California Dreaming: Four Contemporary Romances (92 page)

“How you doing, little man?” Hunter cooed. “Surviving all this woman-power? Pretty soon we’ll get you a wet suit and get you out on the ocean.”

“You are not putting my baby on a board,” Alicia protested.

“Mine either,” Sarah said. “Too many things to go wrong.” A grimace crossed her face.

Hunter handed the baby back to Alicia. “You okay?” he asked Sarah.

“Sure. I’m going to go into the living room for a bit.” She waddled off with Hunter trailing.

“Baby’s due in a few weeks,” Alicia said. “Maybe it’s early.”

Mandy stopped for a second. Once the baby came it would be the entire focus of Hunter and Sarah’s life. She’d be even more of a third wheel.

Then she looked at the stove. They’d always need food. Sarah couldn’t cook worth a damn. “I’ll prep something for dinner,” Mandy said. “Are you staying?” she asked Alicia.

A groan from the living room sent both of them running out of the kitchen.

Sarah’s face was contorted.

“Breathe,” Hunter said. “Remember the training. You have to breathe into the pain.”

Daisy paced the room, periodic whines telling everyone she knew something was wrong.

“Call my mother,” Sarah said. “She’ll kill me if I have this baby without her.”

“I’ll do it,” Alicia said. She handed Luis to Mandy and headed back to the kitchen.

Mandy wasn’t sure who was more startled—the child or her. She tensed, waiting for an immediate wail of protest. Instead, she got a blank look.

“Keep walking,” Hunter said. “It will help with the birth. In the Middle East women go about their business for a long time with contractions.”

“This is America,” Sarah bit out. “I want to be pampered.”

Hunter chuckled. “Walk.”

Alicia returned to the living room, her cell phone still in her hand. “Your mom’ll be over in about a half hour. Um … she says it could take a long time.”

Sarah groaned. “That’s what Doctor Hadiya said, too.” She looked at Hunter. “Do you have to be at work in the morning?”

He shook his head. “Joe and I talked about this. I just have to give him a call.” He glanced at Mandy. “Can you stay with her? Keep her walking.” Hunter went back toward the bedroom.

Sarah muttered, “Just because he helped with babies in the war, he thinks he knows everything. How can I walk with a bowling ball between my legs?”

Mandy gave the small boy in her arms a tentative hug and handed him back to his mother.

Another spasm must have hit because Sarah moaned and doubled over. “That hurt!”

“Are you okay?” Mandy asked instinctively.

“Of course I’m not okay. I’m having a baby.” Sarah glared at her.

“Wow.”

Sarah took a deep breath. “Look, women in labor aren’t always very nice. Can you forgive me in advance for everything I do and say until this baby is born?” She gave Mandy a half smile. “Please?”

“Does that cover me, too?” Hunter walked back in the room.

Sarah’s smile broadened and lit up her eyes with love.

A lump formed in Mandy’s throat. Her dreams of a white picket fence surrounding little ones at play seemed further away than ever. “How about I start some coffee for the non-pregnant people? I’ll bring in some cookies, too. You want anything, Sarah?”

Her friend shook her head violently. “I’ll throw up anything I eat.” She turned to Hunter. “Can I please sit down for a little bit?”

“Okay.” He led her to the rocking chair by the window and pulled an ottoman next to it for himself.

Mandy left them holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes.

The lump in her throat grew a little bigger.

In the few weeks James had been back in LA, his life had settled into its usual routine: paperwork, looking for a new gig, and checking in on his deceased friend Mateo’s family.

“Throw the ball again, Uncle James,” Ruiz called out. At five years old, he was the image of his mother—a good thing since Mateo and Theresa had decided to raise him as their own.

It was only after Mateo’s death that James discovered their deception. Then he’d let Theresa convince him it would confuse the child too much if James claimed him as his own.

His agreement ate at his soul.

While he waited for Ruiz to retrieve the ball he’d missed, James surveyed the surroundings. The postage stamp front yard needed to be mowed, and the house could use another coat of paint before the winter rains. He’d have to put it on his list before he took off for Yosemite.

Theresa came out on the stoop. “Time for lunch, Ruiz.” She flashed a smile at James. “There’s enough grown-up food for you, too.”

He hesitated, hating to disappoint her, but not wanting to encourage her either. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to pass. I have a meeting this afternoon with Beth Ann. She’s finally going to give me the chance I’ve been waiting for.” He smiled to ease the sting of the rejection.

Ruiz ran over to him and wrapped his skinny arms around James’s legs. “Do you have to go, Uncle James?”

Ruiz had become clingier since his father had been killed in the Middle East.

James ruffled the boy’s hair. “I’ll be back again soon.”

“Tomorrow?”

James laughed. “Yeah, tomorrow.” He stood and looked up at Theresa. “Mind if I take him to a movie tomorrow afternoon? There’s a new Disney cartoon out.”

Ruiz raced to his mother. “Please, Mama. Please?”

Theresa’s face softened. “Sure, Ruiz. You can go.” She glanced at James, some of her son’s sadness mirrored in her face. “Sure you won’t stay for lunch, James? You’ve got to eat.”

He shook his head. “It’s better if I don’t. See you tomorrow.”

His heart was heavy as he walked to the Explorer. He couldn’t be what Theresa wanted him to be, a replacement for Mateo. She’d destroyed that possibility years ago when she’d dumped him for his best friend without telling him about the baby. He wished she’d take the hint and move on.

To chase away the blues, he drove to a nearby park, grabbed his bike from the back of the car, and rode for an hour at top speed.

By three that afternoon, James was back at his home office, anticipation running through his veins. Because the regular location manager she worked with was tied up with three other films, Beth Ann had talked her producer into giving James a chance with the location shoot in Yosemite.

It was his first big break in a long while. He longed to celebrate with someone. He mentally went through a list of women he’d dated, but he knew none of them were right.

At thirty-three he was a lonely old man. The image of a pert face and a streak of purple hair came to mind, but he pushed it away. Mandy deserved better than he had to offer. After Theresa, he’d made sure never to get close enough to a woman to create an emotional connection.

Unfortunately, Mandy had gotten past some of his defenses. He couldn’t figure out how she’d done it, but when the shoot in Davenport had finished, the lights of his life had dimmed when Mandy drove away.

He forced his self-inflicted melancholy from his mind and pulled open the national parks website. He’d been hoping for this chance, and he’d done a lot of preliminary investigation. Now he began the process to get permission from the National Park Service.

Finding places within Yosemite to film was more difficult since the Big Rim Fire destroyed several hundred thousand acres in the surrounding area. He’d concentrate on the upper Tuolumne Meadows area. Beth Ann needed a western backdrop for her retelling of the range wars of the 1800s.

Soon he was engrossed in his process. He made lists of people to contact, examined the budget Beth Ann had given him, and laid out locations versus storyboards. The director had a tentative shooting schedule, but a lot of the details would depend on the actors she hired.

No doubt George Stubbins would be one of them. He was a go-to actor for westerns.

James sighed and picked up the phone to call Sally. If Stubbins was going to be at the site, James wanted someone stable to handle him during meals. She’d also be a good one to mention the actor’s meandering hands to any new actresses on location.

“How you doing, Sally?” he said when he got the caterer on the phone.

“As good as can be. What’s up?”

He told her about the project, but grew concerned when silence greeted him at the end of his spiel.

“I don’t know,” Sally said. “It seems like it’s going to be a lot of work. Yosemite is difficult. You have to go to Oakhurst for any real stores or farmer’s markets, and Oakhurst is hours away from where you’re talking about shooting. Besides, remember Julie is gone for good and I haven’t been able to find a replacement.”

Damn.
He’d forgotten.

“Any chance Mandy would be interested?” Sally asked.

“I don’t think so.” Mandy’s adamant refusal to consider any movie career was fresh in his mind.

“Well, then I don’t think I can help you. I’m getting too old to do locations like the park alone. If you have anything in the LA area, I’d consider it, but not this.”

Too old?

He needed Sally. She’d been a stabilizing influence in his career for years. “Wait a minute. What if I was able to get Mandy to come? Would you reconsider?”

He had no idea how he was going to do what he’d just proposed, but it was worth the long shot.

“I’d think about it.”

“But—”

“I said I’d think about it, James. That’s all you’re going to get.”

When he hung up the phone a few minutes later, James put his head in his hands. How the hell was he going to convince Mandy to work in the movies with him?

Memory of the oceanside kiss and its aftermath haunted him. Why couldn’t she understand he was only trying to protect her?

The phone rang and he picked it up.

“Hi, it’s Mandy,” the voice on the other end said.

Miracle of miracles.

“Hi, Mandy,” he said. “What’s up?”

“Sarah had her baby!” Mandy announced, unbridled joy in her words. “She’s ten pounds, three ounces of adorable little girl. They named her Hannah, ’cause Sarah says she’s brought good fortune into her life. She’s got dark brown hair and looks more like Sarah than Rick which is a good thing. Sarah spent twenty hours in labor. I don’t think I could do that. But if I was pregnant I wouldn’t have much of a choice, would I?”

“Whoa,” James said with a chuckle. Her enthusiastic joy was like flicking on a five thousand watt studio light in his dark life. “How long have you been up?”

“Um. Two days, I think. No one is getting much sleep. Hannah is hungry all the time.”

He wasn’t sure how to phrase the next question without offending Mandy, but he was too curious to leave it be. “So Hunter isn’t Hannah’s father?”

“He should be, but no. Rick is Hannah’s, um—” She chuckled. “Sperm donor. When Sarah got pregnant, he wanted nothing to do with her. Then he changed his mind. Then Sarah changed her mind, and now she’s with Hunter. Get it?”

“Uh. Sure.” The convoluted relationship sounded a lot cleaner than his own mixed-up parentage of Ruiz. At least everyone knew who Hannah’s biological father was.

A hint of sorrow dimmed Mandy’s sunshine.

“I’m glad you called,” he said. “Everyone’s okay?”

“Yeah. Sarah’s exhausted. Hunter’s acting like he pulled off the greatest stunt since Al Gore invented the Internet.”

“Al Gore didn’t invent the Internet.”

She laughed. “I know. It just came into my head. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m not even sure I was thinking.”

Maybe this wasn’t the right time to bring up the catering opportunity.

Or maybe it was the perfect time.

“How are you doing?” he asked. “How’s the catering business going?”

“I haven’t had much time to devote to it, what with Sarah’s baby and your movie. As soon as Hannah settles down, though, I’ll be back at it. I’m going to make brochures.”

“Sounds like a great idea.” His sense of relief at her lack of progress shamed him. “Mandy, I have a problem.”

“Yes?” Her tone was cautious.

“Beth Ann hired me to be the location manager for her next film.”

“Congratulations! That’s wonderful! It’s just what you wanted, isn’t it? Doesn’t that put your career plan ahead of schedule?” The edge to her voice came through the phone.

She hadn’t forgotten the kiss either. He’d be better off if he ignored the barb. “The movie is an 1880s western, supposedly set in Wyoming. She wants to use the upper reaches of Yosemite for a backdrop so we don’t have to incur the costs of a Wyoming shoot.”

“Sounds like a challenge. Getting food up there will be tough.”

“Sally has agreed to cater on one condition.” He was bending the truth a little bit, but he was sure if he had Mandy’s agreement, he could get Sally on board. “Sally wants you to be her
sous-chef
.”

Her silence allowed him to hear the humming across the wires.

“James,” she finally said. “I told you I didn’t want to have anything to do with the movie business, and I meant it.”

“This is a guaranteed gig,” he said. “You don’t have to create any brochures. The money’s good.” He went in for the clincher. “And … Sally’s looking to retire, remember. Do it right, and she’d probably be willing to sell the business to you.”

“That’d be great if I wanted the business,” Mandy said, “but I don’t.”

“Please think about it. Let me call you in a few days and get your final answer then.”

“You can call if you want, but the answer will be the same.”

“Why don’t you talk it over with Sarah?”

Mandy chuckled. “Sarah’s a little busy at the moment.” She paused. “Look, I know you’re trying to give me a great opportunity. Anyone else would jump at it, but it’s not for me.”

“I’ll call you in a few days,” he persisted.

“Okay.”

At least she hadn’t closed the door entirely.

• • •

Once the excitement over Sarah’s baby died down, life changed from a Technicolor, high-definition action film to a fading black and white documentary. Mandy’s routine dulled. She made breakfast for the guests and waitressed her shifts. For all of her talk of marketing her business, she didn’t do anything to move it forward.

Sarah noticed. “You’ve got to do something,” she said one day after putting Hannah down for a nap.