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At a silent signal to the sound box, the lead-in music filled the small auditorium. Kaylie took a deep breath, smiled and wondered if Zane was watching. Giving herself a mental slap, she forced thoughts of him aside.
The show went well. She interviewed a rock star named Death, a woman who grew an entirely organic garden, as well as the snake handler from the zoo, along with his favorite python and boa constrictor. She held the snakes and let them crawl across her shoulders as she spoke to their handler.
Alan handled the national news and talked with Hugh Grimwold, a pitcher for one of the bay area teams.
After the local news, and another sports update, bo
th Alan and Kaylie spoke with two high school seniors who had started their own recycling business.
In the final segment, Alan announced the guests for the next show and reminded the viewers that on Friday, Chef Glenn was going to create his famous Cajun breakfast. The credits began to roll as music once again drifted from the speakers positioned around the set.
“Good job, Kaylie,” Jim said, clapping her on the back and smiling broadly. “You know, the show just didn’t feel right without you.” He waved and sauntered toward the reception area while Kaylie headed toward her office.
From the corner of her eye she noticed the dark look that Alan passed her way, but she ignored Alan’s foul mood and bathed in Jim’s compliments. Jim Crowley didn’t hand out praise often.
At her desk, she pulled the cap off her underlining pen with her teeth and started reading the bio information on the guests for the next day.
The door to her office opened and slammed against the wall.
Alan, face scarlet, eyes blazing, stormed into the room. “You don’t even have an Aunt Brenda!” he charged, crossing his arms indignantly over his chest.
“What?” she asked, nearly dropping her pen.
“Don’t lie to me, Kaylie. I checked.”
“You did what?”
“I called around, checked with some of your friends. Eventually I even talked to Margot. She told me the truth. She didn’t want to—at least not at first—but she came clean. Jeez, Kaylie, I think she gained some perverse pleasure in telling me that you’d lied.” His red face turned almost purple.
“Oh.”
“‘Oh’ is right! You let me and everyone else here think you were on some mission of mercy when all the time you were shacking up with Flannery!”
“Now, wait a minute—” Kaylie’s voice rose indignantly. Slowly getting to her feet, she wished she could throttle her meddling sister as well as Alan.
Alan made an impatient motion with one hand. “Oh, Margot didn’t exactly fill me in, but she made enough broad hints that I figured it out. You were with Flannery last week, weren’t you?”
This couldn’t happen! Kaylie planted her palms on the top of her desk and tried her best to remain calm. “What I did or didn’t do isn’t really any of your business.”
“You left us in the lurch, Kaylie!”
“You seemed to handle everything well enough without me. And if I remember correctly, I covered for you a couple of years ago—when you bruised your backside and your ego while snowboarding.”
Alan’s face went white. “But I couldn’t tell Jim or the rest of the crew that I’d…” His voice dropped off, and he swallowed hard.
“That you ended up with a broken tailbone trying some silly teenaged stunt with a ski bunny who’d been busted for drugs?”
“Oh, God.” The wind disappeared from his sails. “You know about all that?” He ran a shaking hand across his hair, and his toupee slid a little. Kaylie almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
“So what happened?” he asked, his face puddling into a pout as he slid into a chair near her desk. “I thought it was over between you and Flannery.”
“It was.”
“But…?”
She was through lying. In fact, as soon as she was finished talking to Alan, she’d go and explain everything to Jim. If the powers-that-be in the station decided to fire her, so be it. At least she wouldn’t have to walk this tightrope of lies any longer. “Zane stopped by the other night and we went to dinner. He persuaded me to go to the mountains with him for a few days.”
“Just like that?” Alan snapped his fingers.
