“Lane, oh my darling,” her mother cried just as soon as Delaney was in the front door of their Beverly Hills home. She pulled her in for a tight hug, her jewelry jingling over a spandex workout top. “Thank God, you’re finally home. We’ve been worried sick.”
“I know, Mom. I’m sorry. My phone got stolen and then there was the car accident. It was all crazy.”
Her sister Roxanne joined in on the hug. “Hey, welcome home. We missed you.”
“Lane, is that you?” Her tall, lanky dad came into the room wearing something from the Steven Tyler collection, and she moved from her mother’s hug into his. His hair was back in a ponytail that every single one of them wanted him to cut off. “Hi, Daddy.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Well, we are sure glad to have you home. I was about ready to call out the National Guard. What the hell have you been up to?”
“Just trying to take a little break from reality. Turns out reality follows you.”
“Well, come and sit down and tell us everything.” Her dad pulled her over to the sofa but the others moved with them en masse, as if no one wanted to let her out of their sight, and it warmed Delaney through. The press might be out there ready to pounce, but her family loved her, and that’s what mattered most.
She filled them in on most of the details, wanting to be as honest as possible. If she’d learned anything from this experience, it was that dishonesty just wasn’t worth the trouble it caused, and it ate away at your soul, leaving a big black stain. But one thing she wasn’t completely forthright about was how much she missed Grant. It wasn’t so much a secret, but it was private. Another thing Delaney had figured out during her soul-searching plane ride was that she had a right to that. Privacy. Just because she shared parts of her life, she didn’t have to share all of it.
She held it together pretty well with her family, and she was feeling a little proud of herself for that. No pity. No whining. She owned up to her part in everything that had happened, and she was determined to face what came next. But when she was getting ready for bed that night and pulled out the I love Elvis shirt Grant had given her to sleep in, she gave in to all her sadness. She’d earned that too, this right to feel devastated. Whatever they’d had, it had been beautiful and special and she wanted it back. She wanted him back. True love wasn’t about the amount of time you spent with someone, it was about the quality of the time. She just needed for him to figure that out too.
“Good morning, Lane. Sure is nice seeing you sitting there again,” her dad said the next morning as he poured a cup of coffee. She was at the kitchen table sorting through a few weeks’ worth of junk mail that had arrived in her absence. She’d have to remember if she ever ran away again to forward her mail. It was going to take her hours just to deal with all of this.
He came and sat down. It was just the two of them. They were the early risers and she’d always loved that they had this little pocket of time together before the rest of the family was buzzing around. It was also before the cameras showed up.
“Are they going to be filming today?” she asked.
He nodded. “That was the plan. You know they actually want to do some extra interview time with you too. Are you ready for that?”
No, she’d never be ready for that. “Sure. I’ll do my best.”
He sighed, and for just that moment, he looked his age. He looked almost paternal. Almost. “You don’t have to, you know.”
“I don’t have to do my best?” she teased.
He smiled the famous Jesse Masterson smile. The one that had made all women of a certain age melt and remember their high school days, but to Delaney, it was just her dad’s smile.
“You should always try to do your best, sweetheart, but what I mean is, you don’t have to do this interview. You don’t even have to do the show if you don’t want to. Honestly, I feel just awful that the stress of all these cameras made you drive off into Timfucktu, Michigan.” He took a slug of coffee and set the cup down hard.
“Dad, it wasn’t so much these cameras as it was Boyd’s camera. That’s what sent me over the edge.” Few things in life could be more humiliating than talking to your father about your sex video, even if your dad was a longtime rock ’n’ roller with a checkered history of his own. But he still had that paternal face going, and for the moment she felt very much like his little girl.
“You just say the word and the lawyers will go after him. Tony says the case is strong, especially if they can prove Boyd benefited financially.”
“Word.” She smiled.
“What?”