What I Did for Love (Wynette, Texas #5)(89)

Silence fell over the living room. One by one, they began closing their scripts.

Bram’s eyes found hers, and she felt her mouth curve in a slow smile. His performance had been brilliant—quiet, desperate, inspired—completely unexpected. Once again, she’d sold him short.

Meg finally broke the silence. “Damn, Bram…Does anybody else know you can act?”

Laura blew her nose. “Son of a bitch.” She gazed toward Paul, who was staring off into space.

“Good job, Bram,” Lance said. “A little flat, but not bad for a first reading…”

“I thought it was brilliant,” Jade said bluntly. “You’ve been wasting your talent on bullshit parts.”

“Right.” Lance jumped back in. “A really interesting performance.”

Georgie gazed at her ex-husband. Bram and her father were right. Lance was like a…a giant block of tofu. He had no flavor of his own. Instead, he assumed the flavors of the people closest to him.

Laura still had her eyes on Paul, who abruptly left the room. Georgie was afraid to look at Rory until she heard a long, weary sigh. “All right, Bram…This is against my better judgment, but let’s go someplace and talk.”

Georgie gave a strangled yelp, but other than a small twitch at the corner of his mouth, Bram didn’t exhibit anything except lazy confidence. “Sure. We can talk in my office.”

“Well…well…,” Jade remarked as Rory and Bram disappeared.

“I’ll say.” Meg uncrossed her legs and rose from her perch on the floor. “I can’t wait to tell Mom about this.”

Lance drummed his fingers on his thigh, something he did when he was unhappy. Chaz came in from the kitchen, where she’d undoubtedly been eavesdropping, and asked if anyone wanted more coffee. What Georgie wanted to do was leap up and dance.

Her guests drifted off to their various beds. Georgie finally went upstairs. She was dying to hear about Rory’s conversation with Bram, and she tried to read while she waited but finally gave it up. Her thoughts drifted to her ex-husband. From the time they’d started dating until the end of their marriage, she’d let her love for him define who she was—first Lance Marks’s girlfriend, then Lance Marks’s wife, and finally Lance’s tragically victimized ex-wife. She’d let herself become the emotional slave of a famous, talented, unfaithful, but not really rotten…slab of tofu.

Bram shot through the door and dive-bombed the bed. Yanking the covers away, he kissed her until she was delirious.

“I take it…,” she said breathlessly, “…that you’re demonstrating your gratitude.”

“I am.” He grinned and brushed her temples with his thumbs. “Thank you, Georgina. I mean it.” He slipped his hand under her tank top and pinched her nipple. “But don’t ever do anything like that again without warning me. I nearly had a heart attack.”

She decided she could wait to hear the details of his meeting and arched her breast into his hand. “You’re welcome. Now show me how grateful you really are.”

He did exactly that.



The next morning Bram was as happy as Georgie had ever seen him. His eyes sparkled, and the razor edges of his mouth had softened. Rory had agreed to produce Tree House through Siracca Productions, a subsidiary of Vortex that made low-budget, so-called independent, films. He finally had exactly what he wanted. Georgie experienced a brief pang of envy. She felt more creative excitement filming Chaz than she’d felt for her real work. And then she remembered Helene.

That afternoon the health department lifted the quarantine after blood tests determined that Jade’s assistants were suffering from a virus, not from SARS. Both women were still weak, but improving. By the time everyone was ready to leave, three helicopters buzzed overhead, and a media maelstrom waited at the gates. Rory slipped out the back, but the rest of them waited for the police to arrive and clear the way.

Now that Bram’s dreams were coming true, Georgie had to take the next step toward realizing her own. She went outside to find Laura. As her agent came back up the path from the guesthouse, Georgie walked down the steps to meet her. Laura’s baby-fine hair bounced this way and that around the soft prettiness of her face. She didn’t look tough enough to be an agent, and maybe she wasn’t. Georgie licked her lips. “I want you to cancel my meeting with Rich Greenberg tomorrow.”

Laura stopped in her tracks, her brown eyes widening with alarm. “Georgie, I can’t do that. You have no idea how hard I worked to get that meeting. You weren’t even on Rich’s radar screen until I talked to him, but now he’s thinking seriously about you.”

“I understand, but you didn’t talk to me about it first. I’m not doing that film.”

“Rich has some great ideas. You should at least hear him out.”

“It’s a waste of his time. I’ll call him myself and apologize.”

Laura tugged on her necklace. The deep shadows under her eyes indicated she hadn’t been sleeping well. “Your father is…He strongly believes this is the best project for you.”

“I’ll make sure he understands this was my decision.”

Laura looked unconvinced.

“I can’t do it,” Georgie said. “That last film I made…All I did was go through the motions.”