Part 25 (1/2)
”You heard me. And what's worse, he'll be at Jonas's party tomorrow. How on earth am I going to pull this one off? In front of my husband? In front of my kids? With half of Was.h.i.+ngton looking on?”
G.o.d Bless America, Alice thought.
Forty-two.
Jordan was the first finalist scheduled to sing. Kiley Kate would go on after her.
Alice stood close to the door, one ear tuned to the show, one to her cell as she called CJ again and again but only got voice mail.
She wondered if Elinor had lost her mind or if she really was sleeping with Joe Remillard. Holy cow. A theme-park magician, executive or not, certainly paled next to a vice president. No, make that the vice president.
”Manny's been using my phone,” CJ said when she finally answered. ”His battery died.”
”What the h.e.l.l's going on? Has your sister gone crazy?”
”She told you.”
”Yes. Do the others know? Poppy? Yolanda?”
”I don't think Poppy knows.”
”Maybe we should keep it that way. You know how she gets.”
”Right. As for Yolanda, well, she knows Elinor was being followed in Cayman by the Secret Service.”
”Good Lord, CJ, what's going to happen?”
”I have no idea. I'm at Poppy's right now. She and Manny are upstairs looking through her magazines, to see if Duane cut out the letters for the ransom note.”
”And?”
”And nothing so far. Poppy says her magazines haven't been touched by Duane or by anyone.”
Alice sighed. ”I'll be home tomorrow.”
”Well, we won't be. We'll be off to Was.h.i.+ngton. By the way, how's Orlando?”
”Fine. Interesting. I'll tell you later.” But as she clicked off, a sad, lonely feeling crept into her heart and smothered any hope for Bud and the rest. Elinor's predicament was a stiff shot of reality, a wake-up call for Alice to rea.s.sess her priorities-priorities like allowing Kiley Kate to make friends, like paying attention to what really mattered, like husbands and families and not self-centered fun.
The party was held at Planet Hollywood, where the dozen or so girls were mesmerized from the moment they walked in. They spotted celebs Monique Coleman and Ashanti, whom Alice had never heard of.
They ordered smoothies and chicken crunch and zucchini chips. And they giggled, as only nine-year-old girls do.
The fact that Kiley Kate had actually won did not seem to affect anyone, most of all Kiley Kate. She seemed to be happiest that she was there with the others.
”This is lovely,” Alice said to Lorna LeDuc, who hadn't commented that Alice was a bit overdressed. Then the double chocolate brownies were served and the girls' eyes widened and they giggled some more.
”Girls,” Lorna said. ”I wish I'd had ten of them. But Henry and I only had Taylor, then Henry got leukemia, and died the next year.”
Alice took a drink of her mango-peach smoothie. ”I'm so sorry,” she said. ”You've raised Taylor alone?”
”Oh, we have lots of friends. We're lucky like that.”
No one, of course, had to tell Alice the importance of having friends. She reached into her purse to make sure Elinor or none of the others had called. When she'd finally decided to bring Kiley Kate here rather than meeting Bud, she'd turned off her cell altogether. She'd decided that yes, her priorities were what they were. If Neal wanted a divorce, she'd deal with that, too. But she had her friends who would help. She, too, was lucky like that.
After two hours of giggles, they grabbed taxicabs back. As if she still was little, Kiley Kate snuggled up close to her grandmother. Alice kept one arm around her and one arm on the trophy. Next stop: Philadelphia, she thought with a grin.
But when they arrived at the hotel, Alice's heart turned inside out: Bud, the theme-park magician, stood on one side of a palm tree; at the registration desk, stood Neal.
It was, of course, like a scene from a very bad movie that spiraled quickly downhill as Kiley Kate spotted her grandfather in the same instant Bud approached Alice.
”h.e.l.lo,” Bud said.
”h.e.l.lo,” Alice replied as Kiley Kate scampered toward Neal. Please G.o.d, she prayed, please don't let this explode right here in the center court of the Grand Cypress. ”Wasn't it a great performance? Good night now,” she said to Bud with a halfhearted smile, then turned from him and walked toward Neal, who was walking toward her.
”This is a surprise!” She tried to sound excited, which, of course, she was, not to mention that she was sweating to death. From the corner of her eye she saw Bud remain motionless, watching her watching Neal.
Neal kissed her cheek. ”I flew down to see how my favorite girls were doing. I'm sorry I missed the show.”
”I won, Grampy! I won!”
Alice held up the trophy with the American flag and the tiny stars all around. ”She won, all right. Our Kiley Kate is the best.”
Neal gave Kiley Kate a big hug, then said, ”You must be tired. Let's go to bed.”
”We have a pet.i.te suite, Grampy. Everything's pink!”
”Pink!” Neal replied. ”Well, that's just what I've always wanted!”
”How was the dinner last night?” Alice asked, because she wanted to sound nonchalant.
”They canceled it until next week when they found out my wife couldn't make it.”
If he was teasing, he was doing a great job.
”Let's go,” he said. ”I want to see our pink suite. By the way, I've extended our reservation until Sunday night. As long as we're in Florida, we might as well have some fun, right?” He winked at Alice, then took Kiley Kate's hand on one side and Alice's on the other, and led his girls to the bank of elevators.
Alice noticed that Bud watched a few seconds more, then turned and went out the front door.
Forty-three.
Sat.u.r.day brought a break in the humidity. CJ had taken the train out of Grand Central because the three-hour ride had seemed more endurable than the possibility of running into her sister and Mac at the airport.