Wood Worked

“Let me guess. Was it the grumpy one from next door? Did he finally come to his senses, put a rose between his teeth, climb up the window, and ravish you?”

“No. No ravishing.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Flynn doing that. He definitely didn’t seem the type.

“Come on, tell me,” Sierra pleaded. “I’m in between films and my screenplay is going horribly. I need something else to think about.”

All right, that part I could understand. I looked around the deck to make sure no one was in earshot. Spencer was at work, Raphael was teaching a class, and I’d heard Flynn drive off early this morning. Spencer had said something about a sick mule at breakfast. “Okay, don’t freak out, but I slept with one of them.”

Sierra’s eyes practically bulged out of her head. “Which one?”

“The brother-in-law.”

Her jaw dropped. “Mr. Zen? Really?”

“Yes. But we didn’t have sex, he just slept next to me. It was really nice, actually. We talked, and he kind of spooned me so that my cast wouldn’t make me overbalance when I slept on my side. It was the best I’ve slept in days.”

“That actually does sound nice.”

She looked like she understood, but I wasn’t sure. From what I’d heard from Kylie, Sierra was skittish about men. Though with her looks she could have her pick of them, she didn’t date much. Kylie had even said that Sierra’s issues with men had even hurt her career at times. I supposed it was hard to do a love scene if you jumped every time the guy touched you.

“Are you going to do that with him again?”

“If he’ll let me.” I hesitated, not sure if she’d understand. She was becoming a good friend, but we hadn’t known each other that long, and we’d only met in person one time. “It’s just… I get pretty lonely being in my room by myself so much. I know I have calls with you and Mason and Kylie, and the kids come into play after school some days, but sometimes I just feel so isolated."

“Huh. It’s funny you should say that.”

“Why?”

“Because I have some news.”

“What’s that?” Then my powers of observation kicked in. “You changed your hair color!” It seemed to be a light brown color like Charlotte and Lucas’s instead of blonde, like before. I probably would’ve noticed sooner if I’d been on my laptop instead of using my small phone screen.

“That’s not the news, but yeah, I did.” She slid her hand under a curtain of hair and made it fan out. Her hair was so shiny she looked like she was doing a shampoo commercial. “This is closer to my natural color although it’s been so long, I barely remember it. I’ll have to change it back or wear a wig for the publicity campaign a few months, but for now, I’m happy with it.”

“It looks great,” I said quite honestly. “But if that’s not your news, what is?”

She hesitated. “I feel a little weird telling you now after what you just said.”

“That your hair looks great?”

She laughed. “No, not that. Okay, here’s the deal. You know how I’ve been having so much trouble writing my screenplay?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I think the problem is that there are too many distractions here. I found this place that does retreats for artistic types, where they hole up in a cabin in the woods. It’s awesome. They drop you off and you’re by yourself, but you have food and electricity and internet and everything you need except distractions.”

For a moment, I stared at the screen, wondering how isolation could sound so good to her and so bad to me. “That sounds perfect for finishing your screenplay. When do you go there?”

“Next month. The cabins are up in the mountains not too far from your old territory—just a few hours West of Denver.”

Unease filled me. “You’re going to stay in a mountain cabin by yourself in Colorado? In the winter?”

“Yes.” She nodded enthusiastically, clearly thinking that was a feature, not a bug. “But they’ve prepared for everything. There are two backup generators and enough food and water to last for months. So it doesn’t matter if you get cut off from civilization—that’s kind of the point.”

“Sounds great,” I said, though I wasn’t certain that was so. With the kind of money Sierra had, couldn’t she hole up in a cabin in the Bahamas?

We talked for a bit more after that, but then she had to go. I really was happy for her, and I knew how important her screenplay was to her, but her proposed trip to the wilderness sounded like a be careful what you wish for kind of thing to me.

Raphael came home for lunch, which we ate out on the deck. If I lived here full time, I’d probably spent ninety percent of my waking hours out there. It really was amazing.