Redwood Bend

again. And that I was the best time he’d ever had.”
“Well, that was dumb of him. I think he missed his cue to say he loved you.”
“Because that’s not in the script, Les.”
“I don’t usually do this, but… Call him, Katie. Call him and ask him how he is—tell him you miss him.”
“I can’t,” she said.
“Why not?”
“Because right now my heart hurts. If I call him and he doesn’t answer or return the call, my heart will be in tiny pieces.” She shook her head. “I’m so naive—I didn’t think after just a few weeks, I’d be in this kind of shape.” Then with glistening eyes she said, “Please don’t tell Conner. Dylan didn’t do anything wrong—it’s not his fault I let myself fall in love. He told me he was only staying a little while, waiting to hear about a potential job in L.A.—I knew that from the start. Honestly, I sent him away. He’s not the kind of man to put down roots.”
“He had roots in Montana… I’m just saying, maybe he didn’t really want to be sent away.”
“If he didn’t, I’ll hear from him,” Katie said. “But I haven’t yet. Not even a call to say he arrived safely.”
Katie didn’t like how much she thought about her time with Dylan, but she was determined to move forward. On Wednesday after summer program, she took the boys to McDonald’s. She told herself it was just a treat for them, not a walk into the past for her. But when they wanted to go to the bathroom and she said she’d take them, Andy said, “If Dylan was here, we could go in the boys’!” And she almost burst into tears.
Man, she’d really been living in a fantasy land. She had briefly thought both their lives were about to change based on a chance meeting. What a little girl she’d been!
One thing she could hold close to her heart—he had been very good to her. Generous, tender, funny and considerate. He didn’t act like the kind of guy who was using someone for sex, not that she had any experience with that. And when she could stop feeling sorry for herself long enough to be honest with herself, she had to admit, he never misled her. Never. She was determined to be a grown-up about this. It was brief, it was awesome, it was over.
And after that trip to McDonald’s, the boys stopped asking when he would call or come back.
The following weekend brought the Fourth of July and a town picnic, an event she hoped would help take her mind off Dylan. She met even more neighbors, got to know quite a few of the young mothers who took their kids to the summer program and relaxed in the shade of a big tree while her kids ran around with their new friends. But she couldn’t help wondering how Dylan was spending the holiday.
A couple of days later she drove to the grocery store while the boys were in school. She loaded up on basics—milk, cereal, bread and eggs. Standing in the magazine aisle, she glanced at the gossip rags. And there, looking back at her, was Dylan Childress, those bedroom eyes and sexy smile grasping at her. On one paper there was a headline that read Guess Who’s Back in Town? The next had a picture of him laughing, holding a drink, his arm about the shoulders of an older man described as his producer. Apparently there would be a movie after all. And the third front page picture was Dylan pressing his lips into the neck of a beautiful blonde, an actress who had briefly played his girlfriend in the old sitcom, Rough Housing, when they were both about fourteen. The caption was Old Flames Reunited?
Well. He’d moved on. She had been having trouble up to that very moment, but the sight of those pictures provided a terrific kick in the ass.
She left her grocery cart standing abandoned in the aisle and bought all three papers. So…he managed to slip back into his former lifestyle with ease. He’d gone to Hollywood to make a movie, to party, to hook up.
No wonder he hadn’t called. He’d been quite busy.

Eleven

A fter reading a script and having a few meetings with Jay and Sean about potential costars, Dylan put the contract negotiations in the capable hands of his grandmother’s current agent, Lee Drake. From this point on his conversations with Jay or Sean would not involve details of the terms of the contract.
They did have conversations about the script, about rewrites and wholesale changes to the story, other actors being considered. Although the agents were still talking, Dylan was aware of a ridiculous amount of money for his role as a badass biker