“Get it and go away.”

She liked that he’d started talking like a real person instead of a geek. “It’s my place.”

“Just go to sleep, will you?”

Instead of getting a book, she settled in the chair across from him and pulled her bare feet up on the edge of the seat. “What if we get SARS?”

“That’s highly unlikely.” He sat up, yawned, and rubbed one eye. Other than kicking off his shoes, he was still wearing all his clothes. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to sterilize the dishes Lance and Jade use.”

She wrapped her arms around her knees. “I can’t believe Lance Marks and Jade Gentry are in the house.” Aaron put on his glasses and made his way toward her kitchen. She rose and followed him. “The only celebrity Bram ever invites over is Trevor. He’s great and everything, but I want to meet more famous people than just him. I wish Meg’s dad would show up sometime.”

He got a glass of water. “What about Georgie?”

“Like I care about her.”

“You’re so damned jealous.”

“I’m not jealous!” She turned toward the doorway. “I just think she should be nicer to Bram.”

“He’s the one who needs to be nicer to her. She’s great, and he doesn’t appreciate her.”

“I’m going to bed. Don’t eat my food.”

“You think I can sleep after you woke me up?”

“That’s your problem.”

They ended up watching one of Trevor’s movies. She’d already seen it three times, so she fell asleep against one arm of the couch.

In the morning when she woke up, she discovered Aaron asleep at the other end. For a moment she just lay there and thought about how nice it was to feel safe.

Georgie couldn’t cope with facing the morning, so when Bram, her nonalcoholic husband, got up, she kept her face buried in the pillow. He cracked open one of the balcony doors to let in the morning air, but even when he patted her butt, she didn’t stir. Why rush a day that promised to be memorable in its awfulness?

He left the bedroom, and she dozed off, but hardly any time seemed to have elapsed before he came back. “Do you need to make so much noise?” she grumbled into her pillow. “I like my men sexy and silent, remember?”

“Georgie?”

That tentative voice didn’t belong to Bram. It didn’t belong to a man at all. Georgie’s eyes flew open. She twisted and saw Jade Gentry standing just inside the open balcony door. She wore yesterday’s sleeveless black top and slacks, but somehow she still looked refreshed, even elegant. She’d gathered her smooth, straight hair into a casual knot at the nape of her neck and applied dusky eye makeup and pale mocha lip gloss. Her understated jewelry consisted of silver hoops and a simple silver wedding band. “It’s eight-thirty,” Jade said. “I assumed you’d be awake by now.”

Georgie blinked against the sun and slipped her left hand with its impressive diamond out from under the sheet. “Not to be impolite, Jade, but get the hell out of here.”

“You need to have this conversation.”

“Wrong.” Georgie yanked the sheet free and wrapped it around her naked body. “I don’t want a conversation with either one of you.”

Jade’s eyes fastened on Georgie’s neck. “We’re stuck together for the next two days. It’ll make things less awkward if you and I clear the air privately before we go downstairs.”

“Awkwardness doesn’t bother me at all.” She bunched the sheet between her breasts just as Lance came in through the balcony door.

“Jade? What are you doing?” he said.

“I was hoping to talk to Georgie alone,” Jade replied calmly. “She has other ideas.”

“Like throwing both your asses over that balcony!”

Lance slipped his arm through his wife’s. “Georgie, give Jade a chance.”

Georgie grabbed another fistful of sheet and stalked toward them, doing her best not to trip. “I already gave Jade a husband. And my apologies for that, by the way.”

“Kinky,” Bram said from the doorway that opened into the hall. “Do I get to play, too?”

“Throw them out of here,” Georgie ordered, gripping the sheet tighter. “I’d do it, but I only have one free hand.”

Bram shrugged. “Okay.”

“Stop.” Jade held out her arm. “You and I need to be the reasonable people here, Bram. All I wanted to do was talk to Georgie without everybody listening in. She’s a good person. I want to apologize for hurting her. I know that will help her let go of her animosity so she can heal.”

“How generous,” he said. “I’m sure Georgie’s healing would make you both feel a lot better.”

“Don’t attack Jade.” Lance flexed some muscle. “Georgie, you’ve always been sensible. Jade needs to do this-I need to do it-so everyone can move on.” His gaze went to her neck.

Bram lifted an eyebrow. “I have to admit you two clowns have raised my curiosity. Georgie, aren’t you the least bit interested in hearing what they have to say?”

“I already heard what one of those clowns had to say last night, but it turns out I don’t want to end our marriage and set off to Thailand for a gigantic photo op with the two of them.”

“You’re kidding.”

“It’s not the way she’s making it sound,” Jade said quickly. “Lance and I are talking about a humanitarian trip. Georgie, we all need to start thinking globally instead of personally.”

“I’m not that spiritually advanced.”

“Me either,” Bram said. “Besides, Georgie and I already have a trip planned. To Haiti. We’re delivering medical supplies.”

Jade looked genuinely excited. “Really? That’s great. Anything I can do to help, just let me know.”

“Start by getting out of my bedroom,” Georgie said.

Jade looked gorgeous and hurt. “I think you’re a wonderful person, Georgie, and I’m sorry you’ve been so badly hurt.”

“I’m not hurt, you bozos. I’m furious.”

“I recognize your right to be angry, Georgie. I know what Lance and I are suggesting is crazy, but let’s do it anyway. Just for the hell of it. Let’s show the world that women are more sensible than men.”

“I’m not more sensible! You and my ex-husband had an affair behind my back, he lied to the press about me, and now you want me to go off on some kind of altruistic ménage à trois? I don’t think so.”

Jade’s doe eyes melted into bottomless pools of sadness. “I told Lance you were too self-focused to consider it.”

“Well, I think that does it.” Bram shoved the balcony doors open. “It’s been a great visit, but Georgie has to go throw up now.”

This time Lance and Jade didn’t argue.

“Fun couple,” Bram said as he flipped the lock on the doors behind them. “A little intense, but still a barrel of laughs.”

Georgie headed for the bathroom. “And here I am, naked under this sheet, my hair sticking out all over my head. I haven’t even brushed my teeth. Jade can get the best of me without even trying.”

“I should have been more sensitive toward your pathetic self-esteem issues,” Bram said, following her. “I’m going to punish myself by taking you back to bed and working extra hard to be the man of your sexual fantasies.”

“Or not.” She caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. No wonder they were staring at her neck. She had a giant sucker bite. She touched it with the tip of her finger. “Thanks a lot.”

He slid his own finger over the slope of her shoulder. “I wanted to make sure Lance didn’t forget who you belong to.”

She grabbed her toothbrush. Women weren’t property, especially this woman. Still, it was nice of him to have thought ahead. What she didn’t find so nice was her discovery that he had one fewer vice than he’d led her to believe, something she’d have to confront him about very soon.

He handed her the toothpaste. “Last night when I went outside to get Jade, she was already walking toward the front door, talking on her cell. I can’t prove it, but I think she was discussing the quarantine with someone.”

“Before she came in?” Georgie said around a mouthful of toothpaste. “But that doesn’t make sense. If she already knew about the quarantine, why would she let herself get stuck here?”

“Maybe because she didn’t trust her husband to be holed up with his still-sexy ex-wife for two days?”

“Really?” She smiled and spit. “Cool.”

“You’ll tell me, won’t you, when you’re ready to stop obsessing over the two of them and start living your real life.”

She rinsed out her mouth. “This is L.A., so real life is an illusion.”

“Bram!” Chaz yelled from the bottom of the stairs. “Bram, come quick! There’s a snake in the swimming pool. You have to get it out!”

Bram shuddered. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“You should make Lance and Jade do it.” Georgie docked her toothbrush. “It’s probably one of their relatives.”

“Bram!” Chaz called out. “Hurry!”

Georgie ended up pulling a robe around herself and following him out to the pool, where a rattlesnake had climbed up on a kickboard floating in the water. It wasn’t a big rattler, maybe two feet long, but it was still a poisonous snake and one that didn’t like the water.

Chaz’s yelling had alerted the other houseguests. As Lance and Jade appeared, Bram picked up the leaf skimmer and held it out. “Here you go, Lancelot. Impress the women.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Don’t look at me,” Jade said. “I’m phobic.”

“I hate snakes.” Chaz made a face.

Georgie extended her hand toward Bram. “Oh, give it here. I’ll do it.”

“Good girl.” Bram passed over the leaf skimmer.

As Georgie took it, Laura appeared, followed by Rory, who flipped her cell closed and dashed to the rim of the pool, the heels of her very expensive Gucci sandals clicking on the deck. “It that a rattler?”

“It sure is.” Bram glanced at Rory, then held out his hand to Georgie. “Honey, what are you doing? Give me that. No way am I letting you go after a dangerous rattlesnake.”

She suppressed a smile and handed back the swimmer. Bram gritted his teeth and gingerly extended it across the pool. Meg and Paul appeared and watched the process, with Meg occasionally throwing out advice. The snake hissed and coiled but Bram eventually managed to knock it off the kickboard into the skimmer. A patch of flop sweat had formed between his shoulder blades as he carted the extended skimmer to the very back of his property and flipped the snake over the stone wall.

“Great,” Rory said. “Now it can crawl back into my yard as soon as it’s full grown.”

“You let me know if it does,” Bram said. “I’ll come right over and take care of it for you.”

“You should have killed it,” Lance said.

“Why?” Meg retorted. “Because it acted like a snake?”

Georgie realized she needed to clarify something, and with Rory standing there, she might as well do it now, however awkward it might be. “You know, Rory…Those drinks Bram’s always carrying around. It’s iced tea.”

Bram looked at her as though she’d lost her mind, as did the others. “Just so everyone understands you’re not a drunk anymore,” she said lamely. “You stopped smoking cigarettes five years ago, and the oregano in the kitchen is really oregano. As for drugs…I’ve found some Flintstone vitamins and Tylenol, but-”

“I don’t take Flintstone vitamins!”

“One A Day. Whatever. If people know you’re not such a badass anymore, they might stop treating me like I was crazy for marrying you.” And, she thought, Rory might be more willing to get behind Tree House. Her newly calculating brain ticked away.

Bram finally climbed on board. “You were crazy to marry me, but I’m glad.”

They did a little marital cuddle, although she could tell from the tight furrow between his brows that he wasn’t happy with her. “My hero.” She patted his chest.

“You’re too good to me, sweetheart.”

Laura asked Lance and Jade the question that should have been at the forefront of all their minds. “How are you two? Any symptoms?”

“Jet-lagged, but otherwise healthy,” Jade said.

Rory flicked open her cell. “Give me a list of whatever any of you need. One of my assistants will get it all together and put it by the back gate.”

Lance clapped Paul on the shoulder. “It’s great to see you again. We finally have a chance to catch up.”

Georgie didn’t have the stomach for this reunion, and she began to move away, only to be stopped by her father’s reply. “I’m afraid I don’t have much to say to you these days, Lance.”

Lance didn’t seem to know how to respond. “Paul…This has been hard on everyone, but…”

“Has it?” her father said. “The way I see it, it’s mainly been hard on Georgie. You seem to be doing just fine.”

Lance looked stricken, and Jade’s forehead crinkled. Georgie was touched. “Go ahead, Dad. I don’t mind.”

“I mind,” he said and walked away.

The corner of Bram’s mouth curled. “I don’t understand it. Dad was in such a good mood last night when the two of us made plans to go fishing.”