Platinum Doll. Anne Girard

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ would you suggest your wife’s mother stay? In a hotel, Charles?”

      Knowing how close she was to her mother, Harlean thought he would have assumed the Bellos would stay with them. It was what families did, after all, wasn’t it? But then again, as a young boy, before the death of his parents, perhaps they’d never had out-of-town family. How could she know that when he wouldn’t talk about any of it? Whatever the circumstances, there had to be a way to make everyone happy. If there was, Harlean was determined to find it. Family and loyalty, after all, meant everything to her.

      * * *

      As the Bellos were settling into the master bedroom, Chuck came to Harlean as she was making up the bed in the guest room.

      “Listen, doll, I completely forgot a tennis date I agreed to at the country club in half an hour. I can’t miss it since I’m playing doubles. You understand, don’t you?”

      “I just thought maybe we’d take my mother and Marino out to lunch?”

      In response, he pressed a halfhearted kiss onto her cheek as he buttoned his tennis sweater. “Why don’t you give Rosy a call? She can probably finagle another table for you all at the Brown Derby. Who knows, that might actually impress your mother.”

      Then, before she could object further, he chucked her under the chin and left the room.

      When they heard his car engine begin to rumble out on the street, Jean came into the room, sank onto the edge of Harlean’s bed and held up a hand to her daughter.

      “Come sit with Mommie and tell me absolutely everything. Have you been well? You look terribly pale and thin. Is he even feeding you?”

      “I’d rather hear about Grandpa. How is he doing? I try to call him once a week but you know how he hates the telephone.”

      Harlean sat down beside her, trying to press away her disappointment at Chuck’s sudden leaving, as they embraced again. Her mother always smelled like that powdery citrus fragrance and for Harlean it was a comforting scent. Despite the way she had phrased it, Harlean understood the comment. While she encouraged her daughter to keep her figure, Jean would probably always worry about her daughter’s health. The severe case of scarlet fever she’d endured as a girl had frightened them both. No one but the two of them truly understood how life-altering that episode had been. It was one of the many things that tightened the finely woven mother-daughter bond.

      “Seriously, Baby, how are you?”

      “I’m fit as a fiddle, I promise. And there really isn’t anything to tell. I registered with Central Casting. Rosalie, that’s the girl I was telling you about, didn’t believe I’d do it, so it was fun to see her face after I did it.”

      “On the train here, after what you told me, I was thinking about getting you some elocution lessons, and a few ballet lessons couldn’t hurt with bearing before you get a call. Believe me, the cameras see everything. I could never quite make the camera see what others tell me they see of me in person. You know how people have always referred to me as a beauty. But you, you’re different, Baby.”

      “Mommie, there were more than fifty girls there that day, lined up around the office, and one was prettier than the next.”

      “The world is full of pretty girls, Harlean. You can’t let that deter you.”

      “Deter me from what? It’s not like I’m actually going to get an audition. It was a dare I took. Now it’s over and done with.”

      “We shall see, won’t we?”

      Her mother smiled, and her flawless skin looked luminescent to Harlean in this light. She had always thought her mother was exquisitely beautiful, and she knew people thought they resembled one another. Harlean had always been so flattered by that, and she felt even more linked with her because of it.

      “But in the meantime, it couldn’t hurt to be prepared. We will get you those lessons. So tell me, how did Charles take the news?”

      Harlean grimaced. “Now, Mommie, you know perfectly well Chuck hates to be called Charles since that was his father’s name and it reminds him of his parents’ loss.”

      “But Chuck just sounds so...pedestrian.”

      “Well, I’m ordinary, too, you know.”

      “There is nothing ordinary about you, Harlean Carpenter.”

      Harlean sighed. “It’s McGrew now.”

      Then it was Jean’s turn to roll her eyes. “Fine. What did your Chuck McGrew say about you going to Fox, then signing with Central Casting?”

      “He doesn’t know, and he’s not going to right now, either, until I decide for myself what I think about it all. If he ever has to be told, I’ll be the one to do it. Can we talk about something more pleasant, like finding you and Marino a house to rent?”

      Jean lifted a shapely blond eyebrow. “Baby, what in heaven’s name has gotten into you? This sort of contrary tone with me isn’t at all like you. On top of that we’ve only just arrived, and you’re putting us out?”

      “I just thought you and Marino would want more privacy.”

      “And you and Chuck?”

      Harlean was eager to change the subject. “Well, I certainly am glad you warned me about sex, I’ll say that,” she said with girlish delight and, by it, sounding more like the teenager she was than a married woman. “I mean, you really kept nothing back when you explained.”

      Jean put an arm around her daughter’s shoulder and drew her closer. “What would’ve been the point of anything else, hmm? I always told you, your body is nothing to be ashamed of, nor is sex. It’s actually quite splendid. Although I admit factoring you with Charles into that sentiment has somewhat dampened my zeal for it. And while we are on the subject of your husband, does he often go off like that so suddenly and just leave you alone?”

      “He doesn’t leave me, Mommie. He’s making friends. It’s good for him.”

      “Never entirely good to leave a beautiful young wife to her own devices.”

      “I trust my husband and he trusts me.” She could hear a note of self-defense creeping into her own voice so she forced up a smile to mask it. But her heart was sinking further by the moment. It was certainly not how she had hoped this would go.

      “Maybe he wouldn’t be so confident if he knew about the casting office.”

      “I know you don’t like Chuck, but I love him, and if there is ever a reason to tell him I’ll do it in my own time and in my own way. You wouldn’t dare tell him about that!”

      “Baby, it has nothing to do with liking him or not. You were too young and too impulsive when you married, and you have your whole life ahead of you.”

      Harlean had longed for this reunion with her mother. For days she had excitedly imagined these first tender moments back together, where she would have a chance to share all that had been happening in her life more easily than on long-distance telephone calls. But this was not at all the encounter she had hoped for. It felt like her mother was attacking Chuck—and therefore attacking her, in that artfully passive way she had СКАЧАТЬ