The Cast

by Danielle Steel

  “Maybe they’d been there for a while, and you never noticed.” Kait didn’t want to confirm or deny it. It was up to Abaya to be realistic, and the evidence was blatant.

  “A red thong? You think I wouldn’t notice that sitting at my feet? I think it’s that bitch in makeup he was sleeping with before. I think he’s a liar, and always was.”

  “Yes, he was,” Kait agreed.

  “What should I do?” Abaya looked as lost as Kait felt.

  “Open your eyes and ears, Abaya. See what he does. That’s stronger proof than words. Don’t be too trusting and think he’s what you want him to be. See who he really is. Then you’ll know what to do.” The decision had to be hers.

  Abaya nodded and left a few minutes later. She went straight to hair and makeup and confronted the girl she hated, right after she finished doing Nick’s makeup. Abaya waited until he left, and she took the red thong out of her pocket and handed it to the makeup assistant.

  “Are these yours?” she asked her. The girl looked nervous at first and then shrugged. There was no point denying it. He wasn’t married, after all.

  “Yeah, they are. I left them in your boyfriend’s car.”

  Abaya’s heart was pounding. “Recently?”

  “Yesterday, while you were working.”

  Abaya felt like she was going to faint, but she didn’t, she just turned around and walked out. The girl in makeup was as sleazy as Dan was, but she wasn’t a liar like him. He came running to Abaya’s trailer ten minutes later, after the makeup girl reported the conversation to him. He looked panicked as he faced Abaya.

  “Get out of my trailer,” Abaya said fiercely. “I have nothing to say to you.” She had finally woken up and come to her senses.

  “Wait, let’s talk. I can explain.”

  “No, you can’t. You had sex with her yesterday. I was right about you in the beginning.”

  “I’m in love with you.”

  “No, you’re not, and you made a fool of me. Now get out.”

  “We have a big scene together in an hour. You can’t leave it like this.”

  “Yes, I can. Now get out of my trailer, and my life.” She looked as though she might throw something at him, and he turned around and left. He felt like someone had let the air out of him as he walked away and realized what an idiot he had been. She was the only woman he knew worth having, and he had screwed it up out of habit. He always did. And women made it so easy for him. He could have anyone he wanted. He walked past Becca on the way to his own trailer, and she glared at him in disgust.

  “You’re a jerk,” she said under her breath, and he didn’t answer her. He walked into his trailer, locked the door, and burst into tears.

  * * *

  —

  When Nick and Maeve shot another scene from the last episode, the magic happened again as Kait watched them. Everyone was mesmerized as they played the scene, as anger turned to passion and then love, the emotions portrayed in the scene were convincing and raw. They were both amazing actors. Their performances were powerful and deeply moving, and Kait found herself remembering the things he had said to her on the beach that morning, about Candace and herself. He understood who the players were, and about life. There was something incredibly genuine about him, there was no artifice, which was why the part he was playing rang so true. They did it in three takes, and there were tears in everyone’s eyes when they were finished.

  They had only one more scene to play together that afternoon, and Kait was sorry he wasn’t staying longer and there weren’t more scenes to do. The rest would have to wait till they started shooting the next season.

  He stopped by her chair as he left the set and looked down at her. “How did that work for you?”

  “It was perfect,” she said, smiling at him.

  “Good. That’s how I want it to be. It felt good to me too.”

  She wasn’t sure if he was talking about them, or the scene he had just played with Maeve. He could have meant it either way. And so could she.

  Chapter 14

  All the members of the cast were sorry to see him go when Nick finished his two days of shooting. He made a point of meeting all the lighting and sound men, with a word or two, a handshake, a friendly pat on the back. He had been well liked on all the sets he worked on. And Agnes commented that he was a gentleman. He had told her what a great honor it was to meet her, although he hadn’t worked with her yet. His scenes had all been with Maeve, and one with Abaya. For an instant, Kait had thought that there was chemistry between them, but after what he’d seen of Dan and knew from Kait in an abbreviated version, she realized that he was just being kind.

  They would be shooting the rest of Nick’s scenes, for the second season, after the hiatus. He stayed to have dinner with Kait and was planning to drive to New York City for meetings he had with a literary agent before going back to Wyoming. He was trying to option a book he had read that he loved and wanted to produce as a feature film. Even if he stayed on the show, he, like the others, would have time to do other projects during the hiatus. They were all counting on it, for extra money and so that they wouldn’t get too identified with only one role, which often happened when actors continued for a long time with a series. But it was a desirable problem they all hoped to have, if it ran for many seasons.

  His dinner with Kait was quiet and simple. They didn’t talk a lot. She was still feeling flat and badly shaken after losing Candace. She had come back to work quickly, but she wasn’t herself yet and wondered if she ever would be again. She was tired all the time now, couldn’t sleep at night, and the memories of her daughter haunted her. She wished now that she had tried harder to stop her, and to insist that she quit her job in London. But Candace never would have. She was too committed to reporting injustices and changing the world. No one could have stopped her. Nick could see the torment in Kait’s eyes. He didn’t expect her to talk a lot. Just being with her was enough, and Kait felt calmer when she was with him. He had a tranquil aura around him, and gave her the sense that he was protecting her, although she didn’t know from what. The worst had already happened. There was nothing he could do now except be there and let her be silent.

  When they talked it was about the show and the future episodes. She and Becca had outlined most of them and written some. And Zack and the network loved them. It was going to be a strong show and hopefully run for years. Kait wanted to make the second season even better than the first.

  “Does Grandma Hannabel like me?” he asked in a teasing tone. He couldn’t wait to work with Agnes, just to say he had. He thought she was a remarkable woman, the grande dame of feature films from another era long before his time.

  “Not at first,” Kait answered, smiling at him. “You have a huge showdown with her, which turns things around. Becca just rewrote the scene for the third episode. After that, Hannabel’s a fan. She thought you were too arrogant at first, in the show,” she corrected quickly, “and sometimes you are, but you’re there to help her daughter and protect her from the guys who are trying to shut her business down. Everything changes once you get there. You help her make a success of it, and Hannabel gets that, in time.”

  He nodded. He was crazy about the role, the actors he would be working with, and the planes. It had everything he loved.

  “We’ve still got to get a horse in there somewhere,” he teased her, and she laughed.

  “I’ll work on it,” she promised, knowing he was only joking. “But old planes are pretty sexy too, and the guys who flew them.”

  “Yes, they are,” he agreed, and then he looked at her seriously. “When am I going to see you again? Before we go back to work?” There was an inexplicable connection between them, as though they had known each other for longer than they had. He seemed to understand how she thought and how she reacted, and why, without talking about it. His instincts were to shield her. He could
see how much she had on her plate and how it weighed on her, and how much she worried about her children and what was happening in their lives. He wanted to know her better and spend time with her, away from work. Their morning walk on the beach had touched his heart.

  She was the kind of woman he would have liked to have children with, if he’d found her in time. The ones he had met along the way never seemed to him like they would have been good mothers, more like his own and Kait’s, who had run away. He didn’t want children now, at the eleventh hour or to make up for what he’d missed, but he did want a good woman in his life—one he could talk to, respect, share warm times and even bad times with. Kait was that kind of woman, although she didn’t seem to want a man in her life. It was the one thing about her he wasn’t sure of—if she would let him into her private world or not. She seemed unsure about it herself and she was so shattered now. But they had to start somewhere, and he didn’t want to wait months to see her. He believed that the right opportunities were meant to be seized and explored, independent of the show.

  They would know how the ratings were in November and December and if they had a hit on their hands. They were all on pins and needles even now, waiting to find out. But all the signs were good and the network had faith in them, which was an excellent predictor of success.

  “What are you doing during the hiatus?” he pressed her.

  “I’m going to try and get out west to see Tom and Stephanie,” she said vaguely, but Wyoming wasn’t on her flight path. “I don’t know how busy I’ll be with postproduction. It’s all new to me. I’m thinking about giving up my column. I wanted to wait and see how the ratings are, but it’s been really hard to keep up. There’s always some crisis on the set, it’s not just about the shooting schedule,” which she had thought in the beginning.

  “It never is when there are humans involved.” He smiled at her.

  “Charlotte threw us a real curve when she told us she was pregnant. She’s going to keep the baby with her in the trailer while she’s nursing. That will probably slow us down too.” She looked apologetically at him, but he didn’t seem bothered by it. He’d worked with nursing women before, and dealt with almost every situation. “And if Ian starts to go downhill, Maeve is going to have a hard time keeping up. We’re prepared for that.”

  “I’m not sure she is, though,” he said sympathetically. “It’s going to be very hard on her.”

  Kait nodded, just as losing Candace was on her. They were the dramas that happened in real life.

  She liked talking to Nick about the show. Usually she talked to Zack about it, but hadn’t had time lately. And he was busy too. He had been in L.A. most of the time since they’d started shooting, working on other projects and setting up promotion and advertising with the network for The Wilder Women, and making the deal for their second season.

  There was going to be a big ad campaign in September. It had just started in earnest, and it looked good so far. Nick was still a big secret, but at the end of the first season, there would be ads and billboards of him with Maeve. They had shot the still photography for them while he was on the set, and they looked great together. Casting him in the role of her new man had been inspired.

  Talking to Nick, she could see what sharing her life with the right man would be like, like Maeve and Ian. She had never had that, and for the past few years had thought it was too late. But she was beginning to wonder now. Or was that just an illusion because he was a handsome man and a movie star? She wasn’t sure and didn’t know him well enough to decide. That was what he wanted from her now, the time to find out if there was something there for them or not, and she could sense now that it was what he had in mind.

  “Candace thought we should go out together,” she said shyly. “And Steph.” She smiled. “Tommy just wants you to himself. He’s been surrounded by women all his life. A mother, two sisters, now a wife and two daughters. He worships his father-in-law.”

  “Hank is a good guy,” Nick said since he knew him, although he didn’t know him well. He had met him several times while buying horses, and he had some remarkable ones himself. “Maybe we should honor Candace’s request,” he said, gently treading on what he knew was hallowed ground and not wanting to offend her. “Let’s just see what happens,” he said, and she nodded. He didn’t want to force anything or rush her. He made it seem like they had all the time in the world.

  She walked him to his car when he left for the city after dinner.

  “I’m going to miss walking on the beach with you tomorrow morning,” he said, and she nodded. She had liked that too, and sharing the sunrise with him as they went barefoot in the sand, with their guard down, and their defenses, before the day began and others crowded in. “I like riding in the foothills early in the morning. It has the same kind of feeling as the ocean. It makes you realize how small you are, and no matter what you plan, God has a bigger idea, and you’re not the one in charge.”

  But she couldn’t figure out what His idea had been when Candace died, or why it had to happen. It still made no sense to her. But maybe it didn’t have to, and she just had to accept it for what it was, which was the hardest part, and understand that her daughter would never come back, and Kait would never see her again. Kait looked up at Nick with a lifetime in her eyes.

  “I’ll be around if you need me, Kait,” he said softly. “I’m just a phone call or an email away. You can send me a text. I don’t want to crowd you, but I’ll come running if you call.”

  No one had ever said that to her before, and she had the same sense of well-being she’d had with her grandmother when she was a little girl. Someone she could trust who would be there to protect her.

  “I’m okay,” she said, trying to sound brave.

  “I know you are,” he said confidently, “but it never hurts to have a friend in your corner, or on the same team.” Zack had been that for her since they put the show together, but it was different. There was something else lurking beneath the surface with Nick, which was impossible to ignore. Candace had felt it, and even though Kait had denied it at the time, she had too, and thought it was her imagination. Nick gazed at her. He touched her hand and then got into the car and waved as he drove away. They had made no plans to meet again in their off time, but she had the feeling that they would. She walked back to the hotel, thinking about him. Then Candace crowded into her mind again, and she spent a long, lonely, sleepless night. And the next morning, at dawn, she walked the beach alone.

  * * *

  —

  Everyone talked about Nick on the set the next day. They all liked him, it was hard not to, and Nancy commented that he was a hell of an actor and so easy, like Maeve and Agnes. They were all people with enormous talent who were a privilege to work with.

  Abaya and Dan had their final scene together the next morning, and it was a nightmare. They got into a ferocious argument on the set. Nancy had them break for lunch and told them to go duke it out on their own time, and that they were costing the network money. All she needed was this last day on set with both of them. Dan followed Abaya to her trailer after that, and she wouldn’t let him in.

  “I told you, I’m done. You’re not going to play this game with me, of who you’re cheating with today. I hated you from the minute I met you, and I was right. You’re a slimebag, a dirtball. Take your fucking red thong and get lost. And don’t call me after you leave the show.”

  He could see she meant it, and he could sense what a huge mistake he’d made. But she refused to give him another chance, and he didn’t blame her. Her shutting him out made him want her all the more. He had cheated on women all his life. But he realized now that she was different. Not being able to have her was making him fall in love with her. Too late.

  She didn’t believe him now and didn’t want to hear it. “I have better things to do with my life.” She was a whole person and respected herself, even if she h
ad been naïve at first. She knew that now.

  “I don’t know what happened. I really did fall in love with you. And what I did was very, very wrong,” he tried to explain, to no avail.

  “You’d do it again if I gave you the chance.” She was sure of that now, and it was true.

  “I swear I wouldn’t. Give me one more chance. If I fuck up again, I’ll walk away myself.” She shook her head at him, and slammed the door in his face.

  Their performance for their final scenes together on the set that afternoon was slightly better, but not by much. They were both tired, frustrated, and emotionally overwrought. Abaya couldn’t wait for his part in the series to end so she wouldn’t have to work with him anymore. His character was about to die so she wouldn’t have to see him again. And he knew he wouldn’t see her afterward. She wouldn’t let him near her after the red thong incident. His part in the series was about to end with his death. They were shooting out of order, and Nancy had shot all his scenes by then. He had managed to lose Abaya right at the end, with no time left to try and win her back.

  Dan was planning to go skiing in Europe during the holidays, and he was going to model during fashion week in Paris, and then had a part in a movie. And Abaya was going home to her family in Vermont. She wanted to spend time with her parents and siblings, and do some skiing later. She’d had enough of Hollywood behavior and people for a while, with Dan on top of that list. She could never respect a man like that, and told him so again. Nancy wasn’t thrilled with their performance in their final scene together, but she knew it was the best she could get out of them now. His part on the show was over, much to Abaya’s relief.

  * * *

  —

  Maeve went home to Ian that night, and called in the next morning to say that he was running a fever, so she had to delay the scenes she was in. They rescheduled to shoot with Brad and Charlotte. She was visibly pregnant now, five months. They shot around it as much as possible, and Lally had done some clever costuming, and mostly they were filming the episodes now with the newer scripts, where Chrystal and her family were facing her disgrace. Charlotte had been in the tabloids recently with the drummer she thought was the father, but he had demanded a DNA test when Charlotte asked him for support for the child. He was already paying support for two other children he’d had with two different women as a result of paternity suits they’d brought against him, and he wasn’t anxious for a third, especially since neither he nor Charlotte were entirely sure it was his. But she was in good spirits, and the pregnancy had been easy for her after the first weeks. It hadn’t slowed her down, and Kait thought she looked beautiful. They were talking about auditioning the babies they were going to use with her in the second season. They would use identical twins, as most shows did, to save time. Twins gave them longer shooting hours, and an alternative if one of them got sick.