Standing on the balcony, Dee Dee watched the palm trees sway in the breeze. She inhaled the salty fragrance of sea water and exhaled. She felt good here…like she had finally done the right thing.
“Come back to bed, baby.”
She smiled. His voice was like slow jazz on a warm summer night. He meant everything to her, and she owed her father a world of thanks for introducing them. “I’ll be in soon. This breeze just feels so good.”
He got out of bed and sauntered over to her… pulled his wife into his arms and nibbled on her neck. “You feel good. Come on, I can’t get to sleep without you by my side.”
Laughing, Dee Dee said, “I know you, husband, you aren’t hardly thinking about sleep.”
He kissed her ear this time, her neck, and then her shoulder. “Come back to bed and find out.”
She allowed him to pull her back inside. Once in bed again, he began to hungrily kiss and devour her. They made love, and Dee Dee was swept away. She had never been emotional during lovemaking, but he made her feel things she had never experienced before. She opened her mouth and screamed, “Drake, oh Drake!”
Dee Dee shot up in her bed and clamped her hand over her mouth. She looked around, making sure she was alone in bed. She took her hand away from her mouth as she verified that Drake was not in bed with her. Why she was still dreaming about their honeymoon, Dee Dee didn’t understand. The resort had been beautiful and exotic, and she and Drake had truly been at peace there. But the moment they'd returned home, he was on her case about attending church and praying with him. When they’d first married, Dee Dee thought that the fourth time had to be the charm, but Drake was too much like her father.
There was a quick knock at the door and then Drake opened it. “Are you okay?”
With hands on hips, Dee Dee asked, “Why did you barge into my room?”
“You yelled my name. I thought something was wrong.”
Dee Dee’s eyes focused on Drake's chiseled arms and bare chest. She turned away and picked up her cell phone to look at the time. “It’s four in the morning. Why are you still awake?”
He sat down at the foot of the bed, put his head in his hands and rubbed his face. When he looked back at Dee Dee, he told her honestly, “I couldn’t sleep. Just the thought of someone breaking into this house with only you and Natua in it has really shaken me up.” He grabbed Dee Dee’s hand and squeezed it. “If you or Natua had been attacked, I don’t know what I would have done.”
Was Drake actually admitting that he didn’t have all the answers? she thought.
“I know things haven’t been that great between us lately,” he continued. “But, I hope you know how much I love and need you in my life.”
Dee Dee lifted her free hand. This was not a conversation she wanted to have at four in the morning, while Drake sat on her bed with nothing but his pajama pants on. “Look, Drake, maybe you should go back to bed. We can talk about this tomorrow.”
Realizing that he was on the bed, holding hands, Drake stood up and cleared his throat. “Sure, sure. We can talk tomorrow.” He walked toward the door. “Get some sleep,” he said, and then closed the door behind him.
Dee Dee fell back on her pillow. She picked up the pillow from Drake’s side of the bed, covered her face with it and screamed. Why, why, why was that man so sexy? She had wanted to pull back the covers and invite him to sleep with her for the rest of the night. But Dee Dee knew that by morning she would be feeling just as inadequate as usual around Mr. Perfect. She couldn’t…no, she wouldn’t put herself through a life filled with sexy Drake at night, and preaching and praying Drake in the morning. No, thank you. She turned over and went back to sleep.
***
“Oh my God, I’m going to be late.” Dee Dee jumped out of bed and ran to Natua’s room to get her ready for daycare. Her feet were frozen to the floor as she stood in front of Natua’s empty Princess Tiana bed. Fear clenched her heart as she checked the window in Natua’s room to make sure that it was locked. It was. Where was she, Dee Dee wanted to know? Had Natua gotten up in the middle of the night and gone to Drake’s room, or had a psycho stalker come into their home and taken her while she’d been lying in her bed dreaming about Drake? Dee Dee was frantic as she headed out of the room, yelling, “Natua, Natua, where are you?”
“I’m right here,” Natua said, while holding her favorite princess towel around her body as she and Drake walked out of the hall bathroom.
Dee Dee pulled the girl out of Drake’s arms and hugged her so tightly that Natua protested. “Hey, that hurts.”
“I’m sorry,” Dee Dee said, as she released the child.
“I figured you needed to sleep a little longer. So, I decided to get Natua dressed and to take her to daycare on my way to work this morning.”
Some days Drake was so good to her, she just didn’t know why she kept resisting him. Combing her hands through her hair as she turned to leave, Dee Dee said, “Thanks Drake, I appreciate that. I have a brunch meeting today with the producer from that movie deal I’m trying to work out, and I really didn’t want to be late.”
Drake smiled at her, showing off his dimples. “You go get that lead part, and don’t worry about us. I’ll get Natua dressed, fed and off to the daycare.”
Dee Dee walked back to her room and got in the shower. When she'd agreed to adopt Natua, she hadn’t thought there was much to parenting. But she had to admit that she didn’t know what she would do without Drake’s help. In her book, a single parent should receive the CNN Hero Award every year.
All things considered, Dee Dee was in a good mood by the time she jumped into her Mercedes and headed out for her brunch meeting. So much had happened since yesterday, that she felt as if her meeting with her agent had occurred a week ago. But it had only been yesterday that Nick had informed her that she would have to audition for the role she had been salivating over ever since Michael Mavs had mentioned it to her. Michael was the producer, he was the one putting up the money to back the film, so she didn’t understand why he was letting some two-bit actor like Jarrod Lovett make decisions about this film that were absolutely none of his business.
But she was sure going to ask Michael to explain himself the moment she sat down with them for her audition. The very thought of Dee Dee Morrison having to audition for a part that she could do in her sleep galled her to no end. She had half a mind to take that money her father wanted her to use for charity work and start her own studio. But if she knew Joel Morrison like she thought she knew him, there was some clause that the accountant would have to adhere to before giving her the money.
That galled Dee Dee also. Her father was rich beyond belief, and the old man had decided to simply write his children out of his will. He eased his conscious by telling himself that each of his children had gone out and made a success of their lives, so they didn’t need his money and would be honored to help him give it all away.
It was all bull, and Joel Morrison knew it. His children had been strong-armed into this, and that’s why Dee Dee had simply decided to hold onto that money until her father passed away. By then she would be able to find some loophole to get the money away from his accountants.
Dee Dee knew it wasn’t right to be plotting against her father, because he was a good man. But she simply didn’t agree with what he wanted to do with money that rightfully belonged to her and her siblings.
Her father was the reason why she had decided to do R-rated films. If Joel Morrison wasn’t going to keep her in the style to which she was accustomed, then she would have to do it herself. That meant she needed to earn bigger paychecks, and the only way to do that would be to grow a bigger box office audience.
Dee Dee felt that she had reached her highest earning potential with the PG crowd. So, bye-bye sweet little daddy’s girl, hello R-rated diva. If Dear Daddy didn’t like the thought of his daughter going nude in films, then he shouldn’t have stripped her of her rightful inheritance.
Dee Dee was pumped as she drove down Interstate 10 headed toward Santa Monica. She was meeting Michael and that ole turncoat, Jarrod, for brunch at Ivy at the Shore. The tables at the Ivy were a tad too close together for everything Dee Dee needed to say to them, and that was probably why they'd decided on this location. They'd thought that she wouldn’t get them told if others could hear, but they were wrong. Dee Dee had starred in fifteen high-grossing films, co-starred in five box offices successes, and she had worked on a very success sitcom for nine seasons. She wasn’t about to let them forget any of that.
Her cell phone rang. Dee Dee normally didn’t answer her phone when she was on the highway. People drove like maniacs and would rather mow you down, than move over to another lane. So she vigilantly watched each driver. She let the phone ring, figuring that the caller would simply leave a voicemail. But after ringing four times, the phone went silent and then began ringing again. That happened three times, and then Dee Dee decided that it might be too important to ignore.
She hit the phone button, and as she put the phone to her ear, she said, “What’s up?”
“Why did you let that man spend the night?” asked the ominous voice on the other end of the phone.
“What? Who is this?”
“I thought you were mommy material, but if you could let another man spend the night in front of our little girl… Well, maybe you don’t deserve to have Natua.”
“How did you get my number? Why are you bothering us?”
“Why wouldn’t your husband have your number?”
Okay, Dee Dee might have been married more times than the average person, but she hadn’t been married so many times that she’d forgotten how any of her previous husbands sounded over the phone. “You are not my husband and I am hanging up.”
“Hang up if you want, but you’ll never see Natua again.”
Dee Dee had hit the end button as she heard the last of his sentence. She tried to call the man back because now she wanted to talk to him. Why on earth was he so fixated on Natua? His phone rang numerous times, but he didn’t answer. Getting that frantic feeling that she’d experienced this morning when Natua wasn’t in her bedroom, Dee Dee pulled off the highway and called Drake.
When he answered, she screamed, “Drake, where’s Natua?”
“Calm down, Dee. Natua is fine. I just dropped her off at her daycare.”
“Go back and get her!”
“I’m on my way to work. What’s got you so upset?”
“That man called me. He says that I won’t see Natua again.”
“What?” Drake was on high alert now. “What exactly did he say?”
“I don’t know. I can’t remember his exact words. I was hanging up on him when he said something about, if I hang up, I won’t see Natua again. Please go get her.”
“I’m on my way back to the daycare now. I’ll take her back to the house.”
“Okay. I’ll see you there, when I’m done with my meeting.”
Hesitation on the other end and then Drake said, “We’ll see you when you get home.”
When Dee Dee hung up, she looked at her watch. It was 10:45 and she was only about ten minutes away from the restaurant. If she got back on the highway now, she could make it to her meeting on time. And maybe after helping Michael Mavs to see the light, she would get the part that she wanted. But as she pulled her car back onto the street, she found herself bypassing the highway that would take her to Santa Monica and instead, going the opposite direction, back to Los Angeles…back home.
All thoughts of her career went out of her mind. Natua was in danger and Dee Dee would rather die than let anything happen to that little girl. She sped down the highway, doing something she hadn’t done in a long time…praying. She asked God to protect Natua, to keep her safe and allow Drake to get to her before this madman who had been stalking them got to her.
Drake’s car was in the driveway when she finally made it home. She pulled up behind his car and jumped out. She ran into the house screaming for Natua just as she’d done earlier that morning. Dee Dee felt as if she were playing a part in that old movie, Groundhog Day, where she kept doing the same thing over and over again. Please let this nightmare of a day end already.
Drake came into view at the top of the stairs. “We’re up here.”
“Natua’s with you?” she asked, as she made her way up the stairs.
“Yes, I’ve got her. I’m glad you’re home. Now I don’t have to pack your bag for you.” He walked back into Natua’s room and continued throwing clothes into her suitcase.
“Why are you packing? Where are we going?” Dee Dee asked, as she picked up Natua and kissed the little girl.
“We’re going on an adventure, right, Daddy?" Natua said.
“That’s right,” Drake answered Natua, and then turned to Dee Dee. “I’ve booked us on a flight to Atlanta. We’re going to spend the weekend at your father’s ranch.”
Dee Dee put Natua down and then threw her hands up. Same ole Drake. When the chips were down, if he wasn’t running to God in prayer, he was running to Joel Morrison so he could help him pray. “We don’t need my father,” she protested. “Why can’t we just stay here and handle this ourselves?” She was still perturbed with her father, and really didn’t need to see him at this moment.
“I called the police, and they suggested that we leave town for a few days. Someone is going to be monitoring the house for us.”
She calmed down as she thought of the reason the police would need to monitor her house. “So, they really think he’s going to come back to the house.”
“Since he let himself in once, they think that it is a great possibility, especially since he’s agitated by my presence.”
“Yeah, but if we leave, he won’t have a reason to come to the house.”
“He won’t know that we’re not here. I called Carlotta. She’s going to smuggle us out of the house by way of the garage and her minivan.”
Carlotta was their maid. She came to the house four days a week. “I guess you’ve thought of everything,” she said, as her shoulders slumped. She turned to walk into her room.
Drake grabbed her arm and moved closer to her. “If you don’t want to go to your father’s, I can cancel those tickets and fly us anywhere you want to go.”
She looked into his eyes, and for the first time in a long while, she saw the man she'd fallen in love with, a man who loved her so much that he’d turn heaven and earth upside down to do her bidding. She’d fallen for that man and had thought she could deal with his love for God. But as time had passed, it had proven to be too much for her. “It’s all right, Drake. I haven’t seen my father in months, and he’s not getting any younger. I’ll go pack and be ready by the time Carlotta gets here.”