Impossible Glamour (14 page)

Instead, I focused on the freak show from last night. What the hell? I’d never had a similar experience before in my life. Webzie found me so unattractive that his cock went soft and then he concocted a lie to flee my room? Not that I’d had much experience with sex, but enough to never have a flaccid penis be the problem. Sure, I was a soon-to-be MD, and of course I realized there could be
other
reasons than Webber finding me horrendous that might cause his cock to drop. But the woman in me who wanted to be sexy and smoking and sensual, that woman was pissed off and convinced that a soft dick was all because of attractiveness.

Helga pushed deeper into my muscles.

Wonder how Webzie was handling it today? And why did I care? Hmm… Better this way. Ultimately he could be embarrassed that Big Boy failed to perform, and I could pretend his inability had nothing to do with my appearance. We’d be awkward around each other, but a lot less awkward than if we’d actually done the full-frontal friction. Deep breath. Helga pulled the blanket up high over my neck, dimmed the lights, and softly, with her masseuse entourage, padded out of the room. Yes…peace. Even Sophia was quiet. Thank you, God, for silence. I decided the Webzie problem was now solved. Attraction gone. Webber encounter over. All was right with the world and—

“So, what’s going on with you and Webber?”

My trapezius tightened like an anaconda around a gazelle. All of Helga’s work was for nothing.

“Webber?” I squeaked. “Nothing is going on between me and Webber.”

“Really?” The rustle of fabric, the squish of bare skin sliding over leather. Sophia’s legs slid into the periphery of my vision. Gone were the soft chimes of the relaxing hippie-dippy music and the scent of patchouli and sage, replaced by the knowledge that Sophia was now upright, seated, and ready to dig.

Oh, and how my sister Sophia could dig. She’d talk enough to get you to finally scream uncle by telling her exactly what you didn’t want her to know.

Not today, sis, not today. Because truly, really, there was nothing for Sophia to know. There wasn’t any way in hell I was telling her about Webber’s soft cock. I mean, I wasn’t that cruel, even when it came to Webzie.

“You went home with him after Choo and Jackson’s wedding, and now I’ve discovered that he’s up here with you.”

I closed my eyes. Fuck it. She wouldn’t stop now. I might as well let my relaxed mojo end, because Sophia had a bone and she wasn’t about to let that go. I raised my face and twisted into a seated position.

“Webber is not up here with
me,
” I said, cocking my eyebrow and attempting a parental tone. “He’s here because CTA is having their annual retreat at this resort.” I swiped at the stray hairs matted to my forehead. Of course, Sophia didn’t have stray hairs, or sweat. The damn übermodel, even though she was my identical twin, looked like she’d just walked off a cover shoot for
Spa
magazine. “I’m sure Daddy didn’t know.”

A long sigh from the remaining facedown Legend. She’d surrendered to the reality that there was to be no long snooze after the massage. Nope. Sophia didn’t snooze after a massage, which meant any person who happened to get a massage with her needed to be up and ready to roll.

Amanda pulled herself up. Her porcelain skin and blue eyes gave away no irritation. Just a tiny, nearly imperceptible tightness around her mouth indicated she was annoyed. Sophia was so self-involved there was no way she’d notice.

“Daddy couldn’t have known the CTA retreat was here. He wouldn’t have ever let any of his girls stay in a hotel filled with Hollywood agents.” Amanda stood, pulled a robe around her body, and walked toward the door where all of our slippers waited for us.

“Speak for yourself,” Sophia mumbled under her breath.

If Sophia had been sitting closer to me, I would have kicked her in the shin. If Amanda heard Sophia, she didn’t let on. Instead, she slipped her feet into her slippers.

“I’m thinking shower, then nap, and then dinner. Can I meet you two around nine?”

I nodded. “Sounds good.” There was an uneasy peace between Amanda and Sophia, mainly because they were both related to me and I demanded it. Amanda had tried over and over and over again to create a relationship with me, Rhett, Sophia, and even Mama. Three out of four had come around, but Sophia had few feelings for Amanda other than hostility.

“See you a little later.” Amanda walked out of the massage room and gave me a wave and a smile. The door slowly closed behind her.

I looked at my sister. “Why are you such a bitch?”

“What?” Sophia lifted her hands in a who-me gesture. “I didn’t say anything to her that was unkind. I didn’t even look at her.”

“Exactly right. You didn’t look at her, you didn’t speak to her, she might as well have been invisible as far as you’re concerned.”

“If only it were true,” Sophia said and slid off the table. “I don’t even know why you want her around.” She pulled on her robe and walked to the door. “You
have
a sister—you don’t need another.”

“Is that what your impossible behavior is about? You’re jealous? I always thought it was about Daddy and how Amanda and Sterling got to grow up as Legends and we weren’t in the spotlight like them, but is it truly because you’re jealous of the relationship that Amanda has with me, Rhett, and Mama?”

Sophia’s head whipped around. “What relationship with Mama?” Her eyes were hot and hard. Her lips pressed into a line.

“She talks to Mama nearly every day. They shop, they lunch, you know all that.” I pulled on my robe and slid from the table.

“Whatever. Mama doesn’t
really
like her. She’s simply nice to Amanda because of Daddy.”

“No, Mama
really
likes her. So does Rhett and so do I. You’re the only one that can’t stand Amanda. Your behavior is awful, and to be honest, Soph, it’s getting old.” I was ready for her attack, the onslaught of words and the anger that would come from my twin. But instead her shoulders dropped a little and she looked at the floor.

“That’s what Trick says.”

“Trick’s a smart guy.”

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “It’s just”—she pulled in a lungful of air—“it’s just I can’t seem to stop myself. To get myself to be nice to her. To want to be nice to her. She’s just…she’s so…she always has a pole up her ass.”

“Amanda? What are you talking about? She’s fun and relaxed and has a wicked sense of humor.”

“Maybe with you, but she’s never been that way with me. She’s always closed off and it always feels like she’s judging me. Like I’m not measuring up.”

“Right, well, I think maybe you laid the groundwork for that relationship. You’ve never cut her any slack. Ever consider just biting that sharp tongue of yours instead of saying every mean thing that enters your mind? At least where Amanda is concerned?”

Another deep breath. This time an eye roll accompanied the exhale of air. “I guess I could try.”

“Great, let’s start tonight. Try at dinner. Use the silent unless nice things to say rule. Or funny things. I always appreciate funny. Funny is my favorite. But not funny mean, only funny ha-ha, or funny self-deprecating—”

“I don’t do self-deprecating very well,” Sophia said with a serious look on her face. “It’s hard to be self-deprecating when you’re perfect.”

I tilted my head and tipped my chin. “Seriously?”

“A joke!” Sophia said with a broad smile and a tap to my shoulder. “See? I’m doing funny already.”

Webber

“Dick Munch, tell me something good that I don’t know.” I weaved through the crowd of agents that had just exited the giant conference room. Like lemmings to the sea, they were all on their phones to their assistants, rolling calls and checking on clients. I was no different. That was my mambo, my jive, my dealio… Agenting was my life.

“Steve Legend returned.”

“Fuck yeah!” I said and fist-pumped the air. Three of my compatriots turned to me and one shot me a dirty look while two shot me a thumbs-up. Didn’t matter why I was happy, let them think I’d just nailed down a multimillion-dollar film deal.

“But I couldn’t get through to you.”

Fuuuuuuck, I mouthed. Right. Those bozo partners had not just required we turn our phones to silent, knowing what little addict bitches we were, they’d actually confiscated our phones. Like a damn coat-check system, they’d given us a chip we could exchange for our phone when the meeting was over. Damn.

“Try him,” I said and Dick Munch hopped onto the other line. I closed my eyes and envisioned Roger ringing Steve on all five of his lines. Finally, finally, getting him. What would he be doing at seven p.m. on a Wednesday? Most likely getting a blow job. Or a little group sex. The man was a monster on the sex side.

“Left word at all numbers.”

“Fuck.” This time I said it out loud. “Get me—no matter what, you hear me?—you get me when he returns.”

“You know your ‘drinks’ with Selena is tonight, right?”

I pressed my palm to my eyes. “Don’t remind me. Did her office call to confirm?”

“Not only did they confirm, but her assistant suggested I clear your calendar until noon tomorrow.”

“No. Just no. You call me thirty minutes in. Tell me there is an urgent matter, got it? I don’t care what excuse you make, but it better be pretty fucking good.”

“Got it.”

“And get me no matter what when Steve calls.”

“Done.”

“Okay.”

“Anything else?” Dick Munch asked.

“Nope, just heading up to the room so I can get ready to take this evening in the ass.”

Ellen

The waves rolled in and out and the Pacific nipped at my toes. A warm breeze, soft moonlight, and my sister Sophia, again yammering in my ear.

“I told Trick we simply can’t stay at Pawtown all twelve months of the year.”

I glanced over at Amanda who walked on my right side. The stroll on the beach was Sophia’s idea because first, we were all three uncomfortably stuffed after dinner, and second, Sophia simply wanted to stay up longer. Extrovert extraordinaire, if there wasn’t a party, Sophia would make one, even if that party was simply taking a walk on the beach with her twin and the half sister she loathed.

“You know, Sophia, it’s probably best for Pawtown if you and Trick are in LA more. There are a lot of donors who’d write more checks if they saw you and Trick more often. I’m sure of that.”

Sophia’s head whipped toward Amanda. There was a flash in her eyes, her mouth opened, but instead of some horribly unkind and inappropriate comment like she usually unleashed on Amanda, she said, “That’s exactly what I told Trick!”

Good girl. Sophia even smiled at Amanda. Smiled. And the smile didn’t seem fake or forced or about to turn into some snide comment. In fact, all through dinner my difficult sister had actually tried to be nice. I think she quite literally bit her tongue two, maybe three times. Amanda hadn’t said anything unkind, she was much too diplomatic and had been raised under the bright lights of Hollywood. Amanda left herself open and vulnerable, she said what she meant and what she felt, and for Sophia, with her wicked sharp tongue and inferiority complex, that meant she had the ability to throw sarcasm-laced barbs toward Amanda.

Amanda never retorted. She didn’t respond. She simply behaved as though she didn’t hear the tart words or didn’t understand their unkindness.

The woman was a saint.

“I think we’ve reached a compromise,” Sophia continued. “One week a month in LA when I’m in the States and two weeks at Pawtown, and then he’s agreed to come with me on a shoot if I’m away for a week.”

“That works. Probably both for him and for Angie,” Amanda said.

“Right.” Sophia ran her fingers through her hair. “Angie loves having Trick at Pawtown, but she enjoys running the place too.” Sophia dropped her gaze to the water. “Plus I’m not sure Angie has ever really liked me.”

Wow. My sister being vulnerable? And not only vulnerable, but vulnerable in front of Amanda… Wow, wow, wow.

Amanda stopped walking and turned to Sophia. “She didn’t.”

And kaplooey. My body stiffened in preparation for the blast of words and anger that would now come from Sophia.

“What?”

“Okay, girls, what say we go back and get a drink at the—”

“No, I mean Angie didn’t like you when you first got to Pawtown, you know that. She told you that, but now I don’t think she dislikes you, I’m just not sure you have anything in common but Trick.” Amanda tucked her hair behind her ear.

Heat rolled off Sophia, but her creased brow and pursed lips softened with Amanda’s explanation. “I thought we’d gotten beyond that. That maybe we’d become friends, but this last time I got back to Pawtown…I don’t know, there was something different going on with Angie.”

“Did you ask her?” Amanda flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“No…it feels like there’s a wall between us—maybe because of my career or how I’m there and then I’m gone—”

“Or how it seems your emotions are up and down and all over the map.”

Sophia bit her bottom lip. Wow. Amanda was really pushing, but Sophia seemed to be taking her words well.

“I’ve always been that way.” Her gaze met mine. “Ask Ellen. She’s Miss Calm, Cool, and Collected, and I’m Miss Drama, Drama, Drama. Right?”

I slung my arm around my sister’s shoulder. “Your drama brings life to the party. You’re enthusiastic and fun and always have enough energy to get both of us out the door.”

“Those are the good bits, sure,” Sophia said. “But the bad bits are the temper tantrums, the crying jags, the irritability. I know. And I’m sure Angie knows too.” Her gaze left mine and trailed out toward the horizon. “It’s not like Pawtown is that big.”

“She hasn’t said anything to me,” Amanda continued. She and Angie had been friends since they were both kids. “There may be personal stuff she’s going through.”

Sophia’s gaze returned to Amanda. “I didn’t know…”

“She wouldn’t tell you or Trick if there was. She’s private that way. She doesn’t share much of herself unless you ask or she’s known you a really long time. I don’t think it’s you, Sophia. I think it’s just the way Angie inhabits the world.”