Chapter 38
Several minutes earlier, Reuben had shooed everyone out of the entryway and sent them to the dining room where lunch had just been about to be served hoping against hope that they'd all forget what they'd just seen; Keith carrying Dina upstairs over his shoulder. They all assumed it was to have a sexual encounter, but Laurie and Reuben knew differently.
They knew Keith would be trying to talk her into leaving and they both knew just as strongly that Dina would refuse to go.
"Now what?" Reuben groused when the front doorbell rang.
"So long as it's not a reporter." Laurie started to walk toward the door. "Hey, maybe it's Valentine and the rest of the new bodyguards."
"Maybe." Reuben could only hope Laurie was right. If it was a reporter, he might just have to be arrested for committing a felony.
Laurie pulled the door open and gasped. "Mom!"
Within seconds, she was pulled into a hug that went a long way toward making her forget most of her problems.
Shirley backed off and held her daughter's face between her hands. "You look wonderful. How are you?"
"I'm great Mom. Oh it's good to see you. But, we weren't expecting you for at least another day." Laurie admitted.
"I found alternate transportation after mom sprained her ankle." Shirley motioned behind her to see an approaching Danny and Ron Landry with the luggage and, just getting out of the car, was a reluctant Nic Landry.
"But, I thought Grandma and Grandpa couldn't get to San Pueblo until at least tomorrow. Where are Chris and Tracy?" Laurie could feel a welcoming smile lighting her face as Danny came bounding up and pulled her into his own hug. "Danny, I swear you've gotten bigger."
"Ha, and you've gotten skinnier. So what else is new?" Danny picked her up and twirled her in a circle. He'd grown almost as tall as Keith and could finally manhandle his scrawny older sister.
"I meant taller and I have not gotten skinnier. Angie's cooking is going to force me to buy a whole new wardrobe." Laurie fibbed and then noticed the Landry's standing just inside the front door. "Ron, Nic, it's good to see you again."
"Mrs. Kornegge finally got home from her shopping trip and offered to take Chris and Tracy overnight. We ended up leaving shortly after I spoke to Reuben about 16 hours ago, but I had no time to call and tell you. I thought it'd be at least another day before we could leave. There were no commercial flights, so I called Ron and Nic. Where's Keith?" Shirley had had enough of the greetings and needed to see her son.
"He's upstairs." Reuben finally broke into the happy family reunion. "We just told him."
"I was wondering if I'd get here in time. Which room is his?" Shirley asked as she headed toward the stairs.
"Mom, wouldn't you prefer to freshen up first?" Laurie tried to waylay her mother long enough to warn Keith that she was here, but she was having none of that.
"I'm fine. I need to see Keith more than I need to freshen up." Shirley threw Laurie a look that spoke volumes; tell me where my son is or watch me tear this house apart looking for him.
"Last door on the right down the hallway to the left." Reuben put his hand on Laurie's arm to stop her from trying to come between Shirley and her son.
"But Reuben…." Laurie started in a quiet aside to the manager.
"He'll just have to deal with it. She needs to see him or she might just lose her mind." Reuben had seen the almost mad look on her face when it appeared that Laurie wanted her to wait to see Keith.
They all watched Shirley disappear at the top of the stairs once she headed down the correct hallway.
"He's up there with Dina isn't he?" Danny had walked up behind their quiet conversation and had jumped to the correct conclusion.
"Oh, Danny, I didn't hear you walk up." Laurie jumped guiltily but avoided the question.
"Like old times, hmmm?" Danny smirked at her. "What, are they up there having sex or something?"
"Daniel Partridge, I'll have mom wash your mouth out with soap when she comes down here." Laurie said in order to cover for her brother. She still had a tendency to think of Danny as a young boy rather than the fifteen, almost sixteen, year old that he really was.
"I'm right, aren't I? You're way too defensive for it not to be true." Danny smugly pointed out.
"Well, actually, they were arguing the last time I saw them." Laurie tried to rain on Danny's parade.
"Ah, even worse. Make-up sex can be so noisy." Danny gleefully pointed out.
"Daniel Partridge." Laurie said warningly just glad that he'd said the words quietly and the Landry's hadn't heard them.
Laurie turned quickly toward them mostly in order to end the conversation with Danny. "Ron, Nic why don't you come on in. We were just about to sit down for some lunch."
"No, that's alright. We just dropped off Shirley and Danny. I thought Shirley was too tired to drive, so I insisted we get them all the way to their final destination." Ron tried to beg off. He didn't want to impose.
"Nonsense. You can't miss Angie's cooking. It's, well, it's divine. I think that word describes it best." Laurie grabbed their arms and pulled them toward the large dining room where she could hear the rest of the house's occupants already starting the normal lively lunch time conversation.
"Will you have enough for four more?" Ron asked, his mouth already watering from the heavenly smells wafting into the hallway.
"Angie's already cooking for an army of people, so four more won't be anything new." Laurie assured them.
xoxo
Shirley had knocked on the door a second time after calling Keith's name. She finally heard him say 'just a second'. She'd begun to worry that Olivia had already gotten to him and he was already lost to her. Just hearing his voice had put a smile on her face.
Moments later, the door swung open and her disheveled son said, surprise still on his face, "Mom, what are you doing here?"
Before Keith could even blink, Shirley had his neck in a tight hug; the door a partial block to her pulling him fully against herself for which Keith was eternally grateful. He saw Dina grinning at him over his mother's shoulder. She knew exactly why Keith had kept the door in front of him like a shield.
Keith shot her a dirty look; another thing to add to their argument.
Keith at first returned the hug with one arm, but then became uncomfortable with the length of it. Something was wrong here. She always gave him hugs, but short, hard, heartfelt hugs. Not this desperate, can't let you go or you might disappear kind of hug.
"Mom, you're choking me." Keith joked to try and get her to back off enough so that he could see her face and figure out what was going on. As soon as she stepped back with a slight laugh, he regretted seeing the look on her face.
She knew.
"Who told you?" Keith asked with a frown.
"Reuben called me. I wanted to be here when you found out." Shirley explained.
"Well, he shouldn't have called." Keith did not need another person worrying about him. In fact, he'd have been much happier if his mother had never found out about this. She'd been through enough the last time she had been after him.
"Keith Douglas Partridge, you don't mean that." Shirley frowned her disapproval at him.
"Yes, I do. It's got you all worried. If he hadn't called you, you'd be back home and totally carefree. Instead, here you are on the brink of a nervous breakdown." Keith exaggerated.
"I am not on the brink of a nervous breakdown. I'm just a bit frazzled from the long flight." Shirley explained reasonably.
"Look, I don't need everybody here fussing over me and worrying. I'm fine. You can go back home. Oh, and take Dina with you." Keith nodded toward the now glowering Dina.
"I most certainly will not leave. Not until Olivia is once again locked away." Shirley was hurt by his words.
"And I'm not leaving either." Dina moved to stand beside Keith's mother as if to form a united front.
"Yes, you are." Keith couldn't help but try to one-up Dina.
"No, she isn't." Shirley was the recipient of a shocked look from Keith.
"You would take Dina's side? After everything that has happened? What could happen?" Keith couldn't bring himself to say Olivia's name, but knew that his mother was following his thoughts.
"Keith, you can't ask her to leave. Not while Olivia has any chance of getting near you." Shirley had watched Keith try to hide a wince when she mentioned Olivia's name. They'd probably done the wrong thing by avoiding the subject over the last three years. It appeared that the mere mention of her name caused her son emotional distress. She realized that he'd never really dealt with it. She blamed herself for that.
"Oh, yes I can. I've asked her to leave and I'll continue to ask her to leave until she's on a plane for San Francisco; sooner rather than later." Keith moved back to the armoire and retrieved Dina's suitcase, tossing it on the bed and opening it.
Dina had followed him and closed the suitcase back up, sitting on it to make sure he wouldn't open it easily. "I'm staying."
"I'm guessing this is where I came in." Shirley surmised.
"It's not." Keith assured her but left out what she'd really interrupted.
"Keith, listen to me." Shirley stepped in front of Keith who had been headed toward the armoire to collect Dina's clothes.
"If you're going to try to talk me into letting her stay, then, no, I will not listen to you." Keith simply changed his course and walked to the dresser first. When he turned his back, he missed the hurt look on his mother's face that turned into a look of resolve.
"Keith, she's your mother. You have to listen to her." Dina had been surprised by Keith's answer. She knew he was very close to his mother. He must be more upset by this than she'd even realized.
"What? Like the two of you are listening to me?" Keith stopped long enough to give Dina a steady stare. Let her talk herself out of that one.
"I have listened to everything you've said." Dina explained patiently. "I just don't happen to agree with you."
"Oh, and you're right and I'm wrong. Is that it?" Keith spun back to the dresser opening one of the drawers. He picked up two handfuls of Dina's lingerie and headed toward the bed.
Shirley watched everything quietly, but with great interest. She figured she'd find out a whole lot more about her son's relationship than she could possibly learn by talking to him. He'd become extremely close mouthed about such things since he'd moved out.
"I didn't say that." Dina watched him approach her while still sitting firmly on her suitcase. "It's true, but I didn't say that."
"God Dina, she'll hurt you to get to me." Keith was gesturing wildly with his hands that were still clenching the delicate lace and satin undergarments. "If she thinks you stand between her and me, she'll just get rid of you."
"I'm not afraid of her." Dina threw her chin out.
"You should be. She threw an old lady, her own aunt, down a flight of stairs. She took Laurie and Danny hostage at gun point. She ran our bus off the road hurting me, Laurie and Johnny. She refused us medical attention." Keith was just getting started. He was so angry he'd forgotten his mother was in the room with them. "She tormented me with letters for years. She shot me, telling me that she hoped I suffered while she left me locked up in a cabin in the woods."
Shirley stood near the door, tears slowly making their way down her pale cheeks. She bit her lip in order to stop herself from interrupting. It was important for Keith to talk about this. She knew it. It just hurt to listen to it.
"She drugged me and held a gun to Nic's head to get her to fly us to a secluded cabin. She spewed her fantasies at me as if they were reality. She thought that no matter what she'd done, to me or my family, that I could love her. Can you believe that?" Keith wasn't expecting an answer and Dina didn't try to give him one. She was staring at him with tears in her eyes, but she did not back down.
"She wouldn't understand, couldn't understand, that she turned my stomach. She disgusted me so deep down inside that my skin crawled to just think about her being near me. Being in the courtroom, at her competency hearing, was torture for me. I was screaming inside, but the room was filled with reporters and gawkers waiting for a reaction; anything they could print in their damn papers. I wanted to run, so fast and so far away, that I could forget any of it had happened. But it did. It happened. And I can't change that." Keith saw Dina flinch, but she refused to turn away. He decided to go for shock value to see if he could force her away. "Touching her made me want to vomit. But I touched her intimately just so that Nic and I could escape. She accused me of getting her pregnant, did you know that?"
Dina nodded. She'd read that in the papers. She'd also read the denial by Keith and his family; by Olivia's family.
Keith threw the clothes at the bed that he'd just realized he still held, then opened his mouth to say something else, but closed it just as quickly. He bowed his head, unable to look at her, to meet her eyes. The silence lengthened and Dina pushed herself up from the bed. She went to stand within inches of him.
Shirley had tensed at Keith's last comments. She remembered vividly Keith's description of what had happened at the cabin. His vehement denial that anything had happened that could have caused Olivia to get pregnant. She also remembered his admittance that he would have lied to her if he thought he had to. He'd just alluded to having to take things further than he'd admitted three years ago. She brought her hand to her stomach as she felt the dread spreading. Could he have lied to her? Had he lied to her?
She knew that if he had, it would only have been because he felt he had to. To protect her from something so awful; something so heinous that he thought she couldn't have handled it if she'd known.
Shirley watched as Dina reached out to tilt Keith's face back up to hers. She watched her look deeply into his eyes and then gently kiss him on the lips. Dina broke the gentle, comforting contact and leaned her forehead against his, her hands falling from his face to rest on his hips.
Keith sighed and continued in a much softer voice.
"She invaded my life so completely that I couldn't turn around without someone or something reminding me of what she'd done to my life; to me. Dammit Dina, she killed my girlfriend by running her off a cliff! She'll kill YOU because you mean something to me. She will not stop until you're dead too. Don't you get it?" Keith was drained. He didn't have the strength to push Dina away as she pulled him into a hug. He didn't even have the strength to return it. His arms hung limply at his sides.
Shirley quietly left the room. She'd take her argument up with him later. For now, Keith needed to finish his discussion with Dina and she needed to think about what he'd said.
Dina watched the door close quietly behind Keith's mother. Her heart was breaking because Keith had yet to put his arms around her. She needed his arms around her.
But, this wasn't about what she needed. This was about Keith.
She stepped back slightly.
"Keith I know you don't want to hear this, but I have to say it. I love you." Dina saw the energy return to him as his anger returned. "No, wait. Don't shut me out. Listen to me. Please."
Keith tilted his head slightly and nodded shortly. Fine. If she wanted a say, he'd give her the floor. When she was done, she was going home.
"I don't know what it was like for you back then. I didn't know you." Dina reasoned. "It sounds like this….girl…." She said the word with distaste. "is capable of things that I can't really comprehend."
Keith finally felt like Dina might just be getting the gravity of this situation. Good. Maybe she'd agree to leave.
"But, she can't have you. You're mine." Dina's spine stiffened in outrage. "I can be as possessive as she is. As obsessive as she is. I love you that much. I will not give you up. Not now. Not ever."
"Dina…" Keith realized too late that he'd read her wrong. How he could have, he'd never really be sure. She'd been so vocal, so obvious about her feelings. He'd been a fool to hope she'd leave.
"No. I'm not done." Dina put her hands back on his face. She needed to be sure he listened to her; he heard her. "I will do anything you ask me to. I'll let this bodyguard follow me around; everywhere but in here with you. I'll be cooperative and even be a prisoner so long as you're with me, near me. My one and only condition is that I don't leave you."
"Dina…." Keith tried again.
"No. Please. I can't leave you. I won't leave you. It would be like ripping my heart out." Dina could feel the tears falling freely down her cheeks. She couldn't stop them, nor did she try. "I love you. I love you. I love you."
She began to kiss him. Saying her mantra over and over between each kiss.
Didn't she realize that losing her would rip his heart out? No, she probably didn't. He'd never even told her he loved her. He'd wanted to. He really had. The words just wouldn't come out. So he'd written songs for her. Songs he hadn't actually admitted were about her. That would be tantamount to saying the words to her. He wasn't ready for that, but he knew he cared for her. Possibly more than anyone else he'd ever cared about in his life.
Her kisses were becoming longer and her words were becoming softer.
Keith gave up. He buried his hands in her hair and pulled her in for a longer, deeper, more meaningful kiss. He backed her toward the bed and reaching behind her, tossed her suitcase toward the door.
She pushed back long enough to restate. "I'm staying. Agreed?"
Keith prayed quickly that he wouldn't regret his decision. "You're staying." 'For now' was added silently.
He was rewarded with a beautiful smile followed by a soul shattering kiss.
He spun around and fell backwards onto the bed. Dina's happy laughter was quickly quieted by his lips.
xoxo
Reuben had excused himself from the lunch table and was heading toward his room to reschedule the interviews he'd cancelled. He found Shirley at the end of the hallway looking out the balcony windows. She was on the opposite end of the house from Keith. "Shirley?"
"Oh, Reuben. You scared me." Shirley put her hand to her throat and turned to look at him.
"What are you doing here? Where's Keith?" Reuben put his hand gently on her arm, hoping it gave her comfort. She looked like she needed it.
"I believe he's still in his bedroom." Shirley briefly put her hand on top of Reuben's on her arm and then turned back toward the windows.
"What happened?" Reuben asked and then realized how intrusive that was. "If you want to tell me, that is."
Shirley remained silent for quite a while and Reuben wasn't sure if she was lost in thought or if she just wasn't going to tell him.
"I'll leave you to your thoughts. We can talk later." He was hurt by her silence, but he figured a strategic exit was best at this point. He loved these people like family, but it was at times like this that he knew he wasn't. He was just their manager, Keith's manager, and a family friend. Nothing more.
"No, wait." Shirley turned as soon as she felt him withdrawing. "I just…."
"Shirley, it's alright. I understand. You don't want to talk to me about it. It's alright." Reuben quickly assured her.
"No, it's not that." Shirley struggled with putting her thoughts into words. She worried that saying them out loud might make them true. And, oh god, how she wanted them to not be true.
She looked into the face of the man who had been there for her, with her, for the last five years. She could see the caring, the understanding, in his eyes.
"Reuben, I'm scared." Shirley breathed.
"We'll keep him safe. The added security…" Reuben started.
"No." Shirley interrupted him. "No, it's not that. Well, it is, but that's not all."
"You know I'll do whatever I have to, to keep him safe. To keep Laurie safe. You safe." Reuben decided a little levity might help. "Even Danny."
His joke fell like a lead balloon, but Shirley chose to ignore it. Reuben became uncomfortable when the silence stretched on again, but he clamped down on his nervous need to fill the silence with words; words that meant nothing but would have helped him feel less helpless.
"Reuben, do you think we know everything?" Shirley started slowly.
"Everything?" Reuben didn't follow.
"About what happened to Keith. At the cabin." Shirley stopped. Unable to say the words that she did not want to verbalize. She feared that saying the words might make them true. She wanted so badly for them not to be true.
"What do you mean?" Reuben knew he had concerns because of the questions the reporter had asked him. But, he also knew that Shirley couldn't know about those questions unless he'd told her. And, he hadn't.
"Do you think it's possible?" Shirley continued to struggle. "Do you think Keith might have lied to us? About what happened? That maybe things went further than he admitted to?"
"No." Reuben said the word emphatically. It had been instinctive to protect Keith. The woman in front of him had made him swear to protect Keith no matter the cost when she'd agreed to let him manage Keith as a solo act. She'd made him swear to protect him like he was his own son.
"Reuben, think about it. He as much as said that he would lie to me about what had happened and I chose to ignore that." Shirley could feel the tears threatening again. "If things had gone further than he said. If Olivia hadn't passed out when he told us she did. He wouldn't want to admit that. Not to me. Not to anyone."
"Shirl, he wouldn't lie to you." Reuben believed that with all his heart. But. And there was always a but. But, Keith would lie to protect those that he loved. And, if what Reuben thought might have happened, had happened. Well, that would have hurt everyone in his family. Something Keith couldn't have lived with.
"Oh, Reuben, I'd like to believe that. But, she changed him. He's not the same person he was before she came into his life." Shirley accepted Reuben's hug of comfort. She needed it so badly.
"Yes, he is. But he's stronger now." Reuben tried to find the positives in the changes.
"Yes. He's grown up. But, that's not what I mean. He won't say 'I love you'. He loves Dina. It's so obvious to everyone who watches them. But, he won't say the words. Laurie told me." Shirley crushed Reuben's suit coat sleeve in her hand. "I've let him down."
"No, Shirley. You haven't." Reuben said automatically. He couldn't fathom this woman, this caring mother of five, ever letting one of her children down. It wasn't possible.
"I should have made him get professional help three years ago. But, he seemed ok. He kept writing songs, performing. He acted so normal. He fooled me. Fooled us all." Shirley pushed away from Reuben to look him in the eyes. "But the truth is, he buried himself in work. He didn't find release in it. He hid in it. He wasn't healing every day. He was burying his feelings deeper and deeper. And, I let him."