What I Did for Love (22 page)

A flush-faced Chaz came in from the kitchen carrying a tray of mugs and a plate of what looked like homemade chocolate truffles. Aaron followed with a coffeepot. Chaz couldn’t take her eyes off Lance and nearly tripped on the rug before she set the tray down. “Th-there’s somebody in the car outside,” she said.

“It’s Jade,” Lance said. “I’d better go.”

“You brought Jade here?” A swarm of bees buzzed through Georgie’s head.

“I told you,” Lance said. “I came right from the plane. And the car windows are dark. No one can see inside.”

A thick silence fell over the room until Bram ambled forward. “Shame on you, Lancelot, for making your wife stay in the car.” His eyes narrowed dangerously. “Grab an umbrella for me, Chaz, so I can invite her in.”

Georgie froze. Surely she’d misheard. But she hadn’t. Bram was angry and reacting in his typical bullheaded, impulsive way.

Paul leapt forward. “Stop right there.”

Bram’s jaw set in a stubborn line. “It’s a party. The more the merrier.”

She hated him, but she was supposed to love him, and with so many witnesses, she couldn’t let them see how she really felt. Instead, she had to show how a happily remarried funny girl would react to meeting the woman who’d stolen her idiotic ex-husband. “Chaz, while you’re getting Bram’s umbrella, grab a gun so I can kill myself.”

It was the right thing to say because Rory grinned. “This is the best party I’ve been to in years.”

“Ever!” Laura exclaimed.

“Fluff your hair,” Meg said to Georgie as Bram and Chaz disappeared, with Lance trailing behind. “And put on more lipstick. Quick.”

“Don’t you dare.” Rory’s hand shot out. “You’re fine just the way you are.”

“Rory’s right,” her kiss-up agent said. “Jade Gentry doesn’t have a thing on you.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “Except the most beautiful face in the universe, a body to die for, and Georgie’s ex-husband.”

“No, really,” Georgie retorted as she sank down on the couch. “All I need is a gun.”

Paul hurried forward. “Come with me, Georgie. You’re not doing this.”

Her father’s ill-timed order made her determined to do exactly the opposite. “Sure I am. Jade’s not important to me.” A lie. Just because Georgie had stopped loving Lance didn’t mean she’d ever forgive either him or Jade. She wanted revenge.

Moments later, Jade entered her living room while an invisible klieg light seemed to illuminate her stunning presence. Why did Jade have to be so exquisite? It was ironic…Most male movie stars looked better in person, but female stars tended to look vaguely encephalitic with heads too big for their sticklike bodies. Not Jade. She was even more breathtaking in person, an exquisite throwback to old Hollywood with Audrey Hepburn’s doe eyes, Katharine Hepburn’s cheekbones, and creamy Grace Kelly skin. A shiny sweep of straight dark hair framed a perfect valentine face without even a dab of makeup. Her breasts were generous but not vulgar. Her waist small and legs long. She wasn’t as tall as Georgie, but she carried herself with such commanding confidence that Georgie had to talk herself out of feeling as though she’d started to shrink.

Lance stood on Jade’s left and Bram on her right. As Paul stepped forward to greet Jade, he blocked her view of Georgie. Who knew whether it was deliberate or accidental? “I’m Paul York. I understand you just got off a plane.”

“It seems like we’ve been traveling forever.” Like Lance, she was rumpled, but her straight-legged black slacks and sleeveless black
top still looked chic. Nothing about her signaled a woman who’d lost a baby less than a month ago. She shifted her weight, trying to see around Paul. She undoubtedly wanted to find Georgie so she could give her a big freaking hug. Fortunately, her cell rang before that could happen. “I need to take this. A couple of our people were deathly ill on the plane.”

She slid her hobo bag off her shoulder, pulled out her phone, and stepped away from them. Laura filled a coffee mug, and Meg swiped a chocolate truffle. Bram drifted toward Georgie. She hoped he didn’t get too close because she’d never be able to resist the temptation to kick him.

Rory did her best to ease the tension. “Laura, I hear you’ve been pushing Georgie for the lead in Rich Greenberg’s project? It’s a cute script. I wish we’d had a shot at it.”

“The movie about the bimbo vampire?” Meg wrinkled her nose. “Mom was talking about it.”

“Georgie’s perfect for the part,” Paul said.

“Georgie’s not interested,” Bram said. “She’s tired of doing comedy.”

He was right, but Georgie was angry and not the only immature person in this marriage. “Laura’s set up a meeting for me with Greenberg.”

Jade was growing agitated, although none of them could make out more than a few words. Finally, she snapped her phone shut and returned to Lance’s side, her perfect brow knit in distress. “Bad news about Dari and Ellen. Remember that outbreak of SARS in the Philippines? The doctors are afraid they both might have it.”

“SARS? My God…” Lance took her hand, the two of them against the world. “Are they going to be okay?”

“I don’t know. They’re in isolation right now, being shot full of antibiotics.”

“We’d better get over to the hospital right away.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Sure it is. We’ll go in through the back.”

“That’s not the problem.” She shoved the phone back in her purse and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “We can’t go anywhere.”

Lance stroked her fingers. “What do you mean?”

“That was the head of the county public health department on the phone. The hospital alerted him. Ellen’s and Dari’s test results won’t be back for forty-eight hours, and until they know for sure whether or not it’s SARS, everybody who was on the plane is under quarantine.” She looked around the room. “Along with anyone we’ve come into contact with since.”

Dead silence fell. Georgie felt dizzy, and Bram went still at her side.

“You don’t mean us,” Paul finally said.

“I’m afraid so.”

Bram didn’t move. “Are you saying we’re all supposed to stay here—in my house—for the next two days? We’ve barely had any contact with either of you.”

“Until Tuesday morning,” she said tightly. “Ironic, isn’t it?” Her gaze drifted to Georgie.

“Impossible,” Laura said. “I have back-to-back meetings on Monday.”

Meg frowned. “Mom and I are going riding tomorrow.”

“If I have to be quarantined, I’m doing it in my own house.” Rory glanced around for her purse. “I’ll go out through the back gate.”

“You’d better clear it with Public Health first,” Jade said. “These guys mean business. I’m sure you’d have to send your staff away first.”

Rory paused in her search for her purse, apparently remembering the filmmakers she was housing.

Chaz had taken the coffeepot from Aaron and turned to Bram. “What’s SARS? I don’t know what that is.”

Aaron answered for him. “Severe acute respiratory syndrome.
It’s a serious disease. Very contagious. There was a pandemic a few years ago that killed hundreds of people and made thousands sick. A pandemic is like an epidemic, except a lot bigger.”

“I know what a pandemic is,” Chaz retorted so defensively Georgie knew she was lying.

“This is bullshit,” Bram said. “Lance hasn’t even been in the house fifteen minutes. And, god knows, nobody kissed him.”

Jade flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I explained that to Public Health, but they won’t budge.”

Laura whipped out her cell. “Give me the number. I’ll make them budge.”

But she wasn’t the only alpha dog in the room, and the others—Bram, Paul, and Rory—already had their hands on their own phones. Aaron took one look at Georgie and grabbed his, too. Lance glanced around. “Everybody can’t call.”

“I’ll do it,” Rory said. “I have contacts.”

For the next half hour while Georgie sat silently, the rest of them listened in on Rory’s conversations as she spoke to officials in the county’s Public Health Department and then the mayor himself. Finally, she conceded defeat. “Pulling strings isn’t going to work. This is political. Because celebrities are involved, nobody wants to be held responsible if this thing gets out of hand. It’s definitely overkill, but it seems as though we’re trapped.”

People began looking in Georgie’s direction, judging her reaction to being cooped up with her ex and his new wife. Scooter Brown would have known how to handle this. Scooter always came through in tough situations.
Fine.
Let that perky little bitch deal with it.

She pushed Scooter up from the couch. “We’ll make the best of it. Like a big house party. It’ll be fun.”

Chaz plunged into the mess. “I have a ton of food in the freezer, so that’s not a problem.”

“I need a drink,” Bram said.

“Of course you do,” Georgie snapped before she could stop herself, which meant Scooter had to jump in and rescue her. “A great idea, sweetie. Open a couple of bottles.”

Chaz turned to Bram. “Where’s everybody going to sleep?”

Georgie should suggest Paul share a room with Lance. He’d love cozying up to his favorite person.

Gradually they sorted it out. Meg insisted on taking the couch in Bram’s office, leaving the guesthouse bed to Rory and Laura. Paul would sleep in Georgie’s office. The guest room where Georgie had been sleeping went to Lance and Jade, which forced Georgie to explain that she’d been using it as her dressing room and would need to get some of her things out first. In a whispered argument, Chaz begrudgingly agreed to let Aaron sleep in her living room. That left Georgie cuddled up in her husband’s bed. It was such an unsettling prospect that Scooter once again had to come to Georgie’s aid. “I think the wind is calming down,” she chirped. “Let’s light a fire on the veranda. We could even make s’mores.”

“Or not,” Skip drawled.

Rory phoned her housekeeper and arranged for some personal items to be placed in a rainproof bag by the back gate. Meg lent Laura a roomy sleeping shirt. Jade announced that she slept nude so Georgie didn’t need to bother finding her anything. Chaz and Aaron distributed towels, washcloths, extra bedding, and toothbrushes. All the while Georgie struggled with a sense of unreality.

After the worst of the storm passed, Meg led Rory and Laura to the guesthouse while Bram made his way through the remaining sprinkles to retrieve Rory’s things. Her father poured a brandy and went out to sit on the veranda. Lance and Jade wanted to clean up after their long trip, and Aaron led them upstairs.

Georgie began helping an unappreciative Chaz pick up. Before long, she heard the shower go on in her bathroom and—twenty minutes later—turn off.

One shower. How cozy.

Her stomach churned. Having Lance here was horrible enough, but Jade’s presence made the situation unbearable. And it was all Bram’s fault.

She closed herself in his bedroom. She’d make the turret that occupied the far end of the room her sanctuary. An inlaid wooden table sat between a pair of easy chairs, and a lamp with a heavy bronze base rested near a chaise upholstered in a nappy chocolate brown chenille that complemented the buckwheat-honey walls. The chaise could only hold one person, and that’s where she’d sleep. Bram’s bed was for sex, not all-night intimacy.

She walked over to the window and gazed down along the rain-slicked driveway toward the gates. Even though it was after midnight, she could see at least two cars still parked on the street, the paps keeping their eternal vigil and praying for the magic shot that would bring them their fortune.

Public Health now had the names of everyone who’d been quarantined, so the story would leak quickly. They’d all have to release statements.
Old problems forgotten. One big happy family.
Lance would finally get what he wanted—the appearance of her forgiveness and final absolution in the public eye.

She rested her cheek against the window frame and wondered what it would be like to go through life always speaking the truth. But she lived in the wrong town for that. This was a city built on illusion, on false fronts and streets that led nowhere.

The door opened behind her. She heard the inevitable clink of ice cubes and caught the scent of rain as he came nearer. “I didn’t mean it to turn out like this when I invited her inside. I’m sorry.”

His unsolicited apology took some of the wind out of her sails. “Exactly how did you expect it to turn out?”

“Look, I was pissed.” He kept his voice down in deference to the single wall separating them from their unwelcome visitors in the next room. “Where does that guy get off showing up here? Then the whole idea of Jade sitting in the car feeling sorry for you because
she figures you’re so destroyed by their great love affair that you don’t have enough backbone to look her in the fucking eye. It got to me.”

Put like that…
Still, his high-handedness felt too much like her father’s. “It wasn’t your decision to make.”

“You weren’t going to make it.” He tugged at the buttons on his damp white shirt. “I’m sick of watching you wimp out whenever her name comes up. Where’s your pride? Stop believing she’s better than you.”

“I don’t—”

“Yes, you do. Jade may be better at some things. She sure as hell is better at going after another woman’s husband. But what Jade is or isn’t has nothing to do with you. Grow up and start being happy living in your own skin.”

“You’re talking to me about growing up?”

He wasn’t done ripping on her. “Jade and Lance were made for each other. He was no more the right man for you than…”

“Than you are?”

“Exactly.” He took a long swig from his glass.

“Thanks for your insightful input.” She snatched the robe and nightgown she’d fetched earlier and stomped into the bathroom to change. But as she washed her face, she had to admit Bram’s heart had been in the right place. Inviting Jade into the house had been his twisted version of being protective. He couldn’t have predicted the consequences.

When she came out, she found him propped against the pillows, wearing only a pair of knit boxer briefs that gleamed white against his skin. He’d kicked the covers back, and he had a book propped open on his chest. Seeing Bram Shepard reading a book looked weird enough, but not as weird as the pair of steel-rimmed glasses anchored to the bridge of his nose. She stopped dead. “What are those?”