often enough. You get to see our whole place. I love it here; it is a small piece of heaven.” Her eyes were bright and beautiful.
I said, “I am glad that you love it here. You are right, it is a little slice of heaven. I wouldn’t mind living here.”
Her eyes got bigger. She looked around, then said, “Then I could see you more.”
I didn’t like that, but kept the smile on my face. She had just given me reason to not live here. I said, “Sounds fun. We will have to see.”
I revved up my engine and started back after Larry. I was going to have to be careful with Jacky; she was accustomed to getting what she wanted, and I wasn’t going to mess up my marriage. For the first time, I realized that I truly had to stay away from her.
We headed in a northerly direction and were back in town by seven. There was the equivalent of a pot luck dinner waiting on us. There were casseroles, all kinds of meat, and soups with sandwiches.
After dinner I helped the men clean up the bikes and put them up. Larry seemed to be entertaining all the women.
When the men got back, we were all on his back porch when music started playing and people began to sing karaoke. I was surprised. Some of the people sounded almost like professional singers. Julie and I made sure we stayed out of the way; neither of us could sing at all.
As I looked all around I realized something interesting: there were more women here than men. That seemed odd to me, but I didn’t think much about it. I met most of Larry’s children. I couldn’t keep their mothers straight; it seemed that Larry had been married a number of times. He had children older than me. In fact, he had grandchildren that were about my age.
Julie, the kids, and I went to bed totally exhausted. We were all thrilled and having so much fun.
The next morning, Wednesday, we were up fairly early and had breakfast. I had to force my three kids to sit and eat. They wanted to go play. After breakfast the two older ones just disappeared. Franky stayed in his mother’s lap. I got the impression that he wasn’t feeling good.
Sure enough, he was sick. As it turned out, there was a second doctor in the little town. She was a pediatrician and she was down quickly to look at Franky. Lois checked him from head to toe, and said that he had allergies. She gave us some medicine for him, and within an hour he was up squirming again. Julie had her hands full just keeping up with him.
Oddly, Doctor Lois and Doctor Robb were married. They did not have any children. They were both retired from the U.S. Air Force.
There was a woman who lived in the mansion. Her name was Lydia. She seemed to always be around when anyone needed her. She was clearly Arabic, and that afternoon she agreed to watch Franky and let Julie and me go on a horseback ride.
We left about one, and were surprised when Larry and Jacky rode up beside us. Before I realized it, we had paired off; I was riding with Jacky about fifty yards ahead of Julie and Larry.
I looked back at them. They were having a heated talk.
I asked Jacky. “What is going on?”
She smiled. “Larry wants Julie to do another film. He is offering her a substantial contract. She should take it, Brandon, and you should move here to the compound or to San Diego. Your marriage may depend on it.”
I turned my horse around and started back to intervene. Jacky grabbed my reins. “Hold on, Brandon. Let them talk. You ride with me.” It was an order. I didn’t like it, but I rode on with her.
A short time later, Julie galloped up beside me. Her face was flushed.
“Honey, Larry just offered me twelve million dollars to do two films this year. What do you think?”
What I thought was one thing. What was going to happen was another. “Julie, let’s talk about it tonight. That will change our lives completely; we need to do some serious talking.”
She spun her horse around and rode back to Larry. I could hear her.
“I will let you know tomorrow morning.”
She rode back up to me, and Jacky drifted back to ride with Larry.
I followed the trail west and came to a small creek. To my surprise, I saw small fish dart around in the clear water.
Larry rode up beside us. “Hey, guys, Jacky has a great idea. Why don’t you let me fly you to San Diego tomorrow and let’s look at one of my apartments. It has two bedrooms, looks out over the ocean, and has built in babysitters for you. Brandon could go watch you do the movies. What do you say?”
I was quiet. Julie looked at me and said, “I think that would be fine. When would we come back?”
Larry laughed. “I will bring you back anytime that you want to.”
I was angry with Julie, but tried to let it go. “That sounds awesome, Mr. Lawrence. I see nothing wrong in us just looking. Could you bring us back Friday? We need to get home then!”
Larry’s laugh turned into a very knowing smile. “No problem. Let’s do it.”
I kept trying to get Julie alone so that I could talk with her, but she was so excited, and Jacky stayed right with us.
We made it back to the barn, took the saddles and bridles off, and turned the four horses loose in the corral. Then we walked back to their mansion. Jacky stayed pretty much between Julie and me. I was beginning to think that she wasn’t my friend.
That night, Julie put Franky down in our bed and then laid down herself.
I sat on the edge of the bed and brought the subject up. “Talk to me, sweetheart.”
She pulled her right arm out from under Franky. “Brandon, I really want this. I think I can be a star just like Jacky. Will you support me?”
I closed my eyes and my chin fell to my chest. I knew that Julie was going to do it whether I agreed or not, so I said, “Jacky said that we should move to San Diego. Is that what you want?”
She nodded. “Yes, I want you and our kids near me.”
I knew that my life was about to change and would never be the same again. It was mostly my fault.
Wednesday, we flew in the helicopter to the airport. It was my first time on a helicopter, and I was impressed. Larry flew low over the trees and we got a bird’s eye view of the forest and the mountains.
He landed at his hangar in Taos, and we boarded one of the prettiest planes that I had ever seen. It was white with blue trim. It had two engines, and wing tanks. Larry told us that it could fly halfway around the world on one fill-up. It had been built specially by Gulf Stream as a long distance plane. It would fly from Dallas to Qatar on one fill-up, if the winds were right.
We boarded the plane, and Jacky acted like the stewardess. She got everyone drinks and peanuts.
The flight didn’t take that long, and we saw many sights such as the Grand Canyon.
At one point, Jacky came up and sat down by me. I looked over. Julie and all three of my kids were asleep.
Jacky said, “Isn’t this exciting?”
I smiled. “Yeah, it is. I hope things work out.”
She stared at me. “Brandon, what is wrong? I thought that you would like this?”
My smile faded. “Jacky, Julie and my kids are the most important people in the world to me. I won’t let anything happen to them.”
Jacky sort of smiled. “I know that, Brandon, but you have to make spots for other people and things that go on in your life.”
I thought that she was referring to herself, so I let it go. “I know, Jacky. I am doing the best that I can.”
She stood up and went into the cockpit with Larry. She didn’t come back out until we were on final approach to San Diego. Julie and the kids were awake now. Franky was in my lap and I held on tightly to him. Julie had Johnny sitting beside her. Rachael was sitting by herself looking out the window, mesmerized.
It was a “soft” landing, and we rolled up to Larry’s hangar. We walked down the short stairs and got in a van that was parked beside the hangar. To my kids’ delight, it was full of toys for them to play with.
The first place that we went was to th
e apartment. Even though we had been there before, I had never been inside Julie’s old apartment. It was actually newly remodeled and was fabulous.
As soon as they saw the ocean, the three kids wanted to go swimming. Jacky and Julie went into the master bedroom and came out several minutes later wearing bikinis. The kids stripped down to their underwear, and the five went swimming. Larry and I stood watching, acting as life guards. This lasted for over an hour, then the five got out, went into the apartment, showered and dressed. I had to get the kids’ bags so that they could have dry underwear.
As soon as everyone was ready, we went to the studio and began touring the sets. There was so much activity that it seemed like chaos—maybe controlled chaos. Jacky and Julie both seemed at home on the sets. I quickly realized that Julie loved this place, and this was where she wanted to be.
The kids were able to run around and burn off a whole lot of energy.
We went to dinner at the Candlelight, and the kids had spaghetti. Franky went to sleep in his high chair and his face fell into his plate of food. Julie cleaned him up and I held him while I ate. All in all it wasn’t such a bad day.
That night we put the kids to bed and sat out on the big patio at the Lawrences’ apartment and watched ships go by. I had to admit it was a lovely place; I was beginning to like it.
We went to bed around midnight and Julie was full of life. She was such fun just to be with.
Thursday, Larry and Jacky went to work. Julie and I took the van and went sightseeing. We came to a place where there were grape