Don't Look Down Read online

  "Okay, that last take was a great one, so let's do another one to make sure."

  Althea nodded. "Could you come back while they're doing the next camera setup?"

  "Sure. You bet."

  Lucy went back to the monitors and watched while Althea and Rick nailed another take and thought, This could work. "Fantastic," she called to them. "Reset, please."

  Pepper climbed into the seat beside her. "I brought you an apple."

  Lucy said, "Thank you," thinking, I'm going to die of an apple overdose, and then glanced at Daisy.

  She looked like leftover death, her eyes red, her eyelids drooping as if she were struggling to stay conscious.

  "You sure you're getting enough sleep?" Lucy bit into her apple, trying to act unconcerned.

  "Uh huh." Daisy kept her head bent over her notebook.

  So much for acting. "Daisy, what the hell-"

  "Working here," Daisy said and kept her head down.

  "Lucy!" Althea called, and Lucy went back to her, looking back over her shoulder at Daisy as she went.

  When she reached Althea, she said, "That was great, Al," but she kept an eye on Daisy, slumped in her chair at the monitors.

  "Thank you," Althea said. "Listen, anybody who can make Connor do what she wants knows what she's doing."

  "What?" Lucy said, distracted from Daisy.

  "I need your advice," Althea said. "About men. I want security, that's why I'm with Bryce right now, because he's good for my career. But I want something permanent, too, you know?"

  "Oh," Lucy said, as Pepper came up to join them. "Well, Bryce is probably rich. He's done pretty well for himself-"

  Althea frowned at her. "I don't mean for him to support me, I'm going to get my own money, I've got a line on that, but I don't want to be alone. I want security, you know? Somebody I can depend on?"

  "Oh." Lucy nodded. "Emotional security." And you're sleeping with an actor?

  Connor came up to the rail about ten feet from them to direct the camera basket in, and Althea turned her hip so that he could see her concave stomach and the bulge of her breasts in her tank top. Pepper watched her and then tried to do the same, her little potbelly sticking out where Altheas abdomen collapsed toward her backbone.

  Connor looked over at them, much too offhand, and nodded, but Lucy saw his eyes connect with Althea's.

  Althea met his stare and held it until he nodded again.

  Oh, God, don't let Althea be cheating on Bryce with Connor, Lucy thought. Bryce did not look like a man who would take well to being dumped for a stunt coordinator. And if he found out and sulked, goodbye shooting schedule.

  Althea turned back to Lucy. "Not just emotional security. I want physical security, too. I want it all."

  "Physical security. Like bodyguards?" Lucy said.

  "No, like…" Althea's eyes went to Pepper. "Uh, satisfaction security. You know."

  "Oh," Lucy said, caught off guard. "Well. The best way to be, uh, secure-" she glanced down at Pepper, who was listening with great interest, "is to know things yourself." Althea looked confused, so Lucy added, "I think you have to know what you need and tell Bryce. Show him if you have to."

  "Huh?" Althea said. "I mean in bed."

  "Pepper, go get me an apple, please," Lucy said.

  "Okay." Pepper ran for the craft services table.

  "Because sex is really important." Althea didn't frown, but she was clearly thinking hard. "And I'm running out of time. I want seventy-four to be somebody who knows what he's doing and who will stand by me."

  "Seventy-four?"

  Althea nodded. "Stephanie told me about this article by this math woman that said that if you slept with seventy-five people, the person you were supposed to be with would show up."

  "I see," Lucy said, thinking, I must have a long talk with my assistant. Then the meaning sunk in. "Seventy-four?"

  Althea nodded again. "Bryce is seventy-three. After Stephanie said that, I counted."

  "Uh huh." Lucy tried to sound supportive.

  "And Bryce isn't… working out," Althea said, "so then I thought about Nash because…" she shot another look at the stunt coordinator, "he is hot. No wonder you're back together."

  "We're not. Now-"

  "I'd like somebody like him," Althea said, looking past her. "Somebody tough like him who would stick by me. I bet somebody like him would be good in bed." She blinked up at Lucy. "Is he good in bed?"

  "Not very," Lucy lied, shafting Connor without guilt. "But I'm sure Bryce…" She let her voice trail off because Althea was now smiling past her.

  Lucy turned and saw Bryce, looking perfectly normal next to his new buddy, J.T. Wilder, who looked pretty damn good if you liked deadpan, tight-assed, monosyllabic military men. She turned back to Althea.

  Althea appeared to like deadpan, tight-assed, monosyllabic military men.

  Damn it, Lucy thought. "Bryce is really a good guy. And he's a star, Althea. Big security."

  "Comedies," Althea said, still staring at Wilder. "He acts goofy and tails down. Big deal."

  Lucy gave up. "Althea, there are only four days left in this shoot. Please don't upset him until Friday or the shot schedule will go to hell."

  "He wouldn't be upset." Althea looked back at Wilder. "He's doing one of the makeup girls. Mary somebody. Do you think J.T. likes me?"

  "Everybody likes you," Lucy said grimly, as Pepper came running back with the apple.

  "I had to look for a Gala," she said, presenting it to Lucy. "They were mostly Red Delicious. That's not as good, right?"

  "Right." Lucy took the apple while watching Althea, who was still zeroed in on Wilder. "Thank you, Pepper, you did exactly right." And now I have to eat another apple.

  "So," Althea said, "J.T.'s, like, in the Army?"

  "You're welcome," Pepper said, frowning at Althea.

  "Evidently," Lucy said. "Bryce seems to have found him at Fort Bragg."

  Althea licked her upper lip. "What do you know about him?"

  "Absolutely nothing." Lucy bit hard into her apple.

  "He looks like a guy you could count on, you know?"

  Lucy swallowed. "Althea, if you're looking for dependability, don't go to men. If you've-" she looked down at Pepper, who was listening intently, "dated seventy-three of them, you must have noticed that they often leave."

  Althea transferred her interest back to Lucy. "You think Nash is going to leave? Is that what happened the last time? When you were young?"

  Lucy looked at the twenty-something actress with distaste. "No. When I was young, he lied to me and I left."

  "J.T. doesn't look like a liar," Althea said, going back to her first interest. "But I don't think he's really warmed up to me yet."

  "J.T. is not a liar," Pepper said.

  Lucy followed Althea's eyes to Wilder, standing alert and still in the middle of chaos, watching everybody with those flat, cold eyes. "I don't think Captain Wilder warms up to anybody." Although it certainly would be interesting to make him try.

  "I can make a man warm up," Althea said, and Lucy felt a spurt of irritation that was as legitimate as it was hypocritical. "And he looks dependable. He might be marriage material."

  "J. T. Wilder does not strike me as the marrying type," Lucy said with complete sincerity. "Now, about this next scene-"

  Althea turned obediently back to her mark. "Do women count?"

  "What women?"

  "The women I've… known," Althea said, keeping an eye on Pepper. "Because if they don't, I'm only at seventy-one."

  "They count," Lucy said.

  Althea nodded, and Lucy looked back at Bryce and his new buddy and felt like kicking them both. She didn't want to fight for Bryce- the dumbass was doing the makeup girl, she'd have left him, too- but she only needed four more days. And she'd have them if J.T. Wilder would stop dazzling Althea, damn it.

  "Gators do not eat apples," Pepper said.

  Althea smiled down at her, probably recognizing a kindred spirit in somebody who w