Her Determined Husband

She hesitated.

‘We can’t change the past. We can only go forward and learn from it.’

He sounded so sensible, so mature. She knew he was right, but she couldn’t forgive and forget.

‘What do you say?’ he asked. ‘Shall we put our personal differences aside and work smoothly together?’

What choice did she have? she asked herself dismally. She couldn’t get out of working on the film and he obviously wasn’t going to do the decent thing and walk away from his part in it. So the only thing she could do was to try and at least tolerate his presence; otherwise the next few months were going to be hell. She shrugged. ‘I don’t want to work with you, but I’ve already signed the contract.’

‘So that’s a yes, then?’ he asked sardonically.

‘It’s an I’ll try,’ she said huskily, the words sticking in her throat.

‘Good.’ He smiled. ‘I’ll look forward to working with you, Kirsten. I’ve read the reviews about your performance on Broadway. They say you’ve got talent.’

‘You don’t need to try to flatter me, Cal,’ she murmured. ‘A healthy respect between us will suffice.’

He raised his champagne glass. ‘I’ll drink to that.’

She didn’t join him in the toast.

‘Would you like a coffee?’ he asked as she straightened her cutlery on the plate of untouched food.

‘No. I’d like to go,’ she said.

He didn’t argue.

She watched as he summoned a waiter to ask for the bill.

He was probably happy now, thinking that everything was smoothed out between them, thinking that Cal the charmer was victorious again and that they could sweep the past tidily away out of sight. Work could go ahead unimpeded, and that was all Cal really cared about, she thought angrily.

‘So, I’ll see you next week on set,’ he said as she got to her feet.

‘Yes, see you next week.’ She kept her voice light with difficulty. She could be as businesslike as him, she told herself confidently. Cal the charmer would never triumph over her again.

CHAPTER TWO

‘YOU know I’ve always loved you.’

Kirsten’s voice sounded stiff and unnatural even to her own ears. She glanced down at the script on the kitchen table, and read the line again, but it didn’t sound any better; in fact, it sounded worse.

‘Are you still working on that one line?’ Her flatmate Chloe came in and grinned at her with genuine amusement.

‘This is no laughing matter, Chloe.’ Kirsten glanced at the kitchen clock. ‘I’ve got to leave for the studio in five minutes and I’m still no closer to getting a handle on this part.’

‘You’ll be OK once you get on set. It’s just first-day nerves.’

‘Do you think?’ Kirsten wanted to believe that, but honestly she had never felt as nervous as this before.

‘I know so,’ Chloe smiled. ‘But I think you’d better have a look at this before you leave.’ She slipped a glossy magazine down on top of Kirsten’s script.

‘Are you still buying these gossip rags…?’ Kirsten’s voice trailed off as she looked down and saw a picture of herself and Cal leaving Charlie’s restaurant after their lunch together last week.

The headline read, Is Hollywood heartthrob Cal McCormick getting back together again with his ex-wife?

Kirsten tore her eyes away from the article without reading it. ‘Who the hell took that photograph?’ she asked. ‘I didn’t see any reporters outside that restaurant.’

‘Well, you know what they’re like, they were probably hiding up a tree.’ Chloe grinned. ‘Do you want me to read it to you while you get ready?’

‘No, I do not.’ Kirsten pushed it away. ‘I’m ready to go anyway. Hell, I hope my mother hasn’t read that!’

‘Kirsten, half of Hollywood has probably read it. That’s why I thought I’d better show it to you now before you leave. In case anybody says anything.’

‘Thanks, I think.’ Kirsten snatched up her script and her car keys. ‘On that happy note, I had better go,’ she said, sliding dark sunglasses down over her face.

It was only a fifteen-minute drive to the studios. Kirsten flashed her pass to the man on the gate and drove onto the lot with a feeling of doom firmly settled in her stomach. Noticing that the car in the reserved space next to hers had Cal’s name on it didn’t help. He’d probably been here since six this morning, and knew his lines backwards and inside out.

After the fierce heat of the Californian sun it was dark and cool inside the studios. Kirsten made her way to her dressing room and found that the girls from Wardrobe and Hairdressing were already in there.

‘Morning, everyone.’ She tried to smile cheerfully, as if she hadn’t a care in the world, then she noticed the blue negligee hanging alone on the rails. ‘What’s that?’ she asked suspiciously.

‘That’s your costume.’

‘I thought we were doing an outdoor scene today?’

‘Change of plan.’ Mel, the hairdresser, smiled. ‘They’re shooting a bedroom scene instead.’

Kirsten tried to keep her smile firmly in place but she could feel it slipping. This was all she needed on her first morning.

Over an hour later, when Kirsten was left alone in her dressing room, she stared at her reflection in the mirror and tried to persuade herself that a bedroom scene wasn’t such a big deal.

Luckily The Love Child was a light-hearted romantic comedy and the bedroom scenes weren’t too steamy. There was no full nudity, just a lot of provocative kissing and canoodling between her and Cal, who played the part of Jonathan, her partner.

‘But you’re just acting a part,’ Kirsten told her reflection sternly. ‘You’re Helen, not Kirsten, you don’t even look like Kirsten any more.’

It was true that after her session in Hair and Make-up she did look different. Her hair was loose and wilder than usual; it tumbled in a riot of glossy waves over her shoulders. She was wearing a lot of make-up that had been skilfully applied to give her a natural, fresh-faced look, covering the fact that she hadn’t slept well last night. And the sexily provocative full-length blue negligee was something that Kirsten would never have chosen to wear in a million years; it was far too revealing.

‘You can do this,’ she told herself again. The words rang hollowly inside her.

What on earth was the matter with her? she wondered. She had done a bedroom scene in a TV drama last year and hadn’t thought twice about it. But then she had been acting alongside Jason Giles and Jason was a good friend. He’d made her laugh on set and it had all been very relaxed.

She thought about Jason fondly for a moment. They’d first met at a party in Hollywood when she and Cal had still been together. Then by coincidence they had been working on the same show on Broadway in New York and the same TV drama last year. His friendship had helped her through some difficult times in her life. She still saw him regularly; in fact, they were going to a première together at the weekend.

What she needed to do was think about this bedroom scene in the same relaxed way as the one with Jason last year. Why was she finding it so difficult to get into her character?

A picture of Cal’s teasing grin and blue eyes rose in her mind and she felt suddenly sick with nerves again.

Maybe some meditation would help, she thought desperately. Chloe swore by meditation, and she had shown Kirsten how to use it as a method of unwinding.