Really Something by Shirley Jump Read Free Book Online Page B

side of cake to go along with his personal entrée.
    â€œI’m glad you’re back, though. It’ll be fun to catch up.” Vanessa gave her a smile. “Just like old times.”
    â€œI don’t think so. Old times are the one thing I definitely don’t want to revisit.”
    Vanessa laid a hand on her friend’s arm. “Somehow, I doubt you’re going to be able to leave town until you do.”

Chapter 6
    Allie pulled the rental car onto the gravel shoulder of State Road 89 and shut off the engine. She’d spent the entire day driving around Tempest and its outlying areas, with Jerry calling her hourly, screaming for updates.
    Finally, she’d found it.
    The perfect location for Sorority Slumber Party Slaughter.
    She’d missed the house on her drive into town yesterday, too focused on her return really to look around. But here it was, a half mile past the welcome sign. Exactly what she’d been looking for.
    Allie lingered in the driver’s seat for a second, just looking at the land. On one side sat what had once been a cornfield. Probably pretty lush and thick in its day, but the field had decayed, the plants nothing more than dried stalks sticking out of the ground like skeletal fingers giving one futile last wave in the wind. One the other side, grass, six inches high, thick and green. Two hundred yards back sat a farmhouse, a big one by Tempest standards, two stories, Georgian-style, with a long, wraparound porch and wide white columns.
    Or at least they had been white at one time. Now they were as gray as a cloudy day, and peeling, like the rest of the house. The brown paint had faded to a dark tan, and several clapboards had peeled away, as if trying to make a break for it before the house collapsed.
    It was ugly and pitiful.
    And perfect.
    Allie flipped out her cell phone and punched in Jerry’s number. “I found your location.”
    â€œIt better be scary as crap. And it better damned well be available. We need to start shooting in two weeks.”
    â€œTwo weeks?” Allie squeaked. “Why so soon?”
    â€œSugar-pie, I got bills to pay and nothing pays the bills like a hit. If we can get Sorority Slumber Party Slaughter wrapped up in the next forty-five, I’ll get a Christmas release date. Put that in your stocking, Wes Craven.”
    Panic put a stutter in Allie’s pulse. Could she pull it off?
    No. She would pull it off. This was her chance and by God, Allie was going to take it. “Jerry, I still need to check out a few things here.”
    â€œCheck ’em and get back to me. If that location’s a bust, Scotty’s got a great lead in Taiwan—”
    â€œIt’ll be perfect,” she promised, though she had no idea if the place was available and wanted to kick herself for calling before she’d secured permission. She’d simply been too excited, and had overlooked the most important detail. But she’d fix that mistake, one way or another.
    â€œI’ll be the judge of that, Sugar-pie. Send me some photos,” Jerry barked, then hung up.
    Allie cursed his name a few times, then took a couple of quick pictures of the house with the cell’s camera feature, and zipped them off to Jerry’s cell. A second later, she had a text message saying “Book it, Danno.”
    Later, she’d send better quality images, so that the script and production people could get a good feel for the place as they did the rest of the preproduction work. For now, she slipped the cell back into her purse. Soon as she had some production experience under her belt, she would leave Jerry and find a job where “being treated like dirt” wasn’t part of the job description.
    â€œWe meet again.”
    She wheeled around. Her heart skipped a beat. Her muscles tightened. And a few other parts went loose and hot. “Duncan.”
    â€œMiss Dean.” He gave her his trademark grin, then took a