Reagan winced. She swept Tommy back into her arms and again. "I'm sorry, Luke. I know how hard this has to be." "Sometimes 1 think that's why I'm working so much. A full at school and the hours I'm putting in at Morris and "Could be." She leaned in and kissed him, a slow, seductive square on the lips.

Tommy cooed at them and grabbed a of Reagan's hair.

"That was nice." Luke tightened his hold on the portfolio. An-kiss like that onk and he'd skip work for the day. ' "Listen-" she drew back, her eyes tender-"I want you to I support what you're doing. The hours at Morris and they're going somewhere. It's your future-our fu-Don't ever think I expect you to miss out on an opportunity this one, okay?", He kissed her this time and took a few steps toward !door. "I'll be home before dinner." took the subway to the law office, situated a few blocks Times Square, in the heart of the theater district. He had settled in at his desk when he heard a commotion in the room.

of the secretaries popped her head in and giggled. Then loud whisper she explained what was happening. "Dayne He's here. Can you believe it?"

rolled his eyes and smiled. "Oh boy! Get an autograph okay?" woman made a face at him and turned around, closing her. Luke chuckled to himself. Dayne Matthews household name, a rising star who was cast in lead roles of his uncanny acting ability and his blond, boyish good compared him to a young Robert Redford, a heart 126.

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throb with timeless charm and a way of relating on-screen that kept him in high demand in Hollywood.

Luke had heard from one of the attorneys that Dayne was a client, but the guy spent most of his time in Hollywood, checking in with the offices Morris and McKenzie had there. He was probably filming something on location in New York City. Yes, that was it. Someone at the office had mentioned that the day before.

The commotion was dying down. The star gazers in the office had apparently found their way back to their work, and Dayne and his agent were probably getting down to business.

Luke studied the stack of contracts on his desk. Contracts made up the bulk of his work. The attorneys would write up an agreementbsometimes thirty, forty pages longhand attach it to a boilerplate, a contract that had already been approved. Luke's job was to go through both documents and find discrepancies. He would then yellow tag them so the attorney could go back and make sure the differences were intentional.

There was enough work to keep Luke busy ten hours a day, but he had agreed to just under thirty hours a week. Long enough to learn the business and figure out if entertainment law was his thing or not, but with time built into his schedule for classes and studying and his young wife and son. Them most of all.

He picked up the first contract and laid it out on the desk in front of him.

Before he could reach for the boilerplate, the door opened and Joe Morris walked in with Dayne Matthews and another man.

Luke might not have been starstruck, but he knew enough to rise for the occasion. He stood and shook the partner's hand. "Ilr. Morris, good to see you."

"You, too, Luke. I thought I'd introduce you to one of our clients." He stepped aside and nodded at the man on his left. "This is Dayne Matthews, and his agent, Chris Kane."

"Nice to meet you." Luke shook Dayne's hand and then nod 127 ingsbury smalley at the man's agent. He grinned at Dayne. "My wife's a big "Thanks." Dayne looked comfortable. He wore a pullover and but he would've had to work hard to hide the face was coming to love. "Joe tells us you'll be the next big gave a slight roll of his eyes. "As soon as I get law degree."

Joe Morris and Dayne's agent started a conversation about aspect of Dayne's current contract. They stood near the leaving Dayne no choice but to take the chair opposite ; desk. He shrugged his shoulders. "Looks like it could be a had happened before. Joe and an agent would get into and leave Luke to talk to the client. With the two of the door as they talked, Dayne Was right. It could a while.

on location, right? Filming something in Manhattan?" "Yes." Dayne smiled.

"They're going through technical shoots so we had some time off."

felt himself relax a little. The office always made a big about the stars it represented, and many of them were high-demanding the attention they felt they deserved of their visibility.

Dayne was different.

the moment they met, Luke felt something familiar him, as if Dayne didn't quite believe the fame and attenpeople had awarded him.

The air of pretense that sur- most big names was simply missing with Dayne. what's your StOl,, Luke Baxter?"

Dayne fingered the n Luke's desk. "You look too young to be married." i'Young but definitely happy." Luke chuckled and pointed to a )hotograph of him and Reagan with Tommy. "That's my picked up the picture and studied it. "I can see why 128 REUNION.

you're happy." He set it back down and looked at the other pictures on Luke's desk. A photo of Tommy on his six-month birthday, one of Luke and Reagan at their wedding the previous Christmas.

Then Dayne's expression changed. "Who's this?" He picked up a small photograph of Luke's mother and father. It was taken when they were both students at the University of Michigan.

"My parents." Luke twisted so he could get a good look at the picture. "The way they looked in 1967, the year they met."

Dayne studied the photo a little longer, and then put it back. "They look nice."

"They are." Luke reached up and took another photo from the top shelf of his desk. "This is them now. They'll be married thirty-five years in August."

Again Dayne took special interest in the photo. "Thirty-five years." He shook his head. "That's just about unheard-of where I come from."

For a single instant, Luke felt sorry for the movie star seated across from him.

For some reason, the man was giving Luke a glimpse of his heart, of the things that might'v mattered to him if life were different. Almost as if Dayne longed for a desk like Luke's, one with a photograph of a pretty wife and an infant son and parents who had stayed married for thirty-five years.

Dayne leaned back and crossed his arms, studying Luke. "You're a Christian, aren't you, Luke?"

"I am." Again, Luke wasruck by Dayne's transparency. "How did you know?"

"Your eyes." He laughed and flashed the smile that brought in millions at the box office. "And the eyes of your wife and parents.

It's the same way my own parents looked."

"They're believers, then?"

"They were." Dayne sucked in a long breath and sat a little straighter in his seat. "I lost them a long time ago. They were missionaries; they died in a small-plane crash in the jungles of Southeast Asia."

129.

kingsbury smal[ey The story triggered something Reagan had told him. She'd found a copy of People magazine in the doctor's office at one of Tommy's appointments and read that Dayne Matthews was raised in a boarding school, the son of missionaries. Luke kept the memory to himself. Instead he bit his lip and held Dayne's eyes for a moment. "I'm sorry. That must've been hard."

Dayne raised his shoulders. "They loved God more than me." He laughed, but it sounded practiced. "I was just a kid; I couldn't exactly compete with God, you know?"

Luke was hardly a psychiatrist, but even so he could read between the lines of what Dayne was saying. No wonder he was taken by Luke's family pictures. He had lost the people he loved most, and all because they had loved God more than him.

That was how Dayne saw it, anyway, and his story explained much about his ability to express emotions onthe big screen.

Luke wanted to keep the conversation going, find out more about the man sitting across from him. But everything he thought to ask, he already knew. Dayne had a reputation for playing the field, dating his leading ladies, and then walking away before things got too serious. His personal life was splashed across the cover of People magazine and every tabloid in the business.

"You know something, Luke Baxter?" Dayne leveled his gaze at him. He was a straight shooter, a man whose star status didn't figure into the conversation.

Dayne pointed at the pictures on desk. "You're a lucky young man. That-" he nodded to faces in the photographs-"that's what matters in the end, know?"

: "You're right." Luke looked at the pictures again. "I almost year ago. But now-" he met Dayne's eyes again- I'm never letting go. Not for anything."

"Good." Dayne grabbed the arms of his chair and looked over shoulder. His agent and Joe Morris had moved their converinto a nearby room, so there was no longer a reason for to stay. He stood and stretched. Then he reached out and hand.

"Nice meeting you."

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"You too." Luke w.as struck by this guy, how easily they'd hit it off from the moment they were introduced. In another setting, they might've become friends, taken an interest in getting to know each other. But Dayne Matthews was, well, he was Dayne Matthews. People didn't just befriend big-time movie stars. Dayne nodded at Luke. "See you around."

"Yeah." Luke did a small wave. "Good luck with your film."

"Thanks." And with that, Dayne turned around and walked out of Luke's office and down the hallway.

Luke didn't see him again that day, but he was sure of one thing: He wouldn't forget their conversation as long as he lived. Not because Dayne was a movie star, someone larger than life. But because he was human, just a guy caught up in the fast pace of life, wistful over the thought of normalcy.

Something about it made Luke sad, and he could hardly wait to shar.e the story with Reagan. She would be bowled over, of course, asking him if he'd gotten the man's autograph or in vited him for dinner. But when the silliness faded and she lis tened to the story, she would feel it, too. An ache for someone like Dayne Matthews, someone with limitless fame and talent and looks and money. But someone who was maybe missing the most important thing of all.

Family.

A few hours later, Luke finished up. He gathered his things and headed down the hall. On his way he poked his head into the office of Joe Morris. "Hey, thanks for introducing me. He's the real deal. Very down to earth."

Joe was about to say something, but he set his pen down and stared at Luke. "My word, Baxter, look at you."

Luke took a step back and shot a glance at the length of him self in Joe's mirror. "Did I spill pizza sauce on my shirt again?"

"No." Joe stood up, his eyes wide. "You look exactly like Dayne Matthews." He shook his head. "When I hired you I knew you looked like someone famous, but I couldn't put my finger on it." He chuckled. "Now I know."

131.

kingsbury smalley "Really?" No one had told him that before.

"I mean, Baxter, you could be the guy's twin."

"I guess there are worse things you could say about me." Luke laughed and raised his portfolio in the air. "Maybe I should drop law and take up acting."

132.

133.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

With all that was going on in her life, Ashley had asked the owner of Sunset Hills for six months off. Long enough to get .them through the summer, the reunion their mother wanted, and her wedding.

She still had money in savings from the paintings she'd sold in and the occasional sale that took place at the local gallery. Taking time off was a good thing. It gave her time with Cole and Landon and her mother. Most of all her mother.

Two weeks had passed since her mother's surgery. Often in afternoon Kari and Jessie joined Ashley and Cole in long around their mother's bed. She was still weak the operation, her incisions still healing. And the sickness already kicked in.

She'd lost weight and hair and had trouble keeping food But at times like this, with the early April sun streaming the bedroom window and her mother sitting up in bed at the stories Kari told about little Jessie, it easy to think her mother wasn't sick at all.

Elizabeth drew a long breath and pressed the blankets down 134 REUNION.

around her waist. "You tell the funniest stories, Kari. Sometimes I think you should've done stand-up work."

"Who knew two-year-olds could provide such good material?"

They all laughed again and Ashley remembered something. "I think I found the bridesmaids' dresses." She darted across the room and pulled a slip of folded paper from her purse. "I found this in one of those wedding books."

Ashley opened the advertisement and showed it to Kari. Their mother leaned closer, trying to get a better look. "Oh, Ashley, it's beautiful."

The dress was formfitting but not tight, a thin black satin with a single strap over the left shoulder.

"Oh, sure." Kari chased after Jessie and whisked her up onto her lap. "I'll be-what?over four months pregnant." She traced the narrow waist of the model wearing the dress. "I'll be the general shape of a rectangle by then; keep that in mind."

Kari and Mom laughed, but Ashley was quick to accommodate. "We can have yours custom made. That won't be a problem."

"Just give me a gunnysack. That way I can be sure the waist will fit." Kari set Jessie down, and they watched her skip across the room and stare out the window.

"Kitty, Mommy! Look!" Kari struggled to her feet and went to Jessie. As she did she looked over her shoulder. "Of course, if Jessie keeps up this aerobics program, I might actually fit into the dress."

Again they laughed, and Ashley savored the feeling.

This was what she'd always hoped for, wasn't it? Not just the fact that she was marrying the man of her dreams, a man who would be her best friend and the greatest daddy in the world for Cole. But that she had this, too. Unhurried conversations with her. mother and sisters about dresses and fittings and all the other details that went into planning a wedding.

135.

"Have you decided on the music?" Her mother reached into the top drawer of her nightstand and pulled out a pad of paper.

"You mean I'm not singing?" Kari kneeled beside Jessie, who was still caught up in watching the kitty through the window. "I thought for sure you'd have me sing."

Ashley and Mom winced at the same time. Kari had always been good in front of a camera, but never in front of a microphone..She was completely tone deaf.

Everyone in the Baxter family knew that.

"Well-" Ashley played along-"I want people to dance, not leave early with a headache."

Kari made a face. "Ouch, little sister. Cut me deep."

Their mother studied the notebook on her lap. "Last time we talked, you were leaning toward a DJ; is that right?"

"Actually..." Ashley watched her mother and tried not to notice the way her lightweight cotton robe fell flat against her chest. "Landon's thinking about a live band. One of the guys at the fire station plays in one that does weddings.

They can do seventies, eighties, country-pretty much anything that gets people on a dance floor."

Her mother thought about that. "It sounds lovely, Ashley. Would you like me to find out what they charge, or will Landon take care of that?"

Ashley's heart melted. "Landon'll do it, Mom. You're supposed to be recovering, remember?"