Page 75 of Act Like You Don't Care
I winced. “I know it was stupid.”
“That’s one word for it.” Dad glared at me as he paced around the little meeting room. “I gather he’s keeping it?”
I nodded. “He called to ask if I wanted to be in the baby’s life. I said yes.”
Dad fell into one of the chairs and rubbed a hand over his face. I could almost smell the smoke, he was thinking so hard. “This is going to hit our reputation hard.”
I nodded again. “I know. I screwed up. If you want, I’ll back away from the business, you can farm my work out to Andrew or whoever.” Maybe I’d go back for my Ph.D. That would give the whole scandal time to die down, or at least become old news. A Ph.D. would keep me busy, but I could still make time to help Tam out with the baby.
Was I a complete fool that I refused to crush out that tiny hope that parenting together might spark something more intimate between us?
Probably. Regardless, I tucked that wish into a corner where no one else but me could see it and quietly fed it so that little flame wouldn’t die.
Someone knocked on the door. Dad answered it, then stepped out of the way to let my mother in.
I was in for it now.
She wasn’t mad, though, which was maybe more unnerving. Instead, she took a chair at the table and watched me with the saddest expression. I fought not to squirm in my seat—it was like being thirteen again and getting caught with my hands down my boyfriend’s pants.
“Miles, what have you done to yourself?” She didn’t wait for me to answer, not that I had much to say to that. “Your brother didn’t listen to me either and look where that’s got him. I don’t think those two go a single day without fighting over something.”
“Mom, it’s not necessarily because she’s in show business,” I protested automatically, though privately I thought she was right.
She sighed and shook her head. “We’ve talked about this. You know how fragile an actor’s ego can be. How high the emotions can get when they’re working closely with someone on a show. They don’t think like ordinary people do. They can’t, or they couldn’t do their jobs. He seems like a nice young man, but you’ll never compete with the job. We couldn’t compete with it when his life was at risk. A distant second place, is that what you want to be?”
It clicked then what she was worried about. “We’re just parenting together, Mom. That’s it. We haven’t worked out all the details yet, but there’s no relationship there.” I hoped the half-lie hadn’t shown on my face. Mom was frighteningly good at reading someone’s expression and body language and knowing exactly what they were thinking or feeling just by gut instinct.
She didn’t look entirely convinced. “I’ll have to take your word for it, I suppose.” Her expression didn’t lighten at all.
“You’ll need to go speak to the lawyer,” Dad said from his place leaning against the wall by the door. “We need to know what our damage is going to be in this.”
“It’s going to be what it’s going to be,” Mom told him firmly, then turned back to me. “So, parenting but no relationship. Well, no matter what, we’re all family. Will his mother or anyone else be coming out here to help him with this? Being pregnant can be hard. Babies even harder.”
“We haven’t talked about that yet,” I admitted. “I’ll ask.”
She nodded and pursed her lips, obviously thinking hard. “Maybe a dinner together. Next Sunday? You two come by around six, don’t bring anything but yourselves. We can work out how the family can support you both during this.”
“We’re not dating, Mom. I can’t make decisions for him.”
She gave me a hard look. “Maybe not. But ask anyway.”
I suppressed a sigh. “Sure. I’ll ask.”
She nodded. “Good. I didn’t see anything in the file about food allergies. Is there anything else we don’t know about him?”
Ouch. “Nothing. He’s having some morning sickness, I think.”
She got that thoughtful look again. “Chicken, then. Something easy on the stomach.” Suddenly, she stood up and came around the table to lean over my chair and give me a hug. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “This will all work out in the end. And it’s Hollywood—there’s always another scandal.”
I hugged her back, but I didn’t say anything and then she left, taking my father with me and reminding me that I still had a meeting downtown with the police department’s Threat Management Division this afternoon. I knew my parents were going to hole up in Mom’s office to talk about this and that there’d probably be more family meetings as time went on, but for now I had some time and some peace to process how my life was changing. There was nothing I could do about the past, except work as hard as I could and try to make it up to them.
The future… Well, who knew. I’d thought several times that Tam wasn’t… indifferent to me. Maybe, if I was patient. If paid attention, if I was careful to treat him how he wanted to be treated…
One baby step at a time.
Tam
Ididn't know how Summer managed it, but she got us a meeting early that evening with the executive producer of the movie. Margaret Grant was a big name in the industry, a woman well-known for keeping a tight grip on her budgets and her production schedules, and she also had a long history of award-winning movies. It made her a powerhouse in show business--one word from her could blight a career into a service job in fast food, or launch an unknown actor into the stratosphere.
