Diamond, page 26
Jesse grinned. It was just as he’d hoped, and the three men who’d listened to Diamond’s performance only moments earlier wielded enough power in the music industry to do just as they pleased.
“I’m always right,” Jesse told them, and laughed at their hoots in response to him.
“Talk about an ego,” Shorty said.
Jesse corrected him. “It’s not ego. It’s the power of positive thinking.”
They paused beside their car and waited for Jesse to let the other shoe drop. They’d been in the business too long to think that all he’d wanted from them was to listen to another singer, no matter how good she was.
“So, what’s the scoop, Jesse?” Shorty asked.
“What’s the biggest mystery running in Nashville?” Jesse asked.
“Who Selma Bennett’s next husband will be,” Shorty replied, and grinned at the appreciative round of laughter that followed his statement.
“Besides that,” Jesse said.
Shorty became quiet. He turned and stared at the back door of the Bluebird and then back at Jesse. “Who’s the mystery woman that sang on your album?”
Jesse just grinned.
“Shit! Are you telling me what I think you’re telling me?”
“I didn’t tell you a thing,” Jesse said. “But I need for you boys to do a little talking for me. I want Diamond Houston to be invited to sing at the Grand Ole Opry. This is the date and the time.” He handed them a slip of paper.
“Hell, Jesse. You know the rules. A performer doesn’t just show up unannounced and unknown. They’ve got to have some recognition—maybe a hit song—or have a lot of air time. You know the drill.”
“How much more recognition do you need, Shorty? Being part of a duo on a number-one song isn’t enough? Getting that same song nominated for a Grammy as best song of the year, and having said song played daily across the nation, wouldn’t do it for you?”
Shorty looked at his two friends for approval. They nodded.
“The catch is, you can’t let on what you know,” Jesse said. “I want it to be a surprise for everyone. Think of the coup you can claim when you three admit to knowing her identity long before the rest of the world.”
“It’s a deal,” Shorty said. “I’ll give Tommy a call when I get the details worked out.”
“No!” Jesse’s exclamation caught them all by surprise. “For this to work, you have to leave him out of it. Do we have a deal?”
It didn’t take them long to read between the lines. What happened between Jesse and his manager was nothing to them. But being in on the revelation was an appealing idea.
“You’ve got yourself a deal, and on your terms. I’ll be in touch,” Shorty said.
Jesse watched them leave and then leaned against his car and buried his face in his hands, unable to believe he’d pulled this off.
I’m getting as backhanded as Tommy, he told himself.
He drove out of Nashville with a smile on his face. For the first time since he had come home and found her gone, his world was about to get back on track.
Then a thought occurred to him. He made a U-turn in the middle of the deserted, two-lane road and headed back into town.
19
Diamond waved good-bye to Twila, shifted the heavy guitar case to the other hand, and let herself into her apartment. Tonight had been a milestone in her budding career, and she knew it. Twila had been on pins and needles through the entire event, and more than once Diamond had seen her fidgeting nervously as she looked around the room, gauging the reactions of the audience. What she hadn’t seen was Twila’s eyes widen in shock at the sight of the three men sitting against the east wall of the club. It was just as well. If Diamond had known the power the men held in the country music business, she might have blown the entire performance.
But as exciting as tonight had been, Diamond couldn’t bring herself to rejoice. She locked the door behind her, set the guitar in the closet, made one turn through the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door, and tried to convince herself to eat. She had everything going for her and wanted only what she couldn’t have.
She slammed the refrigerator shut, wincing as the glass jars and bottles in the door rattled against one another. Her gaze strayed, as it had more than once during the past few weeks, to the white princess phone sitting quietly on the table beside her sofa.
Yet she knew calling him again would be a mistake. Hearing the pain in his voice wouldn’t do a thing except remind her of her own.
She walked into her bedroom, dropped to her knees beside the dresser, and opened the bottom drawer. They lay just where she’d tossed them when she’d moved—all the clippings, fan mail, and tabloid articles concerning her and Jesse.
And they taunted her, just as they had since the day Tommy had stuffed them into her hands and shouted in her face that she was ruining Jesse Eagle’s life and career.
Some of the newspaper clippings were beginning to turn a bit yellow. The envelopes containing the angry fan mail were wrinkled and smudged from handling. But Diamond knew that if she dared, she could pull them out and still feel the same sensation of shock she’d felt on the day of their arrival.
How could anything so small cause so much pain? she wondered, fingering the stack of paper. And how could she have let someone else’s words mean more to her than Jesse’s?
The ache in the back of her throat swelled into a sob. With one swift shove, she slammed the drawer shut, buried her face in her hands, and let the tears come.
There was no consolation in the knowledge that if she could have done it over again, she would have stayed and fought for what—and who—belonged to her.
Twila parked her car. Still riding on the high from Diamond’s performance at the Bluebird, she missed the fact that the security light above her apartment door was out. She locked the car then slung her purse over her shoulder as she started walking, her door key dangling from her fingers. She didn’t see or hear the man until he stepped out of the shadows in front of her apartment and stood between her and safety.
“Twila Hart?”
Twila jumped, grabbed for her purse, and fumbled in its depths for the can of mace she always carried. She’d known it was only a matter of time before the law of averages caught up with her and she became a crime statistic. Her breath caught on a sob as she yanked out a ballpoint pen instead of the cylinder of mace and aimed it toward the man.
“Don’t come any closer or I’ll—”
“What? Mark me off your Christmas list?”
The humor in his voice slowed the rapid thud of her heart. If she weren’t mistaken, she knew the owner of that voice.
“Oh, Lord,” she said, slumping against the wall. “You scared me half to death, you fool.”
Jesse sighed. All he could do right these days was the wrong thing.
“I’m really sorry, Ms. Hart,” he said. “But I needed to talk to you—without witnesses. May I come in?”
She slapped the door key in his hand. “You open it,” she said. “I’m still shaking too much to hit the keyhole.”
“I’m pretty nervous myself,” he said. “When I saw you yank out that ballpoint, I thought my days were numbered.”
“Shut up and open the door.”
Jesse did as he was ordered. Twila pushed past him, flipped on the lights, tossed her purse on the sofa and flung her ballpoint across the room in a last fit of wasted adrenaline. She tossed her coat across the back of a chair and, when she was certain she could talk without screaming, turned to face her uninvited guest.
He leaned against the door, unwilling to come any farther into her home without invitation.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Twila said. “Have a seat.”
But Jesse just pushed himself away from the door, shoved his hands into his pants pockets, and walked toward the window overlooking Nashville, giving her nothing but a very enticing view of his backside.
“We’ve never been formally introduced,” Twila said, appreciatively eyeing how well the western-style suit he was wearing fit his tall body.
“And it’s been my misfortune,” Jesse said as he turned and extended his hand.
Twila’s heart skipped a beat as their hands touched. The pain he was suffering was palpable, and in spite of her intentions to remain aloof, she winced at the chill on his skin. A muscle twitched at the corner of his mouth, and his dark eyes were bright. Too bright for the mood. She suspected they housed a constant sheen of tears.
“Let’s cut to the chase,” she said. “You’re here for a reason. I want to hear it.”
Jesse nodded. He wiped his hands across his face, inhaled slowly, and then began to talk. “First, I just need to hear how she’s doing.”
Twila snorted. “As all right as a person can be who’s been cut and hung out to dry. What the hell did you do to her?”
His groan gave Twila second thoughts about the culpability of the man standing before her. From the look on his face, he was in just as much pain as Diamond.
“Oh, God, I don’t know,” Jesse said, dropping into the chair behind him. He stared down at the floor as he tried to find the best way to continue without making a total fool of himself. “I’ve spent the better part of the last few months trying to find out.”
“I don’t get it,” Twila said. “Either you cheated her or you didn’t.”
Jesse exhaled slowly. It was strange what kind of pain mere words could inflict. Having someone say aloud what had happened to the woman he loved was agony.
“What I did do was leave the business end of her life up to…up to someone I trusted. For that, I claim guilt. What I didn’t do was cheat on her. I loved her…love her. When I came home and found her gone, I nearly went crazy.”
Twila frowned. “So are you saying that your—”
Jesse interrupted. “I’m not saying anything. Not until I can talk to Diamond and hear from her lips exactly what happened to her to make her leave me like that.”
“Okay,” Twila said. “I admire loyalty, even the misplaced kind. So this is the deal: We don’t point fingers—just yet. I’ll go along with that. But what do we do?”
“Prepare for the revelation, Twila Hart. Prepare for the revelation.”
He began to explain, and as he did, the expressions on her face ran from disbelief to shock to unadulterated pleasure. This was one performance she couldn’t wait to see.
“Oh, Dooley, I still can’t believe it.”
The awe in Diamond’s voice was as real as the smile on her face. Dooley hugged her closer, an unconscious gesture that was a reflection of his fear of losing her.
“I can,” he said. “I always knew you had what it took, honey. Playing the Grand Ole Opry had to come soon. I’m really proud of you.”
Diamond shivered in spite of her excitement. Something, a subconscious warning, told her that this wasn’t a step, it was a leap. It was the fulfillment of the promise Jesse had made to her and her sisters the day he’d taken her from Cradle Creek. And it was going to happen without him. Overwhelming sadness threatened to ruin the thrill.
“I need you to be there for me, Dooley. I will expect you to attend, even if you have to shut down the club, at least this one night.”
“Honey, I’d sell the damned place if I had to. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” Sympathy made him add, “Everyone will be there, don’t you worry.”
He disappeared into his office, unwilling to look into her eyes and face that ever-present, lost expression.
Diamond nodded, thinking of Twila…and maybe Doug Bentin, who had become such a good friend. It never occurred to her to search farther into her past for others who might provide the moral support she so desperately needed. She’d spent too many months trying to put that same past behind her.
She’d also lost more sleep than she could afford, trying to decipher the mystery of Jesse’s appearance at Melvin Call’s club. For weeks afterward she’d imagined the phone ringing and Jesse on the other end of the line pleading for her return. She’d dreaded it to the point of actual illness, and then, when it hadn’t happened, had lost sleep trying to figure out why not. The only conclusion she could come up with was that she’d hurt the relationship and him too badly to fix. He didn’t want her anymore, and she had to live with that.
The club was quiet now that Dooley had gone into his office. It was too early in the morning for even Walt and Deever to make an appearance. Diamond walked around, absently admiring the changes that had taken place since her first day on the job. She and the derelict building had taken on new life.
She walked up the two steps onto Dooley’s new stage and looked out across the room, squinting through the shadowy haze and imagining the tables crowded and the noise level that could be heard on a busy Saturday night. Although she’d often wished for fancier surroundings, Diamond knew that when it came time to leave Dooley’s for good, she was going to miss the place and the security of knowing that she had always been accepted and loved there.
She heard Dooley’s stereo come alive behind the closed door of his office and smiled, knowing that he’d finally forced himself to drag out the books. Of all the chores associated with his business, bookkeeping made Dooley crazy, and he always put it off until it was almost too late to decipher it.
Unwilling to leave this haven of comfort, she lingered onstage, brushed at a smudge of dust on her Levis, and unrolled the cuffs of her long-sleeved blue shirt as she eyed the newly installed ceiling lights. Minutes later, confident that she could walk onto the street and face strangers without humiliating herself by crying, she bowed to the absent audience like a child playing make-believe. It was her own personal farewell to Dooley’s.
She was about to step off the stage when she heard it. The song, and the truth of what had started and ended it all. “Lies.”
Diamond closed her eyes and inhaled sharply against the pain in her heart. The melody drifted faintly into the room and through her soul, and before she knew it, she heard herself singing along.
But the smiles and lies of a lying lover
go hand in hand like kisses and wine…
Her body swayed to the melody, her voice a whisper as the words cut deep. Unable to face even an imaginary audience, she closed her eyes as she sang along.
The words were so faint, at first Dooley imagined they were from the stero behind his desk. And then he listened more closely, and as he did, he knew that he was hearing what could only be called the unveiling of a secret. He laid down his pen, pushed back his chair, and walked quietly to the door, careful not to open it too much and alert Diamond to the fact that she was being overheard.
…like the fool I am, can’t get you out of my mind.
And when her voice ended with a sob and a sigh, Dooley quietly closed the door and leaned his head against the aged wood, wishing himself a younger man. But the thought left as quickly as it came. His time was over, but Diamond’s was just beginning. He would give his life to see that hers was finally happy.
“Sir,” Henley said, entering the music room with a portable phone. “You have a call.”
The interruption was a blessing. Although Jesse had disconnected the phone in the music room in hopes of being able to work, he’d still been unable to concentrate. All he could think about was the upcoming performance at the Grand Ole Opry. In less than a week he’d know whether or not he had a future with Diamond. Without his lady, his life was hardly worth living.
Jesse took the phone and smiled at the exuberance of the man on the other end of the line.
“Whoa, Mack. Slow down,” Jesse said. “Yes, you heard right. And by the way, just as a matter of interest, who told you? I was planning on calling all the boys in the band tomorrow and getting together to have a little practice session.”
“Oh, shoot,” Mack said. “I forget…one of the boys…I think it was Al. Yeah! That’s it! It was Al. He said Rita came home from the beauty shop and told him that—”
Jesse started to laugh. Leave it to a woman! And then his smile disappeared. If he had his way, he’d be doing just that—leaving the rest of his life to one certain woman.
“Never mind,” Jesse said. “I guess it doesn’t matter. It would have been common knowledge soon enough. You know how the music industry is; you can’t keep anything a secret for long.”
“I don’t know about that,” Mack said. “We’ve done pretty darn good keeping a certain secret of our own.”
Jesse debated with himself about telling Mack the truth. As it was, he didn’t have to tell much, since Mack and the band seemed to have guessed most of it already.
“About the Grand Ole Opry performance,” Jesse began. “You guys should know that I—”
“And it’s about time,” Mack said. “Does Tommy know she’s gonna be there?”
Jesse’s stomach turned. This was too much, too soon. If everyone suspected what was happening, then it was entirely possible that Diamond would get word of it and fail to show. What if she ran again, and this time out of Nashville for good? Then he sighed and faced the fact that if she did, he had to accept what she’d been trying to tell him all along. She didn’t want anything more to do with a man who stole, even if all he’d taken was her heart and her trust.
“No, Tommy doesn’t know yet. But if you guys do, it’s only a matter of—”
Jesse looked out the window toward the driveway and rolled his eyes at the sight of the car pulling into his yard.
“Speak of the devil,” he told Mack. “I’ll have to call you later with a practice schedule. Our manager has just arrived.”
“I don’t envy you,” Mack said, and hung up.
But Jesse was past caring whose feelings got hurt and who stepped on whose toes. All he wanted was Diamond back in his life. He laid down the phone and went to meet Tommy.
“I’ll get it,” Jesse said as Henley started for the door. “And Henley, no interruptions until Tommy leaves. No calls, no nothing, okay?”
Henley nodded. “If you need me, sir, I’ll be in the kitchen.”
