Ecuperating - Chapter 20

“This is she. Who is this and what can I do for you? It better be good! I’m in the middle of a good poker game!” Jayne asked with some annoyance. She had no idea who this could be and how her cell phone number had gotten out to this person.

“Oh! I’m very sorry to have bothered you. I got your number from McNabb investigations. Carl thought you might be interested in our offer. This is Newsweek Magazine calling. We are prepared to make you an offer to print a story about you.”

Jayne thought fast. Shit! She didn’t want to refuse this offer, though she felt like it. Her publisher would kill her if she didn’t take this offer. The publicity alone would be worth millions and certainly guarantee her new novel would surpass all sales expectations.

“I would be very interested in such a story!” she informed the lady.

“My publisher would never forgive me if I didn’t grab onto you!” The lady laughed.

“We were hoping you would see it that way. I’m Naomi Graber. When would it be convenient for you to give an interview?”

“Any time would be fine for me. You realize you must send someone out here to do that?”

“We have just the man for it! When he heard about the interview, he begged for the job! He loves Vegas!” Naomi said. “I wish I could do it myself!”

“I will look forward to seeing him. When can he get here?”

“He’ll be there about noon tomorrow.”

“Tell him to come to the poker room in the Excalibur. I plan to be playing regularly over the next few days. How will I recognize him?”

Jayne asked. “Don’t worry about that. He’ll know you. Your picture is all over the back cover of your books. Besides..You cannot miss him. You’ll see what I mean when you see him. His name is Brett. Brett Kelly.”

Naomi chuckled.

The next afternoon Jayne was in a particularly interesting hand. Three players had called her bet of $50 on the opening two cards. She had a pair of 10’s. The flop came down. A ten and a pair of nines. She had a full house. Her initial bet was another $50. Two of the players called. The other one threw it away. The turn card came down. It was a seven. No flush was possible. But there was a straight out there. Jayne wasn’t worried.

Her full house was almost the nuts. The only cards that could beat her would be a pair of nines in the hole. Not much chance of that. She bet another $50. She got a raise of $25 and he was all in. The third player dropped. She called and turned her cards over. The other player turned over the pair of nines. Four Nines! Shit! she thought. The river came down.

It was her fourth ten. She screamed. Not only did she win the pot, but got a good piece of the bad beat. It was worth $5600. She got of it.

It took a good while for the payments to be made to the players because of the bad beat. As they sat there kibitzing about the hand, another player came up to the table. A seat was empty next to Jayne.

“Mind if I sit here?” he asked in a rich, low voice.

“It’s a free country,” Jayne quipped as she glanced up at him.

Her breath caught in her throat and her heart did a flop. Jesus! she thought. I haven’t been affected by a guy in this manner in ages..if ever!

The man, while not particularly old, had a shock of thick, wavy white hair and a smile to die for. He had a deep tan not often seen on any but sailors. His hands looked soft, however, so he was not one who worked with them a lot. Intelligent blue eyes rounded out a square face with high cheekbones. Perhaps native American. Perhaps part Polynesian. Perhaps just a Spanish ancestor.

“Hi. I’m Brett Kelly,” he said by way of introduction, sticking out his hand.

“I’m Jayne Rice,” Jayne said, taking his warm hand in hers.

“I know,” he added. “You’re the author of the Midnight books. Shall we go have a cup of coffee?”

“Sure,” she said, standing up.

The dealer was Donna, her favorite. “Well! For God’s Sakes! I’ve never seen a pick-up faster than that! What the hell’s going on, Jayne?” Donna asked, concerned.

“Don’t worry, Donna….”

Jayne began.

“Shhhhhhhhhhh!!!” Brett put a finger to his lips.

“Let her think anything she wants! I enjoy people thinking I’m some kind of Don Juan.”

“I think you might just be one at that!” Jayne said quietly.

“Let’s go over to the Sherwood Caf. They’ve got pretty good coffee there.”

“You lead the way, Lady. I hear this is your town!” Brett said with a flourish.

“Donna, would you collect for me?” Jayne asked.

“Go ahead, girl,” Donna said.

“I’ll have your chips up at the cage for you.”

They made their way to the caf and found seats at the counter. When coffee came she turned to him. He had been giving her the once-over since they left the poker table.

“Do I pass muster?” she asked coyly.

“More than that. You turn all the heads in the place. I’ve been watching!”

“Soooooooooo. Your magazine wants to do an article on me, huh? How come?” she asked, stirring the cream and fake sugar into her coffee.

“It’s a human interest thing. The powers that be at the paper want to do a piece on a successful author. I’m sure the fact you are quite beautiful helps a lot. I don’t think they’d bother with a dog.” he laughed.

“Besides, you have had ten best sellers in a row and have only been writing for five years. Everyone wants to know your secrets to success. That’s what I do. I do interviews and put things like this together.”

“What qualifies you to do that? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not criticizing. This is the first time I have been interviewed. I usually am at the other end of the questions. I won’t know how to act as the interviewee instead of the interviewer!”

“I tried writing. I wasn’t a success at it. I guess this is as close as I’ll ever get to being an author. Kind of a second hand thing!” Brett explained.

“Oh. I had all the words. I just couldn’t put them together in an interesting way!”

“Where would you like to start?” Jayne asked.

“Why not the beginning? Who is Jayne Rice?”