She crossed her legs. “Bram, talk a little bit about the script before we start, will you? Give everyone an idea of what you want from them.”

He hadn’t prepped, and he was shaken. If he blew it, he wouldn’t get another chance, but he couldn’t pull his thoughts together. “A few of you…Some of you have…uh…probably read the book. Most of you, probably. You know it’s a-” He forced himself to get a grip. “It’s a beautiful story. A beautiful script-maybe better than the book.” The words began to come more easily. “Since this is a cold read for everyone, let it be what it is. Don’t try to push your character beyond what you see on the page. Strip it down and read it naked. First…”

Georgie watched Bram from the other end of the living room. He’d gotten off to a bumpy start, but slowly his passion began to shine through. She stole a glance at Rory, but it was hard to decipher anything from her expression.

The idea for the script reading had come to her right after she’d overheard their conversation and seen the desperation Bram was working so hard to conceal. Two big obstacles lay in his way-his reputation for unreliability and his insistence on playing Danny Grimes. She couldn’t do anything more about the first, but it occurred to her that she could give him a shot at the second. He’d either be able to pull off the character or he wouldn’t, but at least he’d have a chance.

Everyone listened intently as he briefly described each character. Asking Rory to read Helene instead of taking the part herself had been wrenching, but this was Bram’s project, and this needed to be his audition. Besides, on the remote chance her plan worked, Bram would owe her big-time, and she intended to make sure he paid up.

Still, she’d once again put the needs of a man ahead of her own, but witnessing Bram’s passion for this project had given her a peephole into his soul. Right or wrong, this felt like the only path to take. She’d wait for another day to be ruthless.

They began to read, and it quickly became obvious that her ulterior motives had led to some serious miscasting. Jade couldn’t resist adding a repressed anger to Marcie that wasn’t on the page, turning her into a more formidable character than either Rory’s stilted Helene or Meg’s Natalie. Lance practically twirled a villain’s mustache in the role of Ken, and Laura was an unconvincing five-year-old. Her father, on the other hand, was shockingly good as Danny’s father. But not as good as Bram, who peeled his character down to its bones so that everyone in the room felt the mute suffering of a man wrongly convicted of one of society’s most heinous crimes. A man who was doggedly trying not to see the same crime unfolding in the house next door.

They reached the last page. Danny Grimes stood over his father’s grave with Natalie at his side.

NATALIE

The rain’s stopped. It’s going to be a nice day after all.

DANNY

(Takes Natalie’s hand)

A good day to build a tree house. Let’s get started.

Silence fell over the living room. One by one, they began closing their scripts.

Bram’s eyes found hers, and she felt her mouth curve in a slow smile. His performance had been brilliant-quiet, desperate, inspired-completely unexpected. Once again, she’d sold him short.

Meg finally broke the silence. “Damn, Bram…Does anybody else know you can act?”

Laura blew her nose. “Son of a bitch.” She gazed toward Paul, who was staring off into space.

“Good job, Bram,” Lance said. “A little flat, but not bad for a first reading…”

“I thought it was brilliant,” Jade said bluntly. “You’ve been wasting your talent on bullshit parts.”

“Right.” Lance jumped back in. “A really interesting performance.”

Georgie gazed at her ex-husband. Bram and her father were right. Lance was like a…a giant block of tofu. He had no flavor of his own. Instead, he assumed the flavors of the people closest to him.

Laura still had her eyes on Paul, who abruptly left the room. Georgie was afraid to look at Rory until she heard a long, weary sigh. “All right, Bram…This is against my better judgment, but let’s go someplace and talk.”

Georgie gave a strangled yelp, but other than a small twitch at the corner of his mouth, Bram didn’t exhibit anything except lazy confidence. “Sure. We can talk in my office.”

“Well…well…,” Jade remarked as Rory and Bram disappeared.

“I’ll say.” Meg uncrossed her legs and rose from her perch on the floor. “I can’t wait to tell Mom about this.”

Lance drummed his fingers on his thigh, something he did when he was unhappy. Chaz came in from the kitchen, where she’d undoubtedly been eavesdropping, and asked if anyone wanted more coffee. What Georgie wanted to do was leap up and dance.

Her guests drifted off to their various beds. Georgie finally went upstairs. She was dying to hear about Rory’s conversation with Bram, and she tried to read while she waited but finally gave it up. Her thoughts drifted to her ex-husband. From the time they’d started dating until the end of their marriage, she’d let her love for him define who she was-first Lance Marks’s girlfriend, then Lance Marks’s wife, and finally Lance’s tragically victimized ex-wife. She’d let herself become the emotional slave of a famous, talented, unfaithful, but not really rotten…slab of tofu.

Bram shot through the door and dive-bombed the bed. Yanking the covers away, he kissed her until she was delirious.

“I take it…,” she said breathlessly, “…that you’re demonstrating your gratitude.”

“I am.” He grinned and brushed her temples with his thumbs. “Thank you, Georgina. I mean it.” He slipped his hand under her tank top and pinched her nipple. “But don’t ever do anything like that again without warning me. I nearly had a heart attack.”

She decided she could wait to hear the details of his meeting and arched her breast into his hand. “You’re welcome. Now show me how grateful you really are.”

He did exactly that.

The next morning Bram was as happy as Georgie had ever seen him. His eyes sparkled, and the razor edges of his mouth had softened. Rory had agreed to produce Tree House through Siracca Productions, a subsidiary of Vortex that made low-budget, so-called independent, films. He finally had exactly what he wanted. Georgie experienced a brief pang of envy. She felt more creative excitement filming Chaz than she’d felt for her real work. And then she remembered Helene.

That afternoon the health department lifted the quarantine after blood tests determined that Jade’s assistants were suffering from a virus, not from SARS. Both women were still weak, but improving. By the time everyone was ready to leave, three helicopters buzzed overhead, and a media maelstrom waited at the gates. Rory slipped out the back, but the rest of them waited for the police to arrive and clear the way.

Now that Bram’s dreams were coming true, Georgie had to take the next step toward realizing her own. She went outside to find Laura. As her agent came back up the path from the guesthouse, Georgie walked down the steps to meet her. Laura’s baby-fine hair bounced this way and that around the soft prettiness of her face. She didn’t look tough enough to be an agent, and maybe she wasn’t. Georgie licked her lips. “I want you to cancel my meeting with Rich Greenberg tomorrow.”

Laura stopped in her tracks, her brown eyes widening with alarm. “Georgie, I can’t do that. You have no idea how hard I worked to get that meeting. You weren’t even on Rich’s radar screen until I talked to him, but now he’s thinking seriously about you.”

“I understand, but you didn’t talk to me about it first. I’m not doing that film.”

“Rich has some great ideas. You should at least hear him out.”

“It’s a waste of his time. I’ll call him myself and apologize.”

Laura tugged on her necklace. The deep shadows under her eyes indicated she hadn’t been sleeping well. “Your father is…He strongly believes this is the best project for you.”

“I’ll make sure he understands this was my decision.”

Laura looked unconvinced.

“I can’t do it,” Georgie said. “That last film I made…All I did was go through the motions.”

“Don’t say that. You’re a brilliant performer.”

“Spoken like a true agent.” She knew what she had to do. Bram, of all people, had shown her. “I don’t think people should live their lives just going through the motions. I want more from myself.”

“I understand that, but-”

“I want to play Helene in Tree House.”

Laura blinked. “Wow. I didn’t see that coming. That’s…quite a different part for you. Bram has…agreed to this?”

“He owes me an audition. I know I can do it. It’s a role that excites me, and I’m going to put everything I have into landing it.”

“Of course you have my support, but…”

“We’d better get inside.” She squeezed Laura’s wrist, a gesture of regret, and led her across the veranda.

The police were at the gate, and Bram met Georgie in the foyer to see everyone off. Aaron appeared with a notepad and asked Lance and Jade for their autographs. “Would you sign these to Chaz?” He passed the notepad and a pen to Jade. “Maybe something about liking her food. She’s too embarrassed to ask for herself.”

Jade looked blank.

“Our housekeeper,” Georgie said. “The girl who’s been making our meals all weekend.”

“Oh, yes…”

Bram snorted.

Jade signed, then tapped her foot, impatient to go. Lance hung back, still waiting for Georgie’s forgiveness. The wounds he’d inflicted on her began ticking through her head. But she’d played the filmstrip too many times, and watching it had grown boring. She thought of all the things she could say to hurt him, but that proved to be boring, too.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re absolved, Lancelot. Go and sin no more.”

Bram’s hand settled in the small of her back and rubbed.

“Do you mean it?” Lance said. “You’ve forgiven me?”

“Why not? It’s hard to hold on to a grudge when you don’t care anymore. Besides, you have enough trouble on your hands.”

“What do you mean by that?”

She meant that Jade never looked at Lance the way Lance looked at Jade, with such single-minded adoration. Jade probably loved him in her own way, but not as much as he loved her, and that didn’t bode well for a man with such massive insecurities.

Revenge came in strange forms, but she only said, “Changing the world isn’t easy, and the two of you have your work cut out for you.”

She’d given him what he wanted, but she saw that it didn’t make him entirely happy. Some part of him had liked her suffering-just a little bit-and he wasn’t quite ready to let it go. She smiled and looped her arm through Bram’s. Lance scowled, and Jade glanced at her watch, oblivious to it all.

As they finally left, Bram chuckled softly in her ear, “Impressive. Since when did you grow up?”

“Your influence, I’m sure,” she said dryly. But in a way it was true. Life was moving too fast for her to waste time gnawing over wounds that had healed when she wasn’t paying attention.

Meg announced that she was moving back home for a while. “Now that I know Bram’s not beating you, I’ll leave you alone.” She shot Bram her version of her father’s Bird Dog Caliber squint. “But don’t think I won’t be checking up on you.”

Finally, only Paul remained. “I’ve drafted a statement to the media that I suggest you release as soon as possible.”

Georgie automatically bristled, but Bram stepped in. “What do we have to say in this statement?”

“Exactly what you’d expect.” Paul passed over the paper he was holding. “How grateful you both are that the two women in the hospital are feeling better…The past is the past…You both couldn’t be more supportive of the good work Jade and Lance are doing. Et cetera. Et cetera.”

“Who knew we were so civilized?” Georgie said.

Bram nodded. “Sounds good to me. Aaron can take care of it.” He handed the paper off to Georgie, then headed for his office with the jaunty step of a man who’d just won the lottery.

“What are you doing this afternoon?” Paul asked.

She dreaded telling him she’d canceled the Greenberg meeting. “I have a ton of paperwork to catch up on.”

“Do it later. The helicopters have flown off. What do you say the two of us go for a swim?”

“A swim?”

“I saw some extra trunks in the guesthouse. I’ll meet you at the pool.” He set off without waiting for her agreement, which was so typical. She stomped upstairs and took her time pulling on a lemon-yellow bikini, then wrapping a beach towel around her waist. She’d been through enough these past few days, and she wasn’t ready to plunge into what was guaranteed to be an ugly scene.