Page 64 of Every Star that Shines

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Delanie tapped her key card on her motel room door and pulled her suitcase into her room, gratefully kicking off her shoes and letting her toes sink into the plush carpet. It had been an excruciatingly long day of driving. Letting her suitcase stand upright, she hooked her hands over her shoulders and rubbed, trying to work out the knots, and glanced around the room.

For a budget motel, it could be worse. The room was nice and clean with an airy aesthetic. And she would take the functional little suite with its small kitchenette—including a full-sized if narrow fridge—over a spa room in a fancier hotel any day. Even though a soak in a hot tub would feel pretty good right about now, if the motel had had one, it would have been closed at this time of night anyway.

An enormous basket wrapped in cellophane sat on the small dining table next to a manila envelope. She spied bananas, apples, chocolates, coffee beans from one of her favourite Victoria roasters, and an oversized mug. She went over and opened the plain white folded card tied to the top—Delanie, Glad to have you back. Josh.

“‘Have me back.’ Of all the entitled . . .” She let the rest of the sentiment remain unsaid. She was too tired to waste that kind of energy on Josh Rosenburg. Besides, she was being oversensitive now—it was just an expression. She really needed sleep.

She glanced in the envelope and confirmed that it contained her call sheets for the next few days. That could definitely wait. She rolled her suitcase to the closet and heaved it onto the suitcase rack inside, then unzipped it. Laying on top of her clothes was Nan’s scrapbook, the one her mother had let her keep. She still hadn’t had time to look through the whole thing. Pulling it out, she tossed it on the table next to the basket.

Behind the cellophane, a bottle of red wine and two wine glasses caught her eye. In lieu of a soak in a hot tub, a glass of wine sounded pretty good right about now. She set to work untying the ribbon binding the cellophane wrap together.

After she’d poured some wine—with help from a cheap folding wine corkscrew she found in one of the kitchenette drawers—she pulled out her phone to text Marie that she had arrived safe. Then she noticed she had missed a text from Amber earlier.

Dress rehearsal went well. The kids were sad you weren’t here, but most of them understood. Celeste says good luck with your new job. Also, Luc ordered the new soundboard today. Should get here just in time for opening night.

Delanie smiled. When she had stopped by Amber’s place yesterday to drop off her play binder and the cheque for the soundboard Luc was ordering for the theatre, she had expected the same odd treatment she had received the first time she had gone there. Instead, Amber had surprised her by inviting her in. And that wasn’t the only surprise.

No one else had been home, and Delanie had hesitantly accepted Amber’s offer of tea, figuring it would be good to have a little fortification while she went over the last-minute items with the assistant director. As they were wrapping up, Amber met Delanie’s gaze.

“I just want to thank you for all you’ve done for Celeste. I . . . I know I haven’t always been easy to get along with. We’ve had a lot going on here for the last few months, and I think the stress affected me more than I realized.”

“Oh?” Delanie said carefully. “Was your husband upset about how involved you and Celeste were with the play?” Is that why he had gotten so involved too—to keep an eye on them? Delanie tried to keep her tone casual, but hoped Amber would sense that Delanie was willing to listen if she wanted to talk. She hadn’t had many personal interactions with Luc, but when she had, he had always seemed a bit stand-offish. It had been hard to get a read on him.

Amber arched her brows. “Why would Luc be upset?”

“Oh, I, uh . . . Things just seemed so tense that day I met him, I wasn’t sure what was going on.”

Amber frowned thoughtfully. “Right. I think you came by the day we were moving Mother into long-term care. She doesn’t do well with change these days, and I think she was having a bit of a fit at seeing her things go out the door—we wanted to set up her space before we took her over there. I’m sorry I didn’t invite you in. I just didn’t want you to have to see that. Bad enough that we had to deal with it. And, I’m sorry to say, Luc doesn’t handle that kind of stress well.” She leaned forward and dropped her voice, even though there was no one else there. “Please don’t take it personally. It just takes him a while to warm up to people.”

Delanie blinked, glad she hadn’t come right out with her suspicions earlier. “Is your mother, um . . .”

“Senile? You could say that.” Amber gave a half-hearted smile. “Her dementia has advanced pretty quickly, and it’s been . . . hard.”

“I’m so sorry,” Delanie murmured. “I had no idea.”

“No, we haven’t talked about it much. Things have been better since she moved, though. I still go to see her every few days, but she loves it at the senior’s home. She’s made a bunch of friends—and she gets to make them again every day.” She smiled wryly. “It’s been better for the kids too. My mother can be . . . harsh. And appearances are important to her. My boys didn’t notice it as much, being younger, but I don’t want Celeste to have to deal with some of the things I did growing up. I’m actually glad my mother’s not here all the time now.” Amber scrunched her eyes as though fearing Delanie’s response. “Does that make me a horrible person?”

“No, not at all. Dealing with parents can be difficult.”

Delanie suddenly saw Amber in a new light—her controlling nature, her fears about Celeste looking foolish. If Delanie had a mother like that, what would she be like? Dealing with her own mother’s meddling and dramatics was bad enough.

“I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been going through,” she added. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”

“Well, I thought you deserved to know.” Amber lifted her mug to her lips for a sip of tea, and her hands trembled. “There’s, um, something else,” she said, then took a sip.

Delanie’s throat closed again. “Okay,” she asked more than said. What could have made Amber so nervous all of a sudden?

Amber put her mug on the table and wrapped both hands around it, staring at the amber liquid. Then, as though steeling herself, she drew in a breath and met Delanie’s eye.

“I owe you an apology. After I heard you were going to direct the play, I went and looked you up. Of course, I wasn’t expecting the gong show I found on your social media feeds, but it made me question whether you should be the one in charge of the play, leading all the kids.”

Delanie’s chest tightened, her heart speeding up. “Amber, no, you don’t—”

“I do. Please let me finish.” Amber set her jaw.

Delanie gave a small nod. She felt like she already knew what Amber was going to say next, that the woman would outline her reasons for her belief in Delanie’s incompetence. That was the last thing she wanted to hear, but if saying it aloud helped Amber in some way, she could bite her tongue, no matter how uncomfortable it would be for her.

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