Different Circles

“So ... uh ... if you all want to ... you know ... be alone, I’ve got her. I’ll make sure she gets to bed and all that.”

Laura smiled. “That’s very sweet of you, Meghan,” she said. “I think maybe we do want to be alone.”

“Yes,” Celia said, perhaps a little embarrassment in her tone. “That would be nice.”

“Go,” Meghan said. “Caydee and I will read some books and maybe do some coloring.”

They went, telling Meghan what room they were in and that she should call them if anything happened. She promised she would.

Once they got to Celia’s suite—which was pretty much identical to the one that Meghan and Caydee were staying in—Jake suggested that he and Laura take a quick shower as they had been traveling all day.

“Fuck that,” Celia said, shaking her head. “I’ve been waiting for months for this. I do not want to wait any longer.”

“We might not smell so fresh,” Laura said.

Celia grinned lasciviously. “That’s okay,” she said. “Sometimes that makes it better. Now, give me some loving.”

They gave her some loving. It was very enjoyable for all concerned, sweaty smells and all.

It was as they were laying on the bed, letting the sweat dry and enjoying the afterglow, that the phone began to ring. They all looked at it for a moment and then Laura, who was the closest to it, picked it up.

“Marie Vasquez’s room,” she said. She listened for a moment and then said, “Oh ... hi, Meghan. What is it? Is there something wrong with Caydee?” She listened again and then looked over at Jake. “Caydee’s fine, but Pauline called the room looking for you.”

“Pauline? What does she want?”

Laura put the phone back to her ear. “Did she say what she wanted?” Another listening period. “Okay, thanks, Meghan. We’ll take care of it.” She hung up. She turned back to Jake. “She didn’t say what the issue was. She just told Meghan to have you call her at home right away.”

“Oh man,” Jake said. “I hate unexpected phone calls from Pauline. It’s never good news.”

Laura got up and let him sit on the edge of the bed. He looked at the directions on the phone, figured out that he could dial long distance without involving the hotel operator, and then dialed Pauline’s home number from memory. She picked it up on the second ring.

“Hey, Paulie,” he said, bracing himself for whatever shit was hitting the fan now. “What’s going on?”

“It’s Matt,” she said.

“What happened?”

“I got a call from Jim, his paramedic, a few minutes ago. Matt had a heart attack.”

“A heart attack?” Jake asked. “Jesus fucking Christ. Is he okay?”

“We don’t know yet,” Pauline said. “He started having pain while he was doing the sound check for the first Seattle show. He thought it was heartburn and chugged some Maalox, but the pain just kept getting worse. And then he started sweating and having trouble breathing. Jim hooked him up to his heart monitor thing and he realized what was going on. They called 911 and the ambulance took him to the hospital with lights and sirens. They did an EKG when they got there and confirmed he was having a heart attack, and a pretty bad one at that, according to Jim. They rushed him into the cardiac cath lab and that’s where he’s at now.”

Jake took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Son of a bitch,” he said softly.

The End of Book V