Under the Lights Read Free Page B

didn’t feel it. “Well she does. How’s her grandmother?”
    “She slept the whole time.”
    He nodded. “Great.”
    “I’m Georgia.”
    “Hi Georgia.” He really didn’t care.
    Teirney’s eyes met his, and she nodded, a silent thank you in her eyes. A million people applauding had never felt as good as the soft glow in her gaze.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    Teirney closed the door on her grandmother’s bedroom, leaving her asleep. For all Georgia’s bluster, she took good care of her Granny when she was here. The IV was in place, the appropriate drugs giving the old woman relief from the pains of her life ending.
    The movie star waiting in her living room provided an entirely different problem. What was he doing here? The entire subway ride home she kept waiting for him to yell out “just kidding!” and run off at the next stop. Only he hadn’t and he was here, like something out of her imagination, mere feet from her bedroom. He was eating pizza while watching a black and white movie she’d never heard of on her old television. Yet, Ian, with his feet on her coffee table, seemed right at home.
    She sat next to him, and he smiled at her.
    “Is she okay?”
    “Yes. She’s sleeping.” She took a sip from her water. “Are you enjoying your pizza?”
    “Absolutely. Fabulous pizza.” He set his plate on the table. “She’s not going to recover?”
    Sighing, she rubbed at her eyes. “No, the cancer will kill her. Soon.”
    She hadn’t expected him to put his arm around her, although he’d done it on the walk, so maybe it was simply something he did with a woman, still it took her a full thirty seconds before she could relax enough to rest against touch.
    “I’m so sorry. Where is the cancer?”
    “Everywhere.”
    He squeezed her shoulder, and some of her tension ebbed. She might actually be able to turn her neck without it hurting.
    “That sucks.”
    “It does.”
    She laughed. It felt so strange, she stopped. Her evening was taking one weird twist after another.
    Ian turned his head and looked around the room. “Did you grow up here with her? Was your childhood spent inside this brownstone?”
    She looked around the living room. The walls were peeling, the wallpaper long since giving in to time. As with so many things, the days of glory for her Granny’s old place had come to an end.
    “No, I lived in New Jersey. My parents would go away every summer, for the whole summer, just the two of them. I stayed here with Granny. Some of my fondest memories are here. When she goes, I’ll have to sell it. I’ve already started to box things. Kind of morbid with her alive in the other room.”
    “You’re organized. There’s a task in front of you, so you’ve started getting it done.”
    His words were right on. She’d love to be able to wait, to look at something which needed to be done and think I’ll handle this whenever . If she put off the unpleasant tasks, avoided them, she’d be completely unable to sleep.
    “I guess it’s why I do what I do. I enjoy making life run smoothly, to make things happen on time and when they should.” She took a deep breath and inhaled his sugary scent, the kind of sugar someone who didn’t burn water might use for baking.
    “No family to help you? Where are your parents?”
    He’d hit on a topic she’d rather not delve into.
    “The Cayman Islands.”
    “On vacation?” He leaned back against the couch. “I went last year when the show was on hiatus. Beautiful. The hotel had the best rum punch.”
    “No. Although I’d love to hear more about the rum punch. I can live vicariously. My parents live in the Caymans. Tax reasons.”
    He stiffened, and she turned her head to look him straight in the eyes.
    “Your parents are living in the Caymans to avoid American tax laws, and they’ve left you here to take care of your grandmother by yourself?”
    She waved her hand toward Granny’s room. “They pay for all of her care. Whatever Medicare doesn’t cover,