“Emily, that’s not true. And that’s enough out of you. You’re being very rude,” admonished her mother.
“Now I can’t talk to my own cousin?” Emily threw her napkin down. “First you want me to stop watching her show, and now you want me to stop talking to her?”
“That’s not what I said.”
Mitch could see that Roy was hanging on to his patience for the sake of his guests. “Please sit down and apologize.”
“I didn’t do anything except tell the truth.”
“You have no idea what the truth even means,” Anne snapped. Then she took a deep breath and looked at Mitch. “Can I offer you some dessert, Mr. Hayes?”
“She’s right,” Charlotte said to Anne. “How can she know the truth if you don’t tell her?”
“Would you like some dessert, Mama?”
“You’re still not going to say a word, are you?”
“Fine, Mama. If no one would like dessert, then Roy will make some coffee. I’m afraid I’ve got a terrible headache. I’m going upstairs to my room. I’m so sorry, Mr. Hayes. Perhaps another time you’ll find us better behaved.”
And Eve’s aunt left the room like the Snow Queen exiting the stage, leaving Charlotte angrily staring at her plate, Emily in tears and Eve as white as the walls behind her, proudly displaying the endless generations of her family.
8
EVE SPENT SUNDAY regretting Saturday. The only bright spot in the whole disastrous evening had been Christopher’s shrieks of delight when he’d torn the wrapping off his presents-especially the dinosaur.
So, okay, Mitch had a good handle on what four-year-olds liked. That did not negate the fact that they’d left as early as possible and she still felt as though she’d left a conversation unfinished. She wasn’t sure with whom, though. Emily? Auntie Anne? Grandmother Best?
Grandmother was the worst of them all. Eve should never have brought Mitch along under false pretenses and gotten her hopes up. It wasn’t as if she’d never been attracted to anyone before, and Grandmother knew it. She could hop on a MARTA train, for Pete’s sake, and by the time she got downtown, she’d have seen any number of likely candidates for some fun between the sheets. So why did her family have to overreact like this?
Hmm. She might be able to work with that for the show. “Found Flings,” they could call it. “Single on the Subway.”
Never mind. Eve sighed and tried once again to focus on the script for Wednesday’s show. When the phone rang, it was a relief.
“Hey.” Mitch’s smooth bass made her stomach do that shivery thing it did every time she heard his voice. “Just calling to make sure you were okay after last night.”
“It really was as bad as I thought, wasn’t it?” she asked, pushing aside the script and putting both elbows on the desk. “You’re okay with me not inviting you in, right?”
“Sure. Not that I didn’t want to come in, but I’m a big boy. Anyway, it was your typical family dinner, though more interesting than most. For what it’s worth, I liked your family.”
“Most of the time I do, too. I don’t know what got into Grandmother. Usually she’s the epitome of the Southern lady. I’ve never seen her scratch on poor Auntie Anne like that before. What was up with that whole thing about ‘the truth’?”
“No idea. Probably some argument they got into before we arrived.”
“And Emily watching the show,” Eve said on a sigh. “Our demographics do include teenagers. It never occurred to me that Anne wouldn’t approve.”
“Are you sure it was the show she doesn’t approve of?”
“What do you mean?”
“I got the feeling there was some jealousy floating around.”
Jealous? Anne? Now, that was a stretch. “No. Couldn’t be. I think she was just trying to head off any tendencies to celebrity worship in Emily, that’s all. Myself, I deplore that kind of thing-while I stack the tabloids in my grocery cart.”
Mitch laughed. “Emily struck me as a sensible kid. What’s a rainbow party?”
A chuckle bubbled in Eve’s throat. “Go to Urban Dictionary. com and find out for yourself. And if you have any personal experience, I don’t want to know about it.”
“The only experience I’m interested in right now involves you. Any chance I can see you tonight?”
She glanced at the clock, then at the script. “I can’t, Mitch. It’s already half past eight and this script is close, but no cigar as yet.”
“Tomorrow, then.”
“Tomorrow. Though it won’t be as much fun talking business in my office.”
“I can think of plenty of fun things to do in your office.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“What are you wearing?”
“My pajamas. Good night, Mitch.”
He chuckled, and she realized he was teasing her. “Good night, honey pie.”
Somehow, when he said it, it didn’t come out at all the way Grandmother said it.
Talk about a verbal stroke in all the right places. Yum. She forced herself to hang up.
AS SHE DROVE IN to the station and got back into the swing of a Monday morning, Eve had to put aside personal thoughts of Mitch and of her family, and concentrate on the urgent issue at hand: the network-as represented by Mitch-coming back for a counteroffer. Even if she didn’t have the whole loyalty issue to deal with, the simple fact was that she couldn’t leave her team behind and go national. Or if the unthinkable happened and she actually accepted CWB’s proposal, she wanted to take them all with her. But how could she do that? Would they want her to move into a new affiliate facility? That might mean Cole’s girls having to change schools or even cities. Jane and Perry might be looking at buying a house soon. What would the market be like somewhere else?
No, she couldn’t go and that was that. Just Between Us succeeded because of her, but she only succeeded because of Nicole, Jane, Cole and Zach. One for all and all for one, that was going to be her motto if any more networks came sniffing around.
When she got back from an early afternoon appointment, Dylan Moore materialized in the door of her office before she’d even put her purse away.
“Are you sitting down?” he asked, even though he could see perfectly well she wasn’t.
She pulled up her chair and sat. “I am now. Please don’t tell me today’s guest fell out.”
“No, but Thursday’s did.”
“What?”
“Eve, that’s not important. What is important is that the scout from SBN is in Dan Phillips’s office even as we speak.”
She stared at him, and he closed the door carefully behind his back.
“You told the CWB rep no, didn’t you?”
“Repeatedly,” Eve said. SBN? SBN was second only to the biggies like ABC and FOX-and they were in Dan’s office? What the hell was Dan doing, entertaining them without her there? What was going on?
“Keep an eye on them, Dylan,” she said. “I’m sure Dan will tell me all about it.” He’d better. She’d pull every word out of him with a pair of tweezers if he didn’t. “I’ll be in makeup.”
When she pushed open the door to the dressing room, Zach and Jane looked up as if they were expecting to see…anyone but her.
As if she didn’t show up ninety minutes before airtime every week?
Zach pasted a grin on a face that had been far too serious and got up. Jane stood, too.
“Hey, Eve,” Zach said. “Don’t mean to hold you up. I was just on my way out.”
“No problem.” She looked from one to the other, but Zach slipped behind her and out the door. She looked at Jane, who pulled the makeup tray over and waved her into the chair. “What was that all about?”
“Not much.” Jane pulled Eve’s hair back and whipped the apron over her pintucked gauze blouse. “We were only chatting.”
“Why? Did they change the lighting or something? Are we going with a different palette?”