Forgiven (21 page)

“We could have four girls cartwheel across the stage from opposite directions.”

Rhonda stepped back and surveyed the open space. “Sort of the orphanage-gone-crazy look.”

As a way of trying it out, Rhonda organized the little girls on both sides of the stage and had them pretend to shake blankets and make beds, all to the music Al Helmes was playing on the piano. Then she and Katy did cartwheels from either side of the stage, crossing in the middle and winding up with their hands in the air, right on beat.

The little girls went wild, clapping and screaming and volunteering to do the cartwheels. Katy adjusted her shirt and shooed them back, laughing right along with them. The progress continued, and after thirty more minutes, the scene began to take shape. The girls not only did cartwheels toward each other, but afterwards, two of the smaller girls formed a single cartwheel, with each girl holding on to the ankles of the other.

Katy caught the feet of one of the girls just as she was about to tumble off the stage. “This way we can take the act on the road and open for circuses.” She spread her free hand out in front of her. “All over America!”

Everyone laughed, and Katy reworked the double cartwheel. Ashley loved the atmosphere. It wasn’t so different from

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painting, really. She took an empty canvas, and with mere pastels and watercolors, with oils and a handful of brushes, she could bring a scene to life. Landon liked to tell her that when he looked at one of her paintings, he could feel the breeze, smell the flowers. They were that real.

That’s the way it was with theater. The stage was the canvas, and someone with Katy Hart’s talent could use a handful of kids and bring a scene to life. She leaned back in the pew and looked around the sanctuary. Other parents sat in small clusters, quietly knitting or watching the rehearsal.

Ashley was just about to return her attention to the front of the huge room when she spotted a guy sitting at the back of the right side of the church. Even from across the room, the man looked familiar, and Ashley squinted. He wore a sweatshirt and a baseball cap, and he was completely caught up in watching the scene come together.

Or maybe he was completely caught up in watching Katy Hart.

Ashley studied him for a moment longer, and then it hit her. She drew a quiet gasp and resisted the urge to cover her mouth. It wasn’t just any old guy watching rehearsal—the man was Dayne Matthews. He had the same look. And of course it made sense. Dayne was scheduled to be in town on Tuesday. Why wouldn’t he come a few days early? He and Katy had shared something special, right?

Wasn’t that what Katy had said a few days ago at the hospital?

The idea was alluring. Dayne Matthews, hiding near the back of the sanctuary so he could be near Katy. Ashley shifted her position and looked at the front of the room again. She didn’t want to be caught staring at him. No doubt he got enough of that in Los Angeles. She wasn’t one to get starstruck or want autographs from famous people, but she wanted to meet Dayne. If nothing more than to see the real side of him, the side the public knew nothing about.

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Katy was now organizing all the kids onstage for the opening scene when Annie sings “Maybe” while the other orphans try to sleep. With everyone focused on that, Ashley rose and walked quietly around the back of the sanctuary to where Dayne was sit ting. The closer she got, the more sure she was. He was Dayne Matthews, no doubt.

Katy had a rule about rehearsals. Anyone could come, but they had to stay quiet.

Because of that, Ashley slipped into the pew beside Dayne and smiled when he jumped back a little. “Hi.” She kept her voice to a whisper and held out her hand. “I’m Ashley Blake. You’re a friend of Katy’s, right?”

Only then did she doubt her actions. Dayne looked like an an imal caught in a trap. Swallowing hard, he glanced over his shoulder at the back door of the sanctuary. When he looked at her, his mouth hung open for a moment. Finally he shook her hand and let his linger. Not in a way that showed interest in her, but in a way that conveyed surprise and something else.., shock maybe.

“I’m David Marshall.”

David Marshall? Ashley forced her lips into a straight line and refused to smile. Fine. If he needed to keep his cover, she wouldn’t say anything. Not yet, anyway. It would be better to get to know him. Then she could tell him later that he didn’t have to lie anymore. She already knew who he was.

And of all people, she’d be the last one to ruin his cover. Espe cially when he looked like such a nice guy. Up close she could see what she’d heard the others in her family talk about. The re semblance was uncanny. It set her at ease; made her feel like she’d known him all her life.

Never mind that he was a big star. Here in the back of the Bloomington Community Church sanctuary, he looked just like her brother, Luke.

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ……………….. , :..: :,: : ………………

DAYNE COULDN’T BELIEVE IT WAS HAPPENING. He’d thought about the possibility, sure. If he was going to

hang out at the CKT rehearsal, there was a chance he’d see his sister. But never for a minute did he think that she’d walk up and take the seat beside him. His mouth was dry, and he was still trying to find a way to get through the introductions.

He was sitting beside his sister! He released her hand and tried not to stare at her. “You… you have a child in the play?” It was something to say, a way to direct the focus somewhere other than on himself. He pointed to the makeshift stage up front. “They’re doing a great job.”

Ashley rested her shoulder against the pew so she was facing him. For a few seconds she watched the rehearsal, but she shook her head. “No. No kids in the play.” She smiled at him, making sure to keep her voice low. “I paint sets for CKT.”

He was finding his way back to stable ground, gaining his composure. “Katy tells me you’re very talented.” He gave a slight shake of his head. “World-renowned famous artist.”

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“I wouldn’t say that.” She laughed and looked at him a little longer. “My work does well locally and in New York.”

“And definitely here.”

They whispered for a few more minutes, agreeing that the orphanage scenes were coming together beautifully.

He couldn’t tell from her tone whether she suspected who he really was or not.

He figured not, since most people wouldn’t play along with his false identity.

Once he’d taken a flight home from London and sat in coach, just so he could blend in better. A woman in front of him turned around to ask him for the in-flight media guide, and she stopped midsentence. “Did anyone ever tell you that you look just like Dayne Matthews?”

He’d given her a polite smile and handed her the magazine. “Thanks.” He nodded.

“I get that a lot.”

“But… well…” The woman looked awkward, twisted all the way around in her seat. “You’re not him, right?”

“Right.” He laughed and pointed toward first class. “If I were Dayne Matthews wouldn’t I be sitting up there?”

The trick had worked, but only sort of. At the end of the eight-hour flight, the woman was still casting strange looks at him. By the time they got off the plane, she was whispering to the woman next to her, and it was clear that neither of them believed he was anyone other than the Hollywood actor.

But here, with Ashley, he didn’t sense that. She seemed content to think he was David Marshall, Katy’s friend, come to watch a rehearsal.

“I love watching Katy work.” Ashley faced forward, but she leaned close enough for him to hear her. “She’s brilliant with these kids.”

“She is.” He could barely focus on what Ashley was saying. The whole time he kept wanting to stand up and shout the truth: You’re my sister, Ashley. Come here and hug me.

But he couldn’t, not now or ever. As long as the paparazzi 175

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were intent on taking bites out of his private life, chewing them up and spitting them out for all the world to see, he could never involve the Baxters in his life. But who would’ve ever thought he’d have this chance—a time to sit beside his sister and talk to her? And what if his parents had been able to keep him? This beautiful young woman would’ve been one of his closest friends, someone he’d have a lifetime of memories with.

She stood and shook his hand again. “Good to meet you. Any friend of Katy’s is a friend of everyone here.” She smiled at him. “I’m glad you could be here.”

Around the room the kids were moving away from the stage for a break and scattering into the audience. Dayne couldn’t remember anything she’d just said.

He blinked.

“My committee’s meeting.” Ashley motioned to the front of the room. “We have to figure out how to make a grand staircase fit into an orphanage.” Her laughter was familiar, and Dayne figured out why. It sounded vaguely like his own. Ashley waved to him as she headed down the aisle. “Nice talking to you.”

“You too.” He sat back, dazed, and watched her walk away. How was he going to return to Hollywood and leave everything he’d found here in Bloomington in only one day?

Katy pulled away from the group and came up another aisle. In a move that was discreet but clearly planned, she skittered along the back of the church and approached him. She didn’t look too worried about whether anyone would see her talking to him. “I think you’re right. The disguise works.” She took the place where Ashley had been sitting. “Anyone figure it out yet?”

“No.” He looked to the left side of the church. Ashley was sitting with a group of women, using her hands to describe something to them. He looked back at Katy, and he stopped himself from reaching for her hand. “I met Ashley.”

“I saw that.” Her eyes danced, telling him that she was still thinking about their day together, just like he was. “What’d you tell her?”

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“I said I was David Marshall. One of your friends.”

Katy laughed. “I don’t know, Dayne. Ashley’s a pretty smart girl.”

He heard something in Katy’s tone and lowered his chin, catching her at eye level. “Meaning?”

“Meaning I told her about last summer.” Katy tilted her head. “I think you’re right, though. She doesn’t look like she figured out who you are.”

“Yeah, she would’ve said something.” He let himself get lost in Katy’s eyes for a minute. “You’re great with the kids.” “Really?” Her expression lit up.

“I can’t wait to see it opening night.”

With that, reality colored her eyes, and her face fell a little. “You’ll be back home. You know that.”

“Maybe not.” He reached out and brushed her fingers with his. “Maybe I’ll go into hiding and stay for the next few months. One way or another I’ll be here opening night. I promise.”

Katy drew a long breath, and in it Dayne thought he could read her thoughts. How great it would be if he really could run away and hide out in Bloomington. Even until the show opened. But she said nothing. Instead she stood and smiled at him. “I’m

glad you came today.”

“Me too.”

“I have to get back to the kids, and when we’re done I have a meeting.”

He wasn’t willing to let her go that easily. His eyes searched hers and kept her from leaving. “What about tomorrow?” “Rehearsal ten to two.”

She frowned.

“Okay, so how about I meet you at your house? You jog, right?”

“Sometimes.” She giggled. “I tell myself I’m supposed to.” “Let’s take a jog before practice. You pick the distance.”

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her to resist him. She took a few steps back and gave him the slightest nod.

“Call me.”

“I will.” He sat back and felt the victory. One more day. Fate would give them one more day to live outside the scrutiny of the ravenous press.

The rehearsal went on, but Dayne couldn’t leave. Even if Katy wasn’t able to talk to him again for the rest of the night, he would stay. Watching her was like watching a movie he couldn’t pull himself away from. She stayed in his mind and made him wonder how he was ever going to get along without her.

When he did look away, his eyes would find Ashley Baxter Blake. He was glancing at her when the members of her committee bowed their heads in what looked like a group prayer. Dayne felt the slightest irritation. His adoptive parents and Elizabeth Baxter and Katy Hart. Now his birth sister Ashley. Had all of them found some sort of direction in following Jesus Christ? And what about Kabbalah?

Why were none of them interested in reaching the upper world?

Dayne let the thought pass.

As Ashley stood and separated from the group, she smiled at him. Then she made her way around the pews and over to him. “Hey.” She clutched a bag in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. “Rehearsal’s almost over, and Katy’s staying for another hour. I don’t live far from here.., would you mind giving me a ride?”

Panic danced around him again. Could he give his sister a ride home without begging her for the chance to come inside and meet her husband, her family? He felt the ache welling inside him, but he had no choice. None at all. He grinned at her. “Sure.” He looked at his watch. “I was just leaving.”

He rose and cast one last look at Katy. She was working with a group of kids, talking to them, nodding, and shifting her attention from one to another. He walked out without her noticing him.

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As he and Ashley left the church, she talked about the direction they’d decided for the sets. “The stairs work.” She kept up with him as they crossed the parking lot. “We’ll keep them onstage, and they’ll give us a way to showcase the orphans during their songs.

“Right.” He opened the car door for her and noticed something he hadn’t before.

His hands were shaking. Come on, Matthews; pull out your acting skills. She can’t figure it out. “Sounds great,” he said as he got in the car.

They were halfway to her house, with her giving him directions, when Ashley stopped talking about sets and asked, “Where are you from, anyway?”

He hadn’t expected the question. It took him a few heartbeats to recover. “Out of town.” Yeah, that was it. “Indianapolis.” “So—” she studied himM”how’d you meet Katy?”