Heart Is Where the Home Is Ch. 05

This will be the end of this part of the story. My next foray into their lives will focus on future Melanie's search for love but there is still more to tell of Ken and Lainey's story as well.

*** Lainey

I woke up to find Ken holding a wet cloth on my forehead. The shock of hearing that woman say he was the father of her baby must've been too big for me to handle.

"What are you doing?" I asked. When I looked into his sad eyes.

"You fainted. I got a wet cloth for your head."

"Why?" I had water running down the sides of my face into my hair and it was annoying.

"Uh...I guess I don't know. They did it in one of my movies."

I laughed and sat up.

"Lainey, you have to believe..."

I put a finger on his lips to shush him. I saw the concern and worry in every line on his face. He didn't have to be worried that time.

"Ken, you don't have to say it. I know you didn't sleep with her."

Before he could respond, there was banging on the door.

"So much for a privacy gate," he said. It was probably his sister or my parents. Our families had the gate code.

He walked over to the door and barely had it open before Jen barged past.

"I'll kill the fucking bitch!" She screamed.

"Calm down, Sis. No one will believe it."

"Don't be so sure," I said calmer than I felt. Jen wasn't alone in wanting to kill that reporter.

He looked at me and I saw his confidence wavering. Rumors of affairs are one thing, but being accused of declining to take care of a pregnant woman and her unborn child were vastly different accusations.

"Something funny is going on. Why now? Why not admit to it when the rumors broke in December? Why not come to you when she found out she was pregnant? Wait! She didn't right?"

Ken's look changed to one of horror.

"I swear to God, no. Lainey..."

"Easy, tiger. I said I know it wasn't yours."

Jen smiled finally. "Thank God! I was worried what shape you'd be in when you saw it."

"Look, I'm tired of worrying about waking up from this dream of a life I've been living. I try not to, but I can't help it. This is my God damn fight now and I'm going to put a hurt on that bitch and the one that's pulling her strings."

"Pulling her strings?" Ken asked while Jen had a wide grin on her face.

"You think it's Kate behind this, don't you?"

"Absolutely," Ken looked on shocked.

"Think about it, Ken. Why would she do it? There's no benefit for her. If she was looking to get money, she would've come to you first. Hell, if the kid was really yours, she'd be in for a huge payday from you. Either to keep it quiet or as an involved father."

"Exactly," Jen said. "It makes no sense for her to get a few thousand appearing on TV a couple of times. She must be driven by something else and Kate's revenge fits."

"Hang on," Ken said pulling his phone out.

"Hey, Jim. I have a problem with Kate."

Ken laughed at whatever Jim said and responded, "Worse. You'll see it all over the place soon. I need you to get me the number for the guy you used for that thing we know nothing about that didn't happen."

Jen said, "Oh shit!" I looked on in confusion. He was certainly talking to Jim Steel. I hoped it wasn't to arrange a hit on Kate.

"No, I'm not going that far, but I'm seeing to ending her obsession once and for all."

He winked at me as he listened to Jim.

"Thanks, bud."

He ended the call and said, "Jen knows this but Lainey, what I'm about to say doesn't leave this room."

"Okay," I said wishing he would get to it.

"Five years ago, Jim had a similar thing happen to him. No matter what he did, he couldn't prove his innocence and he wasn't about to spend a million bucks paying someone off who was lying. What he did was find a guy to convince the girl to realize it was in her best interest to drop it."

"He didn't hurt her, did he?" I asked.

"God no. She really was pregnant. He'd never hurt a woman let alone a pregnant young girl no matter how misguided she was. In fact, after it was all over, Abby helped the girl get off of the street and into a better situation."

I loved Abby even more after hearing that. I'm not sure I could've ever done that in their situation.

"Ken, Shelly isn't some street kid. She's a well-known successful journalist," Jen said.

"She's not a journalist. She's gossip reporting garbage. She's not wealthy, and I'm sure she's using this as a springboard for a better gig."

I watched them go back and forth for a while and finally interrupted, "Ken, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to use Jim's guy's power of persuasion to convince her to come clean. If Kate's behind it, we'll find out."

"You're not going to hurt her?"

Ken was horrified.

"God, no, Lainey. She'll just get a scare. Look, this has to stay between us and I mean it. No one outside of this room can know anything about it."

I nodded and he took me into his arms.

"Lainey, I promise, no one will be hurt."

I hoped he was right.

*** Shelly

"Yeah, Mom. I've got three offers from major networks this week. It's working better than I thought. I had no idea it would happen so fast. It's only been two weeks since the interview."

Buzz

"Mom, someone's at the door. I have to go. Bye."

I walked to the door, basking in my happiness. Telling everyone Kinsey Greer was the father of my baby has made me a hot commodity and he's so afraid of publicity, he's not even commenting on it, let alone trying to deny it.

I opened the door and was grabbed by the biggest hands I ever saw.

"Who are you! Stop! Let me go! Help!"

"Shut up, Shelly. I'm not going to hurt you."

He shut the door and put his hand over my mouth.

I kicked and struggled but couldn't break free from him. He wasn't hurting me, thankfully, but he wouldn't let me go.

He pulled out a knife and showed it to me.

"Shelly, I'm going to let you go so we can talk. If you do anything other than sitting so we can talk, I will cut your pretty face so much you'll never go on TV again. Do you understand?"

I was crying and nodded my head. What did the behemoth want? I looked around for anything I could use to help me escape him but saw nothing. I didn't even have a fireplace poker I could get to.

He let me go and I sat on the couch. I feared for my life. I had no idea if he would rape me or kill me.

"Sit!"

I sat as tears streamed down my face.

"What..."

He cut me off calmly, "You will only speak to answer my questions. Anything else is bad. Too much bad and you feel pain, understand?"

"Yes," I whispered.

"Good. Now, who is the real father of your unfortunate baby? Sorry about the miscarriage by the way. It's a terrible thing to have to go through."

"Who was this guy?" I thought.

"Kinsey..."

"Stop!" He snarled.

"I forgot to tell you that lies are bad. Please forgive me. Now, lies are bad. Bad brings pain, yeah?"

I nodded.

"Good. Who was the father? I know it was not Kinsey Greer. You did not have sex with Kinsey Greer."

How the hell did he know that?

That's when I realized Kinsey sent him. I was in trouble and had no idea how to get out of it. Fucking Kate Ferrell! Her money wasn't worth my life. I decided to come clean.

"No, Kinsey wasn't the father. I had a one-night stand on New Year's Eve that was the father. I don't even remember his name."

He smiled.

"Very good, Shelly. Who told you to say it was Kinsey Greer. Did someone pay you to do this?"

I sighed. Screw that psycho Kate. Let him make her life miserable.

"Kate Ferrell promised me half a million dollars. She gave me half upfront and told me when Kinsey was dumped by his fiancée I'd get the rest."

He stood and held his hand out to me. I took it and rose as he gently pulled me up.

"Thank you for your honesty, Shelly. You'll never see me again unless I find out you lied to me. You didn't lie to me, did you?"

"No," I said hoping he'd just leave and keep his word. The way he said my name sent chills down my spine.

"Good. It's been nice to talk to you. I'm actually a big fan."

I nodded and hoped he didn't ask me for an autograph.

"Oh! I almost forgot the most important part. Jesus, I must be getting too old for this. Please forgive me. Shelly, I need you to hold a press conference and admit to the lie. You must tell the whole story, including never sleeping with Kinsey and Kate paying you off. If you don't do this by tomorrow night, it will be bad. Do you remember the price of bad, Shelly?"

I nodded.

He smiled and walked out of my house.

Jesus!

I thought about calling and warning Kate about what I had to do. There was no way I wasn't going to do exactly what the monster wanted. I decided to surprise her. Fuck her! I only hoped the fallout didn't hit me too hard. I needed to work and no celebrity would talk to me again.

*** Ken

A text alert woke me up around midnight. I couldn't reach my phone with Lainey wrapped around me so I had to roll over and ruin her comfortable sleep.

I thought "This better be good," as I looked at the screen.

YOU WERE CORRECT. PROBLEM SOLVED.

"Son of a bitch!" I shouted.

Lainey sprung up, "What happened?"

"It was Kate like we thought. Looks like everything was handled by our friend."

Thank God! It had been a hell of two weeks. Lainey was okay, but the press was hounding her parents and sister, my mom, Jen and Cindy, and anyone else in front of whom they could stick a microphone.

I wondered what the next step was going to be. I knew that our friend was going to convince Shelly to do a presser to clear my name but would Kate try to get in front of it or not was the question.

I hoped that Kate was ready for war, as I was not going to hold back on suing her and trying to find a DA that would bust her for harassment or something. I didn't care what it was as long as she was broken.

"Ken, what are you gonna do about Kate?"

"Make her pay. I'm going to sue her and if she broke any laws, make sure she's prosecuted. Her obsession has to end."

She hugged me and asked, "Where is she now?"

I did not like the look on Lainey's face.

***

Kate was filming a movie in Canada and Lainey asked to visit. "I've never been to a movie set," she said. I didn't feel like I had a choice, so we hopped on the next flight to Vancouver and made our way to Kate's filming location.

I knew the producers for the movie so I asked if I could show Lainey how a movie is made and they were thrilled to have us.

Being Kinsey Greer made it easy to get on set when we found the location. They had just wrapped up Kate's last scene for the day and we headed for her trailer.

I knocked on her door and stood in front of

Lainey. I was worried she would try to attack her. She had her mama bear claws unsheathed.

"Ken!" She shrieked as she opened the door.

"Come in! Let me..."

"We're not here on a social call, Kate. You remember Lainey?"

She waved us in and stared Lainey down.

"Here's the deal, Kate. Your charade with the reporter is over. If she hasn't already, she's about to hold a press conference and tell the truth."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kate snarled.

"It's over, Kate. You've lost. As soon as Shelly tells the world that you paid her to lie about me, I'm going to press every charge I can and sue you for every dime I can get."

She turned and walked away silently. Lainey put her hand on my shoulder and then screamed when Kate quickly turned around and threw a vase of flowers at us.

"You're a fucking asshole, Ken. You know you belong with me. That farm girl is nothing but younger pussy. You can fuck her every once in a while, just come back to me."

She sat in her makeup chair and started sobbing. I shook my head and said, "Kate, we will never be together again. Please see someone about this. I'm afraid for you and worry you've gone to too a dark place. Get help or I'll make sure you lose everything. You've become an obsessed stalker, don't you see?"

"I love you, Ken," she whispered.

"I don't love you anymore, Kate. I love Lainey now and we'll be married soon. Please leave us alone and move on."

"Ken, if you ever loved me can you please forgive me and call off Shelly. I'll never bother you again."

"I'm sorry, Kate. The die is cast, the wheels are turning."

"I'm sorry for everything."

"Me too, Kate. Me too."

We walked out and I couldn't help but feel bad for Kate. At one time we were in love but her jealousy overtook her senses and I couldn't live like that. More's the pity.

*** Lainey

The fallout from the Kate and Shelly fiasco was that Kate settled with Ken for a million dollars and an agreement that she leaves us alone. She got a fine and community service for whatever law she broke. I didn't care. I just wanted her gone. Ken donated his payout to a local shelter for abused women. They started a scholarship fund with the money.

Shelly lost her job and last we heard she was writing a book about her career as an entertainment reporter. Ken asked our friend to make sure she knows that Ken shouldn't be in the book. He wasn't.

Kate ended up better out of the deal than I would've liked. She did seek professional help, although I still think it was just for the publicity, and did leave us alone. Her movie ended up a huge hit and she won several awards for her role. Her career was not hurt by the scandal she caused. Honestly, that still pisses me off, but I won in the end, I got Ken.

The wedding was fast approaching and while I was busy with the plans for that, Ken was building the spa for Jen and Cindy and he was opening a cigar lounge locally. We made it a point to have dinner together every day and I refused to let Ken work too hard.

I worked a bit on that as well helping with the interior design aspects. I was proud that Jen and Cindy asked me to help them and they paid me well even though I tried to refuse it.

When I asked him why he was opening a cigar lounge in a small rural town, he said, "To pass the time."

I shook my head envisioning him smoking cigars all day with the old-timers, trading stories. Everyone in town found out when Ken moved back home and it took a few weeks until the hoopla died down. By the time of the wedding, the shine of Kinsey Greer living in town dulled and he became simply Ken to everyone.

It didn't stop the Mayor from adding a sign that said, "Proud birthplace of Kinsey Greer." Ken wouldn't let him put that it was his home on the sign.

***

We had the family over for a Fourth of July barbecue and Jim, Abby, and their kids came up to see the house.

"Lainey, the place looks amazing," Abby gushed. "I'm going have to have you come down to our homestead and have you redecorate the entire house."

"Aw, come on, Abs. You just got new furniture," Jim mock whined.

Ken slapped him on the back, handed him a cold beer, and said, "Shut up, ya cheap bastard. Lainey will do it for only twenty percent more than she'd normally charge. Come out and help me with the smoker."

Abby and I laughed as the men went outside to light up the smoker and puff on Ken's nasty cigars.

"Lainey, honey? How are things, I mean really?" Abby asked more seriously than I liked.

I smiled and said, Everything is great. Really great."

She didn't believe me as the look on her face told me.

"I heard you fainted when that bitch said Ken was the father. That doesn't sound great to me."

"I don't know why I fainted. I think it was just the shock of her audacity."

I decided, after the story about them sleeping together came out, that I believed he didn't do it. That was the only way I could make a life with him. I had to believe him not the rumors or the paparazzi. I had to believe in his love for me and I felt that love every day, in everything that he did. I luxuriated in it.

I believed he didn't have it in him to cheat on me. Nothing Shelly, Kate, nor any other woman did in trying to take him away from me would work. I was his and he was mine. Love permeated our lives.

"Lainey..."

"Abby, damn it, listen! It's over and we're moving forward. He has my complete trust and it took a long time to be comfortable enough with myself to feel that way. I'm long past being the scared waitress that was afraid he'll find someone else and end my fairy tale. It's us against the world and it will be forever."

I absent-mindlessly touched my stomach and began crying. Like the mother hen she has always been to me, she pulled me into a tight hug to soothe my tears.

"I'm sorry, honey. I didn't mean to upset you. I'm glad for you. I'm very happy for you both. You have my support anytime you need it and Jim loves the hell out of you too."

"That's just because I told him he's my favorite actor."

We laughed and heard, "See? I'm still her favorite."

We turned to the door and saw Jim and Ken standing with wide grins on their faces outside the screen door watching us.

"Sorry to interrupt, baby. Can we get the ribs?"

"Sure." I pulled the pans of ribs out of the fridge and handed them to Jim. "Ken, make sure the coolers..."

"Everything is set, Lainey. The coolers are full, the pool is clean and the heater is on, and I fogged for the mosquitos. Don't worry about a thing."

I kissed his cheek and they walked off to be manly men, doing whatever men do when they pretend putting ribs on the smoker and walking away for a few hours is hard work.

*** Ken

It was hot and humid, and standing next to the smoker made it worse so I pulled off my tank top and Jim did the same. I couldn't wait to jump into the pool, but our families and the Millers would be over any minute.

I set the slabs of ribs on my new smoker and said, "It's sweet, Jim. You've got to get one. Check this out."

I pulled my phone out and showed him the app that monitors the temperature of the smoker.

"If it gets too hot or too cool, it sends me a notification. If I do a big piece of meat like a brisket or pork shoulder, I've got another app to monitor the temp inside the meat with a wireless probe."

He laughed and said, "Bro, you've become domesticated. I love it."

I laughed. I had become domesticated and I loved it more than he did. I was finally living the dream I wanted for so long. A real home, spending time with my family and Lainey and preparing for my wedding. Life was good and I truly felt content.

Before I could respond, we heard a scream and turned around ready to run to help whoever it was. It wasn't Jim's kids or the Miller's granddaughters, it was Mel's friend Keri.

She was standing on the deck frozen with her hand over her mouth.

"Mel, is she okay? What happened?" I shouted as I rushed up the stairs.

"She fine, you idiot. What normal girl wouldn't scream seeing Kinsey Greer and Jim Steel standing together topless, with their hardbodies glistening in the sun? It's like a wet dream."

"Hush, Melanie!" Ryan said walking through the back door. "You're gonna scar that poor girl."

Keri hadn't moved anything but her eyes as she followed Jim walking up the stairs.

"Hello again. It's Ryan, right?"

"Yeah, nice to see you again. This is my daughter's best friend Keri. I'm afraid you two have broken her."

We laughed and Jim reached out to shake Keri's hand.

"Hi, I'm Jim. The first two hours are free, but if you look for longer than that, you owe my wife a buck a minute."

"James Parker Steel! Don't be an ass." Shouted Abby from the kitchen.

"I can't believe it's you," Keri said softly staring at his six-pack abs.

"I told her you'd be here, I guess she wasn't ready for the beefcake show," Mel snickered as Ryan shook his head.

"Melanie, take her inside and help your sister and mother with the salads."

"Yes, Dad," she spat. "Come on, Keri. Let's wipe off your drool too."