As bad as it was, that debacle forced David to realize what fame would mean. He got his first serious lesson in how to handle the press. He’d been smart and gotten a publicist to help him. Mom had always said it was unavoidable for well-known people to need someone to keep an eye on what the press was saying. David got the full dose of what they were like, which made him more cautious.
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I had to laugh at how quickly David fell into the Hollywood lifestyle. He learned all about the paparazzi, found out about the casual sexual culture, and became a surf bum. All that said, he was still David. Of course, I’d thought about taking advantage of having my guy all to myself, but it was apparent he still wasn’t ready for a girlfriend. I wanted David to get Hollywood out of his system. Deep down, I had faith he would play for a while, but only for a while—he wasn’t the George Clooney type.
I think he found out what I already knew: David could make it in the movies. People took notice of him. I just hoped his new film did well. If it did, I felt I had a shot at making my long-term dream of us being together work. David and I would make a great Hollywood couple.
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Chapter 1 – It’s Time to Get to Work Tuesday January 19
I stepped out of my apartment and all but fell on my ass. Duke looked at me like I’d tried to kill him. It had sleeted yesterday, and everything had frozen overnight. I began to wonder why I hadn’t just stayed in LA.
My part of the filming on
Speaking of money, Caryn was worried. She didn’t think our accountant was the best person to manage the funds I now had; we needed a genuine money manager. I gave her permission to start looking for one. Caryn also wanted to hire people; she seemed to have plans for an empire. She suggested we employ some of the Mennonites to help with the farm. Caryn needed an office person to take care of the bookkeeping, and she needed someone to be her assistant.
She had agreed that my mom’s new real estate company, Dawson Realty, was a good investment. The people she hired for the office would have to work for both my mom and Caryn.
Saul had called Caryn with the numbers from
I tentatively eased my way to the house, wary of any patches that looked particularly slick. Duke found Precious in our backyard. She’d figured out she could slip through the driveway gate, or launch herself over the fence. That was something new: we now had a fence around our property with security cameras to monitor the yard and all entrances.
It surprised me to see Fritz sitting at the kitchen table with Dad, smiling tiredly.
“I decided to make a quick visit to review your home security with your father. With his approval, I’ve arranged for a company to monitor your property. You’ve had the odd fan and a few paparazzi try to visit while you were away,” Fritz explained.
Fritz and my dad had warned me that there would be a camera in the living room of my apartment. Inside the main house, there were to be three more. One would be in the basement and activated by a motion sensor; our basement was a large open room. A second camera would monitor the back door, and another would watch the front door from the inside. There were, of course, also going to be cameras around the house. If someone wanted to enter, they’d have to get in either through the driveway or the front gate, where there already was a camera and intercom. Our cars all had a special infrared attachment that the gate would recognize to allow us to drive in.
Dad and Fritz wandered off to inspect the rest of the house to be sure nothing else was needed. While they did that, I looked around and spotted one of my grandma’s gag gifts waiting to be put up. I decided this was the perfect time to do so. Nothing like embarrassing a parent while they were entertaining company. Now if I could only keep from grinning while explaining it to Fritz.
Fritz came in as I was finishing putting it up. He looked at it, amused.
“Why are you putting up a second clock in your kitchen?”
I gave him a superior look.
