Page 49 of A Star is Scorned

Livvy awoke to the soft pressure of Flynn’s hand on her hip, absentmindedly stroking her belly.

She smiled without opening her eyes, soaking in the moment and remembering the previous evening.

Her legs were tangled with his and her hair was strewn across his chest. She wished she could capture this moment in a bottle, like the sand outside his house, and keep it with her always.

She listened to the soft rising and falling of Flynn’s breath and let it calm her, reveling in the sensation of being wrapped in each other in the vulnerability of sleep.

Livvy gently extricated herself from Flynn’s arms, rolled over, and got out of bed. She hunted around the floor, desperate to find her clothes before she remembered that she had removed them to swim in the ocean. Was her dress still on the deck?

She noticed a plaid dressing gown hanging on the back of Flynn’s door and pulled it on. Wrapping it tightly around her, she tried to dull the edge of panic. It was fine. Everything was fine. Judy probably assumed… Livvy blushed at what her sister probably assumed.

Flynn opened his eyes and stretched languidly, and the sight of him naked and laid out before her was almost enough to make her forget her need to check on Judy. He noted her blush and nodded at the way she’d covered herself in his robe. “Surely you’re not shy, not after everything we did?”

He waggled his eyebrows, and she giggled in spite of herself. “No, it’s just… I didn’t realize we’d slept so late, and I never told Judy I wasn’t coming home last night.”

Flynn patted the bed next to him, urging Livvy to return. “We can give her a ring in a minute. Don’t you want some breakfast first?” The look on his face said that breakfast had absolutely nothing to do with food. The offer was sorely tempting, but she needed to get home.

“Flynn, I need her to know I’m all right. What if she’s imagining the worst?”

His wolfish smile fell, as if he had just remembered why Judy might jump to the direst possible conclusion. He sat up, ran a hand down his face, and yawned, before finding his striped pajama pants and pulling them on. “There’s a phone in the kitchen. Come with me.”

Livvy followed him downstairs. She wound her finger through the rotary dial on the phone hanging on the wall while he attempted to make coffee on the stove. Despite his cooking skills, she had to laugh at how inept he was here. He clearly was used to waking up to a fresh pot.

But any sense of humor evaporated when Judy didn’t pick up.

“That’s not like her.”

“Maybe she’s in the ladies’ room.” Flynn still looked exhausted. She took the small metal coffeepot from him and packed the grounds tightly into the base; it gave her something to do with her hands besides wringing them.

“Maybe…I’ll try her again in a few minutes.”

Once the coffee pot was bubbling away on the stove, Livvy returned to the phone and tried ringing their bungalow again. No one picked up. Livvy’s stomach threatened to divulge its contents.

Flynn wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. “It’ll be all right.”

But panic was swirling in her gut. Her alarm bells were going off. Any number of things could have happened. Judy could be out searching for her, worried she was dead in a ditch somewhere. Or Judy herself, God forbid, could be the one who was in trouble.

She grabbed at Flynn’s hands and extricated herself from his embrace. “Something’s wrong,” she muttered.

“I think you’re overreacting.”

Livvy gave him a look.

“Go get your clothes off the deck and I’ll drive you home.”

She wasted no time doing as he said, not caring that her dress was lightly damp from the morning sea mist. Flynn had scarcely wrestled himself into a pair of khaki pants and a striped shirt before she was at the front door, bouncing on her toes like a child waiting to leave.

They drove in silence the entire way, and she turned over increasingly worsening scenarios in her mind.

Flynn didn’t try to reassure her again, just drove with a single-minded purpose.

She wondered how things had gone so wrong, how she’d managed to turn the easy comfort of last night into this tense silence.

But she couldn’t rest until she knew Judy was okay.

After what seemed an interminable drive, creeping away from the foggy banks of the Malibu beach to the sunnier climes of Hollywood, they arrived at the Garden of Allah. Livvy didn’t even wait for Flynn to come to a complete stop before opening the door of his roadster and running out.

“Judy, I’m home,” she called out.

Her sense of foreboding grew, and she unlocked the front door to find the living room silent and still.

She raced to the back to see if maybe Judy was asleep.

But Judy’s nightgown was still laid out on her twin bed, her slippers neatly arranged on the floor—the way Livvy had left it for her last night so that she could easily slip into bed after a late night on set dancing.

Judy had never come home. Livvy choked back a sob.

It’s fine, she tried to tell herself. Maybe Judy went to stay with a friend. But the memories of the policeman coming to her door, telling her that her parents were dead and Judy was seriously injured, flashed before her eyes.

She bent over, holding onto the cheap cotton bedspread, and retched. Nothing came up but watery bile, and Livvy dabbed furiously at her eyes, trying to recover herself.

She would go to the Rolodex in the living room and see if there was any name there that would offer a clue to Judy’s whereabouts. But when she emerged from the bedroom, she was startled to see that Flynn was standing on the stoop…talking to a police officer.

Her knees buckled and she braced herself against the wall.

Flynn looked over his shoulder and saw her, rushing to her aid. “Livvy, Livvy, it’s all right. She’s okay. She spent the night in jail, that’s all. But she’s alive. She’s unharmed.”

Flynn rubbed a gentle pattern on the small of her back and led Livvy to the sofa, before disappearing into the kitchen, running the sink, and returning with a glass of water.

Livvy gulped at it, trying to catch her breath. “Jail?” she whispered. “Did you say jail?”

Flynn stuck his head out the door. “Officer, will you please come in and explain to Miss Blount what you told me?”

Flynn took her hand and sat next to her on the couch. The officer stepped through the door, blocking out the sun with his hulking frame, and Livvy held back a gasp of fear.

He’s not here to tell you the worst. Pull yourself together.

The officer removed his hand and worried the brim in his hands. “Sorry to drop in on you like this, miss, but your sister has been trying to reach you all night.”

Livvy closed her eyes in shame. Judy had needed her.

And she hadn’t been here. She’d been too busy frolicking in the waves and Flynn Banks’s bed.

Once again, she had chosen Flynn over family, and Judy had gotten hurt.

Rationally, she knew that it wasn’t Flynn’s fault her parents had died while she was watching one of his films. But the universe had a sick sense of humor.

After four years of tamping herself down, denying herself her dreams, she’d finally felt free for one night.

And it had coincided with her sister meeting some misadventure.

She pushed the thought down, realizing all it would do was make her feel like she was the worst sister that had ever lived. “What, what happened?”

Flynn squeezed her hand a bit tighter, but it didn’t cut through the numbness she’d come to rely on to survive.

“We arrested her last night for aggravated assault.”

Livvy’s mouth fell open. “My sister wouldn’t assault someone. She’s gentle and kind.”

Flynn cleared his throat, cutting Livvy’s excuses off. “Let the man finish, Olivia.”

He was back to calling her Olivia, and only the strange gravitas of that got her to stop talking.

The officer scratched the back of his head, looking profoundly uncomfortable.

“I’m not entirely sure of the details, miss.

I’m just a patrol officer sent out to see if I could find you.

But it’s my understanding that she attacked a guest at a studio party last night.

The gentleman in question called the authorities, and she was taken in.

She’s being held for a ten-thousand-dollar bail. ”

If Livvy’s jaw could reach to the floor, it would have hit it after hearing that sum. “Ten thousand dollars? That’s, that’s more money than I’ve ever seen in my life.” It was the entirety of her year’s contract with Evets’s Studios.

Flynn waved his hand. “I’ll pay it.”

Livvy tried to protest. “No, Flynn, you can’t do that. I won’t let you.”

“That’s nothing to me. You’ve been helping me make sure I keep my career and, therefore, my money. Might as well put it to good use.”

“But—”

“We’ll discuss terms later. Let’s just get Judy out for now.”

She nodded, unsure if she was more grateful or ashamed that Flynn had come to her rescue. Particularly when her desire for him had kept her from knowing her sister needed help until now.

“But tell me, Officer,” Flynn continued. “That seems an awful high price for a harmless little hoofer.”

The officer scrunched up his face, clearly reluctant to share the next bit. “The gentleman she attacked insisted. He’s got a lot of sway, so the captain had no choice.”

“Who is it?”

“I’m not at liberty to disclose his identity.”

Livvy wanted to shake the officer and curse Flynn. What were they doing still sitting here? She needed to go find Judy, to get her out of that terrible place.

She stood up, swaying a little unevenly on her feet. “You two can keep discussing the terms of my sister’s arrest, but I need to bring her home.”

The officer nodded. “I can drive you in the patrol car if you’d like, miss.”

“There’s no need,” Flynn said. “I’ll drive her. I need to come to write a check for the bond anyway.”

Livvy wanted to object, to tell Flynn to keep out of it.

He had already caused enough trouble. Last night, he told her she needed to let Judy make her own mistakes.

Well, she certainly had now, hadn’t she?

The mother of all mistakes. Though something kept telling her she was missing part of the story.

Judy would never attack someone. At least not without good reason.

She let Flynn lead her out the door and to the passenger side of his roadster. Right now, she needed to get Judy out. The rest of the details could wait.