Second Chance Reunion

by Irene Vartanoff

  The terrible thing was she’d let him in if he knocked on her door right now. She went to the bathroom, locked herself inside, and turned on the shower. She didn’t need another shower, and she ought to feel guilty about wasting water here in the desert. She stripped off her finery and threw herself into the stall, turning the water as cold as she could stand.

  Was everything she’d experienced with David Connor a lie? Last night, when she’d been lying on the EMT’s gurney, he’d kissed her as if he cared about her. This afternoon in the hospital room it had been the same. She’d felt they were developing an intimate personal relationship, and that had caused her to reappraise her feelings about Lucas. Had she been completely wrong? Was David merely attempting to use her, to manipulate her to betray Lucas?

  She wanted to finish the film, and so did David. Their motives were different, but pushing Lucas to face the past and move on with his life was not a betrayal, was it?

  Why was she thinking about Lucas when David had tried to seduce her and she had almost let him? Almost? Only the arrival of Lucas had saved her.

  After her unnecessary shower, Sara slipped into bed. She pulled her pair of noise-canceling headphones out of her suitcase and put them on, connecting them to a music player. Whether she could find sleep or not, she refused to be battered anymore tonight by the rivalry of the two men she’d left in the sunroom. With any luck, no one would set the house on fire again tonight. If they decided to duke it out once more, she didn’t want to hear them.

  Chapter 17

  The next morning, Sara was eating an egg when David arrived in the breakfast room. His mood was all business. “Where’s Steel?”

  The seductive lover of the night before was gone. Had it all been an act? She fought to keep a flush off her face, to calm her pulse and pretend that seeing him didn’t excite her body in ways she couldn’t control. It was impossible to be indifferent to his allure.

  Leona came in and said, “The boss has gone on another of his horseback rides.”

  “He does it for hours and hours at a time,” Sara told him.

  “Time is what we don’t have.” He cursed. “Where does he go? Can we follow him by Jeep?”

  Leona shook her head. “My husband says the boss goes north into the desert. There’s a path and everything, but it’s long and lonely. No roads.”

  “Can you get Bill to bring a couple of horses around? We’ll ride after Steel, catch up with him.”

  “Sure.” She hauled a phone out of her apron pocket.

  “Wait!” Sara broke in urgently. “I’ve only been on a horse a few times in my entire life.”

  “Riding a horse is easy enough,” David said. “I’ll teach you.” He signaled that Leona should go ahead with her call.

  While the housekeeper called, Sara spoke in a low voice. “Can you ride?”

  “They taught me when I was in Desert Wind. My character was a cowboy.”

  “Oh. Right. You ride off into the sunset.”

  “Yep. I was called Dusty.” He made a face at that.

  She smiled a little at his boyish pout. “Could have been worse. They could have called you Tex.”

  They quickly split up to change into jeans and long-sleeved shirts, plus plenty of sunscreen and a hat for each. Why hadn’t she acted cold with him, or angrily brought up his behavior of last night? He hadn’t tried to charm her this morning at all. Yet here she was, going along with his crazy idea of confronting Lucas on horseback. She was too eager to see what would happen next. This was her life, not a movie on the screen.

  They reconnoitered in front of the house, where Leona’s husband, Bill, held the reins of two horses. After a few minutes of running through riding basics, Sara was comfortable on the horse. She could let her mare follow David’s stallion and be okay. They turned their horses toward the trail Bill pointed out to them.

  “This is kind of extreme, chasing after Lucas,” she said.

  “Better than twiddling our thumbs all day, waiting for it to be convenient for Lucas to deign to talk to us.”

  The bitterness was back in his voice, and she could hardly blame him. Lucas was obstructing them again.

  After twenty minutes, they saw Lucas riding toward them, already on his way home. He must have started his ride hours ago. He didn’t look pleased to see them coming. When they met on the narrow trail, he said, “Why are you here?”

  “I want the final shooting script for Desert Wind,” David said.

  Lucas cursed and deliberately caused his mount to rear.

  David kept control of his mount, but Sara’s horse spooked. It took off at a gallop.

  She didn’t know how to calm the horse down. She hung on, hoping she wouldn’t be thrown off and break her neck. The mare charged off the trail into the open desert, where a gopher hole could easily cripple the panicky animal. Sara tried leaning forward, low against the mare’s neck, but that only made the horse run faster. Next she tried leaning back in the saddle until she was upright. She desperately tried to keep her balance. The horse was still running in a panic. Sara clutched the pommel and held on tight.

  Hands reached out to her. She looked up. Lucas rode to her left and David to her right.

  “Give me the reins,” David shouted.

  Reins. Reins. Her fingers were frozen on the reins. Her grip of terror wouldn’t let her.

  “The reins!”

  She loosened her grasp on the leather straps. David grabbed the reins and moved his horse against her mare, butting her and pulling on the reins. Finally, the mare began to slow down.

  Even before both horses stopped, David leaned over and bodily removed Sara from the mare, putting her in front of him. “You’re safe now.”

  She shivered and couldn’t stop shivering.

  “You did fine,” he said. He spoke more words her brain didn’t take in, but she heard his soothing tone.

  The shivers began to abate. She said, “I didn’t die,” and burst into tears.

  David cradled her in his arms, holding her tighter. “You were very brave.”

  “I thought she’d never stop,” she said between sobs.

  “No thanks to that selfish moron, Steel,” David said.

  She shivered again.

  “Are you going into shock? Better get you back to the house and call the EMTs.”

  She shook her head although she was still shivering and sobbing every few seconds. “I’ll be okay.” The runaway mare now stood docilely next to Lucas, ten feet away. A sob tore through her. “Do I have to ride her home? I don’t know if I can.”

  David’s voice went into gentle mode. “You’re a trouper, honey. You don’t have to be a superhero, too. Try to find your calm. I’ll get you home. Lean on me.”

  “Are you okay, Sara?” Lucas asked.

  Was that concern in his voice? Did she even care? His anger had exposed her to a dangerous situation. Would he take responsibility for his action?

  “Too bad your horse got out of line,” Lucas added. “You shouldn’t ride if you don’t know how to control your mount.”

  David’s voice was hard. “Shut the hell up, you bastard. You almost got her killed. Don’t try to shift the blame.”

  Sara sobbed some more, hiding her face against David’s strong chest.

  David ran one hand soothingly along her back, pressing her closer. His voice when he spoke again was still hard and cold. “Take the mare home, Steel. And keep a safe distance from us. You’ve caused enough trouble.”

  Sara zoned out as David rode the path to the house. From time to time a shiver racked her body, or a sob. She’d come so close to being seriously injured. It brought home how fragile life was. All because a horse shied.

  She had been lucky. Jennifer Barnes had not. Both women were out of their element here in this desert. They knew how to navigate cities, but not this raw place where one error in judgment could get you killed.

  ***

  Sara woke from a doze, not knowing where she was, but feeling she was safe. David’
s arms were around her. She opened her eyes. The house was in front of her.

  David shifted his weight. “Awake? Want to slide down?”

  “Give me a second? I feel really shaky.”

  He cursed Lucas with great fluency. David was good with words after all.

  She said, “It’s the reaction to the adrenaline rush. I was out of it for a while.”

  “Ready? Here we go.” He slowly let her slide down. His arms were powerful enough to keep her safely suspended until her feet touched the ground. “Okay now?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” Her hat was gone. She shaded her eyes and looked up at him. “Thank you for saving me.”

  David sat in the saddle as if he was born in one. “You’re mighty welcome, ma’am.” He tipped his hat.

  She shivered again. “Don’t. Don’t pretend it was all in a day’s script. Please.”

  David pushed his hat back, allowing her to see the burning expression in his blue eyes. “If I don’t try to make a joke of it, I’ll rip him apart. He’s not worth one second of your life, Sara. Not one.”

  She closed her eyelids in anguish. Lucas's careless action had almost killed her. And this was the man she’d thought herself in love with for six years?

  David dismounted and tethered his horse. Then he scooped Sara into his arms and bodily carried her into the house, shouting for Leona as he did.

  Chapter 18

  They insisted she drink a cup of coffee and sit wrapped in a blanket for half an hour, doing nothing, while they monitored her vital signs to make sure she didn’t go into shock. Then Sara was allowed to take a shower and relax in an easy chair for another hour with Leona checking on her every few minutes.

  Her thoughts went around and around about David, Lucas, George, and horses. Had she been wrong to believe that Lucas was essentially an admirable man? Was her vision of Lucas as a man who suffered from extended grief merely the exaggeration of hero worship? Or had the tragedy he’d suffered brought him to such callous behavior? How strange that David kept proving he was the better man.

  A while later, she’d had enough rest and was ready to get on with her job. It was either that or give up and leave New Mexico immediately.

  After checking with Leona and grabbing a quick snack, Sara found David in the cleaned-up editing booth, looking at a scene on the right of the two monitors sitting on the desk.

  “Is that Desert Wind?”

  He turned. “How are you? Better now?” His eyes seemed to caress her.

  “I’m fine,” she said shortly, wanting to forget how it felt to be held in his arms. She didn’t know what to believe about David, whether he was trying to use her to hurt Lucas, or had genuine feelings for her. For now, she must get their relationship back on a professional basis. She pointed at the monitor. “Where did you get that?”

  David visibly shut off his emotion, but not before his eyes revealed hurt at her brisk tone. “Steel let me at the disks for Desert Wind. Tossed them at me, actually.”

  “But he claimed he’d destroyed his only copy.” The redone editing booth had two new office chairs, and she sat in the second one and spun it to face David. “What files did he give you?”

  He pointed to the monitor. “The interior shots filmed in Los Angeles.”

  She peered at the screen and immediately realized they were only test shots. Not the real deal.

  David must have seen from the expression she couldn’t hide that Lucas had only pretended to give him something useful. “Let me guess. You already have these?”

  She nodded. “Even if I didn’t, they aren’t from the actual film.” She pointed out the discrepancies. The monitor showed an interior of a home, obviously a studio set. Actors in costumes said some lines, but none of them were the featured actors of Desert Wind.

  David slewed around and stared at the screen as she explained.

  “You’re right.” He let out a breath. “He’s still playing games.”

  She worried at her lip with her teeth. They needed ideas. And time. “Can you stop the crew from arriving next week? Halt the schedule?”

  “No,” he said. “Reasons.” He waved away the next question she opened her mouth to ask. “What’s the alternative?”

  She took a breath. “I have George’s original script. You and Lucas could sit down and go through it, listing which scenes were shot, which were canceled, and which were added.”

  He shook his head. “I’ll kill him if I have to be in the same room with him for hours on end. Think of a better plan.”

  She sighed. “I could interview each of you separately. But then you can’t remind each other of what happened and correct any mistaken memories.”

  David snorted. “He doesn’t want to remember and I don’t want to forget. But I have forgotten. It’s all mashed together in my mind. I’ve done seven films since Desert Wind. Two were westerns.” He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. “This is nuts. It’s got to happen somehow, but how?”

  She shifted in her chair, trying to focus on the problem and not on how beautiful David was, his muscular body casually on display in a thin T-shirt and khaki shorts. “What we talked about before. If Lucas still has his shooting script, the most up-to-date version, it might have notes on what scenes are complete.”

  “That’s if he didn’t torch it the other night.”

  She tightened her lips, silently acknowledging that grief had already driven Lucas to willfully destroy his own creative work. There was no point in sugarcoating it. Even if she worked all day and night, she’d have trouble reconstructing the film without some guidance from the two men. One of them wasn’t likely to help. The other was…too tempting.

  The room was small. She was absurdly conscious of how close she was to David, of how he had held her in those well-muscled arms only an hour ago. She wanted him to hold her again. She should have acknowledged the growing feeling between them when she walked in here, instead of freezing him out.

  How contrary was she? She was falling under the spell of David Connor’s incredible physical appeal despite doubting his motives. Although he had saved her life today. That ought to count for something, show what kind of man he truly was.

  David eyed her with a slight smile, waiting for her to make a suggestion about Desert Wind. She wanted to kiss those perfect lips again. She stood abruptly. “I’ll go get my copy of the original script. Maybe that will be enough.” Before he could form a protest, she fled.

  In her bedroom, she leaned against the closed door and took a deep breath. How could merely being in the same little room with David have made her melt so completely? Why was she suddenly so conscious of his body? Why did she want him to hold her again?

  Had she felt this way six years ago, when she’d fallen in love with Lucas even though he was her boss, and married, and totally out of her league?

  David Connor was out of her league, too. Not merely a movie star, he had the Academy Award nominations and the Oscar win to prove he was a great actor. She’d told herself he was only an actor, but somehow now she was exquisitely attuned to his presence in a room. Her body had caught fire just from a glance. Did she react that way to Lucas?

  She still cared about Lucas, but she feared his physical outbursts. Meanwhile, she felt an increasing desire to fling herself at David Connor, of all people, a super handsome movie star who was pursued by far more glamorous women than her. At least David wasn’t married, and technically George was still her boss, but David was equally as hung up over Jennifer Barnes as Lucas ever had been.

  She had to stop this and get on with the job. Or else leave. Leaving was beginning to feel like a good choice.

  She retrieved the all-important script George had provided. As she left the guest room, David accosted her in the corridor. “So this is where you escaped to. I went looking for you and couldn’t find you. You moved out of your room because I teased you about sharing the bathroom?”

  “I hardly knew you,” she replied.

  He raised an eyebrow.
“You know me a lot better now.”

  Although her face heated at his reminder, she said in her most prissy voice, “A few kisses do not constitute a relationship.”

  David looked as if he wanted to argue. She made herself turn away and walk down the hall toward the editing booth. How was she going to keep her cool with David in that tiny room? She couldn’t. “I can do this part alone,” she tossed over her shoulder. “You don’t need to be involved.”

  “You can’t get rid of me that easily. I can help.”

  She silently continued down the corridor to the editing booth. There she settled into the seat in front of the monitor. David took the seat next to her, and pointed at the square-bound typescript in her hands. “I remember this much. We didn’t follow the original script.”

  Oh, great. She put a hand to her forehead, where a headache threatened to start.

  Chapter 19

  George’s script was pristine. The cover page said it was the final shooting script, but the lack of interpolated colored pages signifying script changes proved it wasn’t. Sara asked David, “Did you film in sequence?” That would be very unusual, but Lucas was a genius auteur director. He might have.

  David shook his head. “Interiors first, at the studio.”

  She absently leafed through the script. “Are the interiors complete, at least?”

  “Probably. But Lucas changed his mind about some of them.” He rolled his eyes. “He changed the script every day.”

  “He says he’s forgotten the details.”

  David gave her a cynical look. “Deliberately, no doubt.”

  She had to speak up in defense of Lucas. “Everyone handles painful memories in their own way. Naturally, he wants to forget.”

  “I don’t buy that.” He indicated the house and the surrounding desert with a gesture of his hand. “Staying here is not the way to forget what happened.”