What I Did for Love (Wynette, Texas #5)(85)

“You think I don’t know that?” He quickly reverted to his starchy self. “Is this how you’ve built your career? By eavesdropping?”

“It wasn’t intentional,” she said. “I came out here to see if I could get better cell reception, and I heard the two of you talking. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Or go back inside and leave us alone?”

“I got sucked in by your cluelessness. It temporarily paralyzed me.” She caught her breath, unable to believe those words had come from her mouth. She wanted to chalk up her unguarded tongue to a sleepless night, but what if it was something more dangerous? What if all these years of self-disgust had finally eaten away at the last threads of her restraint?

He wasn’t used to anything but her obsequiousness, and his eyebrows lifted. Her entire career depended on representing Georgie York, and she had to apologize quickly. “I just meant…You always seem so together. You’re sure of your opinions, and you don’t second-guess yourself.” She took in his navy slacks and expensive polo shirt, and her apology began to go awry. “Just look at you. Those are the same clothes you had on last night, but you don’t muss. You don’t wrinkle. You’re very intimidating.”

If only he hadn’t reared back on his heels and looked down his nose at her sadly wrinkled kimono top and wilted ivory slacks, she might have been able to stop herself. Instead, she said, much too loudly, “That was your daughter you were talking to. Your only child.”

His fingers curled around the coffee cup Georgie had left behind. “I know who she is.”

“I always thought my father was screwed up. He was lousy with money, and he couldn’t hold a job, but a day never went by that he didn’t give all us kids a hug and say how much he loved us.”

“If you’re suggesting I don’t love my daughter, you’re wrong. You’re not a parent. You can’t understand what it’s like.”

She had four wonderful nieces, so she had a fairly good idea what parental love involved, but she had to stop herself right now. Except her tongue seemed to have disconnected from her brain. “I don’t get how you can be so distant with her. Can’t you just act like a father?”

“Apparently you weren’t eavesdropping hard enough or you’d know that’s exactly what I was doing.”

“By lecturing and criticizing? You don’t approve of what she wants to do with her career. You don’t like her taste in men. Exactly what do you like about her? Other than her earning power.”

His face flushed with fury. She didn’t know which of them was more shocked. She was ruining everything she’d taken so many years to build. She had to beg his forgiveness, but she was too sick of herself to find the right words.

“You just stepped way over the line,” he said.

“I know. I’m—I shouldn’t have said that.”

“You’re damned right you shouldn’t have.”

But instead of rushing away from him before she could do any more damage, her feet remained stubbornly in place. “I’ve never understood why you seem so disapproving of her. She’s a terrific woman. She might not have the best taste in men, although I have to say Bram has been a pleasant surprise, but…She’s warm and generous. How many actors do you know who try to make life easier for the people around them? She’s smart as a whip, and interested in everything. If she were my daughter, I’d want to enjoy her instead of always behaving as though she needs to be made over.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” But she could see he understood exactly what she meant.

“Why don’t you just have fun with her sometimes? Goof off. Do something that doesn’t involve business. Play a card game, splash around in the pool.”

“How about a trip to Disneyland?” he said caustically.

“How about it?” she tossed back.

“Georgie’s thirty-one, not five.”

“Did you do those things with her when she was five?”

“Her mother had just died, so I was a little preoccupied,” he snapped.

“That must have been horrible.”

“I was the best father I knew how to be.”

She saw real pain in his eyes, but it didn’t stir her compassion. “Here’s what bothers me, Paul…If I don’t understand how much you love her, how’s she supposed to?”

“That’s enough. More than enough. If this is all the respect you have for our professional relationship, then maybe we need to reassess where we are.”

Her stomach twisted. She could still salvage this. She could plead illness, insanity, SARS…But she didn’t do any of it. Instead, she squared her shoulders and stepped off the veranda.

Her heart pounded as she made her way back to the guesthouse. She thought about her killer mortgage, about what would happen to her reputation if she lost her star client, about how badly, how catastrophically, she’d screwed up. So why didn’t she run back and apologize?

Because a good agent—a great agent—served her client well, and for the first time, Laura felt as though she’d done exactly that.





Chapter 19




All day Bram watched the human chess game being played out in front of him as helicopters circled overhead. He observed Georgie doing her best to stay away from Lance, Jade, and her father, while Paul barely spoke to anyone. He saw Chaz pandering to Lance and Jade but remaining her customary pain in the ass to Georgie and Aaron. Meg helped out in the kitchen, sneered at Lance whenever he passed by, and acted as if Jade were invisible. Laura assumed the role of a nervous Switzerland, trying to move neutrally among all warring nations. And everybody sucked up to Rory, including himself.