Nacho Figueras Presents (17 page)

H
oney came over the next afternoon with a bag of takeout sushi and a bottle of pinot grigio. It was meant to be a catch-up session between friends, but it was also, Honey informed Kat, a business meeting as well. Since word had gotten out about Kat's deal with Liberty, Honey's phone had been ringing off the hook with offers. Especially from actresses of a certain age, each of whom were dying to work with Kat.

“I'm so glad you're back, babe,” said Honey as the friends sat out by the pool and poured the wine.

Honey was wearing one of her less extravagant outfits—just a leopard print wiggle dress and green gladiator sandals laced up to her knees. Her slick cap of hair was pretty close to its natural red, too, not its usual bright blue or screaming pink.

It was practically buttoned down for her, thought Kat with a little smile.

Honey pulled out a list of offers but Kat pushed it aside. “Let's just eat and catch up first, Hon. I don't think I can focus just yet.”

Honey nodded. “Okay. So how are things back at home? Your daddy's all better?”

Kat reached for a tuna hand roll. “About ninety-nine percent.” She smiled. “The doctors said they've never seen a patient with such determination to get home.”

Honey laughed. “I guess stubborn runs in your family.”

“Guess so,” agreed Kat. “It was so good to see them, though. I told them, when I finish this film, I'm going to take a week and fly them out here, and we're all going to Disneyland together.”

Honey laughed and helped herself to some
hijiki
. “And the film's going well?”

“Yeah,” said Kat. “I mean, aside from this one polo scene that I just can't seem to get right. It's driving me nuts.”

“How's Liberty?”

Kat frowned. “She's…she's not what I expected. I mean, her acting is great. People are going to be amazed when they see her in this. She has totally made Victoria her own. And man, does the camera love her. She just lights it up. I've never seen anything like it.”

“But?”

“But…she needs reassurance after every single scene. Doesn't matter how big or how little. You gotta make her believe she was brilliant or she'll freak out and insist on doing it over and over again.”

Honey snared some eel with her chopsticks. “She's an actress,” she replied, and shrugged.

“Yeah, but it goes way beyond that. It's like there's this giant hole in her that can't be filled.”

“
Hmph
,” said Honey. “Though I guess Sebastian Del Campo is trying pretty hard to do it.”

Kat looked at her sharply. She hadn't told Honey about her time with Sebastian. “What have you heard?”

Honey shrugged. “Oh, you know. Rumors are flying. Abutting bungalows at the Hills Hotel, her husband's out of the country, and I saw the strangest blind item this morning that I swear was about Liberty and Sebastian at Jumbo's Clown Room…”

Kat frowned. “I'm sure Liberty wouldn't be so unprofessional.”

Honey laughed. “Oh, come on, have you seen the guy? I'm gayer than a triple rainbow, and I'd do him in a hot second.”

Kat felt something hot and bitter rise in her chest.

Honey picked up her wineglass and took a sip. “Plus,” she said, “I realized the other day that Liberty and David Ansley just hit their ten-year wedding anniversary, and you know what that means.”

“What does it mean?”

Honey raised an eyebrow. “It means that Liberty can finally throw that hair-plugged serial cheater to the wolves and take on someone young and hot. It means, thanks to California's most excellent divorce laws, that the woman is entitled to half of thirty-eight billion dollars.”

Kat rubbed her finger over the brim of her glass. “I'm sure they have a prenup.”

“No,” hooted Honey, “nope. She wouldn't marry him unless he took it off the table, and apparently he was too enchanted by her magical pussy to hold out.” She took another gulp of wine. “I mean, I get it. Can you imagine having someone as beautiful as Liberty Smith in your bed? I think I might be willing to pay nineteen billion dollars, too.”

Kat's lips thinned. “I don't see what this has to do with Sebastian.”

“Are you blind? Everyone knows that Liberty Smith can't stand being single. She'll be looking for number four ASAP, and she'll want to trade up. Liberty Del Campo has an awfully nice ring to it, right?”

Kat shoved away her plate, suddenly not hungry.

Honey cocked her head questioningly. “Wait a minute. Why'd you stop eating? I've never seen you put down a hand roll halfway through.”

Kat took a gulp of wine and then slammed down her glass a little harder than she'd intended. “Is it so wrong to want to protect the movie? It's never good when the talent gets mixed up with the money. Liberty herself told me that. Besides, I can't believe that Sebastian would be interested in a woman who can't even put on her own pants without being praised for what an amazing job she just did.”

Honey's eyebrows shot up. “Whoa. You like Sebastian.”

Tears sprang into Kat's eyes. She turned away. “I don't,” she said shakily.

“You do! I can tell. You like him.”

She felt her face flush. She couldn't meet Honey's eyes. “I don't. I don't like him. I don't like him, Honey.” She sounded hysterical, even to herself.

“Oh my God,” whispered Honey. Her face was stricken. “You don't like him, you
love
him. Holy shit, Kat.”

A sob tore itself from Kat's throat. She covered her face with her hands.

“Oh, babe,” said Honey as she patted Kat's arm. “How long has this been going on? And what are you going to do about it?”

Kat shook her head. “Nothing. There's nothing to do. I screwed up, Honey,” she said. “I screwed it all up so bad.”

S
ebastian had hired his half sister, Antonia, to work as a farrier on the set. She hadn't wanted to come. Normally, he could scarcely pry her from her job blacksmithing at the Del Campo barns. But since Pilar couldn't stand being around her late husband's bastard child and frequently gave Noni a hard time, Sebastian felt that his little sister might like a break from both his mother and the farm. So he convinced her that he was in desperate need of her help in California.

As it turned out, she had, in fact, been a great help around the set, and Seb had tried to talk her into staying longer. But she was flying back to Florida that night. She said Hollywood horses didn't need her. She wanted to get back to the Del Campo ponies, where she belonged.

Seb found her in a stall, her long platinum blond hair falling over her face, examining the front hoof of one of the ponies. Sebastian was still feeling conflicted about everything that had happened in the past couple of days, and he wanted to talk to his quiet, thoughtful sister before she left for home again. She almost always had good advice to give.

“Good morning,
niña
,” he said.

Noni turned her coal black eyes up at him and snorted. “What have you been doing? You look like you fell off a horse and were dragged across the pitch.”

He smiled ruefully. “I'd prefer a pony to a movie star anytime. It's been a long couple of days.”

She laughed. “Liberty again, eh?”

He shook his head. “She gets bored, and then she gets into trouble.”

Noni turned her attention back to the horse, using a small knife to pry out a chunk of mud from the pony's hoof. “Oh, to have the time to be bored. Or in trouble.”

He laughed again and then was silent, trying to sort out what he wanted to ask her.

She seemed to sense his hesitation. “Take her head, will you?” she said, indicating the pony. “I think she's a biter.”

He grabbed hold of the horse's reins, grateful to be given something to do. “So,” he said, trying to sound casual, “have you spent much time with Kat?”

Noni looked up at him. Her large, dark eyes sparked with amusement. “Um, not like you have, I would imagine.”

Sebastian felt his cheeks flush. “That's over,” he said.

She lifted an eyebrow. “Is it?”

“Yes. But maybe I don't want it to be,” he admitted.

“Oh?” she said.

“I don't know what to do.”

“You don't?”

He laughed. “You're not helping a bit.”

She grinned. “Seb, I am the last person in the world to give romantic advice. I haven't even had a boyfriend since I was in Germany, and believe me, that was an unmitigated disaster.”

He blinked, surprised. Noni almost never talked about anything that had happened to her before she started working for the Del Campos. He knew practically nothing about what her life had been like before their father had died and the Del Campo family had found out that he had left part of his fortune to a grown daughter that they'd never even known existed. But it always seemed obvious to Seb that his little sister had lived through some pretty dark times.

“Do you love her?” she asked him, interrupting his chain of thought.

“Love her? I—I don't know,” he stammered. “What do you mean?”

She shook her head at him. “I mean, do you love her? Pretty simple question.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Yes,” he said softly. “Yes, I love her.”

“Well, have you told her that? Because I think that's what you're supposed to do.”

“But that wouldn't be professional.”

She laughed. “Um, this is the first girl I've ever seen you date longer than a week, Seb. I'd say the hell with being professional.”

He smiled. “
Niña
, can I ask you a question?”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Why stop now?”

“Do you believe in destiny?”

His sister's pretty, laughing face suddenly clouded over. “Like, destiny in love? Like soul mates?”

“Yes. Like that.”

She ducked her head back down over the horse's hoof, avoiding his eyes. “I used to,” she said. “I thought I did.”

“But not anymore?”

She looked back up at him, and her dark eyes were fierce with feeling. “All I have to say to you, Sebastian, is that if you think you've found someone you love like that, you better do your damnedest not to let her go.”

L
iberty was a decent rider but lacked the kind of finesse that Kat felt Victoria should have, so Kat flew in Camelia for a couple of days to give the actress some pointers. No one was more elegant and controlled than Camelia in the saddle. Kat hoped that some of her grace would rub off on her star.

The two women had circled each other warily at first. Camelia still hadn't forgiven Liberty for absconding with Sebastian at Hendy's party (even though Kat had assured her that nothing had actually happened between them), and Liberty, of course, was loath to admit that anyone could be better than her at just about anything.

Kat watched them on their ponies in the covered ring and, noticing their stiff postures and unhappy faces, sighed, wondering if she had just set the film back another day by bringing these two together.

“You think this will work?” Sebastian's voice teased her ears as he walked up behind her.

Kat closed her eyes for a moment, trying to gain some control. A day away from him had not mellowed the tension at all. She felt, if anything, even more fraught with longing, and her admission to Honey had shaken her to the core.

She'd been doing her best to avoid him all morning, and he seemed to be doing the same thing. If one of them walked into a room, the other one left. If one of them was needed in one direction, the other headed off the opposite way. It had started to feel foolish, but Kat kept it up, afraid of just what might happen if she didn't.

But apparently Sebastian had grown tired of the game because here he was for no particular reason except, apparently, to stand too close to Kat and drive her wild.

“I think they will either become the best of friends or try to trample each other to death. I haven't decided which yet,” she said, still not daring to actually turn around and look at him.

He laughed.

They watched the women on their ponies. At first, Liberty, dressed in head-to-toe denim and riding a little bay, studiously ignored the younger woman, but then Camelia, in her red tank top and black riding breeches, demonstrated a graceful way to do a two-point corner while cantering, and Kat saw that the movie star started to look interested in spite of herself.

When Liberty kicked her pony into a canter and began to imitate Camelia's smooth posting, Kat smiled, feeling the battle was won.

“
Bueno
, there we go,” said Sebastian.

“Thank God,” said Kat.

The women moved into a gallop, whooping as they raced around the ring together.

Kat laughed, watching them clown.

Sebastian cleared his throat. “Katarina.” Kat thought that his voice sounded almost purposefully casual. “I noticed that you called me the other night—”

“Oh,” interrupted Kat, her face going up in flames, “that was nothing. Just a question about work, but I figured it out.” She made herself turn around and meet his eyes for a moment.

He looked…disappointed, she realized. Her heart bounced in her chest.

She took a deep breath. “Actually, Seb, that's not true. I—” But before she could come clean, there was a wail from the ring.

She turned around to see Liberty flat on her ass, her horse racing around the ring without her, and Camelia looking worried as she rode over to see to the star.

“Oh no!” Kat ran out to the ring with Sebastian right behind her. “Are you okay?”

Liberty looked ready to spit nails as she glared up at everyone from under her helmet. “I'm fine,” she seethed. “Someone go get that pony so I can beat it to death.”

Camelia laughed and went to round up the pony.

Sebastian bent to help Liberty up, and Kat couldn't help noticing the tender solicitude he showed her. “Are you sure you're okay,
querida
?” he said quietly.

Liberty took his hand and allowed herself to be pulled up. “I'm going to have a bruise as big as Arkansas on my ass,” she grumbled. “It's not going to be pretty.”

Sebastian chuckled. “Well, perhaps that will keep you out of a certain kind of establishment. Or at least off a certain kind of stage.”

Kat wondered just what he meant as she felt a white-hot arrow of jealousy move through her. Sebastian's arm was still around Liberty's shoulder as he helped brush the dirt off her back.

Liberty glanced over at her and smiled like the cat who got the cream. “Sorry, Madam Director, inside joke.”

Kat blinked and tried to smile. “Have you got this?” she said to Sebastian, indicating the horses. She knew that her voice sounded strained and high-pitched.

The smile on Sebastian's face faded. “Katarina, I—”

She turned around. She didn't want to look at them together anymore. “Great. Good. I'm going to go check on the next shot.”

She felt their eyes watching her as she marched away, and she felt like a fool.