Page 54 of His Girl Hollywood

“Well, if you think about it, Donnie, it sort of did. You brought that woman here.”

“Her name is Arlene,” he bit out. “Kindly refrain from referring to her as ‘that woman.’” Eleanor looked peeved. Good. He was royally irritated with her. Leaving that harebrained note. Trailing him and Lena out here, which come to think of it… “How’d you find me here, anyway?”

“I followed you, you big dum-dum. You weren’t paying attention. You were too busy making goo-goo eyes at Madam Director.”

Don chose to ignore her comments about Lena. But if she’d gone to the Frolic Room with Eddie, even for only a few minutes, she could not have followed him. “You’re lying again, Eleanor.”

She scrunched up her nose and looked remarkably like a rabbit. Don held back a laugh. “Fine. Frankie never mentioned the gambling ship as a booking location. I brought it up because I had a feeling you’d want to take that dame, er, Arlene”—she corrected herself at a glare from Don—“I thought you’d want to bring her here. You couldn’t stop talking about her and her family every night last week at the club. Not exactly subtle, Donnie.”

Shit, had he been talking about Lena that much? He guessed so. But he’d been holding himself back all last week. Arlene had told him things couldn’t continue, so he’d tried to respect her wishes. He guessed all that longing and affection had spilled out in other ways during his nights dancing at the club. He hadn’t even realized he was doing it. But that still did not explain Eleanor’s elaborate attempt to catch him out. “Why would you follow me? We’re on the same side.”

“That’s not the point, the point is what if it hadn’t been me? What if it’d been someone else? Frankie? Or one of his goons?”

His stomach sank. He knew she was right. He was playing with fire—and Lena’s well-being. But hadn’t he made a promise tohimself that he was going to stop letting Frankie and fear rule his life? Frankie Martino was halfway across the country. And Lena, beautiful and delectable in the moonlight, was right here. He puffed himself up with courage he didn’t actually feel. If he could convince himself…

“Frankie isn’t a problem, Eleanor. He’s in New York. He ain’t tailing us here. Besides, he thinks he’s about to cash in hamburger for a steak dinner with a plum studio contract. He’s not going to know about my plan to buy him out until it’s too late. I thought maybe Frankie had started to put the pieces together when I got that note. But now I know that’s not true. We have him right where we want him.”

Eleanor looked at him, her big blue eyes blinking at him like he was the dimmest man she’d ever met. She shrugged and turned on her heel, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like “It’s your funeral.”

He reached out and grabbed her hand. “Eleanor, wait. You didn’t leave that note just because you thought I was distracted, did you?”

She turned and shook her head glumly, like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. He looked up and resisted the urge to yell at her. “What do you know?”

When he looked back at her, there was a stark look of fear on her face. It wasn’t the way she’d looked that first morning in his hotel room, desperate and pleading for his help. This was something worse. A hopeless, naked terror. “I didn’t mean to, I swear.”

“Eleanor…what did you do?”

She inhaled sharply, swallowing her own spit, and breaking out into a coughing fit. “N-n-nothing.Ididn’t do anything.”

He grabbed her by the shoulders and resisted the urge to shake her. “You’re lying. What did you do?”

“I’m not—”

“Eleanor, we’ve been dance partners for almost a decade. I know your tells—and you are lying. Now, just tell me. What. Did. You. Do?”

She looked up into his eyes, and he almost laughed at what a petulant child she was. Her lower lip hung out, and she sniffed pathetically. “Promise you won’t get mad.”

Lord almighty, this woman. How had he faked a romance with her for years and toured all of Europe without losing his mind? He ran his hand down his face and inhaled, steadying his voice. “I promise. Now, tell me what happened.”

Her pout worsened and she began to cry. “I called Robert after that first night I saw you. I kept calling until he picked up. I told him that you were going to fix everything and then he’d see that I wasn’t lying and I was who I said I was and everything was going to be all right.”

Don closed his eyes and nodded. “And?” He had a feeling he knew what was coming next.

“He didn’t believe me, so I told him you’d come to Hollywood to get away from Frankie too. That it was your plan to rescue us both from that man.”

Don pressed his forehead to hers. “Oh, you didn’t, Eleanor. Tell me you didn’t.”

She wailed. “I’m sorryyyyyyy. I didn’t think.”

“Just tell me the rest of it.”

“I should’ve known it was a dumb idea. Robert has bought every single lie Frankie has told him, hook, line, and sinker. So, after I told Robert about your plan, he took it upon himself to call up Frankie and ask if all of this was true. That he loved me and he had to know. If everything Frankie had told him about us was a lie.”

“Oh, you little idiot.” Don sighed.

At this, Eleanor broke into great heaving sobs. Well, if Anthony Cornero and his lackies hadn’t realized they were on the boat by now, this would do it. She sounded like a bull seal about to give birth.

“Eleanor, stop, shhh, shhh, I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry.” Don gritted his teeth and pulled Eleanor to him, wrapping her in an embrace and stroking her back to calm her. He felt her rub her nose on his tie. So much for his romantic date with Lena. A snot-covered tie wasn’t exactly an aphrodisiac.