Relatively Famous

  A round of enthusiastic applause echoed through the room as the credits began to roll, and thunderous techno music filled the theater. Renna patted Mark firmly on the shoulder and then stood up, resuming her wild clapping. “Fantastic!” she called loudly to all those around her. She practically lifted Mark out of his seat and gave him what Dani saw was her customary publicity hug. Mark hugged her back stiffly.

  He turned to Dani and whispered, “I’m so sorry you had to see that. What am I going to do, Dani?”

  He was panicking, and even Dani knew there was no worse place to have a meltdown than at your own movie premiere. “It’s okay, Dad.” Dani faltered for a moment at calling him Dad. “It’s not the end of the world.” Dani was interrupted when a burly man clapped his hand onto Mark’s back.

  “You’ve done it again, my friend!” The man’s deep, rough voice cut through the noise, and Dani remembered that he was one of the movie executives she’d met earlier. “Fantastic, Mark. The studio is flipping out. The box office is going to blow everyone away.”

  Mark beamed. “Thank you so much. You’re too kind.”

  Renna threw her purse over her shoulder. “Wasn’t he spectacular?” She turned to Mark. “Baby doll, I’ve got to take off. You go live it up at the after-party, okay? I’ll call you tomorrow, and we’ll chat. Agreed? And Dani, if I don’t see you again, enjoy the rest of your stay in California.” She air-kissed Mark and rushed off, her purple garment flowing dramatically behind her.

  “Let’s get to the party. Sound good?” Mark asked Dani.

  The after-party at a downtown club was being catered by Nancy Silverton from Mozza. Kayla, Chelsea, and Violet were meeting Dani there since Mark had insisted she invite some friends along.

  As they entered the club, Mark mumbled to Dani. “Oh, no. That’s the producer, April Reznik, and the rest of these people are from the studio.”

  A woman with a sequin gown, flanked by several other studio people, glided over to the pair. “There he is! Mark Ocean, sweetheart!” said April. “The man of the hour!”

  “April, how are you?”

  “Mark, it was fantastic. You were fantastic. We really did it, didn’t we?”

  “We won the audience over, that’s for sure.” Mark said diplomatically.

  Dani looked in awe at her father. He gave no indication whatsoever that he knew how awful the movie was.

  “I agree completely with April.” A man with unruly eyebrows stepped closer to Mark. “You looked great, too. Better than you did ten years ago. Not everyone can handle those close-ups. Am I right? Am I right?” he chortled. “You got the looks and the talent. What a gift we have here, people, huh? I told you, Mark, didn’t I? I knew you’d bring what we needed to the film.”

  Person after person complimented Mark. He was surrounded by coddling, pampering liars, and the insecurity he’d shown earlier had vanished. He was celebrating now, the attention consuming him.

  Dani wanted to pull her father from the crowd—protect him somehow—but it was painfully clear how much Mark craved this adoration, real or not. Mark had said in the Celebrity City interview that he wanted to show Dani his world. Well, she had seen it now!

  Dani took a firm step back from the group that encircled her father.

  Chapter 25

  Mark stretched his legs out on the couch in his living room and set a few scripts onto his lap. “Hey, Dani. There you are.” Mark leaned his head back on the couch. “How you doing?”

  “I’m good. What do you have there?” Dani flopped into an armchair. Mark noticed that she had on one of the cute sweater sets they’d picked out together.

  “Oh, this is just work stuff,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “Boring.”

  “Well, what is it?” Dani picked up one of the copies. “Are you auditioning for something?”

  “No, I’m just looking through old scripts, trying to remember what it was like when I actually worked with good material.” He smiled sheepishly. “I thought I’d run through some of my old parts and get myself into the right frame of mind.”

  “The right frame of mind for what?”

  “Kayla’s dad is producing a movie that I’m hoping to be in. It’s completely different than all the crap I’ve been doing for the past few years. The working title is Truth or Fiction. It sounds good.”

  “So you have an audition set up?” Dani asked.

  “No. I wish.” Mark let out a deep breath. “I’m just hoping Renna can convince Kayla’s dad to consider me. He already has some actors in mind for the lead, so I don’t know what my odds are. But I did used to be a real actor,” he joked.

  “You are a real actor. You just haven’t had the opportunity to showcase your thespian gifts recently,” Dani said theatrically. “Here, I’ll help you.”

  “Are you sure?” Mark asked. “It might be kind of boring for you.”

  “No, I want to,” she insisted. “I’ll pick a good one.” Dani took the scripts and began flipping pages. “Um, maybe this one,” she said thoughtfully, setting one aside before picking up another. She was quiet for a few moments. “What’s this?” Dani asked as she continued skimming the middle of a spiral-bound script that was thinner than the others.

  Mark craned his neck to see what she was reading. How did that get in there? “Oh, my God, no, Dani. Not that one. That’s not, um…” Mark flew off the couch and tried to grab the pages, but she was too quick for him and had already crossed the room. Mark stopped and dropped his hands to his side. Dammit. This was not something he wanted her looking at.

  “What is this?” Dani asked. She flipped a page, reading quickly.

  “Dani, please don’t.”

  She looked up at her father. “Did you write this?”

  “Just forget it. Please. I wrote that a long time ago, and you weren’t supposed to read it. Just give it back to me.” He was unable to control the tremble in his voice. “It’s private, and I don’t want you reading it, Dani. Give it to me.” He made a lunge for the script, but Dani took a step backward and looked at him, a mix of confusion and sadness in her eyes. He didn’t know what to do. How could he not have noticed that he’d pulled that out of his office drawer? Stupid, stupid.

  Dani glanced down at the page. “This phone call. Did this happen?” she asked.

  Mark didn’t respond.

  Dani read from the script. “It’s good to finally hear your voice,” she prompted. “Say your line, Mark.”

  “Come on, Dani, I don’t want to get into this.”

  ”It’s good to finally hear your voice,” she repeated.

  Mark didn’t need reminding. He knew the script word for word. “It’s good to finally hear your voice. I’ve been trying to reach you for three months now. I finally got your new number from Eddie. He told me you had moved off campus into an apartment.”

  Dani kept reading. “Sorry. I’ve been so busy with school and everything that I didn’t realize I’d forgotten to tell you.”

  “It’s just…I’ve missed you. I’ve been in L.A. for eight months now, and it’s still strange being without you. I had to call you. I got a part in a movie. It’s not a big deal. I mean, it’s a nothing role. But it’s a start.” Mark paused, biting his lip. “What’s that sound in the background? Is that a kid?’’

  “What? Um, I’m just babysitting. Trying to make some extra money.” Dani shook her head slowly as she read. “I’m so happy for you. You’re doing it.”

  “It’s really happening. And I wouldn’t be here without your encouragement. But I feel…I feel guilty. I’ve been wanting to talk to you a lot recently. To say thank you.”

  “Thank you for what?”

  “Thank you for everything. You’re the one who pushed me to get involved in drama. You taught me to fall in love with acting. The language of the theater, the characters, the emotion. I found something I was good at, something that finally fulfilled me. I bet you didn’t know you were creating a monster, huh?”

  “You’re not a monster. Y
ou discovered you had a passion in life. Not everybody has that.”

  “But my passion drove us apart. I knew I needed to come to L.A., but I also knew that you didn’t want to come with me. I don’t want you to think it was easy for me to go.” Mark closed his eyes. “Enough, Dani.”

  “Say it.”

  Mark rocked uncomfortably. “Why did you say no? Why didn’t you want to be with me?”

  “I did want to be with you. But I knew that you didn’t need me. I had to say no. You had bigger plans for yourself, bigger dreams, and I wasn’t going to fit into the life you wanted for yourself. I would have held you back.”

  “I was thinking about that time we drove to the reservoir and parked the car by the dam. God, the light from the moon was incredible that night. You were incredible.” Mark tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Do you remember our song? I heard it on the radio the other day when I was driving. I could practically feel you sitting next to me.”

  “Of course I remember. We wore out the CD and had to buy another.”

  “‘In the House of Stone and Light.’ It’s about spiritual rebirth, you know. A cleansing. A fresh start. Things are different here, but that’s what I’m doing. I’m changing, I want to start over with you. I miss you so—”

  “Don’t. Don’t.”

  Mark hung his head as he delivered his line, his voice loaded with emotion and pain that he could not control. “Do you miss me? Do you want to be with me now? Please.’’

  “No, I don’t. And I think you know that we aren’t right together. Our relationship was wonderful, and I adored you, but we weren’t going to last forever. But make me proud. Make yourself proud.” Dani dropped the script to the floor. “Is this what happened? Is this true?”

  Mark met his daughter’s eyes and nodded. He couldn’t speak.

  “This is you and Mom. That was me crying in the background when you called,” she said with understanding.

  He nodded again.

  “And you wanted Mom to go with you to California? She said you wouldn’t want me. I thought you just left her and never looked back.”

  “No, Dani. It wasn’t like that. It took me a long time to get over your mother. She loved me so much that she was willing to sacrifice our relationship for my sake. She pushed me away so that I could chase my dream. If I’d known I had a child…” Mark threw his hands up, at a loss. “I don’t know what I would have done. I don’t know that I could have left.” He spoke slowly, the words excruciating on his tongue. “And now I’ve let her down. I haven’t accomplished what I set out to do.”

  “What do you mean?” Dani asked.

  “Come on. Leila expected more.” Mark didn’t want to say any more. He’d already said too much, and he couldn’t stand the choking feeling that was taking over.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know this is the way things happened.” Dani took a few steps forward toward Mark, and he involuntarily took a step back. “You didn’t want a family back then, did you?”

  “I don’t know. No, I guess I didn’t.” Mark ran his hands through his hair. He hated these kinds of conversations. “Leila was right. She knew me better than I knew myself.”

  “The question is, do you want one now? Do you want me now?”

  Mark was surprised by the simple question. And he felt like a teenager asking a girl out for the first time. “Don’t leave yet. Stay for the summer.”

  **********

  Mark stood in the shower. He’d just gone for a long run, and his legs burned. He put his face under the spray of water and shook his head. He was disarmed and vulnerable. Painfully torn apart. Had he actually been crying? He hadn’t thought about that script in ages. He’d written it over ten years ago. Nobody had even seen it, and then he stupidly let Dani get hold of it. And now his mind was flooded with memories of Leila—the way he had pleaded with her to take him back—and the career decisions he’d made. Most of all, he couldn’t forget the sound of a baby crying during that phone call. God, he was coming to pieces. He’d just have to shake this off. Refocus.

  Mark turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. He had a Rascal Flatts’ song running through his head. What was it called? “Bless the Broken Road”? He didn’t even like country music.

  His cell rang, and he picked it up.

  “Mark.”

  “Hi, Renna. Did you have a good time last night?”

  “No, I did not have a good time last night.”

  Mark sighed. “What am I going to do, Renna?” He walked to the large window overlooking the pool. Dani was out there dangling her feet in the water.

  “What are you going to do? You’re going to get that part in Evan Dodd’s Truth or Fiction, and you’re going to show everybody that you are more than the sorry actor I saw on screen last night. Are you working on Dani?”

  Mark watched Dani as she jumped into the pool. “Yeah,” he mumbled.

  “Hello?” Renna barked at him. “Are you taking this seriously Mark? I said, are you working on Dani?”

  “Yes, Renna,” Mark said, astonished at the anger in his voice. “I’m doing it. She’s staying for the summer. It’s done. Are you happy?”

  “I don’t know what is going on with you, but don’t you get pissy with me,” Renna warned.

  Mark set the phone down and looked back out the window.

  Chapter 26

  “Can you see me? Where are you?” Leila’s face moved awkwardly across the computer screen. “This is not normal. Why couldn’t you just call me?”

  “I’m here, Mom, and yes, I can see you.” Dani sat down at the computer in her room and positioned herself in front of the web cam.

  “I don’t see why this is necessary. You’re coming home tomorrow anyway. My God, are you okay?” Leila asked.

  “What are you talking about? I’m fine, Mom.”

  “You look like you have some sort of horrible skin ailment. What happened?” Leila clasped her hand over her mouth in concern.

  “I certainly do not have any sort of skin ailment. I’m tan, Mom.”

  Leila crossed her arms and assessed Dani through the monitor. “You’re not tan, you’re orange. And are you…?” Leila leaned in and peered critically at Dani. “Are you wearing a wig?” she gasped.

  Dani tossed her hands up and sighed. “It’s not a wig. It’s a very expensive hairpiece. It comes off, so don’t go ballistic. Everyone out here wears them. Besides, I like it.” Dani swung her full mane back and forth. “See? It’s cute.”

  “I guess it’s not so bad,” her mother relented. “So, is Christopher going to send me your flight information?”

  “Actually, Mom, I need to talk to you about that.” Dani clasped her hands tightly together in her lap.

  “Oh, did you change your flight? I can’t wait to see you, because I have something to tell you.”

  “Yeah. I kind of did get another flight. Before I say anything else, Mom, I miss you. I really do.”

  “Uh-huh…And?”

  “Mark asked me to stay for the rest of the summer. And I said I would.” Dani waited for the yelling and protesting.

  Instead, Leila pursed her lips and glanced off to the side. It was hard to read her expression, but Dani thought that she looked more pensive than furious. Leila looked back. “Tell me why.”

  “First of all, I’ve hardly had a chance to get to know Mark. I’m having a great time, but I still don’t know much about my father. Second—and I don’t really want to get in the middle of this—but I talked to Mark a bit about the two of you. About the past. It’s just, I think he used to be different from the way he is now. For some reason, I think he needs me. I don’t really know how to explain it. I know you think he’s a jerk, but you don’t know him anymore. And you used to care about him, right? You had a chance to know him, but I haven’t had that yet.”

  “That’s true.” Leila took a deep breath, and Dani could tell her mother was struggling to appear calm and understanding. “Hon, I know everything out there must
be new and exciting and vastly different from what you’re used to in Michigan, but I don’t know that spending the entire—”

  “Please don’t fight me on this,” Dani begged. “This is what I want.”

  Leila smoothed her hair with her hands, and Dani could hear her tapping her foot anxiously on the floor. Neither of them spoke for a few moments.

  “Alan says to say hello.”

  Dani didn’t appreciate the change of subject—or the dig. “Tell him I say hello, too.” She leaned back in her chair. She could wait her mother out.

  At last Leila nodded. “If this is what you want, then okay. You’re old enough to make this choice.”

  “I’ll tell Mark to call you.”

  “And you will continue to stay in touch with me? Email, phone calls, the works. And send me more pictures?”

  “Definitely,” Dani agreed.

  “Speaking of pictures,” Leila started, “is there a reason you sent me a picture of a boy’s backside?”

  Oh, God. She’d sent the entire batch of pictures from her phone’s camera to Leila. She could not believe she’d emailed a picture of Jason’s ass to her mother.

  Dani stuttered countless times before Leila let her off the hook with a wink. “That’s what I thought. So the question is, which dark-haired male is the real reason you want to stay there for the summer?”

  “Mom! It’s not like that…I mean, yeah, Jason is good looking, obviously, but…I must have accidentally taken that one…well, you see…”

  “Please. Back in the Stone Age, I was fifteen, too.” Leila said. “I’m sure this Jason is a very nice boy and understands that your father will be supervising every encounter you two ever have in this lifetime? And that this boy will look at you with nothing but platonic thoughts?” She smiled, giving herself away.

  Dani played along. “Of course, mother.”

  Before she got off the video call with Leila, Dani promised to report in on every waking second of her life in California. It had come as a shock that her mother had been relatively easygoing about the whole thing, but Dani knew that she had probably taken advantage of Leila’s guilt. And she remembered belatedly that she never got a chance to hear her mother’s news.