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“Champagne during the day?” I asked, teasing. “I must be on vacation.”
“Do they let you have champagne in Hollywood?”
“Not often. I have to watch what I eat and drink. But no one’s here to tell me what to do today. That’ll be waiting for me when I go back to work.” I took a tentative sip. Bubbles exploded in my mouth and tickled the back of my throat. “Oh, that’s good.”
He took a sip from his own glass, watching me over the rim.
“What?” I asked, self-conscious.
“You’re absolutely stunning. It’s no wonder the world’s in love with you.”
“They don’t know me. Not really. I’m just a picture on the screen to them.”
“I disagree. Your characters bring joy and comfort to people. You may not realize it, but there are people watching you on the other side of the camera, and they love to have you into their homes once a week. Including me.”
“Really?”
“Heck yeah. I’ve watched every single thing you’ve ever been in. My favorite is Eloise fromHawthorne. She kills me.”
“I’m pretty sure they gave me the part because of my red hair. She’s feisty, thus everyone assumes she’d be a redhead.”
“I always wonder if that’s already written in the script?”
“Sometimes, but not in this case. I was glad they thought I was right for it. That job’s been a dream come true. It’s a joy to work in an ensemble with such great actors every day. When it ends, I’m going to be devastated.”
“I’m happy for you. Everything you wanted when we were kids is coming true.”
I gestured toward him with my glass. “The same goes for you.”
“Not bad for a couple of kids from Montana, right?” He sobered. “Or do you think of yourself as a Texan now?”
“Maybe half and half. They’re both amazing places to call home.”
For the next few minutes he asked me questions about my work, and I gladly answered them. I loved to talk about the filming process and tell him funny stories about my cast members. “We have such a good time.” I frowned. “I just hope all of this doesn’t hurt the show.”
“If anything, it’ll bring more people to it.”
“That’s what your mom said about this place.”
“Did she? That’s funny.”
“You’re a lot like her,” I said. “I didn’t really notice that when we were kids.”
“We’re scrappers.”
“Tell me everything,” I said. “Everything that’s happened to you since I last saw you.”
“Four sentences or less?”
“However many it takes,” I said, laughing.
“Okay, here goes. I studied hard in high school and earned a scholarship to Stanford. Got a degree in computer programming. Came up with an idea for a tracking device and developed the software for it. Hustled up funding. Built a great product, ethically I might add. Hired fifty people. Adopted Scout for company. Then an offer from Seamark came, and I sold it to them. Moved back to Montana.”
“Okay.” I elongated the word. There was so much more he could say, but for now we were simply catching up on the last twenty years. “No girlfriend?” I took a slug of my champagne, curious to see what he would say. His mother had said he had a girlfriend for a period of time. Had she broken his heart, or the other way around?
“As of yet, all romantic enterprises have had too many bugs to fix.”
“Bugs?” I asked, laughing.
