but Marie skipped away to the other side of the nurses’ station. “What weekend is it, again?” Marie nodded at whatever the caller said and flipped to the calendar with the work schedule. “Perfect! She’s available for that weekend. You have her email address from the entry form, correct? Just send the details and copy me, and I’ll get her to the airport on time.”
Marie rattled off her email address and said a few more words. When she hung up the phone, she squealed as if she’d won the prize herself. The screech got the attention of the other nurse and the mother walking down the hall.
“You are the luckiest woman alive!” Marie rushed over and gave Faith a hug, surrounding her with exuberance and the smell of her strawberry body spray.
“That depends on your definition of lucky. Marie, I can’t go.”
Marie leaned back and gave her a hand wave that said “Whatever.” “Oh, yes, you can. And you will. Even if I have to knock you out and drive you to New York myself. Girl, you just won a date with Irvin Freeman. How are you not excited about this?”
Dorothy and the mother walking in the hall quickly caught on and chanted their agreement. Faith visualized a weekend listening to Irvin brag about how great it was to be him. Sure, he always appeared down-to-earth and approachable in television interviews, but a man who had half the women in the world drooling over him couldn’t be that centered. All his apparent humbleness probably hid a mountain of arrogance.
“My parents,” Faith said, not wanting to get into what would surely be a debate with Marie if she dissed her friend’s favorite actor. “Who’s going to help them?”
“They’ll be okay for one weekend. I’ll look in on them personally every day you’re gone.”
“Do I work that weekend?” Faith crossed the station and picked up the schedule book.
“No, you’re off.”
Faith dropped the book and crossed her arms. “If I’m off, you’re working. You won’t be able to check on them.”
Dorothy came over to stand before Faith, looking just like the surrogate grandmother she was to every baby born on the floor. “Your mom is doing so much better than she was when you first came home. If you prepare meals before you leave, she can heat them up for herself and your dad. Don’t forget, you’re not in a large city anymore. Your friends and neighbors are happy to help out.”
Dorothy was right, but Faith had done everything for her parents on her own. It was her way of making up for not being there when the bottom fell out of their lives. She wasn’t used to accepting help from neighbors. Besides, doing so would only increase her regret. The thought tightened the knot of guilt that had made its home in her gut since she got the call that her mama was unconscious in the hospital after suffering a stroke.
“I don’t want to be a burden,” she said.
“Burden, shmurden,” Marie said. “You won’t be. You going on this trip will be the highlight of the year for half of Laurel County. The newspaper will probably do a write-up about you before and after. Do you know how many people will be happy to say they helped out while you went away for an all-expenses-paid weekend with a Hollywood movie star?”
Faith did chuckle at that, because it was true. Nothing this exciting had happened since Tamara Blake from Laurel High School won Ms. Laurel County and was first runner-up in the Ms. Patriot pageant back in 2001. People still bragged about their part in her win, from selling her a pair of earrings to bringing over fried chicken the night the family had a watch party.
“I get that,” Faith said, “but I just don’t feel right asking other people to look after my parents. And this thing is just a few weekends away. I don’t have anything to wear to something like that.”
“You get a thousand dollars of spending money. Buy what you need while you’re there.”
“A thousand dollars in New York is probably like five dollars here. It won’t go far,” Faith said.
“If it’ll buy you a sexy dress that’ll make it impossible for Irvin Freeman to keep his eyes off you, that’s far enough.”
Faith couldn’t help but visualize the eyes referred to on a recent list as “most likely to send a woman into cardiac arrest.” The guy did have a way of looking at his leading ladies with such heat you could practically hear the sizzle on-screen. To think he would turn them on her was laughable. Yet her heart did do a disloyal skip against her ribs.
“The man dates models and Oscar winners,” Faith said. “Even if I were naked, he wouldn’t be interested.”
“Every man is interested in a naked woman,” Dorothy said, laughing. Marie nodded. The idea of being naked in front of Irvin only increased Faith’s body heat.
Nope. Stop. Don’t go there.
Even if she were to travel to New York—which she really doubted she could—she wouldn’t be sleeping with Irvin Freeman. She loved the guy’s movies and thought he was a great actor, but in his charming TV interviews, there were always questions about his love life. He was constantly linked with his frequent costar Selena Jones and photographed with a string of other actresses and models between his on-screen hookups with Selena. Faith would be setting herself up to look like America’s biggest fool if she went to the city with even the slightest intention of landing in bed with him. He’d laugh at her attempts, or worse, take her up on it, and she’d be the latest groupie with her name attached to his. Something she’d never live down here in Laurel County. She couldn’t afford that, not with all the work she’d done to keep the Logan name free of scandal over the past two years.
A more chilling thought crept across her mind. Going on this weekend trip would put her in the spotlight even if she wasn’t attached to Irvin for more than a few days. People might want to know more about her. Which could lead to questions about her family—and her twin. She wanted to go on pretending her twin had magically disappeared into thin air.
“I won’t be naked with Irvin Freeman. I won’t be anything, because I’m not going. They can pick another name. I have too much to do here.”
“Stop it,” Marie said. “You don’t have too much to do, and you aren’t a horrible daughter if you take one weekend to enjoy yourself. It’s been two years. Go and have a great time. Your parents would agree with me.”
“I know they will, because I’m going to call them now and tell them the good news,” Dorothy said, picking up the phone.
“Dorothy, no. Don’t bother them,” Faith said. Her mama had been urging her to do something fun for the past month. If she got wind of this, she’d knock Faith out and lend Marie her wheelchair to roll Faith to the airport.
“Too late. It’s ringing. Get ready to pack your bags, girlie, because you’re going,” Dorothy said. “Hey, Virginia, guess what? Your daughter just won the trip of a lifetime.”
Marie did a little dance. Dorothy grinned and gave her a thumbs-up. Faith’s palms sweated. This was not a good thing. Fate had a way of hitting her in the gut when she least expected it. And once again, it was ready to give her a sucker punch.
“Well,
