CHAPTER 20 ALEXIS
I’m having a hard time staying in character today as the things Danny told me last night roll over in my mind.
I promised not to say a word to anyone, and Leila keeps asking me if everything’s okay.
I’ve flubbed my lines over and over today, missed my cues, and generally cost the entire production nearly a full day of filming.
Luckily, we only had a little bit left to film here, and somehow I manage to get through it.
And then I find myself on a plane with Gregory, who leans over beside me. “Is everything okay, ma’am?”
I press my lips together and stare out the window.
He probably thinks I’m just being a little dramatic about leaving Danny. He has no idea the depth of what’s going on in my mind, and I truly do feel like he’d have some insight into how to deal with this.
But I promised Danny I’d keep quiet, so against my better judgment, I don’t say a word.
For now.
But when does this thing with his dad end?
How far will he push us? Until we break? And why would he do that to his own son?
It’s something so incomprehensible to me, yet as I look at my own situation…is it really all that different?
Both our dads are taking what they want from us. They’re manipulating us to get their way. They’re using us for our successes. For our money. For whatever else they want.
And none of it is right.
In fact, all it’s doing is pushing us closer together. It’s giving us one more thing to bond over. It’s giving us one more thing in common…no matter how sick and twisted that is.
I feel sick to my stomach that someone has a sex tape of us. This has the potential to ruin me. To ruin my career. To ruin everything I’ve built for the last ten years.
But even so, even with all that heaviness and fear…I find myself wanting to turn into Danny. I’m not running away. Instead, I want to run to him.
I can’t. I have to get home.
But more than anything, I wish I could stay with him so we could figure things out.
I’m quiet the entire short flight, and just before we get off the plane, I turn to Gregory as I slip my sunglasses on. “Can you help me avoid the media in the airport? I just…I don’t have it in me right now.”
He nods. “Of course.”
The flight attendant lets us off the plane first, and he takes me through the terminal with an arm around my shoulders. I keep my head down and sunglasses on, avoiding eye contact with anyone who wants something from me this evening because right now, I have nothing left to give of myself.
It’s all back in Vegas with Danny.
When I met him, I never had the first inclination that life would become so complicated so quickly. But I never had the first inclination about how much it would be worth it either.
I feel very much alone as Gregory ushers me to the car parked by the private terminal. As we slip into the car, I pull out my phone to text Danny to let him know I’ve landed.
I see I have a missed call from Brooks, and he left a voicemail, so before I text Danny, I take a quick listen.
“Alexis, sorry to leave this via voice message, but it’s your father. He was having trouble catching his breath. He was coughing and wheezing, so I took him back to the ER. We just arrived. I, uh…I just thought you should know.”
My heart sinks as my chest tightens.
“Gregory?” I ask softly.
“Ma’am?”
“Can you take me to Cedars Sinai instead of home?”
“Is everything all right?” he asks.
“My dad is at the ER again. Coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath.”
“I’m sorry, Alexis. Yes, of course,” he says.
I dial Brooks back.
“Hello,” he answers.
“Is he okay?” My voice sounds panicked even to myself.
“He was just taken back, and he’s getting checked out, so he’s in the right place. Have you landed?”
“Yes. We’re on our way to the hospital. I’m glad you were there with him.”
“He’s like a father to me, too, Alexis,” he says quietly, and he’s the type of person who rarely shows emotion, so it feels significant that he said that.
And he will be his father, too—father-in-law, anyway, two weeks from today.
The thought hits me in a different place, and the result is pure confusion.
It’s not what I want…and yet, as I face my father being back in the hospital and as I see once again how short life is, I can’t help but feel like I’m doing the right thing by marrying Brooks.
It’s the right thing for my dad. It’s the right thing for Brooks.
And as for me, well…maybe I’m putting off my happy ending by a year or so, and maybe those are terms my dad and I will hammer out over the next few days.
Or maybe I’ll lose him here tonight and never get those answers.
The thought pulses new fears inside me while digging up the ones I put to rest the last time he was in here.
Gregory parks at the back entrance like last time and ushers me inside. I know where to go this time, familiar with it since it wasn’t all that long ago I was here.
A nurse spots me and immediately recognizes me. “Your father is this way,” she says, and Gregory retreats back outside. I think about telling him to come with me, but I know I need to face this alone.
The nurse opens the door to my father’s private room in the ER, and he looks a little older than when I saw him less than a week ago. He’s got another oxygen tube under his nose, and apart from seeming a little distressed that he’s back here, he seems okay.
“We can’t keep meeting here like this,” he quips, and I roll my eyes.
“Why are you here?”
“Apparently you were right. I was supposed to finish the whole bottle of meds, not stop once I felt better.”
I roll my eyes. “Are you serious right now?”
He has the grace to look a little sheepish.
“You scared the heck out of me, Daddy. I told you to take your medicine.” I fold my arms across my chest and press my lips together.
“I know you did, and I just…got busy. I was fine until I wasn’t.”
“Clearly.” I nod toward the bed he’s lying in.
“Twice in a week, and I think I’m starting to learn something,” he admits.
“What?”
He glances at the nurse, who’s busy looking at his IV bag, and then she leaves the room for a moment.
“Life’s short, and I need this merger done. I need you to go through with the wedding.”
“I know. I’ve already agreed to it,” I say.
“You did, but I get the feeling you’re hiding things from me, and that didn’t start until you met Danny Brewer.” He gives me a pointed look, and my chest tightens that maybe he knows more than I give him credit for.
And that gives me the strangest feeling that Danny’s dad isn’t the only patriarch keeping eyes on things that are none of his business.
I can’t help but circle back to one question, though.
Why?