“I didn’t have a lot of time to work on the script. It was the best I could come up with, especially since I had to…shoot around you.”
“I’ll say!”
“It would have been done yesterday, but your angelic fake daughter turned out to be a diva. Total pain in the ass to work with, which doesn’t bode well for
“A great little actress, though,” Georgie drawled, crossing her arms over her chest. “I know I had tears in my eyes.”
“If we ever have a child who acts like that…”
“It’ll be her father’s fault.”
That stopped him cold, but she wasn’t ready to let him off the hook, even though little balloons of happiness had started to rise inside her. “Honest to God, Bram, that was the stupidest, sappiest, most maudlin piece of cinematic garbage…”
“I knew you’d like it.” He couldn’t seem to figure out what to do with his hands. “You did like it, didn’t you? It was the only way I could think of to show you I understood exactly how much I hurt you that day on the beach. You understood that, right?”
“Oddly enough, yes.”
His face twisted. “You’re going to have to help me, Georgie. I’ve never loved anyone before.”
“Not even yourself,” she said quietly.
“Not much to love. Until you started loving me back.” His hand slipped into his pocket. “I don’t want to hurt you again. Ever. But I’ve already done it. I sacrificed what you wanted the most.” His face twisted. “Helene is really gone, Georgie. The contract is signed. That role meant everything to you-I know it-and I screwed that up, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do. Unless I signed another actress, I had no way to prove I need you for yourself.”
“I get that.” She thought of the painful things people did to themselves and to each other because of love, and she knew the time had come to tell him what she’d only recently figured out herself. “I’m glad.”
“You don’t understand. I can’t fix this, sweetheart, and there’s no way I can make that up to you.”
“You don’t have anything to make up.” She said it aloud for the first time. “I’m a filmmaker, Bram. A documentary filmmaker. That’s what I want to do with my life.”
“What are you talking about? You love acting.”
“I loved being Annie. I loved being Scooter. I needed the applause and the praise. But I don’t need that anymore. I’ve grown up, and I want to tell other people’s stories.”
“That’s fine, but-Your audition? That amazing performance?”
“Not a bit of it came from my heart. It was all technique.” She chose her words carefully, pulling the pieces together as she spoke, trying to get it exactly right. “Preparing for that audition should have been the most exciting work I’ve ever done, but it was drudgery. I didn’t like Helene, and I hated the dark place she took me to. All I wanted to do was escape with my camera.”
He cocked an eyebrow, beginning to look more like himself. “Exactly when did you figure this out?”
“I guess I knew it at the time, but I thought I was reacting to how messy everything had gotten with you. I’d rehearse for a while, and when I couldn’t stand it any longer, I’d pick up my camera and pester Chaz, or go interview a waitress. With all my talk about reinventing my career, I didn’t understand I’d already done it.” She smiled. “Wait till you see the footage I’ve shot-Chaz’s story, street kids, these amazing single mothers. It doesn’t all fit in the same film, but figuring out what goes where is going to teach me so much.”
He finally came around from behind his desk. “You’re not just saying this so I don’t feel guilty?”
“Are you kidding? I love you guilty. It makes it easier for me to wrap you around my finger.”
“You’ve already done that,” he said huskily. “Tighter than you can ever imagine.”
He seemed to drink in her face. She’d never felt more cherished. They gazed into each other’s eyes. Into each other’s souls. And neither one offered up a single wisecrack.
He kissed her as if she were a virgin. The tenderest meeting of lips and heart. It was embarrassingly romantic, but not as embarrassing as their damp cheeks. They held each other close, eyes shut, hearts hammering, naked in a way they’d never been. They knew each other’s flaws as well as they knew their own, and each other’s strengths even better. That made the moment all the sweeter.
They talked for a long time. She wouldn’t hide anything, and she told him about her call to Mel Duffy and what she’d almost done.
“I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d gone through with it,” he said. “And remind me not to ever let you have a gun.”
“I want to get married again,” she whispered. “Really married.”
He kissed her temple. “Do you now?”
“A private ceremony. Beautiful and intimate.”
“All right.” His hand wandered to her breast, and the lust that had been simmering between them erupted. It took all her effort to pull back. “You can’t imagine how hard this is for me to say.” She drew his hand to her lips and kissed his fingers. “But I want a wedding night.”
He groaned. “Please don’t let that mean what I think.”
“Do you mind so much?”
He thought it over. “Yes.”
“But you’ll agree anyway, right?”
He cradled her face in his hands. “You’re not going to give me any choice, are you?”
“I am. We’re in this together.”
He smiled and curled a hand around her bottom. “Poppy has exactly twenty-four hours to put together the wedding of your dreams. I’ll take care of the honeymoon.”
“Twenty-four hours? We can’t-”
“Poppy can.”
And Poppy did, although it took her forty-eight hours, and then they banned her from the ceremony, which she didn’t like at all.
They were married at sunset on an isolated stretch of beach in a sandy cove. Only five guests stood with them: Chaz and Aaron, Paul and Laura, and Meg, who’d come alone because they wouldn’t let her bring a date. Sasha and April couldn’t make it back in time, and Bram refused to wait for them. Georgie wanted to invite Rory, but Bram said she made him too nervous, which caused Georgie to hoot with laughter, which in turn forced Bram to kiss her breathless.
They asked Paul to perform the ceremony. Georgie said it was the least he could do after burying her. When he pointed out that he wasn’t ordained, they brushed him off. The legalities had been observed months ago. This wedding was a ceremony of the heart.
A Crayola box sunset framed the beach that night. Bouquets of larkspur, iris, and sweet pea spilled from simple galvanized pails tied with ribbons that floated in the warm breeze. Although Georgie had forbidden Poppy to erect a bridal bower or paint hearts in the sand, she’d neglected to mention building a sand castle, so a six-foot seashell- and-flower-bedecked replica of the Scofield mansion rose up near the bride and groom.
Georgie wore a simple yellow cotton dress with a spray of flowers in her dark hair. Bram went barefoot. The vows they’d written spoke of what they knew, what they’d learned, and what they promised. After the ceremony, they sat around a bonfire to feast on crab and Chaz’s cream-filled chocolate cupcakes. Paul and Laura couldn’t take their eyes off each other, and as the fire snapped, Laura briefly left Paul’s side to approach Georgie. “Do you mind about your father and me? I know it’s too fast. I know-”
“I couldn’t be happier.” Georgie hugged her as Chaz and Aaron wandered off, side by side, down the beach.
Bram watched his wife’s beautiful face glow in the flames from the bonfire and realized that the panic that had been his silent companion for as long as he could remember had disappeared. If a woman as wise as Georgie could accept him, flaws and all, then it was long past time he accepted himself.
This exquisite, caring, smart, wonderful creature was his. Maybe he should be afraid of failing her, but he wasn’t. In every way that counted, he would always be there for her.
As night settled in, Georgie finally noticed a dinghy approaching from a yacht anchored offshore. “What’s that?”
