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Ashley sat in a chair against the wall and sighed. “It’s getting harder to move.”

“I’ll bet.” Katy blinked the wetness from her eyes. She kept 63

her attention on the paint cans, moving them this way and that so she wouldn’t have to look at Ashley. She and Ashley were becoming better friends all the time. Her sadness would make no sense at a moment like this. She gave a light sniff and smiled at Ashley. “Landon and Cole must be so excited.”

“Landon’s worse than my dad.” She made a mock look of concern. ‘“Ashley, are you sure the paint fumes are okay for the baby? Did you take your vitamins? Are you getting enough to eat?’” She laughed. “I told him he was going to wind up in the hospital before I do if he doesn’t relax a little.”

Katy smiled, but she could feel it stop short of her eyes.

“Hey …” Ashley’s tone changed. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” Katy’s emotions were skimming along the surface of her heart, but there was nothing she could do about it. “I guess.”

Before Ashley could say anything else, Rhonda and the prop dad came huffing through the door, the giant canvas rolled up and balanced on each of their shoulders.

“Where do you want it?” The dad was leading the way.

Rhonda looked like she was doing her best just to keep up.

Katy sprang to one side of a series of tables that had been placed side by side.

“Here. Across the tops of these.”

Rhonda and the dad lumbered across the lobby and dropped the canvas on the center table.

Rhonda leaned her elbow on the canvas and wiped her other hand across her forehead. “That thing must weigh a hundred pounds.” She saluted the dad. “Glad you were here. Thank you.”

“No problem. Let me know if you need anything else.” He returned to the hallway, where a group of parents were already working on several oversized set pieces.

Rhonda was still out of breath. She rested against one of the tables and looked at Ashley. “How’d you get that thing in your Durango?”

“Landon and one of our neighbors.” Ashley stood and 64

stretched her back. “Landon would’ve walked it here himself before he’d let me lift a single corner of it.”

“He’s a good man.”

Katy grabbed paint cans and used them to anchor two of the backdrop corners.

Rhonda did the same with two other cans. For a few minutes, they talked about the direction the backdrop was taking and how professional it already looked and what an asset Ashley was to CKT.

But when the conversation fell off, Rhonda took a paintbrush from the box in Ashley’s roller cart and found her place beside Katy. “All right, friend. I’ve been waiting all night to hear what’s going on.”

“See …” Ashley was already working on a section of green and gray plants along the right side of the backdrop. “I knew something was wrong.”

“Is it that obvious?” Katy looked up. With all she was, she wanted to forget about Dayne Matthews. But he was as much a part of her as her next heartbeat.

Maybe if she talked about her feelings for him now, with two of her closest friends, she could talk herself out of caring so much.

“I could see it right away.” Ashley slid her chair down a few inches and poised her paintbrush over a section that still had no color. A certainty filled her expression. “Is it Dayne Matthews?”

“Yes.” Katy blew at a wisp of her hair. Rhonda knew far more about the situation than Ashley. But Katy appreciated that her friend stayed quiet now. “He told me a month ago that Kelly Parker is pregnant.”

“And the baby’s his?” Ashley’s mouth stayed open, the shock on her face genuine.

Katy dipped her brush into a dark brown paint and dragged it carefully down the length of the biggest tree trunk. “The baby’s definitely Dayne’s.”

“No …” Anger flashed in Ashley’s eyes. “I saw how he looked 65

at you, Katy. That guy couldn’t possibly love anyone the way he loves you. How could he … ?”

“Kelly’s five months pregnant.” Katy felt tears trying to rise up. “She was pregnant before they came here for the filming.”

“After the crazy-stalker thing.” Rhonda gave a knowing look to Ashley.

“Oh.” A resignation came into Ashley’s tone. “When you told him the two of you didn’t have a chance.”

“Right.” Katy swirled her brush through the brown paint and wiped off the excess. Her heart hurt just talking about it. “She moved in with Dayne after that, and… well, now they’re going to have a baby.”

For half a minute, none of them spoke. Then Katy stopped her brush midstroke.

“So how come I’m not seeing Dayne and Kelly in the tabloids? How come they’re not all over the covers by now making plans to get married-like all the other pregnant Hollywood women and their boyfriends? And how come every gossip magazine has pictures of Kelly and Hawk Daniels?” She paused and held the paintbrush over the can. “I mean, have you seen anything in the magazines that makes you think Kelly’s back with Dayne?”

“No.” Ashley folded her arms. “Definitely not.”

Rhonda had moved to the other side of the canvas. “I’m trying to tell her it doesn’t matter if the tabs know about the baby yet.” She was working intently on painting in a long ivy vine. Her voice was kind, quiet, the humor from earlier gone. She looked straight at Katy. “Bottom line, he’s going to be a dad. And he’s planning to stay with Kelly, if she’ll take him.”

A weak moan came from Ashley. She set her brush against the edge of the can and leaned back in her chair. “I’m so sorry, Katy. You should’ve told me.”

“I know.” Katy didn’t mind the sympathy. But she hated hearing herself explain the situation. It only underscored why she never should’ve allowed herself to have feelings for Dayne in the

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first place. “I guess 1 hate how it sounds. Of course his girlfriend is pregnant.” She laughed, but there was nothing funny about the sound. “She was living with him. I mean, what was 1 thinking? 1 need to stop dwelling on him.”

They talked a little more about the tabloids and the lack of proof that Dayne was indeed making his way back to Kelly. But in the end Ashley agreed with Rhonda. It didn’t matter. Dayne Matthews had no place in Katy’s life. He was going to be a father.

What more was there to say?

They switched topics, and Ashley talked about her pregnancy.

That led to Rhonda’s questions about when it would ever be her turn to fall in love and have children. “I mean, honestly.” She took harder swipes at the ivy.

“The only guy interested in me right now is ten years older and three inches shorter.”

Katy smiled. She liked hearing Rhonda talk about her misadventures in love. It made a very real, very depressing topic seem lighthearted and funny. As if they weren’t really wondering whether God had forgotten about them. She pointed her paintbrush at Rhonda. “Hey … short’s not so bad.”

“For you, maybe.” Rhonda made an exaggerated look straight down. “How do you talk to a guy when you literally can’t see eye to eye?”

They laughed, and the easygoing talk continued. The whole time, Katy tried to convince herself that she was ridiculous to waste another minute thinking about Dayne. Connecting with him, becoming his friend, having feelings for him-all of it was like something from a dream. Who ever heard of a small-town girl falling for a movie star and believing her feelings could actually lead to a relationship?

In some ways Katy wanted to laugh at herself for ever thinking-even in her weakest moments-that the two of them might have a chance. But she couldn’t convince her heart. Time and again as the night wore on she had to rope in her feelings, chide

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herself for remembering Dayne’s kiss or the way he looked in the moonlight on Malibu Beach.

Katy was thankful for the backdrop. Otherwise, Rhonda and Ashley would’ve seen how distracted she was. Rhonda for sure would’ve figured out that she must still be thinking about Dayne. But since they were determined to finish the canvas, neither of them mentioned it.

After an hour, they stood back and admired their work.

“It’s the best yet.” Ashley pressed her hand to the small of her back. “Even if this little guy’s been kicking the whole time.”

“Guy?” Katy faced her friend. “Did you find out?”

“No. We want to be surprised.” Ashley giggled. “Cole thinks he’s getting a brother. I guess I picked up on it.” She looked at her watch. “Good. Landon said he’d be awake until eleven. I’ll still have an hour with him.”

Again Katy felt the sting of her friend’s words. Not that Ashley meant anything by them, but the contrast was just so sharp. Ashley would go home to a man who had loved her since she was in high school. Home to a little boy who adored her and a home where very soon they would bring a new baby.

Katy would go home to the apartment over the Flanigans’ garage, alone and with only a handful of social events scattered across the next few months of calendar space.

She helped Ashley pack her rolling cart, and the three of them found their jackets, bundled up, and headed to the parking lot. There was no snow, but the temperature was hovering around ten degrees. Katy and Rhonda helped Ashley load her vehicle and watched her drive off.

“I wonder if she knows how lucky she is.” Rhonda looked at the fading taillights on Ashley’s vehicle.

“She does.” Katy remembered the conversation she’d had with Ashley in the hospital several months ago when they were holding vigil for Sarah Jo Stryker, the twelve-year-old CKT star who died from injuries she received when a drunk driver hit her

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mother’s van last fall. “Ashley sees Landon as a gift from God. Nothing less.”

Rhonda gave her a sad smile. “You sounded healthy in there.” It was easy to read Katy’s eyes, even in the light of the street-lamps. “You know what I mean?”

“About Dayne?” Katy slid her hands into her coat pockets.

“Mmm-hmm.” She clutched her dance bag close to her middle. “You need to let him go.”

“I have.” Katy’s answer was quick. The air was icy against her cheeks. But under her jacket she was warm, so much so that she wasn’t shivering. “The moment he told me about Kelly I made it clear I had to leave. Obviously.”

“Okay.” Rhonda angled her head. She seemed to be working hard not to be pushy.

She tugged on Katy’s jacket sleeve. “If you’ve let go of him, then good for you.

Let’s just keep it that way.”

They said goodbye and went their separate ways, and only after Katy was getting in the car did she realize something that defied everything she’d told Rhonda and Ashley. How could she claim to be over Dayne when the reason she wasn’t cold was because of the cozy oversized sweatshirt she was wearing? The one she’d worn to practice almost every day for nearly a month. A sweatshirt that was warm and thick and gray with MICHIGAN written in block letters across the front.

One that had belonged to Dayne Matthews.

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Dayne was hanging from a window ledge, his feet dangling against the outside of an old brick building in downtown Los Angeles. Lost to the cameras was the fact that he was only two stories up and a pit of foam rubber lay directly beneath him.

They were filming the toughest scenes, the climax of the romantic thriller he was working on, and every scene was high energy and intense-a life-or-death matter. His costar Angie Carr was supposed to be trapped in the room. The script called for Dayne to vault himself onto the ledge and kick through the window, intending to pull off a surprise rescue.

Instead, he would see through the dirty glass that Angie was working with the con men, that she was in on the dirty deeds. She was one of the bad guys. It was a turning point in the movie, and Dayne had to be at his best. He couldn’t afford to think about any of the things that consumed him these days. Not Kelly or the baby, not the faith of his birth parents and adoptive parents.

And especially not Katy Hart.

“All right …” The director’s voice boomed across the set.

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Ron Foster was doing a brilliant job so far. Dayne had worked with the director twice before, and both films were huge successes. Ron would settle for nothing but the best. “Let’s move the ladder in.”

Between takes when Ron was talking to Angie or blocking some other part of the scene, a ladder would be rolled in beneath Dayne-since there was a limit to how long he could hang from his fingertips. As soon as he could feel something under his feet, he would stand and let go of the window ledge.

Three times already he’d practiced pulling himself onto the ledge, then lowering himself back down when he realized what was happening inside the room. Ron Foster had offered a stunt double for the scene, since the shot was filmed entirely from Dayne’s back.

But Dayne liked doing his own stunts.

He’d spent two hours in his home gym every day since Katy left. Physically he was in the best shape of his life-that would have to make up for the fact that every other area was falling apart.

He was rubbing out the kinks in his fingers when Angie slid open the window. She was wearing a revealing tank top, and the makeup team had applied a thin layer of petroleum jelly to her chest and arms, her cheeks and forehead. Even though it was barely seventy degrees in LA today, she gave the appearance of someone overheated. The movie was supposed to take place in Atlanta in July-so the two of them needed to glisten with sweat in almost every scene.

It was the sort of detail Ron was adamant about.

Angie leaned out the window and grinned at him. “You’re amazing.” She rested her elbows on the sill and oocked her head. She ran one finger along the definition in his upper arm. “Most guys would take the stunt double for a scene like this.”

He was balancing on a ladder, leaning one hand against the brick wall. He couldn’t go anywhere. “It’s a two-story window, Angie.” He shrugged one shoulder. “It’s not like it’s a risk.”

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“I know.” She lightly ran her finger up his neck and tapped the end of his nose.

“But swinging yourself onto a window ledge?” Her eyes sparkled. “You’re pretty strong, Mr. Dayne Matthews.”

Dayne didn’t know what to say to that.

Angie had been this way throughout the filming. She was a great actress and a savvy businesswoman. It would’ve been impossible to miss her beauty and the way she used it to her advantage every possible chance she had. But he truly wasn’t attracted to her. Angie Carr had a history of connecting with her leading men.