What I Did for Love (Wynette, Texas #5)(84)

“I signed one just yesterday.”

He’d started getting requests when his hair had gone silver. At first, he’d tried to explain that he wasn’t Gere, but people hadn’t always believed him, and some had even made comments about stuck-up movie stars. Paul eventually decided he wasn’t doing Gere any favors by pissing off his fans, so he’d started signing. “I’ll bet it was a woman,” Georgie said, “and I’ll bet she loved you in An Officer and a Gentleman. People need to get over that. It wasn’t your best film.”

“True. They conveniently forget about Unfaithful and The Hoax.”

“What about Chicago?”

“Or Primal Fear.”

“Nope. Ed Norton stole that one from you.”

He smiled, and they both fell silent, neutral territory exhausted. She set her coffee on one of the tile tables and made herself act like a grown-up. “I appreciate what you said to Lance earlier, but the two of you had your own relationship. It wouldn’t be right for me to spoil that.”

“Do you really think I’m going to pal around with him after what he did to you?”

Of course not. Her father cared too much about her image to be seen with Lance Marks.

A jagged ray of sunlight cut a silver blaze across his hair. “You delivered a moving defense of Bram earlier,” he said, “but I doubt anyone believed it. What are you doing with him, Georgie? Explain it to me so I can understand. Explain how you could instantly fall in love with a man you detested. A man who’s—”

“He’s my husband. I don’t want to hear any more.”

But the gloves were off, and he came closer. “I hoped by now you’d have finally figured out the kind of man you belong with.”

“What do you mean, ‘finally.’ I already figured it out, remember? And that marriage wasn’t exactly a rousing success.”

“Lance was never the right man for you.”

It was the helicopters. They were making so much noise they’d distorted his words. “Excuse me?”

He turned away from her. “I supported you with Lance, even though I knew he’d never make you happy, but I’m not doing it again. I’ll say the right things in public, but privately I’m going to speak my mind. I don’t have the stomach to start up the pretend game with you again.”

“Wait a minute! What are you talking about? You introduced me to Lance. You loved him.”

“Not as your husband. But you wouldn’t hear a word of criticism.”

“You never said you didn’t like him, just that he didn’t have as many dimensions as I did, once again implying that I need to be more focused.”

“That’s not what I meant at all. Georgie, Lance is a decent actor—he’s found his niche, and he’s smart enough to stick to it. But he’s never had a personal identity of his own. He relies on the people around him to define who he is. Until he met you, he’d hardly read at all. You’re the one who got him interested in music, dance, art—even current events. The way he absorbs other people’s personalities helps make him a good actor, but it doesn’t make him a good husband.”

This was virtually the same thing Bram had said.

“I could never stomach the way you acted around him,” he went on, “as though you were grateful he’d chosen you when it should have been the other way around. He fed off that. He fed off you—your sense of humor, your curiosity, how easy you are with people. Those things don’t come naturally to him.”

“I can’t believe…Why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you tell me how you felt about him?”

“Because every time I tried, your back went up. You worshipped him, and nothing I said was going to change that. We had enough tension over your career. What would criticizing him have accomplished except to make you resent me even more?”

“You should have been honest. I always believed you cared more about him than you did about me.”

“You like to think the worst of me.”

“You blamed me for the divorce!”

“I never blamed you. But I do blame you for marrying Bramwell Shepard. Of all the stupid—”

“Stop. Don’t say any more.” She pressed her fingers to her temples. She felt upended. Was her father telling her the truth, or was he trying to rewrite history so he could preserve the illusion of his own omnipotence?

Phones were ringing inside, and she could hear the gate intercom buzzing. A third helicopter dropped down, lower than the other two. “This is crazy.” She made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “We can…talk about it later.”



Laura waited until Georgie disappeared to emerge from the back of the veranda. Paul looked as vulnerable as an invincible man of steel could look. He was such a mystery to her. So tightly controlled. She couldn’t imagine him laughing at a great dirty joke, let alone being caught up in a colossal orgasm. She couldn’t imagine him doing anything to excess.

He lived modestly by Hollywood standards. He drove a Lexus instead of a Bentley and owned a three-bedroom town house instead of a mansion. He had no personal staff, and he dated women his own age. What other fifty-two-year-old Hollywood male did that?

Over the years, she’d spent so much energy resenting him that she’d stopped thinking of him as anything more than a symbol of her ineffectiveness, but she’d just witnessed his Achilles’ heel, and something inside her shifted. “Georgie’s a terrific person, Paul.”