country for some reason. They won’t start shooting till the end of the year, and they’re casting in September. It’s high quality stuff for British TV, which will play in the States subsequently. There’s only one hitch, two actually.”
“I need to be twenty-two years old, and the part’s for a guy. No problem. I’m not afraid of a little surgery.” He laughed again.
“No. They shoot a lot on location, in some pretty exotic places. They’re starting off with a safari in Africa, and not everyone is dying to spend Christmas with a bunch of snakes and lions and tigers, living in a tent. The Brits love that stuff, and they don’t mind being miserable on location. You’d get double pay for it, which could be an incentive. And the other hitch is that the show is based in England. They’re shooting thirteen episodes to start out, and with a show like that with major costumes and complicated hair, you can’t commute from L.A. They want someone based in England. You’d have to move to London to do it. I didn’t know how you’d feel about that.” She thought about it as she listened to him, and she wasn’t sure herself.
“It depends on how good the show is.”
“The guy never misses.” He reeled off some of his shows and Gemma knew them all, and had watched them and loved them. It was high quality work.
“Keep me in the running and I’ll think about it. I don’t really have anything to tie me down here, but that is a big change.”
“I’ll let you know if they’re interested.”
“What’s the age range?”
“About right. Mid-to-late thirties. You can’t be a kid if you’re playing a doctor. They want someone with substance, experience, looks, talent, and a name.”
“It sounds a lot better than the vampire movie, playing the mother of Dracula’s daughter with the pointy teeth. She almost deafened me when she screamed in the audition.”
“I’ll keep you posted. How are you? Recovering from the shock of the show ending?”
“Trying to. I miss it already.”
“We all will, for a long time. I think they made the right decision, but it always hurts to shut down a successful show while it’s still working. You always wonder if you should have kept it going for a couple more seasons, but that’s probably the right time to call it a day. Sad, though. It’s a loss.”
“Yes, it was.” It had been a hard two months between her father dying and the show folding, and being broke. But she was enjoying her sisters and the ranch, and she had loved connecting with her mother again, although it cast a terrible shadow on her father, who had cheated them all of Scarlett for their whole lives. She had a feeling Caroline would never forgive him, particularly since their relationship hadn’t been strong. But at least she had Peter and her kids. You couldn’t have everything in life.
The part he had described to her sounded interesting but she also knew that the British were partial to their own, and more likely to hire a British actress who could do an American accent than a real American. She wasn’t counting on it for now. And they weren’t ready to cast anyway.
He promised to keep her informed and they hung up.
She had a meeting with her tenant that afternoon about the possible purchase of her house. Then she went to the hairdresser and got her hair colored. She was staying at a small hotel she knew that wasn’t too expensive. She was planning to spend a week in L.A., and see some friends. She was enjoying the ranch, but it was nice to get out of the sticks, and come back to the city, where she belonged. She might have been born in Texas and raised in the Valley, but they were never going to make a country girl of her. She had L.A. in her blood. Caroline felt the same way about it. She loved San Francisco, and any big city. But as a temporary rest stop the ranch was fine, even fun at times. And she loved being with her sisters. They each brought something different to the table, irreverence, in Gemma’s case, and glamour and style, which was good for Caroline and Kate.
It seemed too quiet on the ranch to Kate after Caroline and the children left, and Gemma went to L.A.
“Gemma will only be gone for a week,” Kate told Thad. They had signed all the papers for