Eric & Will make a B Movie

I was sitting on a loveseat facing them, and when I finished I had two handsful of crying women. When they finally got coherent, we cleared the air.

"We did play with Savanna, a couple of times, about two years ago. I think we were looking for you then, but didn't recognize it. She was fun in bed, but after a couple of times we realized it was just that, fun. She didn't balance us, in fact she was a little divisive. She left , and we haven't touched her since. And we'll never touch her or anyone else again, because we have too much to lose."

Cathy looked terrified while she was talking, Tory nodding with every word.

"We'll do anything to prove our love. Wanna brand us? Got it. Want all our money? It's yours. Tell us what you want, honey, and we'll do it, no questions asked." Tory was stumbling over her words, trying to talk as fast as she could.

"Anything?" Tory nodded.

"Anything?" Cathy nodded.

"Well, in that case, come to my office. I have something to show you." They followed me, looking like they were going to an execution. Theirs. I'd lined all three rocking chairs up in front of my desk.

"All right, girls, here's what I want. I want to know if you like the rocking chairs I bought for you. I personally think they're very nice, and I'm sure our children will enjoy them."

They looked from the chairs back to me several times, before breaking down again. I'm pretty sure somewhere in there were words of love and an 'asshole' or two, for scaring them. Soon we were sitting side by side, rocking gently, when Leah found us.

"Kissed and made up, have we? Good for all of you. Ooh, those are some nice looking chairs. How much weight will they hold? Catherine Victoria is getting anxious again, and her god parents need to pet her a little." She climbed into my lap, putting my hand on her tummy. "We'll consider this practice, now talk to her."

The Wizard came out a little. I rocked gently, telling her what a lucky child she was going to be, with great parents, grandparents, and especially godmothers and godfather, and that I was sure sometime down the road there would be a little brother or sister or two to keep her company. I was rubbing her swollen tummy, feeling the little one stop stirring. Leah had had a bad night with all the drama, and she was asleep in minutes. Tory and Cathy each had a hand out, rubbing the tummy with me, making all kinds of promises about the little cousins she'd end up babysitting, and all the fun they were going to have through the years.

After thirty minutes they got up, and kissed my cheek. "We're going back to the house now. All is right in our world again. We love you, you love us. No more needs to be said, except, once again, we belong to each other exclusively. Right Cathy?"

"Absolutely. We're going to talk to Tia Gomez, and see if she'll make that chili dish you like so much for dinner. Now, you just keep rocking. The poor girl needs the sleep. It'll be good grandfather practice, soothing your grown daughter through a frightening time. She loves you too, you know, just like a father. She told us."

I sat there, having a hard time breathing. Apparently the inordinate amount of love in the room was sucking all the air out. I rocked Leah gently, rubbing her tummy absently, for about an hour, before she stirred. When she was fully awake she hugged me tightly. "Thanks. That's the most relaxing sleep I've had in ages. Now help me up, I need to pee, really bad."

That was motivation enough to help her off my lap quickly, walking her to the bathroom. She came out, grabbed my hand, and we walked back to the house. We had a nice dinner, and the makeup loving I got kept me up most of the night. Dorian came home for the weekend, and after he and Leah reconnected, they sat on the balcony, rocking as they talked of the future. Cathy came up behind me, slipping her arms around me, and looked out at them.

"I hope we're as happy as they are when we're pregnant."

"We won't be," I said, feeling her stiffen, "we'll be happier." The hug got tighter for a minute.

"You know they're thinking about moving? Leah said she didn't know what air tasted like until she got here. They don't want the baby raised in L A., so they're looking. They thought about Canada for awhile, but I believe they like it here better."

"Good. It's nice when family lives nearby."

The hug got even tighter when Tory joined us. She had heard the last of the conversation. "I'm so happy. I didn't think I'd ever get to enjoy a family again."

I knew she missed her family, and resolved to try to do something about it, with her mother at the very least. It might blow up in my face, but I had to try.

Chapter thirteen

We settled into a domestic routine. The girls doted on Leah, especially as she got closer. The baby was due in two weeks, and Dorian was due back in five days, his contract done. Leah had gotten a local doctor, and had her bag packed, ready to go, just in case.

Her scream woke us up in the middle of the night. Her water had broke, and it was time. The girls rushed around like maniacs, while I stood there bewildered.

"It isn't time yet," I said, trying to process everything.

"The baby said it is," laughed Tory, as Cathy helped Leah into the SUV. "Now get your ass in gear, or your goddaughter will be born in your backseat."

The hospital was three miles away, luckily. I may have set a land speed record for an SUV, but I'm not sure. Cathy called ahead, and they were ready when we got there, rushing her straight into delivery. Tory called Dorian on the way to the hospital, waking him. Leah cried, telling him the baby was coming. He was trying to get an airline ticket when we hung up.

Leah wouldn't let go of my hand until they wheeled her to the birthing room. Tory filled out the paperwork while Cathy paced, looking at the door. Forty-five minutes later the doctor came out.

"She's crying for her father," she said, looking at me. "First births are hard, emotionally as well as physically. Her husband isn't here, so you're it. Suit up, and go comfort your daughter." Soon I was in a full gown, with a face mask and footies, a cap on my head.

Leah was pale, her hair hanging limply, soaked in sweat. I took her hand and she looked up, responding to me by almost squeezing my hand off. "It hurts." she whispered, closing her eyes. I looked at the doctor and she held up both hands twice. Twenty minutes, or maybe less.

The contractions got closer, and she started to wail. "This is all your fault," she screamed, causing funny looks from the people in the room. "If you hadn't worked your magic, this wouldn't be happening. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!" She screamed the last at ear shattering level, and Catherine Victoria entered the world. Leah collapsed, exhausted.

They cleaned her, and offered her to me. "Want to hold your granddaughter?" I wanted to more than anything in the world, so they handed her to me. I looked at the tiny body, almost overcome by my emotions. Leah stirred, and I gently lay her child in her arms. She held it, looking down in awe. The baby cried, and she immediately dropped her gown down a bit, offering her nipple. She latched on immediately, and Leah smiled, the most radiant smile I'd ever seen. I watched her intently, wanting it etched my memory forever.

"Wait until it's yours," she cooed, and I suddenly had to sit down. The doctor and nurses laughed. "This usually happens to the dad. Put your head down and take deep breaths, Mr. Melton, you'll be fine in just a minute."

The girls were all over me when I came out. I just hugged them, crying with joy, which started them crying. Dorian came in three hours later, and then the parents arrived. We all clustered in front of the nursery window, soaking in the miracle of a new life.

Four weeks went by. The grandparents stayed for two weeks, and then had to go back to their lives. Her parents made her happy by telling her that her mother had moved to Vegas, to be with her dad. They were taking it slow, but it looked like time and love had healed their wounds. Dorian's mother went back to Burbank, where she lived with her new husband. Neither set of parents were thrilled by the news that they may stay here.

The girls walked around grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Poor little Catherine never got a rest, if Mom wasn't holding her, one of my girls was. Practice, they called it. Leah took my rocking chair away from me, and I had to buy another. We got Dorian and Leah into the SUV three weeks later, telling them it was high time they got out for a bit. One of the Gomez daughters agreed to watch the baby. They thought they were going with us to look at horses.

We pulled into an almost new subdivision two miles away, in front of a house that Leah had admired every time she passed it by on the way to her doctor. It was brand new, and had been for sale for months. She looked at me. "Come on, it can't hurt to look," I said, pulling her along.

"Why? We can't afford this." But she'd always wanted to see it, so she followed along. The girls giggled and gasped as they explored the four bedroom house, loving the kitchen. Dorian really liked the large lot, with the pool and patio. It was furnished for display, so when they got done looking, we all met in the living room.

"Like it?" They could only nod. "Good, because as soon as you sign the paperwork it's yours. And we're not exactly giving it to you. We're giving it to our goddaughter. Don't argue with us, this is a done deal unless you really don't want it. We want you near us, plain and simple, and this is our solution. And guys, it's from all of us. We all paid equally to get it for you. What do you say?

I really thought Dorian was going to faint. He made pretty good money and his fees were going up. Leah was also making good money, from the Issabella script alone, not counting her other projects. They could have bought the place on their own, but would have had a pretty hefty mortgage.

"And another thing, we did this for purely selfish reasons. If you live here, we get to see a lot more of you, and our goddaughter. Look at it this way, here, you'll never have to look far for a babysitter. We'll leave you alone now, so you can talk about it. See you at the house."

Leah wondered why Cathy drove her car. Now she knew as she tossed her the keys with a warning. "Scratch it and your daughter may become an orphan." Maybe I got carried away, but when you have ridiculous amounts of money, it can be easy at times. I felt so bad about our little fuss I went out and bought them both presents. Matching Mercedes sports cars. Tory got one in red, with a vanity tag, RED HOT, Cathy got one in black, and her tag read HOT BLOND. You should have seen their eyes when they were delivered. They didn't even pretend to want me to send them back. It was a blast to see them with the top down, wearing big sunglasses and scarves to protect their hair. They looked like movie stars from the forties and fifties.

When we first moved in, every time they went to the small town nearby they brought traffic to a standstill. It took the townspeople months to warm up to them, but now they get stopped in the grocery store, to share the latest gossip and news. I'm sure we powered many a tongue when we appeared together. But when they got used to us, we were old news. They moved to other topics, and pretty much left us alone.

Leah and Dorian came home an hour later. She held his hand while she talked to us. "We don't know what to say. I'm a pretty good writer, but there simply aren't words to express what we feel."

The girls were quivering with excitement. Tory couldn't stand it. "Well, are we neighbors or not?"

Dorian grinned. "No, Tory, we'll never be neighbors." I'm sure all our jaws were on the floor after that statement. He just grinned bigger. "With neighbors, when they get on your nerves you can send them home. We're part of your family now, and with family, well, you're just stuck."

I caught it before the girls did, and laughed. Seconds later all the girls were hugging each other and us.

Chapter fourteen

Dorian came to my office a few days later, something obviously on his mind. I suggested we walk, I had a crew in, building a pond on the back of the property. It was supposed to be built for the horses we hadn't gotten yet. Tory looked at it and grinned. "Skinny dipping." Cathy looked at it and smirked. "Water sex." I looked at it and thought "catfish," but I was smart enough not to say it.

We talked a little about the Issabella movie. We were going into pre-production planning in two weeks. We'd already got commitments from a lot of the crew that worked on Grolar, including the director. Target for filming was three to five months from now. He reached down, grabbed a rock, and skipped it across the water.

"Talked to Eric lately?"

I hadn't, not since the party. I'd left a couple of messages about the new film, but he hadn't gotten back to me. I found that odd. I told Dorian I hadn't.

"Good," he sighed, "that means you probably don't know."

"Know what?"

"A friend of mine took me aside just before I left the shoot, and asked me if I was doing any more work for Two Fools Productions. I told him as a matter of fact we were talking about doing a project soon. He hemmed around until I finally asked what was bothering him. Did you know Eric is making porn films, under your company name?"

"WHAT?"

"I checked. He's done one starring Savanna. And it gets worse. He's in it with her. I looked it up, and it's pretty gross. I thought you should know."

I sat down on the new dock, feet dangling, thankful that the pond hadn't filled completely. What the hell was Eric doing? I knew something was off about him lately, maybe I should have been paying more attention. I needed to get in touch with him. Now. I took my phone out and called. Two numbers were disconnected, and I kept getting voicemail on the other. I left one, telling him to get in contact with me as soon as possible, it was urgent.

The girls weren't happy about it either. "You of all people know we don't condemn porn or the people that make it generally, but we know first hand that it can taint everything you do in later life. How many people do you think won't go see, for instance, the new Issabella movie, if they think it's been made by a porn company? I'll answer that, a lot. The biggest fans Issabella has are most likely little old ladies who use the books to fulfill their fantasies, they wouldn't be able to enjoy the movie knowing we were sullying her name."

"Why is he doing it? Yes, you can still make money off porn, but he'd have to make hundreds to come anywhere close to what he made just off Grolar, and by movie standards, the film was only moderately successful. We think you should check with the lawyers, honey. We know he's your friend, but really, you did seventy-five per cent of the work on Grolar, at least. Maybe it's time to part company, at least professionally." This was from Cathy, always the most pragmatic of the two, but Tory agreed, as did Leah and Dorian.

Two days later I gave up trying to call him, but I had tracked him down to L A. I made arrangements to fly out and physically confront him. Our lawyer was a little upset over the information I'd given him. He'd mostly written up our partnership agreement. "You guys weren't sure you'd ever make another movie, so Two Fools basically only existed for a short time. There is a clause in your agreement leaving the possibility of making more films, but for it to be legal you would have had to update it on a movie by movie basis. He has no legal right to film under your company name without express written agreement. Since I represent both of you, my best advice is get a business lawyer and thrash it out."

Dorian wanted to go with me, but I didn't think him being seen near a porn production would do his reputation any good. The girls either, for the same reason. They saw me off, warning me to be careful. I was surprised to see a very large man in a suit holding a card with my name on it when I got off the plane.

When I identified myself, he escorted me to a Lexus sedan, driven by an even larger man. "We've worked with Dorian before. He thought it might be a good idea for you to have a driver." When I looked at the other guy he just laughed. "We'll take turns."

I had a pretty interesting conversation with them as they drove me. They normally did security for movie stars and other high fliers, were combat trained, and carried weapons. They knew where we were going, and I was surprised when we pulled into the lot of an abandoned looking warehouse in a pretty rough neighborhood. There were a couple of dozen cars in the lot. Warehouse workers, I guessed.

When he started to get out I asked him what we were doing here. "This is where your partner makes his films." He pointed to a sign, so small it was barely noticeable, over one of the doors. Two Fools Films. Authorized Personnel Only. That was the cherry on top of the whipped cream on my anger cake. Before they could stop me. I had stormed past them and banged on the door, after I found it locked.

"Go away. This is a closed set on private property. Leave, or I call the cops." I followed the tinny sounding voice to a small speaker mounted under a camera, over the door.

"Good. If you don't call them I will. That's my company logo over the door, and I'm pretty sure I didn't authorize anything I see. I'm sure the police will be glad to listen to any explanation you'd like to give him. I might even ask them to inspect the premises, just to assure me there's nothing illegal going on." I pulled out the phone and held it up to the camera. "Your choice, but one way or another, I'm coming in that building. You tell Eric that Will Melton is outside, and he'd like a few minutes of his time. You got five minutes."

Eight minutes went by, and I nodded at one of my guards. He punched a few numbers into his phone, and held ten fingers up. The cruiser was just pulling in when the door opened a crack. The short Hispanic man looked nervous but determined. He was built like a brick, muscles stretching his tight tee shirt, and he had a pretty impressive automatic on his hip.

"Look man, we don't need no trouble here. You just go back to your hotel, and Eric will call you when he gets time. He's kind of busy right now. And I ain't asking, I'm telling. Go away."

I had one of my 'drivers' beside me, and he was grinning. The other guy had slid along the wall, keeping out of view of the camera as much as he could. In a quick but practiced move, he grabbed the man, dragging him outside before he knew what was going on. Automatically reaching for his weapon, he froze, looking down the barrel of three guns, two from police officers, and one from one of my bodyguards.

"Shit Jack, what kind of mess are you in?" This from one of the cops, still holding his weapon as his partner disarmed the Mexican guy, and handcuffed him. My biggest bodyguard just shrugged.

"Damned if I know. We just agreed to go with Mr. Melton here, while he inspected some property his company leased. At least Billy isn't looking bored to death anymore." Billy just smiled. I don't think he said twenty words the whole time I was with him. By now they'd pulled the doorman's ID and ran it.

"Well,well, Amigo. Two outstanding traffic tickets. You got to learn to slow down, miho. Looks like you just resigned your job. Before we go any farther, got anything to tell us before we go inside? We'd be VERY displeased if we find ourselves in an unpleasant situation that could have been avoided."

Surprisingly, the guy talked. "Nothin' goin' on in there but a lot of fuckin', and I ain't included in that. My cousin got me this job, said all I had to do was keep the door locked and sightseers out. And that's all I did. Anything else you find in there ain't my concern. Shit, it's the easiest job I ever had. And the gun is legal, it belongs to my uncle and he said I could borrow it."