“Thank you?” She had no idea what to make of Joe Cassidy’s compliments. Or was he hitting on her?
“Where to?”
“Nora House, do you know where that is?”
“Sure do. Let’s hit it.”
Nora House wasn’t far. She probably could have walked or rode a bike. If she stayed here, she’d have to arrange transportation.
“I appreciate it. I haven’t driven in years.”
“Really? You don’t have a license?”
“No.” She was going to elaborate but then realized how strange it must sound to someone from here that she had a driver, a cook, and a plastic surgeon, at her beck and call. “I used to drive. I used to like it.” She remembered tooling around these very roads in her stick shift powder blue Volkswagen bug. She’d sold it to buy her ticket to L.A. and pay her first month’srent.
“Here we are,” Joe said as they pulled out onto the road in his pickup.
“I think you have a bad impression of me.”
“Nah, just a weird one.”
“I’m really not this incompetent. In my real life, I get things done and have things done. I’m just going through, uh, well, something weird.”
“No crime in that. Life can be a bear.”
“Yeah, right now, yeah.” She decided to change the subject. “So, just the one grandson?”
“Yeah, my son’s boy. They both live in Tecumseh. Red has full custody, thank God, so I help out when I can.”
Hmm. Goldie wondered what the story was there, of Red Cassidy and his son.
“I’m from Tecumseh.”
“That is a shocking revelation if I ever heard one.”
“No, it’s true. Haven’t been back in thirty, uh, a lot of years, but I’m from Tecumseh.”
“Well, what do you know? I must have skimmed over that in your Wikipedia entry.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I do recognize ya, Goldie Hayes. I didn’t at first, by the lake, with the seaweed in your brassiere, not very Hollywood. But when you were fighting off the washing machine, I finally got it.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I suspect you have people recognizing you all the time. I thought I’d change it up for you.”
Goldie was now worried this man would sell pictures of her, tip off the press, or tweet out her location.
“Look, I am in hiding right now. I’ve got a million fanboys out for blood. I was supposed to be in the next Victory Superhero movie, and it went badly.”
“So how much is it worth, keeping that quiet?” Joe leaned back into the driver’s seat and rested one hand on the wheel. Hewas casual as he considered how to milk Goldie’s bank account. How lovely.
“I could do five thousand for the full week, and then an NDA, that would cover it.”
They pulled into the private drive of Nora House. Joe stopped the car and looked at Goldie.
“I have no idea how things work out in L.A., but you’re from here, it may have been a long time since you’ve been here, but we’re not the kind of people who would sell pictures of a woman trying to take a few days off, to the highest bidder.”
