radar, and always put the spotlight on Peter. Caroline didn’t like it when people noticed her too much. And meanwhile, Gemma was signing autographs in the Santa Ynez Valley, after her show was canceled, and needed the attention desperately. The two sisters couldn’t have been more different.
The only thing changed now for Kate was that she was no longer the understudy, the invisible assistant. She was running the whole show, and for once she wasn’t pleasing anyone but herself. It was brand new to her, since her father’s sudden death, and more than a little scary, but she was in the driver’s seat now, and much to her own amazement, she liked it. She had finally come into her own at forty-two. She missed her father terribly, but she didn’t miss being his minion or his slave, or the person he ignored while he took credit for what she did, and just assumed she would continue doing it forever, and she probably would have. But fate had intervened and freed the slaves. She was no longer working for her father, after twenty years of it. She was working for herself. At Juliette’s suggestion, she had increased her meager salary by a small amount. She could have taken more, and Juliette thought she should, but like her father, she didn’t like taking too much money out of the ranch, and she said she didn’t need it.
Thad thought she was doing a great job, but even if she wasn’t, she was following her own intelligence and her instincts, and her own ideas. She hoped she was doing a good job of it, but if not, she was going to make her own mistakes too. It was her turn now, she was ready, and it felt good. Her father had always treated her like a slightly lesser being, as though her opinions were not quite valid, her voice didn’t need to be heard. He was in charge at all times, and she was a lowly foot soldier. And suddenly she was running the whole show, and managing very nicely. Thad was helping her, but she was making the decisions, and willing to be accountable for them. She was actually enjoying it. She was smiling thinking about it as Thad walked into the office and saw the pleased look on her face. She was sitting at her father’s desk because she’d been looking for something.
“It’s nice to see you smiling,” he said, “and sitting in that chair.” She was only in her father’s chair for a moment, and suddenly realized that he wasn’t going to walk in and give her hell for sitting there.
“I was just in here for a minute,” she explained to Thad and he shook his head.
“Maybe you should move into this office. It would give you more space and a bigger desk,” he said. But it was also symbolic. She was the boss now. And this was the boss’s office.
“Maybe I will,” she said, and smiled at him. There was a new confidence about her that Thad could see growing day by day.
Kate moved into her father’s office that afternoon. A few people looked startled when they saw her do it, but it felt right to her. Thad came by at the end of the day, to drop off an expense sheet, he gave her a thumbs-up, and she laughed at him. She felt giddy with excitement. She liked the feeling of sitting there. She had earned it.
* * *
—
The following day, Kate ran home at lunchtime to make herself something to eat. She looked up the hill and saw a truck delivering furniture to Gemma’s cottage. She wondered what she’d ordered, went inside to make a sandwich, and took it up the hill to eat while she visited her, and was stunned when she walked in the front door. There were bright modern paintings on the walls, a vivid red couch that added punch to the room, big plants in handsome cachepots in two of the room’s corners, end tables, a small round dining table with brass chairs, and a Moroccan rug on the floor with a straw background and red embroidery. The room looked suddenly exotic and fun and stylish, like something you’d see in a magazine, and wished you lived there. When she peeked into the bedroom, it was cotton candy pink with a big plastic chair and pink night tables with a matching chest and a small round pink rug. The whole room looked