told to.  He scanned the scene quickly and recognized it.  It was one he and Mabel had spent over an hour on.  It was a critical scene for the story and it required Kelly to flip from nice to, well, abusive.  Mabel had told him he had done a good job, then she had added that any man who ever treated any woman that way, let alone his wife, should be strung up.  By his balls.

"Have you read this?" Kelly asked Zoe.

"Yes, they picked a doozy for us, didn't they," she replied.

"Well, let me apologize in advance then," Kelly said and she laughed.

"Don't hold anything back, well you don't have to hit or push me, we'll save that for after it's been choreographed by the stunt people," she said and Kelly smiled at her.

They got started and Kelly was sure it went really well but the producers and director gave him no feedback.  They moved onto some of the less intense scenes and then they were dismissed.  Carl looked up as Kelly came back into the reception area and immediately packed up the lap top.  They all rode down in the elevator together, Kelly and Zoe chatting about the movies they were both scheduled to start in about a month.

As they parted in the lobby they wished each other well and Zoe said she'd see him when "Mistakes" started filming.

"Oh I don't have it yet," Kelly said.

"You will, you were downright scary, I may have nightmares."

"Don't have nightmares, I'm nice, really, ask him," Kelly said motioning to Carl.

"I'm scared of him," Carl said.

"You guys, you will get it, I got to go, it was nice meeting you," Zoe said and after glancing right and left up and down the street in front of the building, dashed across the sidewalk to her waiting limo.

"Alright, what time is it?" Kelly said, pulling out his phone.

"Eleven forty-five, you have to be at the gym at one-thirty."

"Okay, let's grab some lunch then," Kelly said as they got into his limo.

There was a quick discussion when they figured out where to go to lunch and then just as the car pulled away Carl's phone rang.  Kelly recognized the ring tone, it was his agent.

"Oh, it's Sam," Carl said, "You want me to get it?"

"Quit fucking around or I will hurt you," Kelly said, half joking, but only half.  He was really anxious about the part.

"Hello," Carl said, answering the phone, "And who may I say is calling?  Oh, should I just take a message, okay then, thank you bye."

"What?"  Kelly said when Carl had hung up.

"Oh I have a list for us to go through, and what?" Carl said when Kelly punched him in the shoulder, "Calm down, you got it, of course you did."

"Okay," Kelly said, smiling.  He relaxed back in his seat enjoying the moment.

"Do I get to go?" Carl said.

"Where?"

"The Oscars of course."

Kelly thought of telling Carl not to get ahead of himself but he didn't bother.  He was too excited about the role himself so he just said the first thing that came to mind.

"Sure."

Chapter 8

"Can I borrow something to wear Mom?" Lia asked.

"What?"  Holly asked and stopped turning the pottery wheel.

"Can. I. Borrow. Something. To. Wear?"  Lia said and when Holly frowned at her, quickly added, "Please."

"Really, you need," Holly paused, thinking of the piles and piles of clothes her daughter owned, gave up and sighed, "Sure, do NOT make a mess in my closet, you hear me?"

"Thanks Mom," Lia said and darted out of the barn, presumably to head back over to the house and trash Holly's closet.

Holly took her time finishing what she was working on, then straightened up the shop and cleaned herself up.  She went back to the house but Lia was not downstairs.  Holly headed up to her bedroom, mentally preparing herself for the mess she was likely to find, and trying to decide the best way to handle it.  She found Lia in the master bedroom, twirling in front of the mirror.

"What do you think, Mom?"

"You look beautiful," Holly said truthfully.  The thought crossed her mind that her daughter looked way better in that dress than Holly did, or quite possibly ever had.  Then her eyes moved to the bed.

"I'll put it all away, Mom, promise," Lia said, and gave another twirl in the mirror.

But Holly wasn't looking at the piles of clothes on the bed.  The fact that Lia had emptied her closet didn't concern her anymore.  She was staring at the other thing.  The box that was usually tucked away, very carefully, very hidden.  How had Lia found it?

"Mom, I'll put it away I said, okay," Lia said and stepped over the bed.  She grabbed a dress and put it on a loose hanger.  She glanced at Holly as she stepped towards the closet.  "See, I'm doing it, Mom.  Mom?"

Holly didn't move or say anything.  She was frozen, staring at the box.  Lia followed her gaze.

"Mom!  No, Mom, don't, I'll put it back, I didn't know what it was."

Lia dropped the dress back onto the bed and reached for the box.  Holly got there first.

"Don't touch it," she snapped at Lia, a lot more harshly than she had known she was going to.

"Mom," Lia said, and her eyes filled with tears.

Holly ignored her and, wrapping her arms protectively around the box, marched it back into the closet.  Once alone she opened it and quickly went through the inventory, which she knew by heart.  The clothes, little baby boy clothes, the ultrasound pictures, the blanket she had been crocheting in three shades of blue plus white.  She had been about halfway done.  The rest of the yarn was in there, as well as the crochet hook.  Satisfied, she put the box back in the closet and didn't bother to hide it this time.  Lia would never touch it again, Holly was sure of that.  Then she took a couple of deep breaths and went back into the bedroom.

Lia was sitting on the bed, her hands in her lap.  Holly sat down next to her and put her arm around her daughter.

"I'm really sorry Mom," Lia said.

"I am too, you just surprised me that's all," Holly said, "I never take that out."

That was a lie.  Holly took it out twice a year, the day of the accident and the day her son was supposed to be born, three months and three days later.

"I'm sorry Mom," Lia said again.

"Don't be sorry," Holly said, "Let's just clean this up."

Together they rehung the clothes on the hangers and put them back in the closet.  They went back downstairs, Holly acting as normal as possible, and hoping Lia was buying it.  Holly offered Lia some dinner before Dylan came to pick her up and Lia refused, but finally relented and agreed to eat some salad.  As they were chopping vegetables side by side, one of the cell phones on the charging station dinged with a text.  Lia immediately put her knife down and went across the room.

"No it's yours, from Kelly?  Is that Kelly Rockport?"

"I guess," Holly said.

"Should I read it to you?"

"No, it's my text," Holly said but Lia was already pushing the buttons.  Holly sighed.  She wasn't expecting anything inappropriate from Kelly, especially not via text.  And if it was it would be a good reason to cancel their "date".  Not that she was a hundred percent sure she wanted to cancel it.

"I got the part and Zoe Portnoy is the female lead," Lia read, "What does that mean?"

"Oh he had an auditon for a movie," Holly said and went to the fridge to look for a tomato, "Hey are you still helping here or what?"

"Yes, Zoe Portnoy?  Wow, she's,"

Whatever Lia was going to say about Zoe was lost as her phone buzzed this time.

"Dylan's here!" she announced.

Holly ground her teeth over the fact that her daughter's boyfriend would sit in the driveway and send a text rather than get out of his car and ring the doorbell but said nothing.  Lia came back around the counter and gave Holly a quick hug.

"Bye Mom, and again, I'm really sorry, about," Lia held onto her mom and avoided looking at her.

"I loved him honey, you can't know, one day you will, maybe."

"I know Mom, I think I would have liked having a brother."

"No, you wouldn't have, no girl likes having a pesky younger brother."

Lia laughed and pulled away.

"Okay see you later."

"Have fun, don't stay out too late.  Be safe, make smart choices.

"Mom!"  Lia looked down as her phone buzzed again, "Okay I'm going."

Lia raced out of the kitchen.  Holly stared at the doorway her daughter had disappeared through.  Then she stared at the half prepared salad.  Finally she looked at her phone.  She could call Kelly.  He could tell her about the audition.  She was sure he would be really excited about getting the role.  She called him but he didn't answer, so she left a brief and, she was sure, totally stupid message and then turned back to her salad.  And to the thoughts of her son.  She hadn't been lying to Lia when Holly said she loved him.  But that wasn't what made it so hard.  What made it so hard was the guilt.  In dying he had saved her.  Holly and Lia, he had saved them both.  And Holly would never be able to forgive herself for that.