in a scene until after lunch, and she remembered her lines with ease.
She was on set by seven-thirty, only half an hour late, got her hair colored, and was in her trailer with the latest version of the script by ten-thirty. It felt good to be back to work. It was always hard going to the ranch, and this time particularly, although it was good being with Caroline and Kate. As different as they were, they shared something special. Her mind wandered to their discovery about their mother while she was studying her lines, and she wondered how that would turn out. She wanted to go to Santa Barbara with Kate, since Caroline wouldn’t go. Caroline never liked confronting the hard situations, always bowed out, and let them do the dirty work. She wanted to know what had happened as much as they did, she just didn’t want to have to see her mother or confront her. Gemma wasn’t afraid of it, although this was possibly the most important confrontation they’d ever had. It was no small thing to have given up custody of three young children. Nor for their father to have pretended that their mother was dead. If he were still alive, Gemma would have been at his throat, wanting answers, and an explanation of the massive lie. Her sisters could always count on her for that, but no more. All they had to do now was find their mother, and hear it from her, if she was willing to see them, and tell them the truth. Gemma wondered what kind of woman she was. Giving up three very young children didn’t speak well for her.
The producer came to see her before lunch to find out how she was. He expressed his sympathy about her father, and said he was glad that she was back. The director came in a little while later. They were shooting back-to-back the scenes that she had missed while she was away. She would be on set all of the next day. But she was happy to be back in her real life. Whenever she went to the ranch, it reminded her of how trapped she had felt when she was young. All she had wanted to do was get the hell out. She always felt as though her life had begun when she left and went to L.A. Even starving there in the early years had been better than being on the ranch. She always felt as though she had been switched at birth and didn’t belong there. The last thing she wanted was to be a hick. She was a city girl to her very core. She knew Caroline felt that way too. Only Kate loved life on the ranch, and must have had an overdose of her father’s Texan blood. She was a cowboy just like him. She smiled thinking about it and went back to work.
She worked hard for the next two days to catch up, and on Friday afternoon, the director let them break early. They had covered a lot of ground that week, and the producer was coming on set to have a word with them. Usually, a general meeting with the producer meant some unpleasant change on set. It was rarely good news, but there had been no recent rumors, and everyone hoped it would be some ordinary announcement, maybe a big name actor joining the show, a better time slot than the one they had, which would have been hard to improve, or an important new sponsor. Everyone was in a good mood when the producer and executive producer showed up. The executive producer waited for silence on the set. They hardly ever saw him. He was the money guy, dealing with investors, insurance, and the overall planning of the show. They were in their tenth season, and everything was pretty well set. He had two other major shows on the air, one of which had just debuted in the fall and was a huge hit.
“Well, we have good and bad news for you.” Two of the actors on the show had been nominated for Emmys. Gemma had been nominated in the past but hadn’t won at first. She had won one in their third season. And the show had won a Golden Globe Award from the foreign press several times. “We’ve had a record year for our tenth season, thanks to all of you.” He smiled at them. “And the show is