Lacy (The Doves of Primrose) (15 page)

“Okay,
Kyle, we need you to mount up.”

Kyle nodded and took the reins from Don, who patted him on the shoulder.

“I know I don’t have to tell you what to do with Tandy, here. But them other guys.” Don shook his head and spit into the grass. “They don’t know which end eats and which one craps.”

Kyle was still laughing when he se
ttled atop the horse. The saddle creaked with his weight.Tandy shuffled while Marcus yelled through the bullhorn announcing the set-up for the scene. All Kyle was waiting for was being able to run her flat out, wind in his face, thunder in his ears. Leather, lather and freedom. He wouldn’t want to stop until Lacy had been flogged from his thoughts.

“Oscar, how’s the light?”

Kyle ground his teeth  and twisted the reins in his clenched fist while Oscar tested the light and hollered back the number. He thought seriously about slackening the reins and letting the horse trample old Oscar, but that would leave them even more short-handed. He entertained the fantasy of ripping his arms off instead. The second Lacy stood by Oscar, their arms nearly touching, Kyle pulled the reins, turning Tandy around so he wouldn’t have to witness the foreplay.

When he was finally given the cue to get into position his hands had gripped the leather reins so tightly his hands cramped. He worked the horse up from a trot
, steadily gaining speed into a run. By the time he got to the camera she was at full speed. It followed them for the twenty feet and he kept going. He was oblivious to the yelling; it felt so good to be on this horse in his familiar prairie surroundings he could almost forget that he wasn’t eighteen anymore. Rodeo had been hard on his body -- his elbow would never straighten fully again and he would have to have massages every week for the rest of his life to stay out of a wheelchair -- but those were the best days of his life.

Controlling the uncontrollable, in the rare times it was achie
vable, was a potent addiction. The blood surged through his veins, the horse moved beneath him, a force at odds and in tandem to his own movement. He bent lower over her neck, breathing the smell of animal, trees whipping by, dirt billowing behind him. He reached the road but didn’t slow. The cadence of hooves beating the ground echoed in his chest, freeing his soul.

This was his home, on this animal, under this sky
; he was home and he was at peace. He had already decided but this ride solidified his decision. This would be his last movie for a while. He had planned on staying in Primrose but now he knew he couldn’t. He would hole up at his spread in California, where he could fish in the Eel River, ride through the redwood groves and hibernate in his five thousand square foot log cabin.

Finally, Kyle slowed the mare and turned her around. He took her slow and easy back to the set enjoying the early afternoon sun
filtering through the canopy and the smell of fall on the breeze. He hadn’t felt this alive in years. He dismounted to concerned questions. Marcus was pissed, but then the man knew that Kyle could handle a horse better than anybody.

“Sorry, she just took off and I couldn’t get her stopped
,” Kyle shrugged. Marcus’s dead stare made Kyle smile.

“The playback looked good. We’ll keep the first take. We even had time to film some of the special effects while you were gone.”

Kyle chose not to comment; he didn’t want to fuel that impressive temper of his. Don came to take the reins and lead Tandy back to the pond for a drink. Kyle patted the mare’s neck and whispered, “Thanks” as she passed.

“That’s it
, people! Lunch break. You’ve got thirty minutes.” Marcus’s eyes never left Kyle’s while he was yelling.

Kyle was starving but he wasn’t willing to meet Marcus in the food line and have to listen to his diatribe about commitment and professionalism. Kyle had never lived up to
Marcus’s standards in those departments, but he kept requesting Kyle because Marcus knew a gold mine when he saw it. They were a formidable team and Kyle had respect for Marcus’s style. He was a man that got the job done, on time and under budget-- except for this project that was steadily becoming more disastrous every day.

Kyle waited until most of the crew had their food before he approached the tables. He regretted it the moment he picked up a plate and his hand touched a smaller o
ne reaching for the same plate.

“Sorry.” He pulled bac
k, apologizing to… Lacy. Ice tumbled over him and couldn’t be thawed by the warmth in her brown eyes.

“
Here. You’ve been working hard all day and must be starving.”

He looked from her slight smile to the plate she was holding and back. “I’m fine. You go ahead. You’ve been working too.”

Before she could protest or say anything he turned his back and walked away.
That damn woman! She asked for space, she didn’t want me to touch her, she didn’t want anything to do with me! Now she’s playing sweet and innocent. Who’s the actor here?

He stomped to his trailer, climbed the stairs and ripped open the refrigerator door, blindly pulling
out whatever he could and slamming it on the counter. He would eat dirt before he accepted that woman’s pity.

Kyle made a sandwich from something called
tofurkey. It was disgusting but he wolfed it down still fuming. These stupid seats in this trailer were made for a midget. Kyle wiggled out from the bench. The moment he stood, voices drifted in, catching his attention. Someone was standing behind the trailer under his window and whatever they were discussing was secret. And intimate.

He leaned to look out the window
but could only see the tops of their heads. He had to climb on the counter and rest against the cupboards to see. Holy crap! It was Scarlett and Marcus! He watched as Marcus told her how beautiful she was and ran his hand through her dark hair. He couldn’t tell for certain if Scarlett was eating it up or about to run away. But if he had to guess he would say she was uncomfortable with the situation. After years of acting he was a master at body language. She flinched slightly when he bent closer.

Kyle glanced around
, trying to decide what to do. Should he knock on the window, or pretend that he was out for a walk and interrupt? He really didn’t want to embarrass Scarlett, he remembered how sensitive she was. His heart said, “Go rescue he, stupid!”  Instead he started banging pans on the stove and slamming cupboard doors to announce his presence. He peeked out. That seemed to do the trick. Marcus had left and Scarlett was standing by herself.

Kyle sighed out loud. Now what was he going to do? His d
irector was making passes at his friend and he knew the person who wasn’t going to like it when he told her about it, which he was honor bound to do.

Chapter 14

Lacy sat at a table with a group of set workers
, not hearing a word they were saying. She pushed her salad around on her plate, lining up the cherry tomatoes and stacking the cucumbers. Kyle wasn’t going to make this easy on her. She had been such a bear to him in the trailer. Reliving the past and his part in it had skinned her nerves, leaving her on edge. She still wasn’t sure what role he had played in the attack but she wasn’t sure she could blame him anymore either.

She had ridden that pony long enough. It was time to take r
esponsibility for her own decisions and take control of her future. It was past time to rein in her stubborn pride. Her life had been one perpetual tornado and she was tired of it. People had always judged her because she came from a scandalous family of madams and painted ladies, and she had allowed that to control her path. Hell, for a lot of years she used it as an excuse to do crazy things, to live on the edge. Rebellion was her heritage and she played into the legacy.

“Hey, everything’s good at the house.”
Scarlett slid in beside her, her cheeks unnaturally rosy.

“Thanks for doing that. I really don’t mean to keep dumping this all in your lap.”

“Lacy, I’m here to help you. I like it. And you’re paying me so I’d like to earn my keep.”

“For what I pay you I’d be happy if you just showed up and propped yourself in the corner.”

“What’s wrong? Is it what we talked about this morning?” Scarlett laid her hand on Lacy’s arm and scooted closer.

“Not really.” Lacy pushed her hair out of her face and turned to Scarlett. “Actually
, I’ve never felt better about it. I’m wondering if maybe you were right about Kyle.” Lacy shook her head. “But now he’s avoiding me.”

Scarlett nodded.
“Yeah. I would expect he is.” She squeezed Lacy’s arm. “You’ll just have to go get him.”

That was the last thing Lacy wanted to do. Would her pride even allow it?

Scarlett cleared her throat. “I don’t want to change the subject, but I saw something while I was cleaning and it’s bothering me.”

Lacy’s interested was piqued in spite of her preoccupation with Kyle.
“What did you see?”

“Well
, it’s really a combination of things that I’ve seen and heard over the past couple days.”

Lacy raised her eyebrows
, encouraging Scarlett to continue.

“Don’t think I’m crazy. Yesterday I heard some
scraping upstairs while I was getting dinner ready. I was sure that I was the only one in the house, but I could be wrong and when I went to check it out….” Scarlett scrunched her face up. “Let me say it was the first time I was actually scared to be in your house by myself. I got this funny feeling, like somebody dragging a feather duster over my skin. But I opened doors and didn’t see anything.”

Lacy was listening closely now. That was the exact thing that had happened to her and it would have been just an hour or
so after Scarlett’s experience.

“So I went back to the kitchen and figured it was
the wind or the house settling. The place
is
old.” Scarlett tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced around to see if anyone was listening. Lacy copied her with a growing pit in her stomach.

“But Lace, you know that shirt that you wore yesterday?
The sleeveless one that I borrowed when we went to the fair last month?” Lacy nodded. “Okay, did you
do
something to it last night? I totally understand if you did. I know how upset you’ve been and when you get angry things sometimes get destroyed.”

“Scarlett
, what are you talking about? I left that shirt in my room in the barn. It was on the rocker where I tossed it this morning after--” Lacy hadn’t told Scarlett about the incident with Kyle in her room. “Well, I slept in my clothes last night.”

Scarlett narrowed her eyes and looked away, obviously processing this information and not coming up with answers.
“Honey, I found that shirt in the trash. It was thrashed to pieces like someone had taken a pair of scissors to it.”

“What?”

Both women studied each other for a moment.

“What are you two serious ladies up to over here?” E
mmylou’s beautiful face appeared between them but it fell when she saw the expressions of her two best friends.

Lacy didn’t know where to start. Fortunately
, Scarlett took the lead informing Emmylou of the events. Lacy was trying to figure out what could have happened. Did Kyle take it and then shred it after she sent him away? He would have had to come back for it.

When Scarlett was finished, Lacy told them both about what she had heard and discovered in Lauren’s room. None of them could come up with any explanation that made even the tiniest bit of sense.

“You don’t suppose that the stories are true? About the house being haunted?” Emmylou clamped her mouth shut while Scarlett and Lacy stared at her. “What? I was just saying, what if?”

“Em, how many times did we stay in that house as kids? We all camped out there two weeks ago and watched movies. Not
hing has ever happened to us.” Both Scarlett and Emmylou looked at Lacy. “I’ve never had anything strange happen that I didn’t make up in my own head anyway. The picture of my great-great-grandmother has always creeped me out, but I don’t think she walks the halls dragging body bags or chains. It’s really not our family style, we take a more direct approach than that.”

Scarlett and Emmylou laughed a moment before someone yelled to
set up for the next scene.

“I’m gonna miss that shirt, Lace.”

“Thanks, Em.” Lacy would too.

“I was going to ask to borrow it for a special date.”

Lacy shook her head as the three women rose from the table. They walked side by side back to their stations.

“Who’s the guy?”

Emmylou quirked her mouth. “Just a guy.”

Lacy could tell by the flare in her nostrils and the twinkle in
her eye that it was more than that.

*********

Kyle had to pull out some of the best acting that he had ever done in his life. Not only did he have to fulfill his part, he had to pretend not to notice Lacy fawning all over Oscar and his labor-generated muscles. Kyle used to have those muscles too. Ranch work and rodeo was hard physical labor and he had once been built like a brick shit-house. So what if he now had to spend two hours a day in the gym to produce half the results as when he was a kid? He still looked pretty good. Better than Oscar.

And he had a better personality too. Oscar was a techie wor
king his way up the production ladder. How boring was that? Lacy couldn’t possibly stay interested for long with all their deep conversation about fps, after effects, digital sound, the vast uses for illustrator and whatever other program the production team used after receiving the dailies. So what if he knew how many layers you could put on one frame of a movie? He could never be on the other side of the camera making the product that people were interested in.

Dam,
he had to stop thinking like that or he was never going to make it through. He thought having to sit still while she fixed his makeup was torture. Having her inches from his face, smelling her skin, having her shirt graze against his arm was an exercise in discipline. If the arms on that chair hadn’t been welded on he would have ripped them right off with his punishing grip.

It was fortunate that while he was in a scene he could co
mpartmentalize his personal feelings and concentrate on the task at hand. Marcus was satisfied with the progress of the afternoon and especially with Kyle’s performance. After the horse riding incident, Kyle was sure Marcus would be as errant as an old badger. Then again, he had shared a moment behind the trailer with Scarlett.

That was the other thing Kyle was dreading. The afternoon
ground on, closer to when he would have to tell her about what he had seen. And then he would more than likely have to put out the firestorm it would create. Women always reacted badly when their feelings weren’t reciprocated.

Marcus called a short break to set up for the final scene by the pond. That meant the day was almost over for him. The crew would have to start moving the set to the next location. And then he would have one whole glorious day off.
Sunday. Best day of the week.

He meant to find Lauren, but since her little
breakdown last night he hadn’t seen much of her. He couldn’t blame her for not showing up to the set after having such a miserable time and it wasn’t like she had any work she could get done out here. There was absolutely no cell signal out here so she couldn’t send emails or update anything. She could work from the B&B more easily, though it would have been nice to have one friend in his corner nearby.

He walked to the coolers and pulled
out an ice water. It was delicious. He shrugged out of his jacket and noticed Scarlett, Emmylou and Lacy grouped around a table, talking. He knew better than to give in to the urge to join them. He could only take so much rejection. Still he wondered what they were discussing. They had been doing the same thing earlier.

Probably wagering on the size of
Oscar’s
biceps and how long it would be before Lacy went to bed with him
. If only that didn’t hurt when he thought about it.

“You’re doing a really great job out there.”

Kyle turned in mid-sip when Oscar approached him. “Thanks.” He took a drink to keep from losing his temper.

“Who’s the brunette over there?”
Kyle followed Oscar’s gaze and nod. “The one with the crazy curls and blonde highlights. She looks like a pixie but I can tell she’s more like a nymph.”

Kyle clenched his jaw. The plastic bottle crackled under the pressure of his hand, spilling some of the water. “Her name is Lacy. She owns the B&B we’re staying at.”

“Oh, that would explain why I didn’t know her. I’m staying in one of the trailers with the rest of the crew.”

Kyle hoped the bed was hard as a rock and the howling co
yotes kept him up all night long, that the shower was ice cold and he was surviving on cold cuts and canned soup. “Uh-huh.” Kyle took a sip of water. “Man, is she a talker,” Oscar said as he bent to retrieve a drink.

Kyle watched, fantasizing about slamming Oscar’s head in the cooler
.
Easy, now,
he thought. Oscar ran a hand through his floppy hair and Kyle wished he could remove the grin from the man’s face.

“She seems to think you’re a hell of an actor. Keeps asking me questions about you, like have we ever worked together before, have I seen all your movies, are you seeing anybody?” Oscar scoffed and took a drink under Kyle’s watchful eye.

“No kidding?”  Kyle forced his voice to be of common interest.

“Yep.
Think you’ve got yourself another groupie.”

The disappointment in Oscar’s voice panged Kyle’s nerves. “I doubt it
. Lacy’s not the groupie type.”

Kyle met Oscar’s studying gaze directly. The man nodded, took another drink and finished with, “Well, I hope she doesn’t boil your pet rabbit
, man.”

Kyle watched Oscar walk away, sorting through the convers
ation in his head. Lacy had been talking about him the whole time she was helping Oscar. What did that mean? Maybe she was getting dirt that she could use later. She had made it clear that he was to stay away from her. Then this? And what about that longing look she gave him at lunch? What kind of game was she playing?

He didn’t have time to think about it. Marcus called for the cast to get ready.
More acting. Sunday couldn’t come fast enough. He was going to sleep in, maybe lounge around reading a book all afternoon. The conversation about his parents eating at The Dove House every Sunday flashed through his head and he let out a long sigh. He was going to have to hightail it out of the house before lunch to avoid that scene.

**********

Lacy could drop down in the nearest chair and take a nap. For a week. She had been on the set and working the B&B for two days and she had never been so exhausted. She thought making a movie was a piece of cake. How hard could memorizing lines be? But she was wrong. More than wrong, completely biased and inconsiderate. These people earned every dime.

Standing in the kitchen trying to sauté the green beans like Scarlett had instructed was a test of her fortitude. She didn’t know how Scarlett was holding it together and was still so full of energy. She was putting in as many hours or more than Lacy.

“It’s my die, Lace. I don’t eat anything that I didn’t grow or at least know where it came from.”

Lacy shook her head. Scarlett continued to baste the chicken with a smile on her face and pink in her cheeks.
“It’s so much work to do all that. I like tearing the top off a container of Pringles and munching them all down in one sitting.”

“I eat chips. They’re just from the potatoes in the garden, brushed with water and sprinkled with seasoning made from my herbs.”