LITMIR.BIZ

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he said instead, releasing his hold on her and taking a step back. He had to get out of here before he said—or did—something he’d later regret. “I’d better go now.”

      “Our next rehearsal is Tuesday,” she said. “I hope I’ll see you there.” As if to prove she really was a great actress, she even sounded as if she meant it, though Jack doubted she did. Whatever the two of them had in common had died a long time ago—right about the time she’d gotten on that bus and made it clear Crested Butte had nothing to offer her. The question now wasn’t so much why she’d returned, but how long she’d hang around before restlessness and her desire for fame drove her on to the next territory to conquer.

      Meanwhile, he’d stay right here, building those condos she hated, living in the one place that would always be home for him.

      

      TANYA SAGGED against the table that held the scripts and stared out at the empty theater. Only seconds before, Jack had sauntered away, taking her ability to think clearly with him. She’d been so determined to play it cool, to approach things casually as an old friend. But five minutes alone with him and she’d completely blown it.

      It didn’t help that the moment he’d tucked that lock of hair behind Barbie’s ear, Tanya had felt a visceral reaction in her gut, as if the past ten years had never happened and she was still Jack’s steady girl, the female half of the Sweethearts of the Class of 1999. Some part of her personality she didn’t even know had existed had taken one look at Jack and Barbie and screeched, What is she doing with my man?

      But of course he wasn’t her man, and he hadn’t been for years. Her early feelings for him had been sweet and uncomplicated first love. Later, she’d learned the real thing was much more complex and fraught with potential problems.

      She relaxed a little as understanding dawned. She’d reacted to Jack not because she was still in love with him, but because he represented a simpler, more innocent time in her life to which she longed to return. After struggling to make it big in a town that didn’t give two beans about her, she’d come back to Crested Butte hoping to be a part of a close-knit community once more, and to regain the peace that had been lacking in her life too long.

      The door at the back of the theater burst open and a little girl with long blond hair pounded up the aisle. “Mom!” she shouted, pelting toward Tanya’s outstretched arms. “Emma has a new dog, Joe-Joe. He’s a weenie dog and his ears are so long he almost steps on them when he walks.”

      “He sounds cute.” Tanya smoothed her daughter’s hair and smiled at Angela, who was making her way up the aisle at a more sedate pace.

      “I met Heather and Emma as I was leaving and offered to see that Annie made it safely to you,” Angela said. Heather Allison babysat for Tanya on Thursday evenings while Tanya was at rehearsals. On Tuesdays Tanya’s mom watched her granddaughter.

      “Thanks.”

      “Mom, can I look at the posters in the lobby?” Annie asked.

      “All right. But don’t go anywhere else.” Tanya smiled as Annie skipped back up the aisle and burst through the door. She had Tanya’s strawberry-blond hair and blue eyes, but her father Stuart’s high cheekbones and boundless energy. The girl never walked if she could run, determined to absorb everything life had to offer at full speed.

      “Was that Jack Crenshaw I saw leaving just now?” Angela asked when the two women were alone.

      “Maybe.” Tanya began sorting scripts again, ignoring the pointed look from her friend.

      Angela sat in the auditorium’s front row. “I heard a rumor you and he were pretty hot stuff in high school,” she persisted.

      “We dated,” Tanya said evenly.

      “Uh-huh. I don’t know what he was like back then, but right now he’s one very fine man. Definitely a hot property in these parts. Are you going to pick up where you left off?”

      “Don’t be ridiculous. We were just kids.”

      “They say first loves revisited can be very sweet.”

      Tanya snorted. “Who says that?”

      “Someone did, I’m sure.” Angela sat back, legs stretched before her. “So how about it? Are there any sparks still there?”

      “None,” Tanya lied. If she’d felt a twinge or two of attraction, it only proved she was a normal, functioning woman.

      “Do you think he’s still interested in you?” Angela asked.

      “No! When I walked in on him backstage, he was practically drooling over Barbie.”

      “She’s just a kid, and she flirts with anything in pants.” Angela made a dismissive gesture. “A man like Jack needs a real woman to keep him happy.”

      “Well, I’m not interested in being the woman to do it. Besides, he told me he’s responsible for all these condos that are a blight on the town.” She made a face.

      When she’d moved away, Tanya had been too focused on the future to think much about the town she was leaving behind. But over the years, as the disappointments of her failed marriage and faltering career had piled up, she’d looked back on Crested Butte with increasing fondness. In her memories, it was the perfect small town—a safe, beautiful place where the ugliness of the rest of the world wasn’t allowed. Even her annual visits to her parents hadn’t spoiled this image. She’d turned a blind eye to anything that marred the ideal she cherished. The Crested Butte of her memories was a wonderful place to be—the one perfect thing in her life.

      Angela laughed. “Yes, Jack’s company built a lot of condos, which means he’s loaded. One more reason he’s considered such a catch.”

      “I’m not fishing.” In the year since her divorce, Tanya had been too busy looking after Annie and trying to keep body and soul together to worry about a relationship.

      “I thought you came back home to settle down,” Angela said.

      “I came back home because I didn’t have any choice.” After her marriage had ended, she’d thought she could pick up where she’d left off. Only this time, instead of settling for work in commercials and soap operas, she was going to focus on movies and realize her dream of being a true star.

      But the three years she’d taken off to raise Annie and nurture Stuart’s fragile ego meant she’d been forgotten by anyone who mattered. There was a whole new crop of directors and casting agents, not to mention new competition. None of them cared that she’d won raves in high school for her roles onstage, or that the Gunnison County paper once said she was bound to succeed in Hollywood.

      Broke and discouraged, she’d accepted her parents’ invitation to come home. “As anxious as I was to leave this town, I realized it was the perfect place to raise Annie,” she said, dropping into the seat next to Angela. “I only wish it was more like I remembered. There are so many new buildings and people. So many changes.”

      “I’m one of those new people and I’m not so bad,” Angela said. “And look how much the theater has grown. Some of it because of people who live in those very condos you hate.”

      “I know.” It wasn’t so much the growth that upset her but the fantasies she’d had of slipping back into her old life so easily. She still struggled to reconcile her nostalgic picture of the town with reality—one more dream destroyed. Crested Butte had always been the one place where she mattered and it didn’t feel that way anymore. She wasn’t as invisible and friendless as she’d been in California, but she’d never expected to have to struggle to fit in here.

      “You ought to go out with Jack if you get a chance,” Angela said. “He has a reputation as someone who knows how to show a woman a good time.”

      Tanya made a face. “I don’t want a man with a reputation.” When she was ready to be with a man again, it was nice to know her instincts were still there, but she wanted someone dependable

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