“Call Jake and tell him to wait for us at the house,” he said as he started the SUV.

She made the call then looked at him.  “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know.  No matter what we just told them, the paparazzi think you and I just got married.  I promised the old man I’d stay at the house tonight, but if I do, it’ll add fuel to the fire.”

She looked at him.  “Go to Ben’s.”

She called Jamie. “Change in plans, meet us at Ben’s.”

She ended her call and looked at Joey. “We’ll park in the garage.  We’ll all go in.  We’ll close the blinds and curtains.  The Parkers will leave, Jake in his truck, Jamie and me in the SUV.  The paparazzi will see me and Jamie, and we’ll go home.”

Joey shook his head. “That doesn’t work for me.  How am I keeping my promise to the old man if you go home without me?”

She smiled conspiratorially at him.  “Subterfuge.  The bedroom light will be on a timer.  They’ll think you’ve gone to bed, but you’ll be in the cargo area.  They’ll probably follow me and Jamie, but we’ll park in the garage and no one will know you were with us.”

He winked and flashed that million watt Bellini smile at her.  “I like the way you think.”

They stopped in Ben’s driveway.  Jamie hopped out of Jake’s truck and entered the code for the garage door.  Joey pulled the Escalade into the garage.  They all went into the house and closed the blinds and curtains.  They went through the house turning lights on and off as they went.  Joey grabbed his bag and threw it in the back of the SUV.  Jake set the timer on the bedside lamp in the guest room.  It would come on it 10 minutes and go out 20 minutes after that.  Jamie set the timer on a lamp in the family room.  It was on now and would go out in 10 minutes.

Joey watched the Parkers as they worked.  He wondered if they’d done this before.

Chapter 16

tabloid lies

Joey climbed out of the Escalade’s cargo area.  He pulled a gun from a shoulder holster and motioned for Jess and Jamie to stand back while he went into the house.  Jamie looked at Jess and she rolled her eyes as she motioned for Joey to go ahead.

Jamie leaned toward his sister.  “The guy’s a little intense, don’t you think?”  The whole family thought Jess was intense. Jamie thought these two had a lot in common.

Jess nodded her head.  “Yeah, I think.  Let’s go.”  She went into the house and followed Joey as he walked from room to room.  She opened the basement door.  “Don’t forget to check downstairs.”  Joey went through the door and she seriously thought about closing and locking it, except there was no lock and it wouldn’t have mattered if there were.  She knew locks didn’t stop him.

Joey came back up the stairs.  “We’re good, the house is cleared.  Show me where I’m sleeping.”  He picked up his bag and followed Jamie.  Joey would be staying in Jake’s old room which shared a Hollywood bathroom with Jamie’s room.

Joey stood in the hall watching Jess, as she stood in the open doorway for her bedroom.  “All right, I’ll see you in the morning.  Yell if you need anything.”  He told her.

She looked at him like he was nuts.  “Yeah, like that’s going to happen,” she mumbled as she closed her door.  She had a Louisville Slugger under her bed and a pistol in the night stand.  She had everything she needed.

It was the downside to living in a ranch style house, everything was on the ground floor, making the windows easily accessible for intruders.  But that’s why every window at the Parker’s house had a big thorn bush planted under it. No one was getting into the house that way.

She stripped out of her dress, threw on a camisole and pajama pants, turned off the light and tried to sleep.  Whoever this nut job was, he had successfully turned her life upside down.  She just wanted to sleep.

*****

Pauli had finished his shift in the ER, and was walking through the waiting room, when an image on the TV screen caught his eye.

There he stood with Jess on the Plaza posing for the cameras.  He found the remote and adjusted the sound, but the program had moved to the next story.  He went home, logged onto the internet and did a search for Jess.  Suddenly, the reason Joey had called and told him to stay in St. Louis was clear. His brother had been impersonating him, posing for the paparazzi and giving impromptu interviews, saying Pauli and Jess were definitely a couple.

Pauli looked at his phone.  Midnight.  He was off for the next few days.  He threw some things into a bag, got into his BMW and headed toward Interstate 70.  It would be four o’clock in the morning by the time he got there, but who cared?  Apparently he and Jess Parker were as good as engaged.  He didn’t know why Joey was impersonating him and he didn’t care, as long as it meant Jess Parker was his girlfriend.

*****

Ben lay in bed holding Lane, who slept, naked, in his arms.  He had been too worried about the baby to make love to her on their wedding night.  She had tried to convince him that the baby would not be harmed by their love making, but until he heard it from the doctor there would be no convincing him.  He understood this was a high risk pregnancy, and he was taking no chances.  The sex between them had been great, and while he prayed the doctor would give them the go-a-head, he was willing to wait if he had to.  He just wished she wouldn’t moan in her sleep.  Her moaning had always done him in.

*****

Jess’s cell phone was buzzing in the middle of the night again. She needed a new agent, or maybe she needed to hire a publicist.  That was it, as soon as she got back to L.A. she was hiring a publicist.  “Jer.  It’s the middle of the night.  The paparazzi are already here, now what?”

“Where did you find that hunky doctor?”

She rolled her eyes.  Surely her agent wasn’t calling her at three in the morning to talk about how she met Pauli or was it Joey.  “I told you yesterday, he’s a friend of the family.”

“Well, if you say so.  Did you marry him?  You know you really should let me know before you do those kinds of things.”

“Jer, I promise.  If and when I get married, I’ll let you know.  My Mother got married.  I was just the maid of honor.  And Pauli Bellini is not my boyfriend, he’s just delusional.”  And the guy in the tabloid pictures wasn’t even Pauli Bellini but that was a whole other story.  One she didn’t want to tell Jer, or anyone else, at three in the morning, or maybe ever.

Jess ended the call.  Was she ever going to get a decent night’s sleep again?  Last night she’d tossed and turned replaying the scenes of finding the envelope addressed to Kit on her bed, calling Jamie, talking to Ben, then shooting Joey and being whisked back to Kansas.  When she’d gotten that movie out of her head, she’d started thinking about her mother being pregnant and her role in the near break-up with Ben.  When she’d finally gotten that out of her head and fallen asleep, it was a short night because Jer had called at the crack of dawn.

But tonight, with Mom and Ben finally married, and with the lunatic fan in L.A., she could relax.  She had the paparazzi, the Parkers, the Bellinis and the Lucianos tracking her every move.  It was safe to sleep here in her old bed.

Jess always locked her bedroom door when she slept.  She wasn’t sure when the habit had started, but with the current events, it was a good habit to have.  She heard the door knob rattle.  She reached into her night stand and pulled out the pistol.  “I’ve got a gun and I know how to use it.”  She said as the door opened.

“It’s me, don’t shoot,” Joey said.  He leaned cautiously into the room.  “I heard the phone.  Is everything all right?”

“He heard the phone? What the hell, did he have hearing like a bat?”  She thought, knowing she’d put the phone on vibrate before the wedding and had forgotten to turn the ringer back on.