The Girl From Summer Hill Read online

  “But we never talk,” Gizzy said. “Just plain talk. He looks so pleased when I do something like swing from a rope and land in the middle of a pond that I do it again and again. I love the physical and it’s great that Jack can keep up with me, but sometimes I want to be still. I want to tell him what’s inside my mind. Do you have the same problems with Tate?”

  “No.” Casey didn’t say that everything with Tate had been perfect. She had no complaints at all. He was caring, concerned, an unselfish lover. She could talk to him about anything and he always made her feel better. He—

  “Is there any more of this?” Gizzy held up her empty glass.

  “Sure.” Casey went to the kitchen to get the blender out of the fridge.

  “I don’t like hearing that you and I were considered temporary,” Gizzy said from the doorway, “but it’s okay. Jack and I would have broken up anyway. I need more than just the physical side of a relationship.” She paused. “Casey, I’m going to leave Summer Hill. I don’t know where I’m going yet, but somewhere. I may go back to school to get a license to become a personal trainer. I think…”

  When Casey looked up, she saw that Gizzy was crying. She set the blender down and went to put her arms around her.

  “I’m lying,” Gizzy said. “Jack was great. I could have tied him to the bed and made him listen to me, but I didn’t. He’s a movie star, but I’m just a—”

  “You’re beautiful.” Casey meant to stop her from saying anything bad about herself.

  Pulling away, Gizzy grabbed a tissue from a box by the cookbooks. “Fat lot of good it does me! Every man in this town is afraid of me.”

  “The firemen love you.”

  “Only because I can slither inside skinny spaces.”

  “I think it’s the slithering that they like to watch.”

  Gizzy sniffed. “Don’t make me laugh. How are we going to do this play with Jack and Tate?”

  “I don’t know,” Casey said. “I really and truly don’t know.”

  The two of them ended up crying and hugging and saying that at least they’d learned something. But that was poor compensation for the loss of the two beautiful men they’d come to care about.

  Casey had been able to contain her anger about what she’d found out until Tate showed up after his trip. She was like a steam kettle ready to explode. When she first saw him, pure happiness went through her. He was standing in the fading light and looked like he was very glad to see her. For a split second, she wanted to dive through the screen door and go to him. Throw him to the ground and tear his clothes off.

  But he got to her before she could move. His arms around her felt so good, and the electrical charge between them made her body hum. For a few seconds she forgot all the terrible things that she’d learned about him.

  Then he opened his mouth. Out of it came orders and demands. Everything Casey had heard from Rachael seemed to be in his words. He wanted her to change her life for him, give up all she knew and loved to go to the other side of the country to be at his beck and call. After she had a makeover, that is.

  The anger and outrage inside her erupted, and she told him what he could do with his demands.

  In an instant, his face had gone from happiness to…to nothing. It was like looking at a photograph. He showed no emotion whatever. Not anger or sadness, not even disappointment. Just blank.

  After he left, she again talked to Gizzy and they strengthened their resolve to stay away from the men. If they hurt like this now, what would it be like if they continued?

  One thing they agreed on was to say nothing about what had happened. If they told even one person about the publicity stunt, it could become local gossip. From there it could go nationwide. The last thing they wanted was some scandal bringing the press to their small town. They didn’t want the play tainted with the dreadful news.

  Keeping quiet hadn’t been easy for Casey. But she said nothing to her mother or to Stacy or to Olivia. She did her best to smile and act as if nothing had happened.

  She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts, so she baked. Pies, cookies, cupcakes, a six-layer salted-caramel cake. She delivered everything to the crew at the gazebo. When they couldn’t eat even half of it, her father, Dr. Kyle, took it to a homeless shelter.

  “Are you okay?” he asked Casey.

  “Sure. Fine. Nothing is wrong with me. How are you? How’s the new doctor?”

  “Jamie’s good. There are problems, but…” He shrugged. “If you need to talk to someone, I’m always here.”

  “Thanks, but I really am fine. I have to go and…uh, rehearse.”

  “Sure,” he said.

  The rehearsals were bad. Jack looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. Casey saw him and Gizzy talking, but when Gizzy walked away from him, Jack looked like he might cry.

  Casey had no mercy. Actors! she thought. Who knew when their emotions were real?

  One day, Kit told Casey to rehearse with Tate. It was the scene where Darcy says the ladies want to show off their figures.

  “There are only ten yards of fabric in this dress,” Casey said. “I hope it’ll fit around my hips.” Everyone on the stage stopped and stared at her.

  Kit ran his hand over his face. “Deliver me from young love.”

  “What would you know of it?” Olivia’s voice held an extraordinary amount of anger.

  After that, the day went downhill.

  Tate and Jack pulled back into shells of coldness, never letting anyone see beneath the surface.

  Casey and Gizzy had trouble concealing their anger, and when they spoke their lines, some of the hurt and fury they felt could be heard and seen.

  “You’re supposed to be in love with him!” Kit shouted at Gizzy about her scene with Jack/Bingley.

  Her reaction was to walk off the stage, and Casey went after her.

  Kit threw up his hands in frustration. “Take a break,” he shouted. “Eat some of the hundred and fifty cakes and pies Casey baked.”

  The only person smiling was Olivia.

  Casey ran back to the guesthouse, which had become her sanctuary, her hiding place. She didn’t venture out except for rehearsals and necessary errands. No more wandering about the grounds, searching for fruit-bearing plants. She was too afraid she’d see Tate. Or Jack. Or the well house.

  She made three meals a day for Tate and Jack and delivered them in a cooler. Only once did she see Tate. He was sitting alone at the table in the breakfast room and he looked as unhappy as she felt.

  Probably acting, she thought, and turned away before he saw her.

  Twice, Devlin had approached her. Maybe it wasn’t fair, but she couldn’t bear the sight of him. She wished she could feel some sympathy for him. After all, he seemed to have been thoroughly used as Tate Landers made his way to the top. Devlin’s career, his marriage, seeing his beloved daughter, all of it had been taken from him in his ex-brother-in-law’s ferociously ambitious pursuit of a career.

  But even though it made no sense and wasn’t at all fair, Casey didn’t want to see Devlin, or talk to him, or even be on the same stage as he was. Before he showed up with his friend Rachael, Casey had been sublimely happy. In one seemingly innocent picnic, it had all changed. Laughter with Tate, telling him secrets about her life, kissing, making love. When she’d been with him, she’d felt more alive than she ever had before. But now all of it was gone, never to be found again.

  Maybe it wasn’t fair to blame Devlin, but she did. She just wanted to stay far away from Tate and Devlin. The anger, the vindictiveness, between those two men was not something she wanted to be part of.

  Devlin seemed to understand, because after the first couple of days he kept his distance. He became quieter, almost as though he regretted that he’d been the cause of so much turmoil. Casey often saw him going over lines with young Lori, leaning over her in a fatherly way. It was as though he’d become a mentor to her.

  Casey couldn’t help thinking that young Lori was having a good effect on Devl