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  “If I could, I’d show you the real tape because Temptation looked wonderful in it, but unfortunately, whoever stole that vile tape to sabotage the premiere, also took everything we had. Cherished is gone forever.”

  Thank God, Phin thought, and kept a wary eye on the crowd.

  “However, to make it up to you, my sister and I would be more than happy to tape your next theater performance so that can be shown on your cable channel.”

  Frank sat up at that, looking vaguely cheerful for the first time in weeks, and Amy looked surprised. She looked down at her hand and extended her fourth finger.

  “The most important thing now, though,” Sophie said, “is to help the police find the pervert who thought it would be a good idea to show pornography to schoolchildren.” Sophie sounded outraged, and Phin wondered if that was real or con. He was pretty sure the rest of it was a con, but at least the populace wasn’t trying to lynch her.

  “So what I’m asking you all to do, is to think about who has the most to gain from this,” Sophie said earnestly, and one or two people began to look interested.

  “The mayor did it,” the heckler said from the back, and Sophie said, “Why? That would be political suicide, I’ve even heard some people are so shortsighted that they’re talking about not voting for him, but they can’t be thinking this through. He’d have to be crazy to play that tape.”

  “He is,” the heckler shouted back, and Sophie said, “No, he isn’t, and you should be ashamed of yourself for just shouting things out instead of standing up for what you believe in, the way your mayor does. The people of this town don’t like cowards and they don’t like cheats, which is why they’re not listening to you and why they’re going to find out who really did this. The people of Temptation are too smart to fall for this. You’re all upset now, but pretty soon you’re all going to be asking yourselves the smart question: Who has the most to gain? It’s your civic duty to ask that question, all of you.”

  She let the silence hang there, and Phin thought, Don’t look at Stephen, let them get there on their own.

  Sophie nodded. “You all know this town so much better than I do, you’ll figure this out, and then I know you’ll punish the culprit properly. Thank you.” She sat down abruptly, and Phin could see her hands shaking.

  Amy held out five fingers and said, “You got everything but the smile.”

  “I can’t work miracles,” Sophie said, and Phin thought, The hell you can’t.

  Because she’d made porn, and she was getting away with it. Stephen couldn’t get her for it because he’d stolen the tapes, and if he produced them to get her, the townspeople would know he had been responsible for the debacle the night before.

  Hell of a woman, his Sophie.

  Phin leaned over. “Not bad,” he told her, and she lifted her chin, still shaking, and said, “I was magnificent.”

  “I want to know what she was getting at,” Stephen was blustering loudly, and Phin leaned back and said,

  “No, you don’t, that’s the last thing you want to know. I declare this meeting adjourned.”

  Hildy said, “Works for me,” and stood up. “You can all go home now,” she told the crowd. “Show’s over.”

  “Wait a minute,” Stephen said, and Virginia turned to him with loathing.

  “This is all your fault, all of it,” she told him, and got up and left, leaving her stunned husband behind her.

  “Some days are like that, Stephen,” Phin said, as he stood up to go.

  “Sit down, I want to talk to you,” Liz said, and Phin nodded as he watched the crowd. Most of them were still throwing him dirty looks, but one or two looked at Stephen with some curiosity.

  Sophie went out with Amy and Hildy, and nobody said anything to her, nasty or otherwise, so she was going to be fine. Better than fine, if he had anything to do with it.

  Then Wes came to stand in the doorway and caught his eye, motioning to him as people filed out around him.

  “Make this fast,” he told his mother as he nodded to Wes. “I have things to do.”

  Rachel sat by the garden at Leo’s house, marveling at where she’d ended up. It looked like paradise. Leo’s tiled pool sparkled blue in the sunlight, and there were palm trees, real palm trees, and blooming hibiscus, and up by the hot tub there was a lemon tree that really grew lemons.

  She couldn’t wait for Sophie to see that. She could pick them right off the tree and make lemonade.

  Leo came out and sat down on the chaise next to her, still looking slightly stunned, and handed her a glass of what looked like sludgy orange juice.

  “What is this?” Rachel said, looking at it with deep suspicion.

  “Vitamin citrus smoothie,” Leo said. “Drink it. It’s good for you.”

  Rachel sipped it. It wasn’t bad. “It’s great.” She looked at Leo over the glass. “Thank you.”

  “I’m going to hell for this,” Leo said, and Rachel knew he wasn’t talking about the smoothie. “Your father is going to come after me with a shotgun.”

  “He doesn’t have a shotgun,” Rachel said. “He has a nice rifle, though.” Which he would probably use if he had any idea of the things Leo had done to her in his bedroom. Amazing, the things older men knew.

  Not to mention how much longer they lasted.

  She grinned again, the silly, satisfied grin that she couldn’t keep off her face even though it made her look like a dork. She was in L.A. now. She was supposed to be sophisticated. A producer’s mistress wasn’t supposed to grin like somebody who’d just had the first great sex of her life.

  “Twenty years old.” Leo shook his head.

  “I am not the first twenty-year-old you’ve slept with,” Rachel said. “Cut me a break. How dumb do you think I am?”

  “No, but you’re the first twenty-year-old I’m going to marry,” Leo said. “How dumb does that make me?”

  Rachel straightened. “Marry?”

  Leo sighed. “Yeah.”

  “You’re going to marry me?”

  “I think it’s best for the kids. Especially if one of them’s going to be mayor of Temptation someday. You know how those people are.”

  “Leo.” Rachel felt tears come to her eyes, which was ridiculous because she hadn’t even realized she wanted to be married. But she did. Her mother would be so happy.

  Leo’s face softened. “I’ll take care of you, Rachel. You’ll never be sorry.”

  Rachel nodded through her tears. “And I’ll take care of you, too. You think you don’t need it, but you do.”

  “I’m sure I do,” Leo said, patting her hand.

  “No, really.” Rachel put the smoothie down and went into the house for her bag. When she came back out she said, “I was going to use this to convince you I should have that production job, but now it can be a wedding present. Although I still want that production job.”

  “You’ve got it, you’ve got it.” Leo peered in the bag. “What have you got?”

  Rachel pulled out a videotape and handed it to him and watched his face go slack with surprise.

  “Don’t tell me—”

  “Yep.” She patted his arm. “It’s Cherished, the last version. I found it in Daddy’s car, along with all the other tapes when I threw my bag in the trunk. I called Wes and told him where we left the car so he can find the others, but I knew you’d want this one.”

  Leo looked at her with wonder. “You’re amazing.”

  Rachel nodded and crawled onto the chaise with him. “I’m beginning to see that. And that’s just in Temptation. Imagine what I can do now that we’re in L.A.”

  “Imagine,” Leo said, putting his arm around her.

  Rachel looked out over the lemon tree and the palm fronds and the hibiscus and thought, This is all mine. I’m going to be Rachel Kingsley. A movie producer. Then she narrowed her eyes at the hibiscus.

  “Leo, who weeds this place?” Rachel said.

  “The gardener,” Leo said.

  “Fabulous,” Rachel said,