Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 65643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 328(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 219(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 328(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 219(@300wpm)
“Look at that view,” I said, nodding out over the hillside. “I bet your Calabasas mansion doesn’t have a view like this.”
“It does not,” Noemi agreed, kicking her feet lazily and making the water ripple out. “You always had good taste in real estate.”
“You want to move in?” I was half serious. In twenty years, I’d never met anyone I cared about like Noemi. It wasn’t love-of-our-life type shit, but maybe it was the best there was.
She looked up, smiled. “No. I’m engaged. David proposed last week.”
I felt my eyebrows disappear into my hairline, and my gaze went straight to her left hand. It wasn’t like me to miss a detail like that.
“I’m not wearing it, obviously,” she said, holding up her hand to show me the bare fourth finger. “It’s going to be top secret. No save the dates, no invites, no rings until it’s over.”
“Is this my invite?” I guessed.
She nodded. “It’s in six weeks. Turks and Caicos. Can you make it?”
My calendar was packed, but I’d be there.
“Good,” Noemi said. “It wouldn’t be the same without you there.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes, looking out at the view. Noemi was getting married again. That shocked the hell out of me. The electricity jumped unpleasantly beneath my skin, activating shit that I thought we’d put to bed decades ago.
“So when you said you just didn’t think you were cut out to be a wife,” I started.
“That was twenty years ago, Garrett.”
“Right.”
Noemi sighed and pulled her legs out of the water, crossing them underneath her skirt. The damp imprint of her legs appeared in the filmy fabric. “Does it bother you?”
I thought about it seriously. Did it bother me? No, not really. Not anymore than watching her kiss other guys on screen bothered me. “No,” I said finally. “I’m happy for you. Just surprised.”
“Me too.” She held out her left hand and smiled like she could see the ring on it. “I wasn’t lying when I told you I wasn’t cut out to be a wife.”
“What changed?”
Noemi shrugged her slim shoulders and dropped her hand into her lap. “I met the right person. You will, too. One day.”
I doubted it, but I just patted her on the head the way she hated. She batted my hand away. “I actually came here for another reason, too.”
“You want me to give you away?”
Noemi curled her lip. “No, I think I’m a little old to be given away, but I do need a crisis manager.”
I raised my eyebrows and waited. Noemi had sailed through the last twenty years without a whiff of scandal. I’d made sure of that. I hadn’t heard anything brewing lately though.
“It’s not me. It’s an old co-star. A young co-star, actually,” she corrected herself. “I’m sure you know her. Destiny Pollock.”
“The yacht girl?”
Noemi shot me a scathing look. “She’s not a yacht girl.”
“Are you sure about that?” I asked. Noemi had a trusting heart, but I didn’t. “She’s been photographed on a lot of yachts.” I wasn’t one to leap to conclusions, but if it walked on a yacht and it talked on a yacht…
“She’s not a yacht girl,” Noemi repeated, a storm gathering on her forehead. “I don’t know what she’s gotten caught up in, but she needs your help.”
“Hmm.” I stared out over the canyon, considering it. “Can she afford my help?” Celebrities came to me prepared to spend a couple hundred grand. A view like this didn’t come cheap.
“I think she can afford your sliding scale rate,” Noemi said sweetly.
When I just snorted, she said in her normal voice, “I’ll pay half.”
“That’s bullshit,” I complained. “You know I won’t take your money.”
“Then sliding scale it is.” She patted my knee. “You’re a doll, Garrett. Thanks so much. I’ll arrange a lunch.”
“I’m going to need more than a sandwich if I’m doing pro bono work,” I muttered, regretting having opened the door to my ex-wife. Her mission accomplished, she stood up and pulled me to my feet so I could walk her out. Noemi was never one to linger after she’d gotten what she came for.
After she left, I went to my computer to research Destiny Pollock. I had to go back to nearly the beginning of her filmography to find where her career had intersected with Noemi’s. She’d played her much younger sister in a movie twelve years ago, but it didn’t surprise me that they were still in contact. Noemi might move on from people, but she never let them go. Since then, she’d had her own TV show on a kids network. Released a couple of albums. Launched a clothing line for Target, and then her show went off the air and work trickled to a stop. Her last project was a year ago.
I looked at the latest series of paparazzi photos. It was a shot of her and five other girls coming out of a club. She didn’t look a damn thing like her old character, Magical Melody, anymore. Her black dress looked lacquered on, her cherry red lips matched her hair, and there was a glassy look in her eyes. She was young and vibrant and stunningly beautiful, but there was something sad about her, too. An aura of fear and desperation.