He nodded, wondering about it. “Another woman?” he asked her directly.
“Another man,” she said simply, without anger or bitterness, and sounded matter-of-fact. “I was stupid not to see it.”
“We’re all stupid sometimes. Sometimes you need to be, to get by. You can’t face yourself all the time. It’s hard work,” he said with considerable wisdom, and she nodded. He was right.
The others had finished swimming by then, and came to thank him for a wonderful evening. And they left a little while later.
“Would you like to join us for dinner at the ranch tomorrow?” Kait asked him before she got in the car with the others.
“I’d have loved it,” he said and looked as though he meant it, “but I’m going to Laramie to buy some horses. There’s an auction there. I’ll be back on Sunday.”
“We’re leaving then,” she said regretfully. She had really enjoyed getting to know him. “We had a wonderful evening.”
“So did I.” He smiled at her. “I’ll come to New York to see how the shooting’s going. I want to get a feel for it before I step into it at the end, as the teaser for next year.”
She smiled at what he said. “See you then.”
“Good luck with the show,” he said warmly as she got into the car. He waved as they drove away, and they watched him walk back into his house.
“What a great guy!” Tommy said as they headed back to the ranch.
“He likes you, Mom,” Stephanie said with rare insight. She and Frank had been impressed with the sophisticated computer setup in his office, the others with the art he collected. Candace looked knowingly at her mother.
“Steph’s right.”
“I like him too. He’s nice. We’re going to work together, he just wanted to get to know the co-executive producer,” she said blithely, and they all hooted at her.
“He’d be great for you, Mom,” Tommy said happily.
“Don’t be silly. He’s a movie star. He can go out with anyone he wants to, and I’ll bet he dates women half his age,” although he had indicated otherwise to her. But she knew she couldn’t go there. If she started falling for him, she’d be in big trouble on her show. This was work, and that’s all it ever could be. She wasn’t going to start having fantasies or falling for superstars like Nick Brooke and make a fool of herself.
“You have our full approval, unanimously, if you want to marry him, Mom,” Candace teased her, and Kait ignored her and looked out the window, trying not to think of Nick. He was way, way, way out of her reach, and she knew it. But it had been a terrific evening anyway. She didn’t say another word about him when they got back to the ranch, and they all kissed good night and went to bed.
Chapter 11
The end of the vacation came too quickly, and it was painful saying goodbye. The girls and Kait had flights within an hour of each other, and waited together at the airport, and Tom and Maribeth and the children had left that morning on Hank’s plane. It had been everything Kait had hoped for and wanted to share with her family. There were tears in her eyes as she hugged each of them, and Tom’s daughters had cried when they left too.
Candace was the last to leave, and Kait held her tight and told her to be careful when she said goodbye, and the two women looked at each other for a moment.
“Please don’t do anything foolish,” Kait begged her and pulled her close again before leaving her.
“I won’t. I promise,” Candace whispered, and didn’t tell her she’d received a text that morning. They were sending her to the Middle East, to a remote area where there had been a slaughter of local women who had not followed their religious leader’s orders, as a warning to the other women in the town. Their murders had been brutal, and the segment was going to be part of a larger documentary she had been working on for months, and she wanted to go. “I love you, Mom,” she said seriously. “Thank you for a great vacation,” and then to lighten the moment she added, “I think you should go after Nick Brooke.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Kait laughed at her, and waved at her daughter as she ran to catch her flight to New York. It had been a vacation none of them would ever forget. She wanted to do it more often, and had suggested it before they left, and they all agreed. It was the benefit of their growing up. They could spend good times together, even if it was hard to find the time and arrange. It had been a magical week, and had strengthened the bonds between them.
She was sad alone in her apartment that night, and missed them fiercely. Tommy had texted her when they got back to Dallas, and she knew Candace was on her flight to London by then. And Stephanie called to thank her again.
And the next morning, life became real again. Maeve called her at seven-thirty and sounded somber as soon as Kait answered the phone and heard her voice.
“Ian has a bad cold. He can’t clear his own lungs. It could kill him,” she said, crying as she reported it to Kait. “If he gets pneumonia, it could be the end.”
“What can I do to help?” Kait offered.
“Nothing,” Maeve said. “I can’t start shooting in two weeks if he’s this sick.”
“Let’s wait and see what happens. We can shoot around you for a while. Becca has those scripts ready if we need them.” But the truth was that Maeve was in almost every scene for most of the show, except for the war scenes, where Loch was on his own. But if they had to, they’d shoot those first.
“I’m really sorry. But I wanted to warn you. We’re going to hospitalize him today.”
“Are the girls okay?”
“Tamra and Thalia are holding up. They worry about him too. How was your vacation? I hate to hit you with this the first day you’re back.”
“Let’s see how it goes,” she repeated, and Maeve promised to keep her posted.
Kait called to let Zack know after they hung up. He had the same reaction Kait did, not to panic until they had no other choice. But they had known they would be facing challenges with Maeve, since her husband was so sick and would get worse.
“Did you ever call Nick Brooke, by the way?” he asked her.
“I didn’t have to. We met him at the rodeo. He sang the anthem and I went to say hello. He invited us all to dinner at his house. He’s a terrific person. I think he’ll bring a lot to the role.”
“Yeah, good looks, talent, and a big name. That never hurts,” Zack said, being flippant about it, and Kait said no more. But she was looking forward to seeing Nick again, and felt stupid having a crush on a movie star at her age. But she was sure that once they worked together, it would pass. She could have fallen for Zack at one point, and now they were good friends. It was all she wanted with Nick Brooke. She wasn’t about to turn their workplace into a hotbed of romance, or use it as an opportunity to meet men, particularly movie stars who were way out of her league. They would have enough headaches with that with Dan Delaney and Charlotte Manning, who turned their movie sets into giant bedrooms and slept with anything that moved.
For the next three days Maeve’s reports about Ian weren’t encouraging, but by the end of the week, miraculously it turned around and got better. A week after they’d hospitalized him, he went home, and returned to the condition he’d been in before. They were no longer on red alert. And Maeve’s daughters were staying close in case she needed help. She said they were good about that.
Kait had called to check on Agnes too, who was in fighting form and had added a yoga class and a Pilates class to her routine of daily AA meetings, to get in shape. She couldn’t wait to start the show. She was miles away from where she’d been when Kait had met her as a drunken recluse months before. Now she was a talented, famous actress, ready and waiting to start work. She fully attributed the change to Kait, who reminded her, whenever she did, that she had found the strength in herself to do it, and no one had done it for her.
In the last days before they started shooting, Kait worked
closely with Becca on the scripts, and was happy with how tight they were and true to the bible Kait had written. The material was strong and beautifully developed. Zack had been a hundred percent right about her, which Kait admitted freely, especially to Becca.
The costume designer had everything ready, and the entire cast had had fittings, and hair and makeup tryouts, especially to get all the wigs and hairpieces right since it was a period piece. And as always, Maeve and Agnes had shown up to every appointment on time, and so had Abaya Jones. Only Charlotte Manning wanted them to come to her apartment with the wigs, canceled meetings, and missed lines in rehearsals, which drove everybody crazy. She was a big name and a gorgeous woman and a huge pain in everyone’s ass. And Dan Delaney was no better. He had already put the make on the costumer during his fittings, which had amused her to no end.
“Just to spare you a lot of time and trouble,” Lally explained to him, “I’m gay, my partner is fabulous and twice the man you are, and she’s pregnant with our baby. So cool your jets, hot guy, and let’s get your costumes right. How does that jacket feel? Too tight under the arms? Can you move in it?”
“Sorry, I didn’t know,” he said, referring to the pass he’d made, which she took in stride. She had dealt with men like him before. And everyone laughed when he left the room, after she’d marked the jacket to release it under the arms and across the chest. He was a big man with a small brain and a huge ego, as she commented to her assistant.
“Good one, Lally,” one of the soundmen said to her, and she laughed too.
They were planning their first scene at the airstrip they had rented on Long Island with the vintage planes, and to film all the scenes they needed to before moving their location to the house in upstate New York.
Everyone was ready the day they started rolling. Kait sat on the sidelines with Becca, watching the script carefully as the actors said their lines. Maeve was in the first scene with Dan Delaney and Phillip Green, the actor playing her husband, Loch. Phillip was flawless while Dan wasted everyone’s time, looked gorgeous, and fluffed his lines. And as expected, Maeve stole the scene as Nancy Haskell directed her and wrung every ounce of emotion out of her. Kait had tears in her eyes when Nancy signaled to the camera to cut at the end of the scene.
It was a hot day, and the commissary trucks were pouring gallons of water and handing out cold sodas and iced tea and lemonade. Nancy seemed pleased when they stopped for lunch. They had gotten two scenes in the can that morning, once Dan finally got his lines right.
Kait went to visit Maeve in her trailer and told her what a great job she’d done. Agnes was in her own trailer, watching daytime soaps and waiting to go on that afternoon. Kait dropped by to see her too, and Agnes was happy in a satin dressing gown with a wig on. She looked every inch a star. And there was no question that Maeve and Agnes raised the caliber of the show to another level. Kait was grateful they were in it, and so were they. And there was a strong bond between them, the director, and Kait. They understood the material in their gut as well as their lines. The characters were part of them by now after weeks of rehearsing and months of reading the scripts.
The shooting went without a hitch for three days, and then came to a grinding halt when Charlotte had a raging fit because she didn’t like her wig, threw it to the ground, and refused to do the next scene until it was changed. Nancy Haskell handled it with the utmost calm and switched the call sheet to a scene between Maeve and Agnes, and both were willing. They got it with two takes, and after that, Nancy went to see Charlotte in her trailer. The young actress was still pouting over the wig, while two of the hairdressers worked frantically, and one of them was in tears after Charlotte had thrown a Coke can at her. The hairdresser had a bruise on her arm and was threatening to quit. It was classic Charlotte and why she was always hated on set.
The director walked in and quietly closed the door. Charlotte looked up in surprise as Nancy stood in front of her, a daunting figure with a frighteningly soft voice.
“You’re in the next scene, and, frankly, I don’t care if you go on bald. But you’d better get your butt out there, and if you throw anything at anyone on this set again, I’m calling legal. It’s not too late to write you out of the show. Is that clear?”
Charlotte nodded, speechless. No one had ever spoken to her that way before. And everyone was amazed to see her come out of her trailer ten minutes later, wearing the wig and meek as a lamb. She did the scene without missing a line. Nancy winked at Kait as they moved on to the next scene with Agnes and Maeve, which was a pleasure to behold. And that night they watched what they had shot that day, and everyone was pleased. Zack was in L.A. closing another deal, and Kait reported to him that everything was going well in New York. Maeve’s husband seemed to be back on even keel again and out of imminent danger for now. It was the best they could hope for with him, and for Maeve.
Abaya was even better than they had believed she would be as Maggie. And she worked brilliantly with Maeve, who taught her some tricks. She was flawlessly professional, a very good actress although she was new in the business, and she was proving that taking a chance on her had been the right call. The only one trying to distract her was Dan Delaney, who kept asking her out. He showed up in her trailer without knocking while she was getting out of the shower, and she covered herself with a towel as she told him to leave.
“That would be hard,” he said evilly. “If you get my drift,” he continued, pointing to his crotch.
“What are you, in high school? Whoever told you lines like that were cute?” Abaya found him insulting and rude, and turned down every invitation to go out with him. He just moved on to the next one, and was soon after one of the hairdressers and an extra who thought he was hot. The extra had sex with him in his trailer one day during lunch, and he told everyone on the set about it.
“He’s either a sex addict, or he has no dick and he’s trying to prove something,” Abaya said to Maeve in disgust. She was dreading her upcoming scenes with him, but since they were supposed to be brother and sister, he had no opportunity to get his hands on her, much to her relief. He was actually a decent actor, though not as talented as she was, he was just a sleazy guy in real life, and she couldn’t stand him. Conflicts like that were standard on any set, Maeve explained to Kait. Someone always hated someone, and half the cast were having sex.
The big excitement for all of them was when they finished the Long Island scenes for the opening show. It was turning out exactly as Kait had hoped it would. Maeve was fabulous, Agnes was brilliant as the grandmother, Phillip Green was perfect in the role of Loch. Dan Delaney actually pulled it together and kept his pants up long enough to give believable performances, and in the final scene, flying with her father, Abaya stole the show. Everyone applauded with the last shot, and Kait almost cried, she was so happy. Charlotte and Brad, as the bad younger children, made only brief appearances in the first episode, so they didn’t have a chance to screw anything up, and Brad had been no problem so far. From what Kait could see, it was going to be an absolutely perfect first night for the show, especially once they added the scenes in upstate New York.
Kait was on a high when she got home that night, and smiled to herself every time she thought about it, but her elation ended quickly when Candace called her from London to say she was flying out that night on another dangerous assignment. It was the first Kait had heard of it, and her heart sank.
“How many times are you going to do this? You’re tempting fate. Wasn’t last time enough?”
“I won’t do it forever, Mom. I promise. I have to get it out of my system. And these documentaries open people’s eyes to what’s going on in the world.”
“That’s great,” Kait said angrily. “Let someone else do them. I don’t want to lose you. Don’t you understand that?”
“Yes, I do. But I’m twenty-nine years old. I have to live my life in a meaningful way for me. I can’t
just take some job that bores me to death because you want me to be safe. Nothing’s going to happen to me.” She was as adamant as her mother, who had tears running down her cheeks.
“You don’t know that. There are no guarantees in life. You put yourself at risk on every one of these assignments.”
“Stop worrying about me so much. It puts too much pressure on me. Just let me do my job.”
Kait didn’t know what else to say to convince her, and knew she couldn’t anyway. It was a battle she would never win with Candace. “Just take care of yourself,” Kait said unhappily, “and call me when you can. I love you. That’s all I have to say.”
“I love you too, Mom. Take care of yourself too.” They both hung up frustrated and unhappy. Kait sat crying for a minute and then called Maeve.
“She’s leaving again, to some shithole where someone can try to kill her. She’s an accident waiting to happen and she doesn’t know it. Sometimes I hate my children, because I love them so much.”
Maeve understood what she was saying and felt sorry for Kait. “I’m sure she’ll be all right. I think there’s a special guardian angel for stupid kids,” she said warmly.
“Not always,” Kait said, with despair in her voice. “She just doesn’t listen. She’s so busy trying to save the world.”
“She’ll get tired of it eventually.” Maeve encouraged her, and could only imagine how hard it was to accept, after Candace had been injured so recently and could easily have been killed.
“I hope you’re right, and she lives that long.”
“She will,” Maeve said firmly, and then they talked about how great the scenes had been that day, and how terrific the first episode was going to be once it was complete. They had sent it to Zack digitally, and he called her late that night and raved. She was thinking about Candace when she answered his call.
“What are you sounding so down at the mouth about? The first episode is great.”
“Sorry. Nothing. Family stuff. Sometimes my kids drive me insane.”
The Cast Page 15