Playing House Away From Home

Chapter 16

Lisa waved goodbye over Elvis' shoulder. She thankfully did not give him any trouble when he handed her over to his grandmother. Not much later he, the Mafia and Loretta's crew sat assembled in the kitchen. The men wasted no time digging into the food offered, but Loretta didn't appear to be hungry.

"Hillbrook people ain't here yet?" Loretta asked.

Elvis shook his head. "You guys are early."

"You know who exactly is gonna come?"

"No. I hope it's not Keith."

"I thought he was a poor fool."

"Still is a poor fool if he still works for Hillbrook."

Alberta, one of Elvis' cooks, was flitting around the kitchen. Upon noting that Loretta wasn't eating she asked, "Would you like a coffee, ma'am?"

"No thank you, ma'am, I don't drink coffee."

Elvis raised a brow at her and chuckled. "You did that one time on the set..."

"One sip. And it was awful."

"That's not what coffee tastes like," Charlie Hodge piped up, "That stuff wasn't really coffee anyway that was..."

"Shit," Elvis filled in.

"You're the one who would drink it every day," Loretta pointed out. "The only one."

"There were other people that did."

Loretta shook her head, smiling at the same time. The dark circles under her eyes weren't too pronounced, but they were there and impossible to miss for Elvis. He knew what it was like to be on the road, to sleep on moving buses and in unfamiliar hotel rooms. Maybe he should have never mentioned this grand plan to her for all he did want to do was tuck this woman into bed and let her sleep for half a day.

"El-vis," Red's voice cut into his thoughts. "You not gonna answer your lady friend over there?"

Elvis' head snapped toward Loretta. "You ask me somethin'?"

"No, honey. I only said that Lisa Marie's gettin' awful big."

"Yeah." His smile was bittersweet, tinged with sadness, same as the one reflected on her face. She understood, because her children were growing up without her too.

"And your Colonel really won't be comin'?"

"Done told you that he's not my Colonel, didn't I? But no, he won't. He said that he wasn't gonna have nothing to do with that."

"Suits me right," Loretta said in a way that made Elvis chuckle. "No one 'round here says dagum, right?"

A distinct wrinkle formed in between Elvis' eyebrows. "No. I think we talked about that before, didn't we?"

"Might have. Lisa seemed to really like hearin' that earlier and I don't want Priscilla bein' mad at you."

"She knows you're here."

Loretta pursed her lips, looking somewhat doubtful. Truth be told, Priscilla didn't know that Loretta was coming, though she did know that Hillbrook representatives and Loretta's management would be present to work out something related to promotion. He wouldn't tell Priscilla that he was going to tour with Loretta until he had to.

"So maybe she don't," Elvis relented. "But she does all kinds of things when I'm not here, I'm sure."

He turned his icy glare toward his mafia when they cackled. Elvis got to his feet, offering Loretta a hand. "Want me to show you the place?" The words were already out of his mouth when he remembered that she came with her whole crew. "Everyone else too."