The Girl from Summer Hill by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online

through tall shrubs that were beginning to flower.
    Just as he knew it would, his mother’s voice came to him as she used to describe the flowering bushes. “Pink for Letty and white for Ace,” she’d say as she snuggled in bed between her two children. Nina often fell asleep, but Tate always asked to hear more about his mother and her childhood friend, Ace. And too, Tate liked that his mother’s stories told of a time when the Tattington family had owned acres of land and had been senators and governors. “I want to hear about Ace saving the house from burning down,” he’d say.
    As she told the story yet again, he’d fall asleep, then she’d carry Nina to her own bed. From the time he was a kid, Tate said, “When I grow up, I’m going to be just like Ace.”
    The idea of becoming Ace had strongly influenced his becoming an actor. He liked the thought of pretending he was someone else.
    Nina hadn’t given him the caretaker’s number, but if he could find the man’s house, maybe he could get a ride into town or to the auditions. Pulling out his phone, he kept walking as he tapped out a text message to his assistant in L.A. He asked her to make plane reservations for Jack and him for tomorrow. A ND HAVE A CAR DELIVERED HERE , he added, then sent the message.
    He would return to L.A. and do what he could to get a role that was different from what he’d been doing for the last few years. Maybe he could get a part in the second
Avatar
movie. It would be nice to be tall and blue. Or how about a horror film? Or maybe Disney had—
    He broke off when he looked up and saw that he was just a few feet from the pretty pajama girl’s house. To his shock, the whole bottom of the screen door was torn out. There was a smaller hole in the upper half. He remembered doing that one, but had he been so angry that he’d also kicked in the bottom?
    His cell rang. It was Nina and he touched the button to take the call. “Why did no one tell me some girl was living in Mom’s house?”
    “And good morning to you too,” Nina said. “Maybe Stacy is staying there. Blonde, blue-eyed, and as pretty as a doll?”
    “No, and stop trying to fix me up. This one is tall, red hair, really built. And she cooks. Or I think she does. She had no idea I own the place. I’m not sure she’s ever seen me before.”
    “Good!” Nina snapped. “But if I’d known you wanted a fan staying in there, I would have advertised in
The Hollywood Reporter
.”
    “I don’t want—” He let out his breath. “Okay, right, there’s no reason she should know, but if I’d been told, I wouldn’t have…I certainly would have thought twice before I…”
    “What did you do?”
    “Took a shower on the porch.”
    “Oh,” she said. “Like Letty and Ace used to do? In a swimsuit?”
    “Didn’t have time to dress,” Tate mumbled.
    “You mean you had no time to put on a suit? So what did you do? Shower naked on her front porch?”
    “The shower is at the back of the house, but, yeah, I did.”
    “Full frontal?” Nina was barely suppressing her laughter.
    “Yeah.” There was a hint of laughter in his voice. “I’m not sure but I think she sat on a stool and drank a cup of tea while she watched.”
    Nina laughed. “People usually have to pay to see you do that.”
    “In all my movies, there’s been only one bathing scene. It was under a waterfall and it was shot from the side.”
    “But then you moved so they got your back and your bare chest, and afterward you walked around in a towel that wouldn’t cover one of Emmie’s dolls.”
    “Okay.” Tate was laughing. “So I have to earn a living. Look, I need transportation and I have to get someone to repair a screen door.”
    “What’s wrong with it?”
    “I was sort of…well, unhappy when I saw Miss Pajamas in my house. I thought she was taking photos. I sort of put my fist through the screen. And from the look of the place, I may have accidentally kicked the bottom half out