Sunset Island - Sunset Secrets Part 4

The truth was that although she didn't have many possessions, she might want to reclaim them someday, and didn't want to have to face her roommates if she skated on their lease.

Danny was acting a little strange, but he hadn't asked her too many questions, at least until he'd found out she was more or less breaking their date for that night.

"Look, I'm sorry I barked at you, Danny.

You're the best friend I have in this town, but I just need to get out for a while. Try to under- stand."

"I just worry about you, that's all." Danny sighed. "By the way, how did it go with Big Al?"

"Amazingly well!" Sam said brightly. "He said he'd have liked a little more notice, but was going to have to let someone go anyway-it's late in the season and he probably shouldn't have hired me to begin with. He told me to check with him when I come back because"-here Sam imitated the New-Yorker-moved-south-"he liked my style and in this crazy business, you never know."

She didn't mention that she'd told Big Al she was going north to audition for a Broadway musical. She wasn't sure he'd have been so un- derstanding about a vacation with her friends.

Sam's mental review of what she hoped was her last lie in Orlando was interrupted by the blare of a car horn. Both she and Danny were on their feet in time to see the red convertible round the corner into the parking lot of Danny's build- ing, where Sam had instructed Emma to meet her. Emma was waving from behind the wheel.

"Too cool!" cheered Sam as Emma pulled up to the curb below. She jumped up, raced through Danny's apartment, and went down the stairs two at a time.

Emma leapt out of the car and threw her arms around Sam. Emma surprised even herself with that gesture. Normally very reserved, she just couldn't believe how happy she was to see Sam again.

"You look fabulous!" Emma cried, holding Sam at arm's length. Sam had on white cotton shorts and a rayon shirt featuring a puffy pink poodle being la.s.soed by some cowboys. The back of the shirt read, CITIZENS FOR A POODLE-FREE MONTANA.

"It's the tan," Sam said with a grin. "As for you, you look the same, meaning perfect." Emma had on fitted pink cotton pants with a matching pink-and-white cotton shirt. It looked decep- tively simple, but Sam knew it probably came from_some designer resort collection and cost a mint.

"Goofy!" Emma said cheerfully, smiling at Danny.

"Oh, wait, I remember," she added playfully. "I'm only supposed to call you Goofy when you're wearing your Goofy costume."

Danny smiled shyly. "Hey, I'm over that," he told her. "It's great to see you, Emma."

"So enough of the greetings," Sam said. "I want a ride in this puppy!" She jumped over the door and landed smoothly in the back seat.

"Coming?" she called.

"As long as I'm driving toward a restaurant,"

Emma said. "I haven't eaten since breakfast."

Emma and Danny got into the car.

"Hey, this could be a first," Sam called into the wind as they drove out of the parking lot. "Emma Cresswell admits that she's hungry. We'll go to Tattoo," Sam decreed. "Tres hip. Turn right at the corner."

"I can't wait to see all your friends at Stingray's tonight," Emma exclaimed as they cruised along.

"I had so much fun there the last time."

No one said anything. Emma thought she saw Danny's cheeks flush. Isn't he coming with us to Stingray's? she wondered. Maybe I just stuck my foot in my mouth.

"Yum, I'm starved," Sam said a few minutes later as they scanned the menus at Tattoo. "The Tattoo burger is to die for," she suggested.

"Oh, I'll just have a salad," Emma said absent- mindedly. "Hey, how about if we order some wine? It's on me!"

"None for me," Danny said. "It gives me a headache when I've been in the sun."

"I'll pa.s.s, too," Sam said.

"Oh, come on," Emma chided. "We're celebrat- ing!"

The three of them ordered their food and Emma insisted upon a bottle of Sauvignon blanc.

The waitress poured some in all three of their gla.s.ses, and Emma lifted hers for a toast.

"To great friends and great adventures," she p.r.o.nounced.

They all clinked gla.s.ses and sipped the wine.

Sam pushed her gla.s.s away and reached for her burger. "Not that I don't appreciate the symbol- ism," she said, "but I don't travel well on alcohol."

"Who's traveling?" said Emma, sipping her wine. "We don't have to go any farther than Stingray's and your apartment."

A look pa.s.sed between Sam and Danny.

"Well, see, the thing is, I was thinking how cool it would be to just, like, you know, leave for Daytona," Sam began.

"But I thought we were going out with your friends tonight," Emma said, puzzled.

"Yeah, but it's . . . my apartment!" Sam said, thinking fast. "My roommates are in town tonight and they're being really b.i.t.c.hy about my having anyone stay over."

"So we'll stay at a hotel," Emma suggested.

"I'm on a budget Emma, even if you're not,"

Sam said stiffly.

Emma bit her lip. Sam was right. She probably felt bad about her apartment situation, and Emma was just embarra.s.sing her.

"Hey, listen, Sam, it's fine if we leave tonight,"

Emma said softly. "Honest."

Sam got very busy with her french fries. At that particular moment she wasn't very proud of herself. She'd told yet another lie and had made Emma feel terrible, just to manipulate things so they were the way she wanted them to be.

"So listen," Emma began brightly, eager to change the mood, "my father gave me a brand- new credit card for this trip. We should make good use of it!"

"Speaking of your father," Sam said, "how was the trip?"

Emma refilled her winegla.s.s and rolled her eyes. "Let's just say that the story would ruin all our appet.i.tes. So I'll save it." The wine was making her feel warm and fuzzy, and she didn't want to lose the effect. Quickly she changed topics and filled Sam in on the itinerary she'd planned.

"I didn't realize you were stopping in Boston,"

said Danny. "I'm flying up there to meet my Mend Kevin. We're going from there up to Vermont for some skiing,"

That's a long speech for Danny, Emma thought.

"Maybe we can meet up," she suggested. "It'd be fun. Carrie will be with us by then."

"Party at Emma's mansion!" announced Sam.

"It is a mansion, isn't it?" she asked Emma. "I'll be so b.u.mmed if it isn't a mansion."

"It's a mansion," Emma a.s.sured her. She swal- lowed the last of the wine-no point in wasting it, she thought-and grabbed the check. She gave Danny her phone number in Boston while waiting for the waitress to return with her credit card.

"So listen, I'm going to a friend's around the corner," Danny told Emma when they got to the parking lot. "It was great to see you."

"You, too," Emma said warmly.

"And have a great trip," he added.

"It will be awesome, amazing, and life-altering,"

Sam a.s.sured him.

"You take care," Danny told Sam in a low voice, brushing her cheek with a kiss. "I'm going to miss you."

Sam looked wistful as she watched Danny jog away.

"You really like him, huh?" Emma asked her.

"He's a great guy," Sam said, "but he's just a friend."

"You sure?" Emma asked.

"Sure I'm sure," Sam said. "Listen, I'm dying to get my hands on the wheel of your car. What say I drive us back to my digs so we can pick up my stuff, and then we hit the road?"

"You're on," Emma agreed. If Sam hadn't said she'd drive, Emma would have asked her to, since Sam had barely sipped her wine and Emma had had more than two full gla.s.ses.

"You would not believe what I went through in Palm Beach," Emma yelled over the rock music Sam had tuned in on the radio. Emma described the whole horrible ordeal to her.

"Brentsie?" Sam guffawed. "Was she serious?"

"It gets worse!" Emma said. "After we went shopping we were sitting around the pool, and she made some comment about how 's.e.xually deprived' my father had been until he met her."

"Gross!" Sam screeched. "Why didn't you do the world a favor and push her into the pool with a rock tied around her neck?"

Emma laughed. "I just can't believe my father is going to marry her!" she marveled.

"It is amazingly hideous," Sam agreed. She thought back to her meeting with Emma's mother the previous summer, as well as an almost disastrous encounter with Kat CresswelPs fiance, Austin Payne. Interestingly enough, thought Sam, Austin was around the same age as Valerie. And in his own way, just as excruciating. Sam knew Emma must be totally mortified. At least my parents are normal, Sam thought. Boring, but normal.

"You got along okay with your dad, though?"

Sam asked.

"Sure," Emma said bitterly. "But he pulled a Katerina on me."

"A what?" Sam yelled over the radio.

"In other words, he had an ulterior motive, which is more often my mother's territory," Emma explained. She turned down the radio. "He took me out for lunch-Valerie had an appointment for a manicure-and he actually asked me to testify against my mother in the divorce hearing!"

"That sucks, Em," Sam commiserated. She pulled up in front of her apartment building.

Emma was staring at her hands, willing herself not to cry. "I just couldn't believe it!" she said, shaking her head sadly.

"So what are you supposed to be testifying to?"

Sam asked.

"That she hasn't been a loving parent, if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black!" Emma said bitterly. "He's so afraid she'll keep the entire family fortune for herself, he's grasping at straws to show she might be mentally incompetent."

"G.o.d, Em, I don't know what to say," Sam began.

"Then he had the nerve to tell me how much he wants me back in his life," Emma continued.

"What a joke! I had to have two gla.s.ses of wine over lunch just to keep from killing him."

"I don't know what to say, except that parents suck," Sam said mildly. "It's some kind of a disease. It's not just your parents."

"Oh, come on, Sam," Emma said, finally lifting her eyes to look at Sam. "Your parents ,would never do anything like this, would they?"

"No, I guess not," Sam admitted. "But believe me when I tell you they have done more than their fair share of embarra.s.sing things to me in my life."

"I ... I really wanted to tell him something about my life, you know?" Emma continued ear- nestly., "I wanted him to know about the volun- teer work I'm going to start doing with kids in inner-city Washington. I thought he might be happy about it. But we never got a chance to talk without Valerie around, and all she wanted to talk about was shopping."

"Look Em, let me run in and get my stuff and we'll get going, okay?" Sam asked. "We can talk more on the way."

Emma nodded her a.s.sent. She looked so for- lorn that Sam reached over and touched Emma's hand for a moment. "Listen, it'll be okay. We're going on an incredible adventure, right?"

Emma smiled gratefully. "Right," she agreed.

"I'm acting like a little idiot. It's probably just the wine I drank."

A few minutes later they had pulled away from the curb and were headed for Daytona. Sam did most of the talking. It amazed even her how easy it was to lie about her life and pretend that she was still dancing at Disney World. She rational- ized that it was because she had a superior imagination and was going to turn out to be a majorly successful actress in the long run.

By the time they reached Daytona, Emma had fallen asleep, and Sam had to negotiate the thronging streets and the plethora of No Vacancy signs alone. She hadn't considered that spring break in Daytona Beach was practically synony- mous with No Vacancy signs.

Exasperated, she was finally forced to settle for a dingy motel more than a few blocks inland, with the dubious name of the Reefer. Emma woke long enough to hand Sam her credit card and instruct her to tell the desk clerk she'd sign the slip in the morning.

Emma made straight for bed, saying she was exhausted and had a raging headache. Sam set out to do some exploring, but was quickly intim- idated by the jeering groups of drunk guys who seemed to be hanging from the street signs on every corner. She bought a takeout sandwich and a c.o.ke, and ended up watching an old movie on TV, with Emma mumbling in her sleep in the next bed.

Sam pictured Danny back in Orlando, probably watching the same movie. Danny loved old movies.