“No hangover. I only had half a glass of wine, but after the day we had, it was enough to do me in. I fell asleep on the table, and I woke up about midnight. I meant to go up to my bed but I couldn’t manage the stairs, so I flopped here. What time do rehearsals begin? I need to start cooking.”
“That’s why I’m here. The stage manager called me to say there will be no rehearsals today, but there’s a lot of work going on and you’re needed. It seems that it’s been posted on the Internet that Tate Landers is going to play Darcy. People have started camping out in the parking lot. We can’t work there.”
When Casey rubbed her eyes, her hands came away with dark streaks. She hated sleeping in makeup. “Someone should tell them that it’s not true.”
“I think it is. Gossip is that Tate is staying, with his friend Jack, and since his sister is coming to visit, he said he might as well be in the play.”
Casey stood up and stretched her back. “So who’s going to play Elizabeth?”
“Last I heard, you are. If so, I’m sure your excellent performance yesterday is a big part of why Tate wants to stay. You challenge him as an actor.”
“I’d like to challenge him with a crossbow,” Casey muttered, then looked at Olivia. “I need to take a very long shower and— Oh, no! I forgot Jack’s breakfast.”
“I saw him on the way here and he said he’s going out with Gizzy.”
“Alone?”
“I got the impression they were meeting someone. I don’t think they’ve been alone yet.” Olivia glanced through the doorway at the kitchen. “I’m still curious as to why you were sleeping on the couch. There are two place settings on the table. Didn’t your dinner companion help when you fell asleep?”
“I guess it wasn’t very flattering to him when I put my head down on the table and dozed off. Poor guy.”
Olivia didn’t smile. “I would have thought Tate had better manners than that. He should have helped you—”
“I didn’t have dinner with Landers. I was with Devlin Haines. You know? The guy playing Wickham?”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know you’d met him. Is he new in town?”
“He’s here only temporarily. He’s Landers’s ex-brother-in-law. You should hear his horror story! Or better yet, not hear it. Anyway, Devlin came to Summer Hill hoping to see his daughter, who is Landers’s sister’s kid. I bet that man is staying here all summer just to keep Devlin from seeing his own child.”
“That’s a strong accusation,” Olivia said. “Why don’t you go upstairs and take a shower? Or soak in the tub? I know I did last night. Your hair is a mess. Elizabeth doesn’t deserve that.”
“If Landers is Darcy, I am absolutely sure that I am not going to play Elizabeth! After what Devlin told me yesterday, I never want to see Tate Landers again. In fact, I may move off his property.”
“Good idea,” Olivia said. “I hear that Pizza Hut needs a new head chef. Or maybe you can cater weddings this summer—as soon as you spend weeks trying to find a kitchen you can use.”
Casey was blinking at her. “You’re sounding like my mother.”
“I am honored. Now, go!”
“Yes, ma’am.” Smiling, Casey ran up the stairs.
Olivia was frowning as she cleaned up Casey’s kitchen. The dinner table still had bowls and platters with the remnants of what looked like it must have been a delicious meal. The unrefrigerated food had to be thrown out, and she didn’t like waste. There was a half-empty wineglass but no bottle. Where was the other glass? And the candles had burned down to the base.
It looked like the guy playing Wickham had just walked off. Casey, exhausted from the long day, had fallen asleep, and he must have grabbed a glass and the wine and left her there. He hadn’t so much as blown out the candles.
“Hello.”
She looked up to see Tate standing outside the screen door.
“I don’t mean to bother anyone, but Jack left my truck here when he gave Casey a ride home. The keys aren’t in it, so they must be inside, and I need to go get some food.” His voice was tentative, sounding apologetic.
Olivia opened the door to him, but he didn’t step inside.
“I just need the keys.”
“I don’t know where they are. Casey is upstairs, but she’ll be a while. Come in and I’ll make you some breakfast.”
“Would you?” There was gratitude in his voice.
His exaggerated meekness annoyed her. “Yes, and if Casey starts to come downstairs I’ll help you escape out the window. I think she’s after you with a crossbow.”
Tate groaned. “Has she heard that I’m staying for the whole summer?” He sat down on a stool.
“Yes, she has.”
“And?”
“She says she will not play Elizabeth and I think she’s going to move out and get a job at Pizza Hut.” Olivia was cracking eggs into a hot skillet while bacon fried in another one.
Tate hung his head and let out a sigh. “Sounds like she’s been listening to my ex-brother-in-law. No matter what I do, I cannot rise above his accusations of me. But then, my honor won’t allow me to disparage the father of my beloved niece.”
“Hmmmm,” Olivia said as she dropped bread into the toaster. “ ‘Disparage’ is too much and definitely don’t use the word ‘honor.’ Too old-fashioned. And tilt your head a little less to the side. You’re much too pretty to pull off such deep despair.”
When Tate laughed, his voice changed completely. The misery was gone. “Oh, no! Not another actor. I thought I’d be able to escape the breed here in Small Town, Virginia.”
“No, we’re here.” She put a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast in front of him. “Now go choose a jam and tell me the truth of what’s going on.”
Tate got up and went to the rows of pretty jars of jam, but he hesitated. “If I take one of these she’ll accuse me of stealing.”
Olivia went around the island, grabbed a jar, and put it by his plate. “Wimpy men never win the girl.”
Tate sat back down and picked up the jar. “Nectarine with lemon verbena. My favorite. I have it every morning. What makes you think I’m trying to win her?”
“Puh-lease. Yesterday you fooled everyone else, but I was on Broadway before you were born. You acted by rote. Half the time you didn’t even look at whichever girl was drooling over you. Instead, you kept stealing glances at Casey and me. Since I don’t think I was the one you were getting into a slow boil over, it must be Casey. So what’s going on with you and the ex-brother-in-law?”
“If I tell you, you won’t rat on me, will you?” He sounded serious.
“This will be between us.”
Tate took a bite, nodded, and lowered his voice. “Devlin Haines is a bastard. I assume he’s here to try to get more money from me. Emmie, my niece and his daughter, probably told him she and her mom were going to be here this summer. No doubt Haines decided to come here to sweet-talk my sister into finagling extra money out of me. It’s worked in the past, so why not try it again?”
Tate lowered his voice even further. “I’m a little concerned that he also saw me, uh, looking at Casey, and that’s why he’s going after her.”
“To get back at you?”
“That’s my guess. But I could be wrong. Maybe he’s developed a genuine liking for her. I know they had dinner together last night, so maybe—” His head came up, alarm on his face. “Is he upstairs? Did they spend the night together?”
Olivia smiled, glad to see a real emotion. No acting but a genuine look of…what? Horror? Fear? She couldn’t tell if he was on the verge of slamming out the door in a rage or running up the stairs and throwing his ex-brother-in-law out the window. “No, he’s not upstairs. In fact, it seems that Casey fell asleep during the dinner and your sister’s ex left her there. Her head in the soup, so to speak. In my day—”
“The man would have carried her up the stairs. I would have.”
“That’s nice to hear. So what are you going to do to get her to forgive whatev
er you did in her bedroom yesterday morning?”
“I chased a peacock out,” he said, “but there’s no way she’d believe that. And if I told her the truth about Emmie’s dad, she wouldn’t believe that either. How do you disprove something that a person is absolutely sure is true? Casey has made up her mind about me, and I don’t know how to change it.”
“That is a tough one. My advice would be to let her spend time with your ex-brother-in-law and stay out of it. They’ll have some great bed romps and eventually, in a year or two, she’ll figure out that he’s a cad. Afterward, she’ll be so down she’ll finally look at an unattractive, cowardly guy like you. Problem solved.”
Tate blinked a few times, then laughed. “You have to meet my sister. You two will get along well. No advice for me?”
“None at all.” She leaned across the island toward him. “I don’t know either of you young men, so I’ll have to decide which of you to give the most votes to, but right now you are ahead in the polls. I don’t like that the Wickham guy went off and left Casey to find her way to the couch. He should have—”
“I sent the wine,” Tate said, sounding sheepish. “I sent two bottles because I hoped he’d drink too much and I knew she’d had a long day and…” He shrugged.
Olivia laughed. “Clever use of your enemy’s weakness, and that gets you another vote. Uh-oh.”
There was a step on the stairs and Tate immediately stood up. “I better go.”
“Who’s going to cook for you all summer? And don’t you have trouble learning lines?”
“Actually, I’m not a bad cook. I had a single mother, so it was necessary. And I have a bit of a photographic memory. At least for lines, anyway. I can—”
Olivia was glaring at him.
“Oh.”
She picked up her handbag and went to the door. “Be nice and don’t do the wounded-hero act. You’re not onscreen. Got it?” She waited for Tate to nod before she hurried out the door.
“What are you doing here?” Casey asked as soon as she entered the kitchen and saw Tate sitting on a stool at her island—the stool she’d already come to think of as belonging to Jack.
“Olivia let me in, fed me, and now I’m trying to think what I can say to get you to cook for me this summer. Any suggestions?”
Casey went to the dishwasher to unload it, but it was empty. “Did Olivia clean up the kitchen?”
“I guess so.” He was watching her, waiting for her to make a decision. “It wasn’t me, but I would have done it. Although if Olivia hadn’t been here I would have been too terrified to enter your house. She grabbed me by the shirt collar and pulled me inside. She is extraordinarily strong.”
Casey didn’t smile at his joke. Turning, she glared at him. “So it’s true that you’re spending the summer here?”
“Looks like I am. Jack’s director is sending a trainer for him so he’ll be in top shape for his next movie. I thought I’d use him too. The garage is being converted to a gym. If you want to join in, you’re welcome.”
“No thanks.” She took a breath. “Has Kit found someone to play Elizabeth?”
“I think he means for you to do it.”
“No!” Casey said. “Absolutely not.” She started for the door. “I will tell him that I’m not going to be in his play.”
“Please?” Tate asked loudly.
Casey hesitated, her back to him.
“I know you don’t like me and I’m sorry for that, but I promised Kit I’d help out. You were the only one in those auditions with me who had any talent. If one of those girls who think I’m some fairy-tale hero from my movies takes the role, the play will be a flop. Critics will come and butcher it all. Sales will fall off and it will be the charities that suffer. Maybe they’re impersonal, faceless organizations, but they still—”
“No, they’re not.” She looked at him. “The charities aren’t impersonal or faceless to me. A third of those proceeds will go to my mother’s clinic.”
“I hadn’t heard that. What kind of clinic is it?”
“Medical. In Appalachia.”
“That’s great,” Tate said. “The more tickets we sell, the more money your mother gets, right?”
Casey tightened her lips.
“Does your mom know how good an actor you are?”
Casey stepped away from the door. “I’m not good. It was an angry scene and I was furious. At you.”
“I know,” he said, “and I’d be sorry for that if it hadn’t been some of the most powerful acting I’ve ever seen.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you piling praise on me?”
Tate started to give a little smile and lower his lashes at her. It was a trick he’d been using since he reached his full height and women began really looking at him. But then he thought of Olivia’s words and stopped. His head came up. “Because I want a good summer. I haven’t had even two weeks off in years. My sister and her daughter are coming here and I want to spend time with them. I had no plans to be in some local play, but Kit…” Tate threw up his hands. “I honestly don’t know how I got rooked into doing this and I already regret it, but on the other hand, if I don’t do something while I’m here I’ll go nuts with boredom. So what about it?”
“What part?” Casey asked.
“Cook for Jack and me and when Nina and Emmie get here, add them to the list. And play Elizabeth. But only if you swear that you won’t look at me like I’m some chocolate statue you want to devour.”
At that, Casey had to turn away to cover the tiny smile that came to her. “You want me to play Elizabeth because I don’t like you?”
“Pretty much,” he said. “But then, in my last three movies the lead actresses couldn’t stand me.”
“Understandable,” Casey muttered.
“Ouch! Can I give Kit your answer?”
“I will,” Casey said. “Next time I see him—”
“He’s here. Everyone is here.”
“Who is everyone and where is here?”
“At Tattwell. The whole cast is here, and the property is being fenced in. Guards have been hired to patrol the place. That guy Josh has half a dozen workmen putting the old gazebo back together. He and Jack have developed some kind of rivalry. Do you know what that’s about?”
Casey was scrubbing the sink. “I have no idea.”
“I was afraid it had something to do with the girl playing Jane. What’s her name? Glenda?”
“Gisele, but we all call her Gizzy.”
“Jack’s really taken with her.”
“It won’t last,” Casey said as she folded her cloth. “I have to ask Kit how he’s planning to feed the cast and whether he needs me for cooking.” She went to the door, but Tate stayed where he was. She could see that he was waiting for her to answer his questions. “All right, I’ll cook for you. I’ll deliver three meals a day.”
Tate didn’t move.
“And I’ll talk to Kit about being in the play.”
Tate smiled but he still didn’t get off the stool.
“What else?”
“It’s my niece, Emmie. My sister doesn’t cook. Never has. The last time she tried to scramble some eggs, she set the skillet on fire. Emmie thinks a Pop-Tart is a good breakfast.”
For the first time since seeing Tate Landers in her kitchen, Casey’s eyes came alive. “Pop-Tart? You start a child’s day with processed flour and pure sugar?”
“Not me. My sister. Emmie is a very picky eater. Think you could get her to eat something that didn’t come out of a delivery box?”
“Yes,” Casey said as she opened the screen door. “I’d like to go now and see what’s being done. But I guess you don’t have to leave since you own this house.”
Tate got off the stool and went to stand near her. “How about if I swear that I’ll never again enter this house unless you invite me in? No one else, just you.”
“You mean like a vampire?”
Tate gave a laugh that was part groan. “If they remake Dracu
la, think I should try out for the part? I’d bite beautiful necks right there.” Reaching out, he lightly touched the side of her neck with his fingertip—and an electrical current shot up his arm and ran through his chest.
Casey jumped away from him. “What the hell was that?”
“Static electricity, I guess. You okay?”
“Fine. But from now on, keep your hands to yourself.”
“Sure,” he said, then held the door open for her. “No touching, no trespassing, no anything. I got it.” He followed her through the gardens toward the big gazebo—and he was smiling. Static electricity, like hell! That was pure sexual desire in its most basic form.
Casey had put her phone in her pocket before she left the house, and she could feel it buzzing. She stepped back to let the movie star pass, then answered it. “Stacy!” she said in happiness at hearing her half sister’s voice. “When will you get here? Want me to meet you at the airport?”
“No. I’m, uh, Casey, please don’t be mad at me, but I’m not coming back. Not for a while, anyway.”
“But you’re supposed to dress the sets and take care of the costumes. The play can’t be put on without you.”
“I know you think that, but it can. I called Mom, and her book club is going to give up dissecting the latest prizewinner that they all hate and get their sewing machines out of storage. They’re going to make all the clothes for the women. And Dad is going to get the clothes for the men from some place in L.A. My drawings for sets and costumes are fairly complete, so they can be used. And I got an upholstery shop to do the curtains and slipcovers at a really good price.”
“It sounds great,” Casey said, “but I will miss you.”
“Sure about that? From what I heard, you and Tate Landers are the talk of the town. Did you really bawl him out onstage in front of everyone?”
“Sort of.” Casey didn’t want to talk about that. “Why are you staying in D.C.?”
“Because I’m falling in love with a man.”
“What?! Who? Where? When? How?”
Stacy laughed. “Remember I told you that I was going out to dinner with Kit’s son Rowan? He picked me up, but he brought his cousin Nate Taggert with him. And well, Rowan was a bit too serious for my taste. But Nate was funny and charming and very interesting.”