Welcome to Temptation (22 page)

"Did you mention his mother had tried to run you out of town?"

"No." Sophie sat down at the table and opened her PowerBook again. "Although she'll no doubt be buying a bigger rail to do it on tomorrow. Stephen Garvey caught us in the kitchen."

"How bad?" Amy said

"Oh, bad," Sophie said, and then smiled in spite of herself. "And really, really good."

"Sophie, you're not getting serious about the mayor, are you?" Amy said. "Because that would be bad. He's not going to love you the way you deserve—"

"Nope," Sophie said, but she felt a chill even as she said it. "Not serious at all. I have it on good authority that this will wear off."

"Okay," Amy said. "Uh, well, then. In other news..."

Sophie tensed. "What?"

"We're getting some company tomorrow," Amy said. "Zane appears to have lit a fire under Clea and she called L.A. and that Leo guy is coming out here to see what we're doing."

"Leo Kingsley," Sophie said, her instincts breaking through her satisfaction. That was the problem with great sex. It dulled your survival tools. "Davy's old boss, the producer."

"Right."

Sophie considered it. "I don't see how this could be trouble."
But it will be
.

"I don't, either," Amy said and they looked at each other doubtfully.

"Let's assume it's not until something goes wrong," Sophie said.

"Good." Amy turned back to the wall, not looking cheered at all. "Now, explain why ugly apples are better than ugly cherries, and all my questions will be answered."

~8~

“
T
his is excellent," Dillie said that night at the bookstore as she and Phin stretched the new mattress pad across the bed. "Except that you were an hour late getting me, so I should stay up an extra hour even though it is a school night."

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"Works for me," Phin said, knowing she'd be out like a light five minutes after her bedtime anyway.

"We'll read in bed that extra hour." He snapped the bottom sheet across the bed and Dillie caught her end of it. "So what's new with you?"

"Jamie Barclay is in my room at school." Dillie tucked the elastic corner under the mattress like a pro.

"Grandma fixed it for me."

"Grandma's not supposed to do that," Phin said. "No special favors for Tuckers."

"Dad," Dillie said. "This is my life."

"Right." He flipped the top sheet across and she caught that, too.

"And besides, Jamie Barclay is new and needs a friend so it's really for her." Dillie smoothed her side of the sheet down. "Do you have new friends?" She said it with such elaborate disinterest that Phin stopped.

"There are some people visiting in town," he said cautiously.

"The movie people?" Dillie smoothed the already smooth sheet, her chin in the air to show how unconcerned she was.

Phin picked up the quilt and shook it out before he flipped it across the bed. "What do you want to know, Dill?"

Dillie caught her side of the quilt and pulled it straight. "I just think it's nice that you have new friends." She sounded so much like the way Liz talked to her, Phin laughed. "Thank you."

"Are they nice?"

He tugged the quilt smooth over the bed where he'd poured almond oil on Sophie and thought of her, hot and round and slippery in his arms. And then that afternoon in the shower—

It seemed wrong to have those thoughts with Dillie in the room, so he shoved the memory away.

"They're very nice. Okay, this is your night. We have hot dogs, we have paper napkins, we have dessert, and it's not a weekend. What else?"

Dillie shot a look at the armoire across the room.

"TV?"

"What is this, Go-to-Hell Night?" Phin picked up a pillow and tossed it to her and she caught it.

"Jamie Barclay watches TV," Dillie said. "All the time, not just for special things." She plumped the pillow and put it at the head of the bed. "She watches it with her mom." She looked at Phin out of the corner of her eye. "It would be nice to watch TV with a mom."

"I'm so glad Jamie Barclay moved here," Phin said, picking up another pillow. "Yes, after dinner you can watch TV. With a dad."

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"Would you like to meet Jamie Barclay?" Dillie asked, much too innocently.

"Sure," Phin said cautiously.

"And then I could meet the movie people," Dillie said.

"No," Phin said.

"Dad." Dillie put her hands on her hips. "I should know your friends."

"They're leaving in a week," Phin said, tossing the last pillow to her.

"Well, I'm really glad the movie people came here," Dillie said as she caught it. "Friends are important. Don't you think?"

"What do you want on your hot dog?" Phin said.

*

After lunch on Tuesday afternoon, a cab came bouncing down the lane to the farm. "Company," Sophie called back into the house, and then went out to meet Leo Kingsley. He was bent over talking to the driver, and she waited patiently, but then the cab door opened again and somebody tall, dark, and Dempsey got out of the backseat.

"Davy!" Sophie shrieked, and threw herself off the step into his arms, and he swung her around and hugged the breath out of her. "I didn't know you were coming, why didn't you tell me you were coming, I'm so glad you came—"

He kissed her on the cheek, a big, brotherly smack that was loud and loving, and said, "I didn't know, either, until Leo called me. What the hell are you up to?"

"We're making a video," Sophie said. "Amy wants to come to L.A. I am so glad to see you." He looped his arm around her neck and said, "I'm glad to see you, too, babe. Amy's not going to L.A. She'd hate it. Now, explain to me why you're making—"

"Don't let me get in your way," a mournful voice said from behind him. "Just because it's the Mojave here and I'm about to have a coronary, don't let that—"

"Leo, this is my sister, Sophie," Davy said, and Sophie looked around him to smile at Leo politely. Leo Kingsley was an attractive man, healthy and fit in his middle forties, beautifully dressed and styled to the teeth. His hair was thick and brown, and he had kind eyes and a good face. But Leo Kingsley was also clearly a man who'd seen too much and wasn't getting over it.

"Welcome to Temptation," Sophie said, and he nodded sadly and said, "Catchy title. Nice to meet you. I need central air."

"Sorry," Sophie said. "It's primitive here."

"That figures," Leo said gloomily. "It's Ohio ."

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"Why don't you come in and have some lemonade?" Sophie said.

"Lemonade?" Leo said. If she'd offered him arsenic, he couldn't have been more appalled.

"Diet Coke?" Sophie said. "Peach brandy? Ice water?Beer? Ham sandwich?Dove Bar?"

"Ice cream?" Leo said, and Sophie relaxed.

"Right this way." She held the door for him and he went in, stepping neatly over the dog that had flopped down in the doorway, saying, "Look out, Lassie," as he did.

Sophie said, "No, don't name it," but it was too late. She looked down at the dog and said, "Lassie?" and it stood up and wagged its stubby tail.

"You have a dog?" Davy said. "Is this a problem?" Leo said, "No," Sophie said to both of them. In a way it was a relief. She'd been getting the sneaking suspicion that the dog's name was Dog, and that would have been much worse.

"So," Leo said. "Clea here?"

"Of course I'm here, Leo, darling," Clea said, coming in so on cue Sophie would have bet money she'd been listening in the kitchen. Amy trailed behind her as Clea embraced Leo gracefully if not warmly and said, "It really is good to see you." Clea ignored Davy completely, and he watched her with no expression on his usually mobile face.

Leo patted her arm and said morosely, "Nice to see you, too kid." Then Amy caught sight of Davy and shrieked, and Sophie pushed them both into the kitchen so Clea and Leo could talk.

"I can't
believe
it," Amy said and hugged him as Sophie got Leo's Dove Bar from the freezer. "I didn't think we'd see you until Thanksgiving."

"I didn't, either, until Leo told me you were making porn," Davy said, and Sophie dropped Leo's ice cream.

"What?" Amy said, as Lassie grabbed the bar.

"Getting the news that you two were making a skin flick brought me right home. Have you lost your minds?"

"Skin flick." Sophie sat down. "We're not making a skin flick."

"Clea wants Leo to distribute it," Davy said.

"Right."

"Leo only does porn," Davy said. "That's why they call him the Porn King."

"'Porn King'?" Amy said.

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"He doesn't look like a Porn King," Sophie said. "Are you sure?"

"Harvard MBA," Davy said. "They don't mention him much in the alumnae mag. So what's going on?"

"Good question," Sophie said, and went into the living room to find out.

*

"It's not real porn," Clea said when they'd cornered her in the living room. "You've been filming it, Amy, you know that."

"Okay, well, fine," Leo said. "So what the hell am I doing here?"

"It's a new kind of porn." Clea sat down next to Leo on the couch and smiled at him. She looked beautiful. He looked doubtful. "It's called vanilla porn and it's very hot right now, it's just flying off the videostore shelves, and I think you should make it, Leo, I really do. We've got a great story, about me coming home to meet my old high-school lover and being disillusioned, and then meeting his son, who seduces me and sets me free of my past, and I drive off into the sunset with him, getting everything I've ever wanted. It's a real woman's fantasy, Leo, you'll make a mint—"

"I think I should make
Coming Cleaner
," Leo said.

"What the hell is
Coming Cleaner
?" Amy said.

"I don't want to make
Coming Cleaner
," Clea said. "I want to make
Return to Temptation
. I swear to God, Leo, this is good stuff. You could make a lot of money here. Don't blow it by being old-fashioned."

An old-fashioned Porn King, Sophie thought. An old-fashioned Ivy League Porn King. Her world was getting weirder by the minute.

"What is
Coming Cleaner
?" Amy said again, and Davy said, "Clea's second film. Set in a car wash. Lots of soap."

"Oh,
bleah
," Sophie said."Clea, how could you?"

"How do you think I met your brother?" Clea said. "Working for Disney?" Amy rounded on Davy. "You were in a porn film?"

"No," Davy said. "I worked for Leo who made porn films. Forget about me. Concentrate. You're making porn."

"No," Sophie said.

"Yes," Clea said. "Porn about a woman achieving all her dreams. Classy porn."

"Sort of like 'military intelligence,'" Davy said.

"Shut up, Davy," Clea said without looking at him. "This is completely different. It's not gross stuff, it's
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straight-to-video erotica for women.

"No," Sophie said.

Clea exhaled. "Sophie, what's your favorite scene in
The Big Easy
?"

"'Your luck's about to change,
cher
,'" Sophie said automatically.

"And what's the only thing you don't like about it?"

"It's too—" She broke off when she saw where Clea was going.

"Short," Amy finished for her. "I got it." She cheered up some. "I like it."

"It'll be romantic, not crude," Clea said. "I was thinking maybe we should change the title, maybe to something like
Cherished
, because it's about emotion, not sex."

"You want me to do a movie called
Cherished
?" Leo looked at Davy. "Get the cab back."

"The cab's halfway to Cincinnati by now," Davy said. "Look at my sister's tape." Leo sighed and moved to the monitor, and Sophie went to get him a Dove Bar, feeling sorry for him even if he was a porn king.

*

"It's going to need some work," he said, when the last screen was dark again. "But Clea was right, you've got a good start there. It needs a lot more sex, of course."

Amy looked at Sophie and said, "We have somebody working on that."

"No, we don't," Sophie said.

"And the score will add a lot," Leo went on, and Amy winced.

"I don't know how—" she began, and Leo waved her away.

"We can do that in L.A. ," he said. "No problem. Along with the titles and credits. You just shoot the footage and let us handle the details."

"The sound is a detail?" Sophie said, but Amy shushed her.

"But mostly you need more sex," Leo said. "A lot more nudity."

"Leo," Clea said. "Don't forget what I told you. This is women's porn—"

"Oh, no," Sophie said, and Amy kicked her ankle.

"Don't get in Clea's way," she whispered to Sophie. "This is my chance."

"—so it's not going to be vile like the other stuff you do," Clea finished.
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Leo sighed. "I need skin."

Sophie winced, and Amy whispered, "He's a real producer, Sophie,
please
."

"Jesus," Davy said. "The Dempsey morals at work again." Leo smiled at Clea, which didn't look natural at all on him. "Now about
Coming Cleaner
—"

"Later, Leo," Clea said. "We're making
Cherished
now."

"
Cherished
," Leo said, and looked more depressed than ever.

*

Rachel was out in the front yard watering what little grass there was when Leo came down the porch steps. He didn't look like a bigHollywoodproducer. He was only a couple of inches taller than she was, and even though he was good-looking in aHollywoodkind of way, he looked tired and depressed. So when he said, "Are you the gofer around here?" she squeezed the water out of the front of her T-shirt and said, "That's me," without trying to be anything special.

"I need a place to stay," he said.

"Sure." She dropped the hose and started for the car. "Get in the car. I'll take you to Larry's Motel out by the Tavern."

"Larry's Motel."

She turned back and saw his look of pain. "It's all we've got." Rachel opened the car door for him. "Just be grateful you've got me for a driver because we don't have a taxi, either. You could be, like, walking."