Only Forever by Linda Lael Miller Page A

took over the task with admirable grace. “Van,” he said proudly, “this is Gina DeAngelo. Gina, my cousin and landlady, Vanessa Lawrence.”
    “Hi,” Gina said, holding out a hand.
    Vanessa was charmed. After returning the greeting, she sank into a chair. “What is that?” she asked, referring to the fabric Gina had been working with.
    “It’s Rodney’s costume,” the girl answered, holding up a blue lamé tunic. “He’s got a new act. Why don’t you show her, Rod?”
    Rodney blushed. Despite the fact that he earned his living, as well as his tuition, by workingas an exotic dancer, he was shy. “No way,” he answered.
    Gina let the subject drop, smiling at Vanessa. “You’re dating my brother,” she said, her brown eyes twinkling.
    Vanessa sighed. “I wouldn’t exactly say—”
    “It bothers her that he used to be a pro athlete, like her first husband,” Rodney put in, speaking as though Vanessa weren’t there.
    Gina shrugged prettily. “To each her own,” she said.
    Vanessa felt called upon to say something positive about Nick. “Your brother is the most self-assured person I’ve ever met,” she remarked.
    Gina shrugged again. “He’d face down the general membership of Hell’s Angels without batting an eye,” she said, “but let him get sick or hurt himself and he goes to pieces. Last month he cut his finger chopping vegetables for a salad, and you’d have thought there’d been a chainsaw massacre.”
    Vanessa laughed. It was good to know the idol was human with feet of clay, she thought to herself. But then she remembered his reputation and the parties he was allegedly so famous forand decided he was probably too human. Her expression sobered.
    “You look so sad,” Gina said, exhibiting her brother’s propensity for perception. That she could read minds was evident when she went on. “Nick is a really nice man, Vanessa. And he’s mellowed out a lot since the old days.”
    Vanessa was not comforted, nor could she help drawing certain correlations between Nick and Parker. They were both attractive, sought-after men. While finding Parker in bed with another woman had been devastating, she knew that if history repeated itself with Nick, she would be shattered.
    Somewhat awkwardly she told Gina that it had been nice to meet her, made an excuse and fled.
    As usual, the light on her answering machine was blinking when she let herself into the house. Dreading more of Parker’s nonsense, she nonetheless played back the messages.
    The first call was from her grandmother, who wanted to know if she and Rodney would be coming to Spokane for Thanksgiving and Christmas that year. The second was from a local television station, where Vanessa had put in an applicationjust before Paul had hired her to be on the Midas Network.
    Her heart practically stopped beating, she was so excited. In the middle of Parker’s diatribe on how the divorce had been a mistake, she rewound the tape and listened again. She hadn’t imagined it; Station WTBE was interviewing potential hosts for a new talk show and they wanted her to come in to see them.
    Vanessa had to take three deep breaths before she was steady enough to return the call. When the producer’s secretary answered, her voice elevated itself to a squeak.
    The secretary was patient. “What did you say your name was again, please?” she asked.
    Van closed her eyes, rehearsing her answer. The way things had been going that day, there was every possibility she’d get it wrong. “Vanessa Lawrence,” she managed to reply at some length.
    “Would a week from Friday be convenient for you?”
    Any day would have been convenient, but Van knew better than to make herself sound desperate by saying so. “That would be just fine,” she said coolly.
    “Two-thirty?” the secretary suggested.
    “Two-thirty,” Vanessa confirmed, frantically scribbling the date and time on the cover of her telephone book even though the information was emblazoned in her mind