Brooke had phoned Tara before noon and said, “Come right now. I’ll meet you at the turn-off.”
The path between Matthew King’s property and the highway was half a mile long and wide enough for both bicycles. Tara could scarcely believe Matthew King had hired her to babysit too.
[Click here to read the first episode, or here to read the previous one.]
She wanted the job. She wanted to meet Matthew King, whose movies she knew by heart. But as they bicycled toward the farmhouse, she had to ask Brooke: “Is it an emergency?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Tara. I was trying to do you a favor.” She smiled at her sister from beneath a straw hat banded with wide blue ribbon. Protection from the sun, no argument. But Tara noticed that Brooke’s smooth face—no freckles like Tara’s—looked especially luminous when shadowed by the stiff white brim.
“Where’d you get the hat? It makes you look like the girl in Marié Deux Fois.”
“What’s that?”
“His latest movie. Set in Paris. Nest-ce pas, ma cherie? His character marries the same woman twice. It’s the same women but they use two actresses. The movie’s heavy on atmosphere. And hallucinatory scenes. So when he marries his wife again, she’s younger than when he first married her. And she wears a hat just like that.”
“Maybe it’s the same hat,” Brooke said as a breeze lifted the ribbons trailing down her dark hair. “The kids and I were making lemonade when he brought it out of his office, and said, ‘Let’s see what this looks like on you.’”
Tara said, “Well, you look like the young version of his wife, who he marries at the end. At first, his wife, played by the older actress, has an affair with his friend. She goes back and forth until Matthew King divorces her. But when the other guy dies, she’s transformed by grief…and it seems by the hat.”
“I can’t believe he made a movie like that,” Brooke said.
“The whole thing was supposed to make emotional sense, not logical. It’s funny and cute but went straight to DVD.”
“Well, I’ve never heard of it,” Brooke said.
“Came out last year: Marié Deux Fois.”
“He told me he hadn’t been in a movie for five years.”
“Then maybe he only counts the ones in multiplexes. This was an indie film.”
“When did you become such an expert, Tara?”
“Haven’t you noticed I watch movies all the time? Straight to DVD aren’t always the best, but your chances are better. Guess he liked you in the hat.”
“He said I could keep it.”
Brooke stopped her bike. Tara too. They could see Matthew on the lower deck sitting among the toys. Dexter and Ivy were playing separately. Tara glanced at Brooke and watched her sister’s color heighten. Brooke’s crush on Matthew King exaggerated the red of her always slightly pouting mouth.
“F-fu-oo-boy,” Tara said, watching her sister gleam. “Be honest and I won’t tell anyone. You had him hire me so I can run interference whenever things get sticky between you. And—we all watch the kids.”
Brooke checked the bike path behind them before shifting her weight. Leaning close to Tara, she dropped her chin. “Sasha’s probably not coming back from Argentina. Which means he gets the children. She’s been gone for months without a word.”
Tara held both handle bars. “Don’t get mad, Brooke. I’m grateful you got him to hire me. But why are you fooling around with Matthew King at all? I mean, if you think that high-school guy used you…”
“This is nothing like that. It’s Matthew King. And it’s just this summer. I’m legally under-age. So if he kisses my forehead, where’s the harm?”
Tara shook her head. “You should make him treat you like any other employee.”
But Tara knew Brooke was unable to do that. Maybe next year when Tara was sixteen, she’d start seeking ravishment at any cost. But probably not. Brooke had always been sexy, even at six. While Tara was never like that. She was very pretty and liked the way she looked. But if she ever went boy-crazy like Brooke she would hate it. She would hate being like that.
Matthew King was waving at them. When Brooke introduced Tara to him, she grinned directly at him as long and wide as she wanted because nothing about her grin was at all suggestive. She drawled, “‘Forget the smalls. We’re going for the one and only.’”
“Pipeline.” Matthew King laughed. “That was more fun than all the others put together.”
(Click here for the next episode)
