“You ask me,” a cameraman said, “they’re comin’ back together, but she ain’t gonna look too happy about it. I think he’s paid her off. What’s a couple million if it puts you at the top of the box office again?”
AnNBCentertainment reporter checked her lipstick for smears in the reflective lens of a camera. “Mark my words,” she said emphatically.
“Alex Rivers is a has-been.” She turned to her colleagues, jostling each other like greyhounds at the gate as the loudspeaker announced the arrival of flight 658 from Denver. “There’s nothing that man can do that will make women drool again. Fact is, no matter what the circumstances were, she left him, which only proves he’s not the sex symbol we all thought.”
In the first-class lounge, Cassie finished diapering Connor. Alex sat across from her, one leg casually crossed over the other at the knee. He held a mug of coffee in his hands. “I’m going to have to learn how to do that,” he said.
Cassie glanced up at him. For the life of her, she couldn’t picture Alex’s hands doing something as mundane as diapering their son. “Nowthat,” she said, “would make a wonderful press conference.”
Shifting, Alex set down the mug. “You don’t mind, do you?”
He was talking about the reporters who were waiting like vultures to be tossed some carrion. Alex had warned her about the tip to the media when they were somewhere over the Rockies. And of course she’d said she understood—if it was indirectly her fault that Alex’s popularity was suffering in Hollywood, it was her obligation to bolster his image as much as she could. Still, Cassie couldn’t help but remember the first time she’d landed atLAXwith Alex, nearly four years earlier, the first time she’d been given a taste of a life devoid of privacy. After so many months at Pine Ridge, it was a difficult adjustment to make.
“I don’t mind,” Cassie said softly. She handed the baby to Alex. “I just wish Connor wasn’t being used as a pawn.”
“I won’t let the flashbulbs hit his eyes, and I won’t let them ask too many questions. I promise.” Alex grinned. “Think of it as his first screen test.”
The door to the private sitting area flew open, and the huge bulk of Michaela Snow filled the threshold. She gave Alex a brilliant smile and then turned to Cassie, raking her over from head to toe. “Good to see you again,” she said coolly, and Cassie froze in the motion of putting the diaper wipes back into the carry-on bag.
“Michaela,” she said, tipping up her face with a genuinely warm smile.
Michaela stared at her for a moment, long enough for Cassie to selfconsciously consider her own shapeless brown shift and worn tennis shoes—a far cry from the fashion statement expected of Alex Rivers’s wife. Michaela turned back to Alex. “You almost ready?”
Cassie felt a chill make its way down her spine as she realized that Michaela’s attitude was a preview of the reception she would receive in Los Angeles, where the majority of people she knew were Alex’s friends and colleagues. In their eyes, Cassie had left Alex. In their eyes, she was the one at fault. They did not know the whole story, of course, but that was exactly where Cassie’s hands were tied. If she defended her own actions by revealing the fact that Alex had beaten his wife, she would only send his reputation into another uproar. Even if she mentioned it in light of his vow to get professional help, she would still be hurting Alex, and that was the one thing she refused to do again.
She glanced up at Alex, who mistook the look on her face for stage fright and tenderly drew her to her feet. “Surely the woman who gave birth alone in the middle of nowhere,” he said softly, “won’t be intimidated by a greedy bunch of reporters.”
“I wasn’t alone,” Cassie said defensively. She reached for Connor and began to strap him into his cradleboard.
Alex turned to Michaela. “We’ll meet you outside in ten minutes.”
As the publicist left, he turned to Cassie. “Why don’t you let me carry that thing,” he said gently, “and you can hold the baby.”
Cassie’s eyes darted to the door Michaela had just exited. She protectively folded her arms over her chest. Was Alex ashamed of her dumpy, functional clothing? Of bringing his child into L.A. in a Sioux artifact? “Connor likes the cradleboard,” Cassie said guardedly, clutching at what had become familiar.
“Connor loves his mother,” Alex said. He looked up at Cassie, his eyes pleading the words he hadn’t said:And I want everyone to see him with you. He waited until Cassie nodded, and then let his breath out in a sigh. He was treading on eggshells, he knew that, but surely Cassie could see the importance of a crowd’s first impression.
Alex gathered up the rest of the bags and slung them over his shoulder. He paused at the door of the lounge to turn to Cassie. “Thank you,” he said softly.
“For what?”
“For what you’re about to do for me. For coming back.”
It was the undisguised emotion in his eyes that made Cassie put her fear aside. She took Alex’s hand and drew a deep breath.
THE ROWS OF BLACK DOTS SWAM BEFORE HER EYES, BUT EVEN AS THE throng of reporters continued to flash pictures and roll their videotapes, Cassie kept a smile pinned to her face and her eyes glued to Alex, as if she were falling in love with him all over again.
“I realize,” Alex was saying coldly, “there’s been a lot of conjecture about the disappearance of my wife.” He looped his arm around her waist. “As you can see, she’s quite alive, which rules out one distasteful theory about me. And as you can also see, she’s been busy. Our son, Connor, was born on August eighteenth.”
The reporter from theEnquirerwaved his pen in the air. “Is he yours?”
Alex’s jaw tightened. “I will not stoop to answer that,” he said.
“Then how come your wife ran away?” asked aVarietycorrespondent.
“She didnotrun away, Isenther away. We wanted to have a baby in peace, without the world watching over our shoulders.” Alex’s voice dropped dangerously low. “You people lie in wait like animals and make rumors fester until they take precedence over the truth. Did you ever think about the lives of the people you’re ruining? Did you ever think about the kind of damage you’re doing when, in order to guarantee privacy, you force someone to take their family away? My career already makes me a public figure.Youdon’t have to.” Alex took a step toward the silent group of reporters. “Before you go pleading the first amendment, think about the rest of us who are pleading the fifth.”
Alex turned to Cassie, who recovered from her shock at the quiet vehemence of his speech to give him a reassuring smile. She slipped her arm around his waist and they made their way down the hall, followed only by the sounds of distant, whirring cameras.
