Part 5 (1/2)

”You got your breath back?”

I pulled in a long breath. Dad would do anything in his power to make certain The Lady's Regret never got made and that included stealing my project's director. I took a large gulp of air. ”It's about rus.h.i.+ng The Legend Kills into production so The Lady's Regret doesn't get made.” I sucked in another lungful. ”Dad doesn't want The Lady's Regret made.”

”d.a.m.n,” Cami said. ”I kind of hoped it was my skills as a shooter and not bulls.h.i.+t politics that prompted his offer.”

My heartbeat slowed and my breathing was near normal. ”It's both,” I said. ”You're an awesome shooter. They'd be lucky to have you.” I paused. How could Cami say no to a hundred million dollar budget and a sure thing at the box office? ”Look, I understand. You have to take it, how many times do you get offered a billion-dollar franchise-”

”Take it? I already said yes to you. But who will produce The Legend Kills? I mean Sterling, you're awesome, but you can't be on two sets at once.”

”He's rus.h.i.+ng the next Legend film into production. Soft prep next week. Either I do it or I'm out as President of Legend Films.”

”Wow,” Cami said. ”So we're both getting the hard sell.”

”Yep.”

”Two offers that no one wants to refuse. You and me and The Legend Kills.”

”Really unwise to turn your back on a direct offer from the President of Production.”

”So whatcha' gonna do?” Cami finally asked.

”I know what I want to do,” I said.

”Me, too,” Cami said. ”I'll see you at my mom's place in four hours?”

A smile widened across my face.

”Yeah, let's go make this f.u.c.kin' film.”

Rhiannon.

I'd left Mama alone in the house all night. She would have risen with the sun and seen Sterling's car parked in front of the guesthouse then. I pulled a white linen dress over my shoulders. The eyelet fabric was loose and the hem fell to my ankles. My intent was to breakfast with Mama and then work the rest of the day. Visions swirled through my head. Pictures of people and landscapes. The need to capture the pictures in my mind with my brush consumed me.

”Did you eat before Sterling left?” Mama asked. She stood beside the stove, her crutches under her arms.

”Mama, please, let me make breakfast.”

”I have enough for three, I didn't know that he'd left until after I began.”

She scooped the eggs onto an indigo-colored platter. I took the platter from her and also the plate that held the toast. We both walked to the table and sat down. She poured a coffee for me from the carafe on the table. An oily queasy feeling settled in my stomach and I wanted neither the meal nor the coffee.

”He left pretty early,” Mama remarked.

She skirted around her questions to see what bits of information I might feed her. I did not wish to play these games. I wanted to return to the studio and begin my work. A s.h.i.+ver tore through me-or a cry. A deep well of sadness thickened in my chest. Sterling had left. If I could get to my canvases and my colors I need not think of Sterling and last night and the stained history that lived between him and me.

”Mama,” I said, my voice a hush. My eyes danced around the kitchen that opened onto the front of the house and the view into the front yard. I looked up and met my mother's gaze. Anxiousness hovered around her eyes, tense lines around her mouth as though it took all her concentration to hold fast to her words. Words of worry, of concern, words of caution and disagreement over my actions. A sigh escaped my lips. I did not wish to share any of last night with Mama. And yet ... ”Sterling may leave his father's company.”

Her eyebrow twitched upward. Would this satisfy her?

”Steve won't like that,” Mama said. ”He prefers to control those whom he loves. Why would Sterling do that?”

The reason as to why Sterling wanted to leave would make Mama unhappy. She, too, disliked The Lady's Regret, the script written by my father for Joanne Legend.

”He's making The Lady's Regret,” I said.

Mama's coffee cup stopped at her lips. She recovered quickly and looked down at her plate of eggs and lifted her fork. ” But why?”

”Because it's a beautiful piece,” I said. The beauty of the piece was inherent in the words, but unfortunately many of the Legend and Bliss families were aware of the true inspiration for the deep love story. Many but not all-”Amanda and Sterling still don't know.”

”I've not told them,” Mama said. Her teeth crunched through her toast. She tilted her head toward the view out the back window. ”I couldn't have told them then, and I certainly won't speak ill of their mother now.”

At fifteen, I couldn't begin to understand the pain that must have devastated Mama with the loss of so many things: her husband, her best friend, her marriage, her children all within one summer. Normal family life was disrupted and turned upside down. The waves of life threw our s.h.i.+p upon the rocks. Now, a grown woman, I could understand some of her pain at losing almost everyone she loved and held dear, but I would never fully appreciate the sadness that must have come close to destroying her.

”I did what I had to for the friends.h.i.+p I shared with Joanne, and because I love Amanda and Sterling as though they are my own. I have no regrets and I would do all of it again.”

The memory of a happy Mama laughing with my father and holding his hand s.h.i.+fted through my mind. My heart broke. I stood to clear the dishes.

I gazed out the window once more. The hills of Malibu enchanted me, but the ghosts of my adolescence still haunted this place.

Chapter 8.

Sterling.

Elizabeth Montgomery knew how to live. Up the coast on the rocky sh.o.r.e outside Montecito, her house clung to the side of a cliff. Though her children had scattered, she had remained in the big house that was warm and open and full of suns.h.i.+ne and pictures of the adventures of her children and now-deceased husband.

”It's quiet now,” Cami said, ”but you should hear this place when we're all home.” She dropped her car keys on the big round wooden table in the foyer. We'd driven up the coast together.

”Cami?” Elizabeth's voice called from the far side of the house.

”It's us, Mom!” Cami called back. We walked through the front two rooms and out the back doors to a giant deck that soared above the yard. Just beyond the green gra.s.s below was the beach.

Elizabeth sat at the table with her laptop open, surrounded by paperwork. She stood and caught Cami into a big hug. ”You don't come home enough,” Elizabeth said. She kissed Cami on the forehead. ”You could always move back in, I've got plenty of room.”

”Mom, that would be one long commute,” Cami said. While Elizabeth didn't expect Cami to move home, I suspected she'd be thrilled if she did.

Elizabeth turned to me. Her silver hair hung to just below her chin. She had sharp blue eyes that smiled. Her face remained beautiful even with the marks of age.

”Sterling,” Elizabeth said and hugged me. ”It's been too long since I've seen you.” She pulled back and examined me from top to toe. ”I think you were only sixteen when you were last here. You are looking well,” she said. ”How's Amanda? I hear there is another Legend wedding in the works.”

”She's happy and the gallery just opened-”

”I was so sorry to have missed it! I had a charity event in Santa Barbara or I would have come down. Please tell her I will be down soon. I can't wait to see what new young artists she's found. I'd love to find something for the main room.”

”I'll let her know. She'd love to see you.”

We settled into the seats at the long outdoor table.