“When I focus on it. Which is never,” she added under her breath, grimacing slightly. “I’ve been so busy lately, I live off catered food from a movie set or I order in. I try to eat fairly healthy, but still . . . there’s something less fulfilling about the experience of eating food like that, you know?”
He nodded. “Impersonal. The person preparing it doesn’t know you.”
“Yeah, exactly. The ingredients are first-rate, and the preparation is skilled, but there’s no love or caring, no acknowledgment of you as an individual.” She realized how wistful she sounded and blinked, darting an anxious glance at Seth. She’d probably freaked him out by suggesting he’d prepared her meal with love.
He didn’t look at all ruffled by what she’d said.
He did change the subject, however.
“Is this good?” he asked, picking up the book she’d been reading and had discarded on the mattress when he arrived with the food.
“Excellent. Do you know much about Eleanor Roosevelt?” she asked, drawing the sheet more firmly around her breasts and sitting up against the pillows.
“A little. I had to write a paper about her in a college history class.”
“Could you do me a favor?” she asked, taking the book from him and setting it down between them on the mattress, still facing Seth. She rifled through the pages to a series of photos. “These are of her in her late teens and twenties.” She said, leaning forward as they both studied the pages. “There’s a producer interested in adapting this book into a movie, and he’s asked me if I’d be interested in playing a young Eleanor. Cecilia doesn’t think my looks are at all suited for the part,” she said, referring to her agent. She frowned. “Actually, she also thinks it won’t have a wide-enough commercial appeal, but I don’t care about that. Eleanor has been an idol of mine for a long time. It’d be a dream to play her. But I am worried about if I could pull it off, from a physical-appearance standpoint. There’s no one better to ask than you. What do you think?” She tapped her finger on the page of a young, quite pretty Eleanor with dark blond hair styled in a poofy upsweep. She had a pensive face and intelligent, soft eyes. “Could I become her?”
She waited anxiously while Seth flipped through a couple pages, studying the images silently. She trusted his opinion completely. If he said it was impossible to transform her physically into Eleanor, it was. He finally glanced up at her, his stare moving slowly over her face. She experienced, not for the first time, his intense focus and that cool, penetrating . . . all-seeing gaze that defined his genius.
After a tense pause, he nodded once. Her heart leapt with excitement.
“It would be a subtle, but complicated, makeup. A mouth insert would have to be used to shape your lower face, and it would have to be a really good one, sculpted to not only Eleanor’s facial features, but yours as well. Your lips are usually a problem—not in everyday life, or for me,” he added dryly, “but to disguise.” Gia smiled. He nodded at the page. “Eleanor has a nice, full mouth, though, and it was much softer-looking when she was young. It would mostly be your acting that counted for embodying her, though. Roosevelt had very characteristic mannerisms and voice intonation.”
She nodded eagerly. “I think I could do it.”
He gave a small smile and glanced back at the page. “I’m sure you could. The face would be easier than her body though. Wasn’t Eleanor one of the tallest first ladies?”
“Five eleven. I’m barely five six,” Gia admitted.
“Well . . . the trick of film and costume could diminish that, and the way you move your b
ody, of course,” he said slowly. “I can make some sketches, and I brought my kit. Do you want to experiment a little with it while we’re here?”
“Yes,” she enthused. “That’d be amazing. But only if you want to. It’s supposed to be a vacation for you too.”
He didn’t speak for a moment, and she wondered if indeed he’d only offered to be polite. Then she noticed his quirked brow as he studied the book intently. She could almost hear his brain whirring.
“Seth?”
He glanced up distractedly.
“Oh . . . sorry. Yeah, I definitely want to do it,” he replied simply.
His phone buzzed on the bedside table. He twisted around and snagged it with his left hand. She saw a small smile shape his lips as he read the message once he faced her again.
“Apparently even the gossip grapevine is slower moving in the vicinity of Vulture’s Canyon than the rest of the world. Katie Pierce has just found out from Sherona that I’m up here.”
“Rill’s wife?” Gia asked.
“Yeah.” He glanced up at her. “She’s asking us to come to dinner tomorrow night. They just got back from Los Angeles. Do you want to go?”
“As Jessie Bauer?”
He nodded. “As my nephew.”
She bit her lip, considering. It would be interesting to meet Rill in person. He was one of the youngest, most respected directors in Hollywood. Seth seemed to notice her hesitancy.
“What are you thinking?” Seth asked her quietly.