Lovescenes

Cade sighed. ‘That’s the truth. I haven’t done that since I was at school.’

Shannon sipped her wine and then rested the glass on her leg. ‘Princeton, right?’ He looked at her in surprise and she blushed. ‘Well, your life story isn’t exactly a secret,’ she said. ‘Every magazine on the stands has done something about you at one time or another.’

‘And hardly any of it the truth,’ he said.

‘Is Princeton the truth?’

He grinned. ‘Yeah, Hard believe, right? Me, a music major at a place like that...’

‘Easy to believe, after seeing you play with the Ma­rauders last week.* She blushed again and he smiled.

‘That’s nice,’ he said softly.

‘What?’

‘That blush. I didn’t think women did that anymore.’

To her horror, she felt the color in her cheeks height­ening.

‘An inherited trait,’ she said lightly. ‘All the women in my family blush. My mother, my aunts, my cousins...’

Cade laughed. ‘And where are these hordes of blushing females? How come they haven’t America by storm?’

She rose and padded across the room. ‘They’re back home in Kansas,’ she said, refilling her glass.

‘Waiting for you to win an Emmy or a Tony or an Oscar?’

‘Waiting for me to give all this up as a bad idea and come home,’ she laughed. ‘I think they’ve heard too many stories about starving in the name of art. Would you like more wine?’

Cade nodded and held his glass out to her. ‘It’s true, though. For every musician making a living, there must be fifty who aren’t.’

‘Is that why you didn’t stay with classical guitar?’

‘The money?’ he asked and she nodded. ‘No, it wasn’t that. Well, it was, at the beginning... Are you sure you want to hear this?’

‘If you want to tell me.’

He sighed and leaned back against the couch. ‘I was a scholarship student, which meant I was broke most of the time. I started playing at clubs near school on weekends—my own stuff, mostly—and after a while I realized that I’d always love classical guitar but, I don’t know, there’s a reality to other music...’ He laughed softly. ‘How’s that sound? Pompous? Pretentious? Trite?’

‘Honest,’ Shannon answered, smiling at him. ‘I just wish there were as much reality in the soaps. But then, who would watch them?’

‘Yeah,’ Cade said with a sigh, ‘I noticed. My char­acter—Johnny Wolff—seems awfully one-dimensional. Nobody can be that evil.’

‘Alana Dunbar can,’ Shannon said. ‘My girl’s a cold, calculating shark. In fact, the first time she really thaws is... is when she meets Johnny.’

‘Ah yes, back to today’s horror show. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that scene right. I told Jerry...’

‘It wasn’t your fault, Cade. I never even gave you a chance to say your lines, but tomorrow, I...’

‘Does the entire population of Manhattan always stand around watching a rehearsal? I’m not sure I want a chance to get to my lines tomorrow if it means every adult this side of the Continental Divide will be leering at us.’

She looked at him in surprise. ‘You noticed?’

Cade laughed. ‘I’ve seen fewer people at one of my concerts. I kept expecting someone to sell popcorn.’

Shannon let her breath out and slumped down on the couch beside him. ‘So much for paranoia,’ she muttered.

‘I don’t understand.’