And you guys be good."

With a polite smile for Gin and a wag of her fi nger at her kids, she left the camp and trudged back the way she'd come.

a 26 a So what was that all about? Yet again I've been abandoned for a slinkier sports model. First Dan and her new bimbo, and now the kids with their puppy eyes for Gin. Solley looked down at her rounded curves and sighed. Who was she kidding?

After three kids, she was no sports model, more like a beat-up old people mover.

Later that afternoon Solley, Janie, and the kids wandered down to the old jetty to watch from a distance as Marsha went through her paces for the Jet Ski scene.

"So what's going on?" Solley asked.

"Apparently Dufus is going to dive off a hurtling Jet Ski as a harpoon whizzes inches from her ears," Janie replied.

"Meanwhile, back at the studio, Kelly Rose will be gently lowered into a tank of lovingly warmed water where she will wallow for the close-ups. She's no fool."

"Ah. So that would make you Mrs. Dufus, then."

Solley was rewarded with a glower. "As long as it's not Widow Dufus, I'll cope."

Shielding her eyes, Solley gazed across the water. Marsha was zipping crazily about, her blond wig whipping in the wind, the foamy spray splashing up around her silver and hot pink wet suit. A black speedboat buzzed around her loaded with three ominous fi gures, obviously the bad-guy actors in this scene. One was pointing a harpoon gun at the spinning Jet Ski. Two other rescue speedboats stayed a decent distance to port and starboard, out of camera range.

"They're not actually going to shoot at her?" Solley squeaked with alarm.

Two other larger vessels, armed with cameras, added to the crazed mix of zooming craft out in the bay. As the kids yelled and hooted like barbarians, the Jet Ski soared about fi ve a 27 a feet into the air, the pink fi gure jettisoning skyward, spinning around the fl ying harpoon and diving down into the sea.

"Oh, my G.o.d," blurted Solley.

"Is it safe to look?" Janie squinted from behind her fi ngers.

The scene was quickly rea.s.sembled and the crazy wheeling started all over again. And so the afternoon wore on until the pattern suddenly changed. This time Marsha spun awkwardly into the water and one of the accompanying speedboats cut quickly across to the abandoned Jet Ski.

"What's going on?" Solley asked as her silent children gazed intently at the unfolding scene.

Engines were cut and shouts rose from various craft.

Janie's face was waxen. "Something's wrong."

Solley clutched her around the shoulders as a rescue boat turned and plowed toward the scene, sending spray high on either side. A dark fi gure dived from its deck.

"That's Gin!" shouted Jed. "She'll save Aunt Marsha."

Too late, Gin had noticed the rogue wave from the corner of her eye as it bellied obliquely across the bay to rise in a vicious crest toward the Jet Ski. Marsha, already on the upward rise, had no chance of correcting her tilt. Before Gin could raise a warning cry, her friend had been broached and was fl ung up and over, her practiced trajectory in shambles with no room for correction. At last fi nding her voice, Gin had howled an alarm before launching herself from the moving rescue craft.

A few fi rm strokes brought her alongside Marsha's semiconscious form. The waves were high, banging into them.

Gin fl oated on her back, Marsha cradled between her legs. She struggled to keep them both buoyant, nursing her best friend's a 28 a head and shoulders above the water until they were heaved into a rescue boat.

Stunt crews had their own medics on standby for events such as this, and by the time the vessel reached the pier, the area was a heaving ma.s.s of orchestrated activity. Marsha, now conscious and upright, sat beside Gin, who had a comforting arm around her. The studio paramedics dashed onto the boat to attend to Marsha's left leg and check her for concussion.

Gin leapt onto the jetty to meet Janie, who had descended on the scene with the rest of her family following anxiously behind.

"Janie, it's okay," she said. "She was only out for a split-second and didn't inhale any water. She's gashed her leg. It's bleeding but I don't think it's a break. The paramedics will take her to the hospital once they get her strapped up."

"I'll break more than her d.a.m.n leg," Janie snapped. "Let me through."

She stepped gingerly into the boat, reaching for her extremely pale partner. Janie's bravado bubble burst immediately and tears began spilling down her face. Marsha wrapped her in a protective embrace, pulling her into her broad shoulder. They snuggled close as the medics sutured and bandaged the cut leg and swollen ankle.

Cupping Janie's damp cheek in her palm, locking her gaze lovingly with the tearful green eyes before her, Marsha whispered, "Don't worry, babe." The injured now the comforter, she added, "Just a bad day at the offi ce, that's all."

"What's the verdict?" Solley asked several hours later when the walking wounded fi nally returned from the hospital.

Marsha limped between Janie and Gin, her two minders, a 29 a her smile a complete contrast to their anxious faces. "Well, I have eighteen st.i.tches on the shin and a mighty big bang on my lucky ankle. It's weakened from two earlier breaks. I'm always spraining and straining it, so no biggie, just c.r.a.p timing."

"And this would be your lucky ankle...why?"

"Because it's not my other ankle. That one is still good.

Unbroken, see? Virgin bones."

Janie, following behind, rolled her eyes at these words of wisdom. "Virgin brain, more like," she muttered.

They limped inside, leaving Solley and Gin alone in the warm breeze blowing in from the bay. Taking a seat on the deck steps, they looked out across the water, neither making the kind of small talk these occasions seemed to call for.

After a while, Solley broke the companionable silence.

"Would you like a cold beer?"

"That would be lovely."

"It was a good job you were there today." Solley returned after a few moments and pa.s.sed Gin the newly opened bottle.

"I could tell the minute the wave hit the Jet Ski that she wasn't going to pull out of the angle of tilt correctly," Gin said. "It's a hazard with aqua-stunts. The conditions have no consistency. Every run rewrites the rules of the previous one."

She took a long draw from her bottle, and Solley watched her throat work as she swallowed the cool beer. She, too, found herself swallowing as the moonlight played on the angular planes of Gin's face and the muscles moving under the smooth skin of jaw and throat.

She was gorgeous. Solley could hardly blame the kids for wanting to run away with her at every opportunity. s.h.i.t, half the fi lm crew wanted to run away with her, if not commit f.u.c.kicide in her bed.

a 30 a "I like your kids." Gin turned to her. "They're really great, and loads of fun. Della has an answer for everything."

Fl.u.s.tered at being caught red-handed examining the other woman's profi le, Solley replied, "Yeah, she's certainly the alpha b.i.t.c.h in that little cub pack. I'm glad they seem to be having so much fun here. G.o.d knows, things are hard enough at home for them."

"I'm sorry about that," Gin said cautiously.

Solley sensed she was open to more personal disclosures, and maybe one day they would have that kind of conversation.

If Solley could ever stand to think about her life, let alone discuss it with a stunning, successful woman like the one in front of her. Wanting to stick to safe superfi cialities, she said, "Meeting you was the icing on a very big holiday cake. But please don't let them run you ragged. We all know you're here to work."

"Hey, I'm more than pleased to see them in my free time."

Wow, how could someone so sweet also burn holes in the sheets? Solley cleared her throat, embarra.s.sed at her intimate thoughts and feeling a sudden need for more self-control in this woman's quiet, yet unsettling presence. "Janie tells me Marsha and you are old friends."

"Yeah, we've known each other forever. She has a real big heart. I'm glad she met your sister. It turned her life around."

"They're a great couple. I love visiting with them."

"Me, too," Gin said. "They're always so happy. It gives one hope."

"What about you? Do you have someone special somewhere?" Solley winced at blurting out such an awkward, intrusive question.

Gin's smile was bittersweet. She seemed lost in a loving a 31 a memory for several seconds. "Not at the moment." Her smile seemed to falter slightly. "I'm too busy running all around the world to be meeting those aspecial someones.' The movie industry is very shallow, with more takers than givers. And it's hard to meet people from outside it, so for the time being I prefer not to get involved." Her dark eyes settled on Solley.

"But life goes on and things change."

Unsure how to respond, Solley said, "Oh. Well, you're probably very wise to be careful. But I'm glad things are shifting for you. It's good to open up to life's possibilities."

Listen to yourself, you big procrastinator. Go preach it from the mountain. Fake!

"Sometimes," Gin agreed. "Then again, there are times we all need to be alone just to think and rea.s.sess. I fi nd La Sirena Verde the perfect place to do that. When I'm not throwing myself all over it, that is."

"Mmn, you do plummet beautifully." Solley grinned.

"That's another thing I need to think about. We've a saying, that old bones don't bounce. I'm getting too long in the tooth for this caper. Unlike Marsha, I'm not sure if I have any virgin bones left, and I'm beginning to feel it in the cold weather."

Her grin became mischievous, almost on the verge of fl irtatious, but not quite. Solley's heart lurched into an odd dysrhythmia.

"I'm beginning to see damage sort of comes with the paycheck," she remarked.

"After today, I don't think Janie wants that sort of money anymore," Gin said. "And she's right. If they're going to start a family and snuggle down into this fi ne feathered nest they've made for themselves, it would be crazy for Marsha to get back into stunt work. La Sirena Verde is a lovely place for a real life, doing what matters."

a 32 a She reached for her empty beer bottle at the same time Solley moved to collect it. Once again, as their hands brushed, Solley got a rush of goose b.u.mps along her arm. It made her heart do giddy, teenage things, and much to her embarra.s.sment, her cheeks fl ushed. Oh please, Rayner, what's with the hormone surge? Next thing she'd be getting pimples like an overgrown, gawky teenager.

Fl.u.s.tered by her body's heated betrayal, she collected the empty bottles and quickly rose. "Well, I better get to bed. Thanks for the company and the chat. I'll see you in the morning."

"Good night," Gin responded, picking up on Solley's discomfort.

The stiffness in her voice and her body suggested a line that couldn't be crossed, and Gin mentally kicked herself for her insensitivity. Way to go. The woman's home was falling apart and Gin had to remind her of other people's happiness.

Klutz.

She sat for a few moments musing about the battered little family she was just beginning to get to know. The kids were real gems, funny and intelligent and great company. Just being in their presence gave her a boost she needed. Their mother was a very attractive woman, but plainly tired and stressed and carrying a great deal of pain. Gin's heart went out to her.

Divorce was such a messy business, with so many innocent victims.

Marsha had mentioned a third party. Gin could only imagine what a fool this "Dan" was to walk away from a beautiful wife and fantastic kids, for another woman. It was sad that the real treasures in life were so seldom seen for what they were. The thought made her all too aware of her own emptiness. Despite her career success and money, she felt hollow, that she held no substance, only cobwebs to wrap a 33 a around what looked from the outside to be a perfect life. There was nothing of true comfort to cradle her. She was spiritually and emotionally bereft and had no idea how to move through her current emotional impa.s.se and make her life different.

Sighing, she shook the heavy, unwelcome feelings away.

It had been a long and eventful day, but she'd made it through to the end. And thanks to Solley Rayner and her kids, she was looking forward to the rest of the week.

a 34 a

CHAPTER THREE.

Marsha's woeful predicament became the children's endless fi xation over the next two days. Her bruised, swollen foot stuck out from the knee-to-ankle bandaging like a black-and-blue horror fi lm prop.

"Will you lose your toes?" Della asked on Thursday morning.

"Did you actually see your own bones?" Jed hovered, fascinated. "Gross," he said with approval.

"I like the color." Della considered the marbled bruising.

"Purple is my new best favorite."

"Maybe you'll get gangrene," Jed enthused.

Will, looking on with a thoughtful expression, fi nally asked, "If a rat ate your foot when you were asleep, would you feel it?"

Janie came to the rescue with another dose of painkillers.

"Right, my little ghouls, I'm off into town to collect Hopalong's next fi x from the pharmacist. Who wants to come with me?

Maybe we can stop at a toy shop and get some of those ma.s.sive water guns, now that Aunt Marsha's a sitting duck?"

Janie leaned in to kiss her partner warmly before collecting the car keys and following the children out the door.

"I know you love her, but sometimes your sister's a little b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Marsha growled at Solley.

a 35 a "Funnily enough, that's what mother used to say. Our baby sister is the real angel of the family." Solley smiled. Grace was twenty-four and in her third year at the USC School of Dentistry. "I can't believe she'll be qualifi ed in another year.

Imagine, a real live dentist in the Rayner family. Mom would be so proud."

"I don't know why you and Janie are so surprised. All that pain and discomfort...sounds like the perfect career choice for a Rayner sister."

"That's rich, coming from a woman whose career path has led her off a cliff top more than once."

Marsha shrugged. "Sol, if you don't have any plans for this morning, would you help me down to the jetty? Gin's replacing me for the last of the Jet Ski shots and I'd really like to be there."

"Sure, no problem." Solley's reply was slightly breathless.

She was curiously pleased at the thought of watching Gin in action again. In fact, being around her in any situation lifted Solley's spirits. The quiet focus and steady energy of the stuntwoman was addictive. Gin seemed to seek out Solley's company in the evenings, and it was comforting simply to sit with her and feel a connection.