Second Chance Reunion
Page 17
“I didn’t deserve your hero worship, but I needed it. Jennifer tired of me as she tired of all her men. That was hard on my ego. Your rejection that night in Malibu was tough to take on top of that. I wasn’t much if I couldn’t even manage to half-drunkenly seduce my little intern who was desperately in love with me. And no matter what you may think, I never made a habit of messing with my interns.”
His confession was balm to her soul. He seemed completely sincere. Yet a corner of her mind wondered if he was telling the truth. She hesitated, but finally nerved herself to say, “I heard differently.”
A touch of anger showed in his expression. “Jennifer liked to tell people we had an open marriage. Not true. She chose to work on projects with young and impressionable men—the kind she could easily seduce. She was the one who routinely took advantage of youth and inexperience. Not me.”
His face showed remembered pain. “I loved her, but I was a fool to think she could be faithful to me or to any man.”
Sara couldn’t find any comforting words. How sad that Lucas had wasted five years mourning for a woman who had betrayed him.
“You loved me all those years.” His voice was deep. “I’m tired of being alone. I need someone who loves me and will be constant. Be that someone.”
Sara shook her head. “If you had wanted me the first night I was here—really wanted me—I would have stayed in your arms.”
“I didn’t know you then.”
“I didn’t know myself. Getting involved with you would have been a mistake.”
“Why? I’m much the same man I was before, when you were my intern and you were in love with me for all the world to see.”
She flushed a little at being reminded of her folly. “Perhaps you haven’t changed, but I have. My feelings are different now. I love David.”
Lucas's face reflected his sadness. “I’ve made many mistakes in my life. Not taking your love when you offered it was another one.”
***
After their talk, Sara felt at peace with Lucas and with her past. She pushed herself to keep working on the rough cut, so she could release both David and Lucas from the pain of revisiting the past.
Late that night, David mentioned that he’d canceled the film crew. He admitted he’d always had that option. “Before, I was trying to pressure you.”
She was lying in their bed, faint with exhaustion, almost asleep. “No wonder you’re such a success in Hollywood. You’re a master manipulator.”
“I’d like to manipulate you right now, but you’re too tired.”
She lifted her arms to him, anyway. The last thing she felt was the touch of his wonderfully soft lips on hers as she drifted off.
The next day, after many more hours of nonstop editing, she finally had a rough cut.
She called them to the television room so she could play Desert Wind for them all together. It wasn’t a long film. Slightly under the standard two hours. “Remember, this is a rough cut. I will make many, many more careful edits.”
The film ran. Sara watched, wincing at her crude edits, as a much younger David played a smitten cowboy to Jennifer Barnes's strong woman rancher. The tough older woman with a cold heart drove everyone away from her, but her cowboy hung in there until the last moment. Then he finally told the woman he loved goodbye. She was left alone in the desert, watching him ride away, he and his horse getting smaller by the second.
Then it was over.
Sara didn’t rise immediately to turn the lights in the room back on. She gave her small audience time to compose itself. After a minute, she stood and flipped the switches. David’s tears were open on his cheeks. Lucas looked stunned and pained.
“George…” she said.
David and Lucas turned to look at him. His head hung down on his chest.
Sara’s heart skipped a beat and suddenly her perception of the sounds in the room went strange, as if she were hearing everything from a vast distance. One hand went to her throat. “Is he…?”
Lucas reached a hand to his old friend, touching his shoulder.
George roused, groaning a little. He noticed their expressions. “Thought I was a goner, did you? Not yet. Had to rest my eyes a bit.” He looked at Lucas. “What do you think?” He gestured toward the television.
“It’s…remarkable. Jennifer gave the best performance of her life.”
David nodded, tight-lipped. He was visibly holding back strong emotion. She put a hand on his shoulder, feeling the tension in his muscles. He pulled her down to sit close to him.
“It’ll be a triumph,” George pronounced. “I’ll live long enough to get the publicity machine rolling. Sara, take everything back to LA and get to work. Push on it. Connor, the honeymoon’s over. Don’t expect to see much of her for the next six months to a year.”
David shook his head. “No way. I’ll build her a state-of-the-art editing booth, plus space for her assistants, and she can edit at home. When I go on location, she can come with me.”
“Fine with me as long as she does the work.” George turned to Lucas. “You want final cut, right?”
Lucas nodded. “The timing should be right. I’ll be out of rehab by then.”
Sara gasped. David’s eyes narrowed.
Lucas waved one hand in a gesture of defeat. “I haven’t been myself for five years. I was totally off the rails last week. That’s all going to change. I’m putting this house up for sale, going back home to California and getting my head on straight. Then I’m getting on with my life.”
“That’s honoring Jen’s memory at last,” David said.
“About damn time,” George said.
Sara breathed a sigh of deep relief, feeling the tears on her own cheeks. “I’m so happy for you.” She leaned into David’s embrace. “Happy for us, too.”
THE END
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Also by Irene Vartanoff
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