Waltz This Way (v1.1) (27 page)

“We’ve only been dating a little under a month. I’m definitely not thinking about anything else but day by day.” And that wasn’t easy.

What she really wanted was to get to the day when they nailed each other again. Soon.

“Well, that’s good to hear,” a familiar voice said.

Mel spun around, her face splitting into a grin. “Jackie!” She flew at her friend, squeezing her tight. “What the hell are you doing in Jersey? Didn’t you say you weren’t a ‘Situation’ kind of girl?”

Jackie hugged her hard. “I did, and I maintain Snooki and I will never be friends. I just can’t get my hair to bump the way hers does. However, seeing as you never answer a phone, and I was feeling like I’d just die if I didn’t have some diner food, here I am. Surprise!”

Mel squeezed her again. “I’m so glad to see you!”

Neil poked his head between them, sticking out his hand. “Neil Jensen. The other BFF.”

Jackie laughed and took his hand. “Oh, I know all about you, buddy. I’ve heard the stories. So it looks like someone’s been working out.” Jackie gave a wink of praise while her eyes scanned Mel’s length.

“Courtesy of the other BFF,” Mel offered. “He’s killing me.”

Neil chuckled. “Yeah, but look at those abs, huh, Jackie? If you run your fingers down them, you could make music on ’em.”

Jackie grinned at her. “You look amazing, kiddo. And did I hear talk of a boyfriend? What a difference eight months makes, eh?”

“He’s not my boyfriend. He’s someone I’m seeing.”

“A lot,” Neil interjected with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Jackie hooked her arm through Mel’s, the scent of her expensive perfume wafting to her nose and bringing with it comfort and familiarity. “So do you have time to talk now? Or do you have work? Have I mentioned how proud I am of you for nailing a job? So proud.”

Mel gave a quick glance at the clock and nodded. “Yes. Work calls, and I have to shower first, but why don’t we do dinner tonight and we can talk then.”

“Totally on me, of course, and bring the boyfriend. He needs a good Jackie once-over.”

Mel chuckled, taking her by the arm and leading her out of the rec center toward Neil’s car. “I’ll see if he’s free. And where are you staying? Last I checked, there’s no Four Seasons in Riverbend.”

Jackie gave a mock sigh, her lean face sharper in the sunlight.

“Tell me about it. I’m at the Marriott where I’m making sacrifices—big ones, in the name of BFF-dom. They don’t have twenty-four-hour room service. Heathens,” she joked.

“Make it snappy, kiddo. No time for girl talk now. Disgruntled geniuses await. Nice to meet you, Jackie,” Neil said, before getting into the car.

Jackie waved then pulled Mel close to her and whispered, “Have I got something to tell you.”

Mel’s stomach lurched. “Please tell me it’s not about Stan. I told you in our last conversation, I don’t want to know anything about him unless you have a firm location on him and some bleach and Hefty bags.”

Jackie tightened her turquoise scarf around her neck. “Fuck Stan. No one knows where he is. It’s like he’s fallen off the face of the planet, the coward. That’s not what I mean. I mean, I’ve got something we need to discuss. So bring your man-friend with you tonight because I’m dying to meet him, and I’ll leave you a voice mail with the name of the restaurant. God knows they have to have something that’s overpriced and isn’t called the Cluck-Cluck Palace in this town. If there is one, rest-assured, I’ll find it. I have a reputation to uphold.”

Mel hugged her friend hard again and planted a kiss on her cheek.

“I so missed you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Off with you now— to your job. Your job. Have I said how proud I am?”

“You did, and know what? I’m proud of me, too.” Mel grabbed the handle of the car door and popped it open. “See you tonight.”

Hopping into the car, Mel waved at her friend, grinning.

Jackie was here.

Mel could only hope Drew was ready for the Jackie once-over.

Jackie was anything but subtle.

So tonight would be a real testament to Drew’s sense of humor.

And his cojones.

Drew straightened his tie, uncomfortable as they stood outside Arthur’s, indeed, the most expensive restaurant in town. He frowned, pushing at the sleeves of his suit jacket.

He wasn’t a fan of overpriced restaurants that served steaks he could just as easily get at Chester’s for less than half the price. If memory served him, you paid for the experience.

His idea of experiences didn’t include waiters who scraped the crumbs from your table with a special scraper. This smacked of times better left behind him, and he was fighting the instinct to just let Mel and her friend have dinner while he watched the game and ate some chicken wings. With everything in him, he battled the issues of his marital baggage and forced a smile to his face.

“Everything okay?” Mel tilted her head up at him.

“I hate monkey suits.”

“But you look so handsome, monkey,” she whispered when he leaned down to give her a quick kiss. She brushed at the lapel of his dark suit, letting her hands come to rest on his pecs.

“Not as handsome as you. That’s quite a dress.” He gave her an approving eye, tilting her hips to meet his in their embrace.

“You like?” she teased. She was sexy and flirty in the dress she’d claimed she’d bought at a thrift store. It was slinky and black, hugging her newly toned curves and falling to just past her knee. She’d accentuated the dress with silver heels that made her legs look longer than they really were. Her hair fell down her back in tight ringlets she told him Jasmine had taught her to tame with some new hair gel, and she’d used red lipstick instead of her clear gloss just for tonight.

“I definitely like. I say we talk about how much I like at my apartment after dinner— what say you?”

Mel shivered against him. “I say let’s get dinner over with. Don’t linger. Ixnay on the appetizers.”

Drew pulled the etched-glass door open with a chuckle. “Not a stuffed mushroom shall pass these lips. After you.”

The maître d’ greeted them with a dramatic bow. “How can I help you?”

Mel smiled into the dimly lit interior of the pricey steakhouse when Drew placed a hand on her hip. “We’re meeting Jackie Bellows.”

The maître d’ turned sharply on his heel. “Right this way.”

“This is pretty fancy for some steak,” Drew muttered behind her.

Mel waved a dismissive hand. “That’s Jackie for you. She always says Frank has money for a reason. The reason being her. She once told him, if she can find a way, she’ll spend his money in the afterlife. Jackie makes no bones about the fact that she’s rich— it was one of the first things I liked about her. She has no pretense.”

Right. Jackie was her rich friend from L. A. He tried to remember all the information Mel had given him in a rush on the phone when she’d asked if they could swap their date at the diner for Jackie’s surprise visit dinner. “So who’s she married to again?”

“Frank Bellows. Big Hollywood producer. More money than Onassis. But none of that matters. Jackie’s one of my best friends and she wants to meet you.” Mel paused halfway to the table and whispered, “Gird your loins.”

Jackie jumped up when she saw them, giving Mel a hug. Her blond hair was platinum; her skin lightly tanned with a healthy California glow. She wore an abundance of rings on the fingers that squeezed Mel’s, mostly diamonds. Her red silk blouse and black, slim-fitting skirt screamed money. She elbowed Mel. “So introduce me to the hunk.”

Mel grinned, slipping her arm through Drew’s. “Hunk, meet Jackie. Jackie, hunk.”

Jackie winked, pulling Drew into a hug, too, patting him on the back. “Wow. When Mel finds a boyfriend, she finds a boyfriend. Nice to meet you, Drew. I’ve heard so many good things about you. Now sit.” She pointed to the red vinyl booth behind a round table with a pristine white tablecloth. “Prove them to me.”

“Drew Hunk McPhee. Good to meet you, and I love a good steak with some pressure on the side,” he joked, allowing Mel to sit and sliding into the booth beside her.

The waiter arrived with their menus, and while Jackie ordered a bottle of wine he knew was expensive, he ordered a beer.

“A beer drinker,” Jackie commented with a grin. “Nothing says man like beer. It says solid and simple.”

“Simple.” The word grated on him. In Sherry’s circles he’d been called simple a time or two. He buried his face in the menu, wincing at the prices while gritting his teeth. Jackie appeared perfectly nice.

There was no reason to cast his aspersions of the rich and privileged on her before she’d proven otherwise.

“So what do you do for a living, Drew? Mel said something about you two working together.”

He had no shame about what he did. It was honest, hard work.

“I’m the on-site handyman, for lack of a better word, at Westmeyer where Mel teaches.”

Jackie pinned him with hawklike eyes. Her spiky hair bobbed when she nodded her head. “Like I said. Solid. I bet you rock a tool belt. And a little birdie told me, you don’t like to dance? How can this be when that’s what my Mel’s all about?”

“I like to watch Mel, if that’s any consolation.”

Jackie patted him on the arm from across the table. “Good answer. So you have a son?”

Drew smiled, relaxing a little. Nate was easy to talk about. “Nate. He’s twelve.”

Jackie rolled her eyes and cackled. “Christ. You don’t know how you lucked out. I have three damned girls and every one of them pushing those teen years. Only one reasonable boy in the lot and he’s in college now, so far gone, I’ve forgotten how little pain he inflicted. Do you have any idea what you’ve escaped by having a boy?”

Drew laughed, pulling Mel’s hand into his to run circles along her wrist with his thumb. “I’ve heard the horror stories from my sisters.”

“Oh, they have lobster!” Mel blurted, then covered her mouth, giving them both a look of shame. “Sorry, but do you have any idea how long it’s been since I had lobster? Thank God for rich BFFs,” she crowed. Clearly, Jackie’s money wasn’t a forbidden subject.

“Oh, hush. In no time at all, you’ll be eating lobster every day if you want to.”

Drew’s head popped up from the menu he’d been only absently staring at.

Mel’s did, too. “Right. Teachers can’t afford lobster, Jackie. They can’t even afford to read the word.”

Neither could handymen. He wasn’t poor, but he didn’t have the kind of money Stan had.

Jackie’s face beamed, her high cheekbones sharper when she smiled at Mel. “That’s why I’m here, kiddo. We have some talking to do. But you have to promise to keep it hush-hush. Both of you.”

“I promise to only sell the information if it means college money for Nate. Ivy League’s going to kill me. I think, in all fairness, leaking information is a sin that should automatically get a pass under those circumstances.” he joked.

Jackie nudged Mel. “I like the hunk. He has a great sense of ha-ha. Anyway, guess who has a new gig?”

Mel feigned surprise. “Shut up. You got a job? Is this a Frank life lesson? Like the time he made Jaynie work to pay off the water bill by weeding all nine million of your gardens because she was taking forty-minute showers?”

“Hah! Good times, right?” Jackie reflected then shook her head.

“No life lessons for me. I have a job. Those damn hellions he impreg-nated me with. It’s work.”

Drew wondered how much work it could be with nannies and maids.

“I don’t know how you do it without help,” Mel said.

Jerk. You’re a total shit, McPhee.

“Millions of women do it without help, and I do have a live-in. No way I could attend all those charity events and parties if Melda didn’t help clean the toilets for me, but I’m grateful for her, and she knows it. She has a weekend house in the valley bought and paid for because I love her so much. But what I’m really grateful for is that Frank’s rich enough to allow me biweekly visits to a therapist. Jesus knows I need one with three girls left to raise.”

“So who got a new gig?” Mel asked, her eyes bright with interest.

Jackie leaned into her like she had a secret. “Frank.”

“Ohhhh, another blockbuster movie?”

“Nope, TV, believe it or not.”

Mel gasped, nibbling on a piece of bread. “Frank’s stooping to TV? I thought that was all beneath the big honchos who made box-office smash hit movies?”

“Not when it’s the kind of cash cow Celebrity Ballroom is.”

Mel squealed her delight. “The Celebrity Ballroom? You’re kidding me?”

“Would I kid you? That’s part of the reason I’m here.”

Mel groaned. “If you tell me this was a trip designed as a heads-up because Stan’s remotely involved in this, the minute I have two extra pennies to rub together, I’m coming to L. A. and kicking Frank’s sorry ass. Friendship is null and void.”

“Oh, no, my pretty ballroom dancer. This trip has to do with you.”

Drew watched Mel’s face grow confused. She sipped her wine.

“Me?”

Jackie’s smile was sly. “ Yeah— they need a new judge. Linda’s contract’s up, and she’s never been very popular with the audience, so when her contract negotiations came up, they canned her.”

Mel frowned. “But how does that involve me? I’m no Linda Little.”

“Was Linda Little Linda Little before Celebrity Ballroom? No one knew who she was except those of you on the dance circuit. She was just an ex-champ. But now they need another expert in Latin—someone just like you, toots.”

Mel’s eyes shone with excitement. “I don’t get why anyone would even mention me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t think Frank’s got your back? He threw your name in the ring, honey.”

“Seriously?”

“Oh, I’m very serious. You could be the next judge on Celebrity Ballroom.”

Well, then. Here-here to lobster every night.