“She’s good,” Eve cut in. “Her portfolio is amazing.”
Madeline nodded. “Okay. They’ll be here in two hours.”
Grace was clearly missing something. “Who will?”
“That damn documentary crew. They want to film me unscripted, I guess. Madeline Beckingham in the wild! Apparently documentary crews don’t believe in makeup or hairstyling. And we don’t have a styling crew here, so I guess it’s you.”
“Okay. Sure. I’ll be happy to.”
“Great.” She’d already moved on to other thoughts and her eyes roamed away. “Cole!” she shouted, raising a hand as her face broke into a smile.
Grace turned to look, expecting to see some other Cole behind her. But it was Cole Rawlins in all his cowboy charm, leading a bridled horse out of the barn. He froze, his gaze catching Grace’s for a long moment.
“Come here! I need you to talk to Bill Seasons about how many cattle we can get into that corral next to the barn.”
Cole’s jaw tightened, but he tied the horse off and started over. Grace noticed that he was favoring his right leg. She’d never noticed it before. He clearly tried to hide it.
“I’ll go,” Grace said, holding up the car keys to signal Eve that she was leaving. “I should be back in plenty of time.”
As Grace turned, she caught sight of the one person she wanted to see even less than Cole. Willa James picked her way across the dirt yard in high-heeled boots. She stopped in Grace’s path. “Not her,” she said loudly, a tight smile nearly hiding the movement of her mouth.
Madeline Beckingham sighed. “Willa, are you talking to me?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Spit it out, then.”
“Not her.”
Grace’s stomach turned to ice. This was it.
“Don’t let her touch you.”
“Are you talking about the makeup girl?”
“Yes.”
“Do I need to solve this like a Scooby-Doo mystery, Willa? Let me take a guess. Is she the one who did Felicia’s makeup for the Golden Globes this year?” She laughed at her own joke.
“No. I recognize Grace. She’s from L.A.” She sounded caught between delight and contempt.
“I’m aware of that,” Madeline said wearily.
“I bet you don’t know that she skipped town because she’s a thief.”
“That’s not true!” Grace said, feeling as if she were playing a scene in a movie. This wasn’t really happening. She knew it wasn’t, because she should’ve felt mortified, but she didn’t feel anything at all.
“It is true,” Willa sneered. “I just talked to her ex. She’s a thief. Not to mention the rumors of a little substance abuse problem.”
Eve and Madeline both looked from Willa to Grace. “That’s not true either,” she said, her voice a little shaky. Did it sound as if she was lying?
Willa rolled her eyes. “Call Frank Edison and a
sk him why he fired her from her last job. Which was about six months ago, by the way, because nobody else will hire her. Her boyfriend kicked her out after she stole eight thousand dollars from him.”
Grace shook her head, staring at Willa in shock. A defense formed in her mind, but it all sounded so stupid. She’d say the same things if she actually were a druggie thief, after all. It’s not true. I didn’t do it. It’s all a misunderstanding.
But apparently she didn’t need to say anything at all, because someone jumped to her defense. Not her defense, actually, but…