The Rancher's Surprise Marriage. Susan Crosby
“Tell me this is a look-alike,” Leesa almost screamed. She’d stomped into Maggie’s hotel suite a minute ago, holding up her laptop. “One of those fake celebrities. Tell me that.”
Embarrassed by her behavior, Maggie picked up her purse and headed toward the door. “It’s not a look-alike.”
“How did this happen? When did it happen?”
“Last night. Are you ready to go? You know I don’t like being late to the set. Dino’s got the car waiting.” When she’d gotten back to her hotel room around 4:00 a.m. she’d had to memorize the day’s lines, meaning she’d had little sleep, only the two hours between the first and second time she and Tony had made love. Her makeup artist was going to get after her for the bags under her eyes.
“How can you be so blasé about this? You’re engaged! You were caught kissing a local cowboy at a bar!” She grabbed script pages and a couple other items off the table.
“Cattleman.”
Leesa stopped in her tracks. “What?”
“He’s a cattleman. He says there’s a difference.” It was costing Maggie to act unconcerned by the online-gossip site’s photo, but she had to. Until she came up with a plan, she had to seem as if she knew what she was doing. Appearances were everything. She didn’t want to compound stupidity with idiocy.
“I don’t get it,” Leesa said, exasperated. “Last night Scott was here. You asked for privacy for the whole night, just the two of you. What happened?”
They stepped onto the landing. Maggie put a hand on her friend’s arm. “The less you know, the better. For your sake, not mine, okay? You’re just going to have to trust me. I want you to be able to say it was a big surprise to you, too, and mean it.”
Leesa clamped her mouth hard for a minute, then said, “So, the rumors about Scott were true.”
“What rumors?”
“That he and Gennifer were messing around.”
So. Even Leesa had known. “Had you planned to tell me?” Maggie asked, hurt making her throat burn.
“They were only rumors. I’d been trying to get them confirmed, but no luck. I wouldn’t have let you marry him without telling you, Mags. Did you know already? Did you call it off?”
Dino pulled up in the car and got out. Maggie couldn’t tell from his expression if he knew about the photo, but he didn’t hold out his hand for her to pass him her engagement ring as he always did, which told her enough.
“You all right?” he asked.
“Just super.”
“You know, if you don’t trust me, you should fire me.”
She jerked back. “I trust you.”
“I wouldn’t have let anyone get a picture, and I don’t pass judgment. You shouldn’t leave me behind.”
“I had to.” She couldn’t tell him any more than that. Not yet.
“I’ll keep your secrets until the day I die, Maggie.”
She felt about a foot tall. How many people had she disappointed or hurt with her impulsive actions?
“Thank you, Dino. I do know that.” She climbed into the car and said to Leesa, “Let’s run lines.”
Leesa huffed but pulled out the pages.
At the location, Maggie went straight into hair and makeup. She’d barely settled into the chair when Mac Iverson came in. “Give us a few minutes,” the director said to the two women working on her, then he leaned against the counter and gave her the eye. “So. You’re big news today.”
She assumed that meant her photo was everywhere now. Her manager and publicist would already be fielding calls from the various media entertainment-news shows, and magazines, too. Leesa would be fielding calls from her manager and publicist, and any others who had her phone number.
“I’m sorry,” Maggie said to Mac. She never brought controversy to a film. Mac wouldn’t work with her if she did. He was old-school, running a close-knit, familylike atmosphere, but demanding and getting the best work out of everyone. They’d worked together six times. There were good reasons for that.
“I met Tony Young for the first time last year when we were scouting locations,” Mac said. “I wanted realism, not a studio set. At the time he was living in the old homestead we’re shooting in, but his new house was almost ready. He agreed to hold off on remodeling the old place for his foreman until after we filmed, appreciating what I promised to bring to the movie—an honest portrayal of a cattleman’s life, not the romanticized version of most fiction. He’s a decent, hardworking, self-made man. He shouldn’t have to deal with the kind of media attention he’s bound to get now.”
Maggie felt like a child being chewed out by her favorite teacher, except…shouldn’t Tony take some of blame? She hadn’t acted alone. “I know.”
“Have you and Scott broken your engagement?”
“Yes.”
He closed his eyes for a moment. “Okay. Good. That’s good. And is Mr. Young in the picture now?”
Maggie realized right then what she needed to do, how she needed to resolve the situation. She had to talk to Tony first, however. “Can I just say that I’ll issue a statement later today and leave it at that for the moment?”
“Is this going to interfere with my production?”
“I’m trying not to let it, Mac. I’m sorry that it’s considered newsworthy.”
“Yeah, well, if you weren’t such a Goody Two-shoes…” He smiled then and pushed himself from the counter. “Wonder what the clever headline writers will do with America’s Sweetheart now.”
“If it makes them stop using that awful nickname, it might all be worth it. It’s been pretty hard to live up to, you know.”
“Not while your grandparents were alive.”
She finally smiled. “True. They did keep me on the straight and narrow, whether I wanted to be or not.”
Mac patted her shoulder then left. When she was finished in hair and makeup she headed to her trailer to get into costume. Leesa popped up off the sofa, her cell phone to her ear.
“She’s here,” she said into the phone. “Hang on.” Leesa held out the phone to her. “It’s Garnet.”
Garnet Halvorsen had been Maggie’s publicist for ten years, ever since Maggie lured her away from a big studio. She should’ve been the first call Maggie had made once she’d seen the photograph.
“I’ll call her later,” Maggie said. She kept walking, her dresser coming into the trailer behind her with the outfit for the morning’s shoot.
“But—”
“La-ter.”
Maggie heard Leesa try to soothe Garnet, who seemed to be yelling. Maggie signaled to her assistant to end the call, which she did. “Let it go to voice mail for now, please, Leesa.”
A few minutes later someone knocked, saying they were ready for her. Maggie put an arm around Leesa’s shoulders. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
Maggie wanted to believe her own words, but it really depended on Tony. “I need you to get in touch with Tony Young and ask him to meet me at seven o’clock tonight at the hotel. And apologize to him in advance for all the stalkers he’ll have today.”
“I don’t mind making that call, Mags, but don’t you think it should come from you? That any apology should come from you?”
Without a doubt. But since he would have questions that she’d rather answer in person,