“Is it really that serious?”
“In my professional opinion, yes.”
Once Regina ended the call, it took her a long time to fall asleep that night.
Chapter 5
Regina was bored. She knew it would happen eventually, but she really hadn’t expected it to happen so soon. She had plenty to do, starting with breaking down her part in the new script, building a back story to give her character depth, layers, learning her lines.
That’s what she should be doing. Instead, she walked along the beach collecting shells and bits of glass washed ashore by yesterday’s storms. Every time she thought of working on that script, she found something else on the beach more compelling.
And still, she was bored. The kind of bored that made her jittery and restless. The kind of bored that required an excursion with friends or a long conversation about anything and everything, but those weren’t possibilities.
She couldn’t even call Archie, according to Detective Chang. Watching a seagull facing off with a group of plovers – she’d Googled sea birds earlier that day to find out what to call the silly little birds that ran up and down the beach – Regina huffed a frustrated laugh.
Maybe she should just call Chang, talk to her about her favorite movies or the theoretical genetic makeup of your average fairytale dragon, something, anything, since Chang was the one forcing her into solitude.
That’s not true and it’s not fair and you know it, she told herself. Chang wasn’t the reason she was here. The blame for that fell squarely on the shoulders of a fan who had overstepped his or her bounds to the point even complete strangers though Regina was no longer safe.
“God,” she said aloud, “I should have taken Archie up on the offer to come with me.” But both she and Detective Chang had thought Regina would be better off with him back in L.A., keeping up an appearance of normality for as long as possible.
Telling herself to stop being ridiculous, Regina and watched the clouds above as they danced across the deep blue sky.
Mythical beasts, dragons included, formed and dissipated. Faces and flowers, knights in shining armor and terrifying creatures, all of them played across the sky, casting a spell over Regina until the noise in her brain borne of boredom began to ease.
When eventually she rolled to her feet and began the trek back to the house, the seeds of a story had germinated; as soon as she could, she’d take up paper and pen and write them down. She’d used to love writing when she was in high school.
If nothing else, maybe she could pound the ideas inspired by the shapes in the clouds into a children’s story. She was pretty sure at least her nephew would like it.
Feeling much more relaxed and a lot less bored, Regina climbed up the stairs and walked with purpose through the overgrown gardens. She would jot down some notes so she wouldn’t lose her ideas, and then she’d fix something for lunch.
After that, she’d make that trip into town for groceries and when she returned she’d work on researching her new role for the rest of the afternoon and evening. She was determined not to let her stalker take complete control of her life.
Lunch was quick and easy – a can of soup heated in the microwave and a glass of water. While she ate, the dashed off a few quick stick-figure sketches for her story.
It wasn’t much, but it made her smile. But then she went to rinse off her dishes and stopped cold at the sight of an empty glass in the sink. She was sure she’d put everything in the dishwasher before she went down to the beach, but she must have missed it, sitting off to the side as it was, half in shadow.
Shaking her head, she told herself to stop being silly. Including herself, there were only four people who knew she was here; two of them were in Los Angeles and the other, the owner of the house, was somewhere in upstate Michigan.
It was harder to maintain her calm, though, when she walked out of the kitchen, heading to the bedroom to change, and saw a suitcase and some smaller bag in the middle of the foyer. Beyond them a lime green raincoat hung on the wooden coat tree near the front door.
A sickening rush of adrenaline made Regina feel momentarily light-headed as her heart began to beat faster, feeling as though it might beat itself right out of her chest.
Taking a deep breath and holding it for one second, two, she let it go and began to think again. Detective Chang was fairly certain her stalker was a man, and while it might be sexist of Regina, she didn’t think a lime green raincoat fit with that image.
“Hello?” she called out, waiting a beat to listen. “Is anyone here?” No one answered. The only things she heard were her own breathing, which was starting to calm down to a more normal level, and the ticking of the grandfather clock in the hallway. Nothing else.
A quick circuit of the house confirmed there was no one else there at the moment, but Regina was sure whoever it was would be back eventually, and it looked they were planning to stay for a few days.
She glanced down at herself, deciding that when they arrived, she didn’t want to be wearing nothing but a bathing suit.
Chapter 6
The sound of the front door closing followed by the clack-clack of heeled shoes on the tile floor slowed Regina for only a moment as she changed into shorts and a loose t-shirt.
She didn’t bother with shoes when she left the bedroom to confront the intruder, but whoever she was, she seemed to have a key and she walked like a woman who felt she had every right to be here.
There was a cloth grocery bag on the floor by the island in the center of the kitchen and a woman in a navy and white dress was opening the freezer to put something in when Regina padded silently into the kitchen on bare feet.
“Mr. Nordstrom assured me I’d have the villa to myself,” she said by way of greeting.
Of course, she had never spoken to the owner of the house directly, it had all been done through Archie, but this woman didn’t need to know that.
At the sound of Regina’s voice, the woman gasped and released what she was holding as she jumped back from the freezer. The cylindrical container dropped to the tiles with a dull thud and then rolled away from her, toward Regina.
It stopped with enough of the label facing Regina that she could see that it was a container of coffee ice cream. Well, she thought, whoever she is, she has good taste.
“Oh, my gosh! You scared the hell out of me.” She pushed the freezer door closed and walked over to retrieve the ice cream. Clack clack clack. “Jack didn’t tell me anyone else was staying here.” Inspecting the large dent in the base of the contained, she continued, “Of course I didn’t actually tell him I was coming, so I guess he might not have had the chance.” She swiped a finger across the dent and then licked her finger before holding the ice cream out toward Regina. “Want some ice cream?”
It was the woman from the photographs. Looking at her, Regina had to fight not to laugh, not at her, exactly, but at the whole situation.
She was tall and willowy, copper haired and pale skinned with a healthy dose of freckles. Her perfect hair and tailored dress were at odds with those freckles and the apparently leaking container of ice cream.
When Regina didn’t answer right away – oops – the woman shrugged and clacked her way over to the drawer that contained the silverware. She pulled out a spoon and pulled the lid from the ice cream.
Over her shoulder, she said, “I’m Kelly Nordstrom, by the way. Jack is my brother.” Kelly turned to face Regina once more, ice cream in one hand and spoon in the other. “Are you sure you don’t want some? The container tore, so we might as well kill it off before it melts all over everything.”
She smiled then, not just with her mouth or her eyes – eyes as blue as the sea outside the villa, Regina couldn’t help but note – but with her entire being. Kelly Nordstrom smiled, and in doing so, she took Regina’s breath away.
Chapter 7
“You know,” Kelly said after they’d polished off the pint of ice cream, “I should go. You’re obviously all settled in an
d I didn’t give Jack or anyone else any warning...” She trailed off when she saw Regina shaking her head and waggling her spoon at her.
“Nonsense,” Regina told her. “By the same logic, this is your brother’s house. You had no reason to believe anyone else would be here. You have every right to be here, Kelly. I’m the intruder.” She frowned as she turned to put her spoon into the dishwasher. I’m the one who should leave, Regina thought, but I can’t. Aloud she said, “It’s a big place. I think we can stay out of each other’s way.” She bumped the washer door shut with her hip. “I’m pretty quiet, for the most part.”
“I’ll probably just stay closed up in the quest suite. If you don’t want to, I can make sure you don’t see much of me.”
“What will you be doing? If you don’t mind me knowing, that is.”
Kelly answered as she unpacked the rest of the groceries from her two bags and started putting things away. Clearly, it wasn’t her first time at the villa. “Painting. Mostly water colors. I’ve got a commissioned set of illustrations I need to finish, and this is one of the best places I’ve ever been to relax and just go with the flow.”
“I can certainly believe that.”
“So what do you do, Regina? How do you know my brother?”
After a surprising burst of disappointment that Kelly didn’t recognize her, Regina said, “l’m an actress. I’ve never actually met your brother.” Kelly looked at her sharply, and Regina hurried to continue. “I needed to...” She didn’t want to lie to this woman, but she couldn’t tell her the truth. Could she? “I just needed to get away for a while, and my assistant was your brother’s roommate in college. Archie called him up and your Jack offered that I could stay here for a couple of weeks.”
Nodding, Kelly said, “That sounds like Jack.” She huffed a laugh. “It also sounds like him to not tell me he had a guest.”
“I thought you said you didn’t tell him you were coming?”
“Oh, I didn’t. Then again, I live here more often than not, so he probably should have said something regardless.” She shrugged. “And on that note, I’m going to go work on some sketches.”
Chapter 8
Regina woke to the smell of coffee and something baking. The sun was balanced on the horizon, too bright to look at directly, sending its rays into her bedroom to bathe it in light.
She couldn’t think of a better way to wake. Flinging the sheet off, she sat upright and swung her legs around to set her feet on the cool tile floor.
She threw on the same shorts she’d worn the day before and padded into the kitchen; she heard singing before she reached her destination.
Kelly danced in place, singing along to whatever played on her iPod as she rinsed the dishes she’d used while making whatever delicious-smelling thing baked in the oven.
Regina said hi, but Kelly didn’t seem to hear her, so she leaned back against the door jamb, just inside the door, and watched as the artist swung her head, sending that copper ponytail swirling.
When the last bowl was in the dishwasher, Kelly hit the climax of the song and spun around on her toes.
She squeaked and stopped at the sight of Regina in the doorway, one hand out to the side, gripping the edge of the counter to steady herself, the other rising to her throat. And then she threw her head back and laughed, raucous and abandoned, and once more Regina found herself captivated by both the sight and the sound.
Laughter still dancing in her eyes, Kelly said, “We have got to stop meeting like this,” and Regina had to laugh, too, although it was much more reserved than Kelly’s. “Want some coffee?” she asked with a grin.
“I do indeed,” Regina answered, “but I’ll get it. You just keep on with what you were doing.”
While Regina poured coffee for them both, the timer for the oven sounded. Kelly took a pair of oven mitts from the drawer to the left of the oven and then pulled out a tray of scones, setting it on the stove to cool a bit before they ate.
“Mmm... Those smell heavenly,” Regina told her and Kelly beamed at her in return. Regina thought she had never met anyone who smiled so readily.
Kelly Nordstrom wasn’t necessarily what Regina would categorize as beautiful, but when she smiled, all bets were off. She radiated life and Regina was drawn to her like a moth to a flame.
A couple of minutes later, Regina was out on the patio watching a cruise ship slowly pass by, too far out to see much more than the fact that it was a cruise ship and not something more industrial, when Kelly brought her own coffee and a plate of cranberry orange scones and set it on the table between them.
“A girl could get used to this,” Regina observed with a flirty wink. Kelly blushed, the color suffusing her skin to the roots of her hair, and Regina thought maybe she’d gone a little too far, but then Kelly smiled, as radiant as the sun.
Chapter 9
While Kelly went off to the other end of the house to work on her sketches, Regina decided it was high time she got to work on that script. She had read through the entire thing on the plane from L.A. to get a good overview of the whole story, but now it was time to concentrate on her own part in it.
She had more than a dozen movies on her resume, not to mention several one-shot roles in television series and a handful of commercials, but this was the first time a casting director had chosen her as the female lead in anything since high school drama class.
A couple of hours later, having read through her scenes while making notes in the margins of the script – some of them things she wanted to remember, others things she wanted to research later, and a couple of notes that were completely unrelated – Regina fired up her laptop and connected to the internet to start that research.
The movie was a western and a romance, and she knew next to nothing about cattle or horses or what things a ranch owner might do.
She emerged from chasing down information on the internet with a raging hunger, so she broke for lunch, carrying it out to the patio. Nothing fancy, just a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk.
Following her quick meal, she began to practice her lines, adding in gestures, emotion, energy wherever she was sure of what she wanted for her character. It would be better with a partner to bounce ideas off of, but her imagination would just have to do.
As it was, she had to replace her current lush tropical setting with the dusty Texas plains; if she could do that, she could do anything.
Halfway through her final scene, Regina became aware of two things: the sun was low on the horizon, not quite kissing the water below, and she wasn’t alone. She continued with the scene, a little spooked, making sure to pivot so she could see all around the garden in which she stood.
As soon as she spotted Kelly leaning back against a date palm, she relaxed, feeling foolish as she reminded herself once more that her stalker didn’t know she was here.
Not unless Archie, Detective Chang, or Kelly’s brother told someone, and there were no reasons Regina could think of for them to do that.
“You startled me,” Regina said, falling out of character.
Kelly pushed off from the tree. With a dubious snort, she responded, “You wouldn’t know it to look at you.”
Regina smiled. “Acting,” she said in a booming voice and bowed low, making Kelly laugh, just as raucous and abandoned as before. Regina decided that, given the opportunity, she wanted to make Kelly laugh often. “How long were you here?”
She shrugged. “Not long. Ten minutes, max.” There was an impish gleam in her blue eyes. “Maybe fifteen. Certainly no more than twenty.” Regina couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “I came out to see if you wanted some dinner.”
“That is a wonderful idea. I’m starving.”
Chapter 10
“This whole villa is pretty great,” Kelly observed as she carried her pasta bowl and a glass of wine out to the patio, “but I think this right here, with the view and the ocean breeze and just everything is my favorite spot.”
Regina followed with he
r own bowl and glass. They sat more or less across from each other at the tiled bistro table, just barely large enough to accommodate their meal. If we’d used plates instead of bowls, it probably wouldn’t be large enough, Regina thought. “Mine, too. It’s just so easy to imagine you’re the only person on the planet out here. It’s very relaxing.”
She took a sip of Chianti and lifted her fork. She and Kelly had discovered they both liked Italian. They didn’t have time to properly cook up some spaghetti sauce, so Regina had made an Alfredo sauce instead and made a linguini dish with that, Cannellini beans, bacon, and capers.
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