The List Ch. 04

Family Oriented

It was 6:00 am and Carrie could not sleep. The room felt incredibly empty since Courtney had been the one to leave last night. No one was more surprised than Carrie herself when at the first of three ring rituals, Courtney had been the only one left without a emerald ring. The shock on her face was matched by the shock on the others' faces, but Hunter was especially stricken. Hunter had cried all evening and Carrie spent the better part of the night consoling her. When Carrie had finally fallen asleep her dreams were definitely not restful.

She dressed very quietly and stole down the steps to the workout room that was on the first floor of the huge house. It was so rare that she got a minute to herself; she liked the quiet of the morning, and the solitude that came with it. She had barely had a chance to use the fully equipped room in the two weeks that she had been in the mansion, but now she felt like she had extra energy to burn.

She stretched her legs and arms did a few side stretches and when she came up from a waist bend she saw Grant jog by. She watched him until he was gone and let a delicious shiver work its way from the top of her head to her toes. She had an idea of just how she was going to spend some nice long quality time with Grant and she could hardly wait until tomorrow.

***

"Mimi! Colonel!" Grant rushed to his grandparents and gave them a big hug. This was quite a surprise! He had expected to see his Mom and Dad, not his grandparents, but he was happy nonetheless. Mimi and The Colonel had been the people to go to with his problems when he was a kid. They just seemed to understand.

"Granty!" Mimi kissed him on the cheek then sat back down on the sofa that she had been on when he had arrived. "Look at that, Big Daddy! Our little boy is all grown up and on the television!" Mimi patted her completely white hair and patted Grant's leg affectionatly at the same time. It seemed to Grant that he never grew up in his grandparents' eyes. He was still petted and coddled like a six year old.

He gazed affectionately at his grandmother. She looked a little more wrinkled, but she still carried herself like a lady. Her tall thin frame was held ramrod straight, and she never raised her voice. Ever.

"We've missed you, boy. You need to come back to where people are sane and stop galavating around god-knows-where with god-knows-who!" The Colonel gave a sharp jab to the ground with his walking stick to punctuate his displeasure.

"I missed you too, Colonel!" Grant said with a grin. His grandfather was aptly named. His resemblance to Colonel Sanders was remarkable, but unlike that colonel, Grant's grandfather had really been in the army. It had broken The Colonel's heart that not one of his sons or grandsons had ever followed in his footsteps, but he still relived his glory days every chance he got.

"Oh, Big Daddy, stop being such a grumpus! Don't mind him, Grant, he's out of sorts from the flight here," Mimi said in a stage whisper. The Colonel resettled himself with a huff, and grumbled something unintelligible. Grant laughed and gave his grandmother another kiss.

"So, I assume that you are here because of the producers?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"Honey, they told us that you were having a tough time deciding who to pick, so they brought us in to help." Mimi eyed him critically. "Are they feeding you well?"

"Yes, Mimi, they are. Better than I get most nights in my apartment." He chuckled and gazed fondly at his grandparents. 'When did they get so old?' He thought to himself.

A door opened behind Grant and he turned and saw Ron in the doorway.

"Ron," Grant nodded his head coldly. This was the last man he wanted to see. He still felt a jumble of emotions thinking about Carrie and how they had been reprimanded. The whole point of this fucking show was to find love, wasn't it? Neither of them could help it if love had found them early on.

"Happy to see that you all made it in, Mr and Mrs. Rider."

"Please, call me Mim. Everyone does," Mimi offered her hand to him and gave Ron a suprisingly firm hand shake.

"Grant, we wanted to let you know that Carrie has had to drop the show," Ron said with more than a hint of pleasure. 'The bastard isn't even bothering to hide it!' Grant thought to himself just as the shock set in.

"What do you mean she had to drop the show?" His brows furrowed. He felt like his blood pressure was about to go through the roof. "Did you do or say something to her to make her leave?" He took a menacing step toward Ron. No Carrie? This couldn't be.

"No!" Ron said holding up his hands. "Her grandmother is dying and she went to be with her. As per the contract she has given up her place on the show."

"Now, that is just heartless! Her grandmother is dying, you jackass! I bet you didn't give her the option to come back, did you?" Grant pushed a lock of hair off his face. And ran his hand over his head. He massaged the back of his neck and gave Ron a cold stare.

"The rules clearly state—"

"The rules are bullshit!" Grant heard a gasp escape his grandmother's lips and he gave her a little smile. "Sorry, Mimi." She nodded as he continued. "If it had been any of the others you would have allowed her to come back to the show with no questions asked. You'd have sent cameras with her to capture the whole time she spent with her family. Just to boost your ratings."

"That is certainly not true," Ron squirmed uncomfortably. "This is a time for Carrie to be with her grieving family. I will be candid when I say that now that she is gone your choices will be much more…" Ron struggled for a word. "Appropriate."

Grant turned his back to everyone in the room, then took a deep breath and turned to face Ron.

"I thought you wanted a hit television show." Grant hissed.

"The country isn't ready for the two of you to be a couple," Ron said coldly. "Let's face it, interracial doesn't sell in middle america."

Ron and Grant stood toe to toe glaring at one another for several tense moments. Grant closed his eyes in frustration. His feelings for Carrie were something this biggoted asshole couldn't possibly understand. Sure interracial might not play to middle america, but this was about the incredible woman he had found, quite by accident, in a way he never could have concieved. He was sure of his feelings for her and would like to explore her feelings for him further. Quite simply put, he was falling in love with her.

"I thought you wanted me to find true love," Grant said just above a whisper, his eyes trained on Ron.

Ron gave a shrug. "I'm looking for ratings, not true love."

"Then you better rethink your formula, because your show is just like every other show out there." Grant smirked. "Where is she?" he demanded.

"You can't chase her down," Ron shook his head. "It would be a breach of contract."

"Fuck the contract!" Grant bellowed. "Where is she?" He was beginning to feel desperate, and was just a few minutes away from a panic attack.

"Need I remind you that there is the matter of five million dollars paid to the network and my production company if you reneg on this?"

"Call my lawyer, Ron. And be sure that you mention how you tried to deliberately sway the show in what a lot of sane people would call racism." He let that sink in for a few seconds. Where was this bravado coming from he wondered. "Now tell me where she is, you asshole!"

"I will have you know that I am not racist!" Ron sputtered. "What I am is realistic, Grant. I can't have you with a black woman and expect to pull in the numbers my other shows have. It's a business."

"Well then, I suggest you find yourself another bachelor, because I quit!" Grant hissed.

Ron's eyes narrowed as he almost agreed to find another batchelor, but then they flew wide open.

He had had a hard time getting the network to agree to this show in the first place because the bigwigs felt that the days of gross-out TV were coming to a close, but no one was confident that he could pull off a dating show . His mind flickered through all the possiblities: finding a new cast would take months, he could lose his crew, and the location, and then there was his reputation with the network. They were all expecting him to fail, he could feel it. They were waiting to dethrone him as the best producer of reality television. It was a matter of time before they found someone younger and cheaper to replace him. This could be the nail in the proverbial coffin.

"Let's not be rash," Ron's voice dropped low and he tried to make it soothing. "I'm positive we can work something out."

Grant looked at his grandmother and she gave an impreceptible shake of her head. "What can we work out?" He asked suspiciously.

"W-we can maybe change the show a little, make it so that you give equal time to the rest of the girls and their families. We can make sure that Carrie comes back to finish out her time here, and if you choose her we'll figure it out then."

"That was too easy, Ron," Grant looked between his grandparents and Ron. What had changed suddenly? It couldn't be goodwill on Ron's part, the man was as selfish as the next guy in Hollywood. But then, Grant wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He felt like he had been given another chance.

"Call me a hopeless romantic!" Ron said a little too cheerfully. "I will have Janna make the travel arrangements and she'll let you know when you go to St. Louis."

A smile spread on Grant's lips and he laughed.

"You don't even have to arrange a place for me to stay. My parents are there already."

***

Carrie sniffed as quietly as she could and stared out the window. Just twenty more minutes and she would be on the ground. Hopefully, it would be take a few minutes to get her rental and then she would go to her Grammy's hospital to say goodbye. She pressed her lips together to keep from sobbing outloud. Her grammy was dying.

She had been sitting with the rest of the women in the diningroom, having breakfast, when Janna had stepped up to her and whispered that there was a phone call for her. Carrie had wiped her mouth on the napkin on her lap, and gone to the phone where her mother tearfully explained that her grandmother had suffered a heartattack and wasn't expected to make it too much longer. Carrie had stood for a few minutes with the phone in her hand, then she had promised her mother that she would be there as soon as she could get away.

Talking to Ron had been much easier than she had thought; he had made all the necessary mumblings about being sorry. Yes, of course she had to be with her family at a time like this he had said. Yes of course they would get her home on the next available flight. No, she shouldn't worry that this was a breach of contract, Ron had said as he rushed her out the door. "We'll send you the necessary papers to void your contract."

He had pushed her out the door telling her to pack, and the next thing she knew, she was out the door, and whisked into a limo that drove her down the mountain, through Denver, and to the airport where she had only had to wait an hour before her flight took off, but after delays in Chicago, and being bumped from a fight, she had spent the night trying to catch a few winks in the less than comfy chairs in the terminal, and had been close to a nervous breakdown. She had finally boarded the earliest morning flight she could find after tearfully explaining her situation to a kind ticket agent, And then she had spent the whole way to St. Louis praying that she hadn't missed the opportunity to see her grandmother.

The plane bumped to a landing and Carrie was startled out of her thoughts. She looked around and frowned with annoyance at the people who unbuckled their seat belts before the sign went off. She waited until everyone else had gotten off the plane and then she disembarked and ran to get to her bag. She was in her rental car and back in the familiar surroundings of her childhood home in under an hour, and when she finally stood in the foyer of her mother's house she remembered that she hadn't had a chance to say goodbye to anyone. Not Colette, not Grant, not even Janna who had been so great about getting the reservations so quickly.

She dragged her suitcase up the steep steps to her old bedroom and sat on the edge of the white comforter. She let herself sag, feeling weary and finally let out all the tears that she had been holding back all day. She bawled for the woman she knew she was about to lose. The woman who was the single greatest influence on her. The woman who taught her to love and be a woman.

Her grandmother had lived a wonderfully full life, but that didn't stop Carrie's heart from hurting. Her grandmother had been there to help raise her when her mother had been working two jobs trying to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. Carrie loved her mother dearly, but there was a super special place in her heart for the tiny woman that lay in the hospital dying.

When her tears were all cried out, Carrie went to the bathroom and washed her face, brushed her hair, and then called her mother's cell phone to get directions to the hospital and find out when she could visit her grandmother.

***

Sitting in the sterile white hospital room, reading a magazine, Carrie looked up every so often to see if Grammy had moved at all. She put her magazine aside finally when she heard her grandmother stir.

"Grammy?" She half whispered.

"Lord! I didn't know you were coming," Camille Taucher, Carrie's maternal grandmother said with a start. "I thought you were on that TV show. Out in LA or something." Grammy smiled weakly.

"I was,"Carrie smiled. "But I wanted to be with you more."

Grammy's rheumy eyes took in her beloved granddaughter. And then she coughed lightly. "It's good to see you, Child. I've been missing you something awful."

"I missed you too, Grammy." Carrie fought back the sob that was threatening to move from her chest into her throat. There was no doubt about how sick her grandmother was; her body was starting to wear down after eighty-six good years, and though Grammy was in the hospital, it was only a measure to keep her comfortable, and to keep her from being alone. When the time came, it was understood that she should be let go peacefully.

Carrie put her hand to her grandmother's forehead and smoothed a stray strand of white hair off her brow. "Do you need anything?" Carrie asked gently.

"No, Child, I don't need anything." Camille closed her eyes and began to chuckle. "So, what were you doing out there on that TV show?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about it…" she dropped her voice to a whisper "But I think I can tell you about it. It was a dating show, Grammy. I got to live in a big house that had servants taking care of our food, our rooms, and all the cleaning."

"Sounds boring to me," her grandmother groused.

"Yeah, it was a little. I felt really useless."

"Tell me about him." Her grandmother urged. Carrie felt a goofy smile stretch her lips as Camille opened her eyes. Carrie paused just a moment to gather her thoughts on what she wanted to tell her grandmother first. "He's that great, is he?"

"Oh, Grammy!" Carrie breathed. "He is a gentleman and he's handsome and he's just plain wonderful."

"He's the one?" Grammy smiled.

"Yes. But I don't know when I will see him again, he's back at the house and I won't be going back there. I forfited everything when I came here. I wanted to be with you."

"I'm sorry you gave it all up, but I am happy to see you." Grammy closed her eyes. "Honey, I want you to go back to the house and get some rest. You look tired." When Carrie started to protest Camille chuckled. "I won't die before tomorrow, I promise."

"Grammy!" Carrie's hand flew to her thin chest as she gasped.

"That's what you're worried about, isn't it?" Camille said with a wink. "Go, come back in the morning, I'll still be here, I promise."

Carrie stood up and smoothed her jeans down with the palms of her hands, then bent to kiss her grandmother. Camille took Carrie's face in her hands, her eyes trained on Carrie's. "If it is meant to be, the two of you will be together. No matter what. It will happen if your heart tells you that he is the one." Then she kissed her on the nose.

"I know," Carrie sighed. 'It just won't be anytime soon,' she thought to herself. Carrie tugged the bottom of her black cashmere turtleneck as she straightened her spine. "I love you Gram."

"I love you too, Carrie."

Carrie barely registered the walk back to the car, and when she sat in the tiny rental the sob that had built up inside her finally rose to her lips and escaped. She sat and cried for a few minutes, then scrubbed at her eyes with her sleeve. She looked in the mirror and gave herself a wan smile. She looked terrible. But then it felt kind of good because she had spent the past three weeks waking up and putting on her best clothes and full make up. Her pretty almond eyes had no definition without the mascara she usually wore, but she had figured she was in for a long day of tears, and so she had left it and the sheer red lip gloss she usually put on her beautifully wide lips sitting on the vanity of the sink without putting it on.

She took her mid back length weaved hair hair out of it's holder and combed a few errant strands back from her face with her fingers then pulled all the hair back into a low ponytail. Her own hair was actually a mass of kinky curls that stood away from she shoulders in a lovely soft afro that would scare your average white suburbanite, so she had decided, with the help of Ash, that she would go for a more television-friendly look. at least it was easy to take care of.

Her brown skin looked ashen. Too little sleep, water and rest was starting to catch up to her.

She slumped and sighed out loud, then she started the engine of the car. She needed to lie down and enjoy some uninterrupted sleep and a good meal. Then hopefully she would look normal again.

She pulled out of her space and out of the garage, taking the long way home so that she could reminisce about her hometown. She passed her old high school, the library, and the restaurant where she had had her first real job.

More than once she thought that it would be nice to share her stories with Grant, then she scolded herself mentally. They weren't going to be together for a long time. Ron had all but said that by leaving she would never see Grant again. The contestants were to abide by the rules laid out in the very thick packet of legally binding documents that all had signed before the show had started. But Carrie couldn't help feeling that it was in the cards that she and Grant were meant for each other.

Her mind had been wandering and she was half surprised that the street her mother's house was on came up so quickly. It was strange that there were so many cars on the street; it was the middle of the afternoon in the middle of week. Usually this communitty didn't come alive until after five in the afternoon. There was a reason this town had been called a bedroom community.

She slowed down as she neared the small grey victorian house that was her mother's. She pulled into the gravel driveway and put the car into park. She got out of the car, and picked her way to the brick walkway, trying not to scuff the heels of her spike heeled boots. Her head was down, and she started when she almost stepped on her mother's toes.

"Mom! She cried.

"Carrie, there's someone here to see you." She said quietly. Carrie tipped her head to the side and raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm?"

She followed her mother's small light brown finger to the porch and that is when she saw him standing on the wrap around porch, his hair glowing blue-black from the sun. She stretched her arms out and ran to him, only stopping when she threw herself into his arms and wrapped hers around him. She heard him breathe deeply and he squeezed her tightly.