What I Did for Love (Wynette, Texas #5)(41)

He fingered the card tucked into an extravagant flower arrangement sitting on the credenza. “How did you and Rory Keene get to be such buddies?”

“Is that from her?”

“She wishes us the best. Correct me if I’m wrong, but she seems to take a special interest in you.”

“I barely know her.” That was true, although Rory had once phoned Georgie to suggest she avoid signing onto a certain project. Georgie had taken her advice, and sure enough, the film had run into money problems and shut down halfway through. Since Vortex hadn’t been involved, and Rory didn’t have anything to gain from the tip, Georgie had been puzzled by her interest. “I guess she feels some kind of connection with me because of the year she spent working as a P.A. on Skip and Scooter.”

Bram flicked the card back down on the credenza. “She doesn’t feel any connection with me.”

“I was nice to her.” Georgie barely remembered Rory from those days, but she did remember Bram’s habit of making life hard for the crew.

“Lowly P.A. to the head of Vortex Studios in fourteen years,” he said. “Who’d have guessed?”

“Apparently, not you.” She gave him her most annoying smile. “Payback’s a bitch.”

“I guess.” He slipped on a pair of devastatingly sexy aviators. “Let’s go show off your ring to the American public.”

They posed for the paps outside the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Beverly Boulevard. Bram kissed her hair and smiled at the photographers. “Isn’t she beautiful? I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”

After her hellish year of public humiliation, his words of phony adoration felt like balm to her bruised soul. How pathetic was that? She stepped on his foot to retaliate.



Chaz was coming back to the house from cleaning Bram’s office when she saw Georgie’s lardo assistant standing by the swimming pool, gazing down into the water. She marched over to him. “You’re not supposed to be out here.”

He blinked behind his glasses. The guy was a mess. Wiry brown hair exploded from his head, and whoever had picked out those big nerd glasses must have been blind. He dressed like a fat sixty-year-old man with his stomach hanging out over his belt and a checked sports shirt that pulled at the buttons.

“Okay.” He stepped around her to go back to the house.

She brushed off her hands. “What were you doing anyway?”

He shoved his fists in his pockets, adding to the bulk at his hips. “Taking a break.”

“From what? You’ve got an easy job.”

“Sometimes. It’s a little busy now.”

“Yeah, it looks like you’re real busy.”

He didn’t tell her to f*ck off, which she deserved for being so rude, but she hated having all these people running around her house. And that whole thing yesterday in Bram’s office with Georgie and the camera had thrown her off. She should have walked right out, but…

She tried to make up for being a bitch. “Bram probably wouldn’t mind if you used the pool once in a while, as long as you don’t do it too much.”

“I don’t have time to swim.” He pulled his hands from his pockets and walked away from her toward the house.

She didn’t swim anymore, either, but she’d loved the water when she was a kid. He was probably embarrassed about the way he looked in a suit. Or maybe only women felt that way.

“It’s private back here,” she called out. “Nobody would see you.”

He went into the house without answering her.

She retrieved the net from behind the waterfall rocks and began to skim for leaves. Bram had a pool service, but she liked making the water all clean and smooth. Bram told her she could swim whenever she wanted, but she never did.

She tossed down the net. Until Monday, she’d been so happy here, but now, with all these strangers invading her space, the bad feelings were coming back.

Half an hour later, she entered Georgie’s upstairs office. A big, kidney-shaped desk, matching wall unit, and a couple of streamlined chairs upholstered in spice-colored fabric printed with a tree branch design made up the new furnishings. Everything was too modern for the house, and she didn’t like it.

Aaron had his back to her, talking on the phone. “Ms. York isn’t giving interviews yet, but I’m sure she’d be more than happy to contribute to your charity auction…No, she’s already donated her Skip and Scooter scripts to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, but every year she designs some Christmas ornaments for groups like yours, and each one is personally autographed…”

He sounded like a different person on the phone, sure of himself and not so geeky. She set a turkey wrap on the desk. She’d made it with a fat-free tortilla, lean meat, sliced tomato, a few spinach leaves, a sliver of avocado, and carrot sticks on the side. Dude needed to get a clue.

He took in the wrap as he finished his conversation. When he hung up, she said, “Don’t count on this every day.” She picked up the new issue of Flash with Bram and Georgie on the cover and sat on the corner of his desk to thumb through it. “Go ahead and eat.”

He picked up the turkey wrap and took a bite. “You got any mayo?”

“No.” She carried a perfume sample to her nose and sniffed. “How old are you?”